Day 7

6.28.09

Today we left on a plane for Beijing! We were watching a movie before we had to leave (at 8:30am) and almost forgot about the bus! It was kind of scary, but still fun. We said goodbye to Jackie (our guide) at the airport; I think he was kind of happy to be rid of us crazy tourists. The flight was . . . honestly, one of the worst flights we’ve been on in a long time. But, we were all very happy when we got to the Beijing airport. Our new guide, Scotty, brought us Chicken sandwiches and French fries from McDonalds! Immediately after getting our luggage at the airport, we headed to the Temple of Heaven. It was beautiful! The, we checked in to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which, from the front, overlooks the Bird’s Nest Stadium, where the 2008 Beijing Olympics were held. For dinner, we went to a well hidden little restaurant (it was actually underground) where we had a private room. There was a performance as well, and there was a flute player than came into our room and played for us. The best part of the meal had to be the piping hot little rolls we were given to dip in a sugary sweet creamy sauce/dip/syrup. Oh, and of course the watermelon! I have a feeling all this travel will have us sleeping in no time at all.

Day 6

6.27.09

We went to a little garden with 8 shows tonight. It was very different from Nanxun, but still nice. After we got back from Suzhou today we just chilled in our room until we went to dinner and the garden. Then, we had coffee, we watched a movie about the Zodiac killer, then just crashed. I stayed up a little later than Grandma and watched another movie, then finally went to sleep. Then, at who knows what time, my parents called! Maybe he didn’t think we were sleeping?

Day 5

Day 5, June 26

Well, we're off to Suzhou today. We got up at 6am and finished the last of packing before breakfast. We had a bit of a scary snafu at checkout when Nancee thought she had lost her passport. We opened all the bags in the lobby and searched through everything. Finally, she found it wedged in a book in her carry on bag. We went to breakfast and found out there will be 2 more kids in Wuhan-one 12 and one 17. Anyways, today we were scheduled to go on a tour of a silk factory and another garden. After the long bus ride there, we went to lunch in the factory and had an American-style buffet before our tour. The tour was amazing! We walked through the entire process of how they have the silk worms and feed them one huge leaf a day for 50 days before they go into their cocoon. The workers find the end of the silk string (it's extremely difficult) by soaking the unbroken cocoon in water, which makes it easier to find. After the tour, we went shopping in the everything-silk store. The prices were obviously government-fixed; one Cali king duvet cover was 2500, or about 400 USD! Grandmother bought a purse and a lipstick holder, they're both very cute! After, we went to our hotel, a Holiday Inn, and it is by far the best hotel we've been in so far. There's a couch, armchair, 2 beds, nightstand, desk area, free Wi-Fi and it's a corner room so we have 2 sets of windows to watch the rain and lightening through. We turned on the television to find out Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson were dead, how depressing. RIP. Well, after that we went to dinner and realized we need to skip eating so much of this oily greasy food-it's good, but it's not good for us. We go back to Shanghai tomorrow!

Day 4

Day 4, June 25

We met the group at breakfast-there's George, our fearless leader, and a few people from Mandarin classes-Joan, Fran, Chuck, Katie and a few more. All together, there were 22 in our tour group. To start off the day, we went to the Shanghai Museum. The museum focused on ancient Chinese history, complete with ancient money, ancient paintings and scrolls and ceramics. We had three hours and were finished in two. Luckily, we were kept occupied by the two gift shops, but we didn't buy anything. We had lunch at a restaurant in a hotel, then rested back at Broadway Mansions until we left for the shopping place and (yet another) garden. We skipped the garden and decided to souvenir shop for people the entire time instead. We got cell phone charms as gifts, and had Tommy, Stephen and my names painted in Chinese characters as well. Dinner was at a Thai place – Suzhou tomorrow!

Day 3

Day 3, June 24

Our first destination of today was Jing Li Garden, in Suzhou, a beautiful place filled with rocks and flowers and bridges. We were treated to a private lunch, complete with Chinese opera singers/musicians. There was a tour guide who spoke English, Tracy, and she loved to sing and act. After that garden. We took a bus to a bus station in Suzhou and caught another bus back to Shanghai. We ended up at a different bus station than what we had started at, and the moment we stepped off the escalator to the main floor we were bombarded by drivers asking to take us wherever we wanted. We ended up asking one man if he knew where our hotel was, and then we had to settle on a price. He said 100, we said 50, he said 60, and we were done. The guy's friend sprinted off and his wife had us stand with her so we wouldn't run off while he got his car. It turned out to be a brand new KIA, not too shabby. It even had air conditioning! We finally arrived at our destination after a tentative half hour; neither of us had ever been so happy to be back in that hotel. The tour group came in late tonight, about 9pm, and we shall see them tomorrow!

Day 2

Day 2, June 23

We woke up at 6am and had our buffet breakfast at the hotel. No salmon fried rice for Grandma like she wanted, oh darn. There was something on top of the mixed vegetables last night that just didn’t seem appealing-it moved. We met Mr. Zhou (pronounced “Joo�) at the SSBC (Shanghai Sightseeing Bus Center) at about 8:15am, and were on the bus on our way to Nanxun at about 9am.. We watched the heights of the buildings decrease and the amount of oxygen-deprived plants along the way increase. Two and a half long hours later, we arrived in Nanxun, met by Rong Fei Wang. He had painted fans for Grandma and me, as well as convenient supplies like bug spray, hand wipes, coffee and two types of tea. We took a pedicab to our hotel, the Reifeng International Volks Great Hotel. I think the name was compensation for the appearance.. Rong Fei gave us a complete tour of Nanxun, visiting every tourist site imaginable, complete with a private lunch at the beginning as well as a boat ride, and a massage/hair wash at the end. We then walked the streets next to the ancient city, seeing many dogs and children along the way. After, we went back to the hotel, then across the street to Rong Fei’s recommended restaurant for some to-go fried rice. It took a while to get the point across, but we finally did, and ended up throwing the rice out, opting instead for a cup of coffee and a cookie each.

Day 1

Day 1, June 21-22

Today was the first day of our big adventure. We left at around 4am from Tucson to Phoenix, and left from Sky Harbor Airport at 10:30am. After arriving in San Francisco, we waited for 4 hours, and finally boarded, only to wait for another hour due to engine problems. But finally, we were in the air, headed to Pudong International Airport in Shanghai. Grandma read for the majority of the flight and people-watched, while I slept for 8 hours and watched a movie. We arrived in China around 6:30pm local time, to be met by the H1N1 Prevention/HAZMAT/Oopma Loompa Team. Decked out in full white jumpsuits with hoods, mini gas masks, goggles and 4-point laser gun-temperature takers, they asked everyone to stay seated no matter what and close their eyes when they pointed the laser at each of our foreheads to see if our temperature exceeded around 34°C, or about 100°F. We took the Mag-Lev [Magnetic Levitation] Train to a Taxi Station and loaded all 3 suitcases, one back pack, a duffel bag and two people into a cab. Finally, one strenuous, multilingual, ¥59 half hour ride around the city later, we arrived at the Broadway Mansions Hotel.