China: Two Wednesdays!

This year for my birthday, I decided that all I wanted was to go somewhere out of the country, but I could not decide where I wanted to go. We had planned to take a River Cruise through China in the spring, but then, we saw an offer, on Groupon, we couldn’t refuse, So China it was. Our itinerary included Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou (2 hours from Shanghai).

We drove to Los Angeles for the flight and spent the night at a hotel for our flight the next day via Air China. It was very convenient, and we left our car in a parking garage close to the airport. We arrived at the airport about three hours early, with two suitcases, and a backpack each, after all, we were going to a shopping mecca. The flight attendants were just as quiet as the attendants on our Japan Air flight to Singapore. They all wore the same buns in their hair too. There must be a reason, but I didn’t ask. One interesting thing on the flight==I had never seen an unruly passenger. One man refused to move out of his aisle seat to let the person in the middle pass by. The attendant re-seated him, and also told him that he should be ashamed of himself as a Chinese person.

The service was good, and although we didn’t know at the time, many of those sitting near us, were in our group. The tour company was “Gate One,” based in Pennsylvania. We had never used a tour company before (other than Cuba, because it was mandatory), so we weren’t sure what the experience would be. The flight was twelve hours, but it was as smooth as silk.

We arrived at Beijing’s beautiful airport at 4:50 p.m. and after retrieving our luggage (we had to take a train, a la Atlanta to the baggage claim), a Gate One person, R Our group was divided into tow with two tour managers. We were taken to our hotel (luggage went in another van), the Xinghao Hotel--very Chinese--lovely room. Our tour guide, Rose, from Inner Mongolia (part of China) was a font of information during the entire trip. She was with us from the beginning of the tour until the end of our stay in Shanghai--there we had another tour manager, Matt, with whom we were not enthralled--it seemed like a job to him, rather than a passion. Both spoke excellent English.

Things which I found interesting, “cool,” fabulous, unusual or whatever:

1. Beijing is a city full of history--it makes the US seem like it is only two years old. We visited at a good time because Beijing is known for smog, but the skies were “APEC BLUE,” because of the APEC conference which was attended by our Potus. The conference was held in the area close to the Olympic Village--

2. Shanghai is called “The New York of China.” The older section and newer section are separated by “The Bund/“

3. I saw more KFCs than I have ever seen anywhere. Of course, the ubiquitous McDonalds, Subway, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and other chains were also there.

4. As homogeneous as other cities we have visited in Asia. Everyone wanted to take pictures of the Black people, and my husband was much more obliging than I was. On many levels, it annoyed me.

5. The Great Wall is indeed great--it was different from what I expected. It is far steeper, but not as high as I thought it would be. It is built right into the mountain. I wondered how many workers were lost. Our guide told us that they call it the longest graveyard in the world because all of the dead workers are buried there.

5. Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City were in the city center. Mao is entombed there,and the square is the largest in the world. It reminded me of the squares in Havana and Ho Chi Minh City.

6. The majority of the toilets require squatting--thankful for yoga. Cheap taxis.

5. The food is quite different from the Chinese food here. Terrified when I saw “Assorted cats’ ears soup” on the menu. Later learned that many dishes are just given names, but don’t necessarily mean that the dish contains the
named item. Whew! Nevertheless, I didn’t eat anything I couldn’t recognize.

6. Beijing was quite cold, and Shanghai was much warmer. The Silk Market in Beijing is good, but the Han City Mall in Shanghai is better.

7. FB and Twitter are blocked in China, but thanks to a cousin teaching there, she told me to sign up for VPN which allowed me access. It was $9.00 for a month. Both hotels hd free Wi-Fi

8. All of our meals were served Lazy Susan Style--soup is served last--no fortune cookies--not Chinese.

9. The Olympic Village is impressive although the government displaced people in order to build it. There is even a hotel shaped like a dragon. Our guide said, none is ever there because it is far from the city center.

10. Asia is where I feel most foreign--there is a tremendous language barrier, because there is no power of the written word.

11. So many willow trees. So many people. So much history. Mainland China is quite different from Hong Kong

Flight back was delayed three hours. We boarded, buckled in and thirty minutes later, we were told that there were technical difficulties and we all deplaned and were bussed to another plane an hour or so later.

We left on a Wednesday. and returned on Wednesday--thus the title TWO WEDNESDAYS.