| My travel to China in over 300 pictures and stories! |
GOING TO CHINA!!! June 24 |
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(All pictures are thumbnails. Click to enlarge.)
WAIT!!! BEFORE YOU READ THIS PAGE... ...after reading this page you may think that I did not enjoy China. This is in no way true. I loved China! Getting there, however, (and getting back), was a little difficult. I tell you the whole story of our travel so that you can be prepared for the worst in your traveling... we experienced about as much as you can in our travels there and back. We (My dad Mike, mom Lisa, sister Deanna, and myself) flew from Denver to Los Angeles, where we were supposed to meet the rest of the group at 10:30 AM (California time). We traveled to China with a choir of 300 people (more about that later). We met up with the group, which was great, but the rest of the schedule did not happen. It made for an interesting travel adventure! I got up at 3:30 AM (Colorado time) Wednesday after having gone to bed at 1:00 AM, and that was after getting up at 7:00 AM on the Tuesday before. At 4:30 AM, we left our home in Aurora, Colorado, and at 6:15 AM boarded a plane for Los Angeles from Denver International Airport.
At (8:30 AM Colorado time) 7:30 AM, we arrived at LAX. At 7:45, Mom, Dad, and Deanna all discovered that they had bags missing. This was a big concern for us because we were catching a connection to Shanghai, and another to Beijing, on a different airline. They reported the bags missing and we went to the terminal for China Eastern Arilines at LAX. We got there about 8:15. At 9:30 AM, we noticed that the board in the terminal said that the flight was delayed--indefinitely. The original departure time was 1:30 PM. At 11:00 AM, Mom and Dad called the number that we had been given to check if the bags had been found. (Of course, we had all left our cell phones in Colorado, figuring there would be no reason we would need them. We were soon to discover how wrong we were.) While Mom and Dad were gone, my cousin Jan (also traveling with the group to China, found Deanna and I waiting with (most of) our luggage. Jan let us know that the flight wouldn't be leaving until 9:30 PM due to a typhoon in China which delayed the departure of our plane, with passengers on it there. Mom and Dad go to get the bags while Deanna and I wait in line to check in on the plane.
At 9:30 PM, we got on the plane to go to Shanghai. The plane departed at 10:10 PM (11:10 PM Colorado time). Because of the strong headwinds, we stopped at (2:45 AM California time) 1:45 AM local time in Anchorage, Alaska for refueling. We left Anchorage at 2:30 AM local time, 5:30 PM Shanghai time. (4:30 AM Colorado time) You would think that at this point, we would have been so exhausted that we would have simply wanted to sleep. That was true, but we were some of the last people to get our seat assignments on the plane. Because of this, we got the bulkhead seats. On the newer planes, this would mean that you get more leg room. On the older planes, like the one we flew, it means much less leg room. For what it's worth, my advice is to avoid the bulkhead seats on older planes at all costs. 16 hours on a plane with virutally no leg room (ie. knees bent at 90 degrees with toes touching the wall in front of you) is far too long. Because of our delay(s), we landed in Shanghai at 3:45 AM local time. No country would be prepared for 300 tourists on group visas at 3:45 AM, so it wasn't surprising that it took us a while to get through customs and immigration. At 4:30 AM, we re-boarded our final flight on a plane to Beijing (our final destination). At 5:00 AM, we left for Beijing. We arrived in Beijing at 7:00 AM and went to pick up our luggage. GUESS WHAT? Dad's suitcase was missing again. Dad went in search of his luggage with help from one of our tour guides and my uncle Tom. Mom, Deanna, and I went to get on the tour bus. At 9:30 AM, we arrived at our awesome hotel, where we met Dad and Tom... they had found Dad's luggage, taken a taxi to the hotel, and arrived there before us. It was now June 26th and we started our touring in Beijing at 11:30 AM after getting settled into our rooms in the hotel. I know it may sound strange that it was June 26th. At this point, we had traveled for over 40 hours, (from the time we left our home in Colorado to the time we arrived at our hotel in Beijing,) plus the 14 hour time difference from Colorado to China, so it makes sense that we were already 9 1/2 hours into the day, except two (not one) days later. This is why there's nothing to view on the June 25th page, so you may as well skip to the June 26th page. Thank-you for your visit, and I hope you enjoy reading about our travels in China!
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