The van picked us up at the hotel at 6:00 a.m. and drove us to the Shanghai Pudong Airport (about an hour drive through Monday morning traffic). We made our way through airline check in, the foreign departure counter, security (twice), and boarded the plane at about 9:00 a.m. because it took about half an hour to board the 400 passengers. The departure was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. And there we sat on the plane until 11:30 a.m. before departure (we were told traffic was heavy). The flight to Detroit was about 13 hours in the air. We arrived in Detroit at about 12:30 p.m. EDT after we had been on that plane nearly 16 hours. Our schedule had us in the Detroit airport 3 hours before our flight home, so the delay was not a problem. We retrieved our checked bags and went through the U.S. foreign entry line. Some people were selected for secondary inspection of bags, but I think we looked harmless and were not required to have our bags inspected. We had a hamburger at Wendy's at the airport, having had only airplane food that entire day. This flight had the worst food of any of our flights. We proceeded to our gate only to find out that the flight home was delayed by a flat tire in Charlotte, so we did not board that plane until after 6:00 p.m. The flight home was uneventful and we arrived home at about 7:30 p.m. CDT. It had been about 28 hours since we had left our Shanghai hotel.The entire trip had been fun, but home looked good. Most of the trip went well and was a wonderful experience. The internet in China is different from much of the rest of the world (at least the world where we have been), so getting this journal on-line was not easy. And after we left Beijing and Xian, it became increasingly more difficult. We finally had to resort to emailing the text to Creighton, and he posted it on-line. At one point, I tried to upload a picture of a panda and received a security alert message and the picture did not upload. Photography was also difficult every where we went because the air was always hazy with moisture and pollution (some days it was so thick that it was almost foggy). Only a few of the 3,000 photos I snapped are good quality.
The group (28) we traveled with was a varied and friendly collection of people. It included a family from Mexico and a family from Canada, with the remainder from various places in the U.S. Everyone was congenial and on always on time (no grouches or laggards). Our guide was great. He was a young man from Beijing; he was pleasant, funny, and very knowledgeable about everywhere we went and everything we saw. He spoke and understood English well. He told us quite a lot about himself; his family (he is married and has a 3-year old daughter), his education (all in Beijing), and his philosophy of life. He seemed very happy with his life; he owns a condominium but no car. Getting a group such as ours everywhere we needed to be, with what we needed, was a complex task (busses, hotels, entry tickets, water bottles, food, planes, and information), but he did it well. We were often stared at when we were in crowds of Chinese people, but no one seemed bothered by our presence. We were not the only tourists; there were groups and individuals from all over the world.
Our main impression is that China is rapidly growing and developing; it's economy is booming with construction of new office and residence buildings everywhere. There were lots of new elaborate public buildings -- all of the airports we were in (5 of them) were new with interesting architecture. People seemed happy (many of the ones we saw were visiting all the same places we were; some had traveled from other places in China); they seemed comfortable with the crowds, the traffic congestion, and the construction. We saw lots of new cars (many were luxury cars), lots of fashionable clothes, and many luxury residences. We also saw poverty and government control, but our guide told us that both issues were improving. China was a great place to visit. Pictures (Click on picture to enlarge, use back arrow to return to normal): Our guide (2)
No comments:
Post a Comment