We arrived at Dulles in plenty of time to catch our non-stop flight to Bejing and arriving at the same time as the Joyce family who are traveling with us, only to find out that our 12:30 pm flight has been pushed back to 6:15 pm. Change meant that we would miss our connecting flight to Chongquin but we were automatically moved to the later flight on Air China, no paperwork required although they printed out a couple of memo pieces of paper which turned out to be the only items with our new flight number on it other than our baggage stickers. The Joyces were carrying all luggage so they didn’t get any paperwork. The Joyce family opted to hang out at the airport but Paul, Tom & I decided to cab it back home where we fit in swims at the pool, a Frisbee golf game and Tom had time for a water polo match at the pool. Marg was nice enough to give us a 2nd ride to the airport. Thanks to both Marg and John L.
Sunday, June 15th, Beijing
We arrived in Bejing in a beautiful new airport with an amazing roof. They look all set for the Olympics complete with fancy restrooms although we get a hint of flaws – the hook on the bathroom door can barely hold a tiny purse, let alone a back pack. This is an omen of trouble ahead.
We go to check in to the Air China flight after collecting our luggage and find that no having a boarding pass is a major problem. Almost all airport staff speak virtually no English. We are sent to the Air China desk where the attendant can say ‘just a moment please’ with no problem. But, Air China won’t issue boarding passes to any of us. They send us to the United office – down a maze of offices, all closed, including United. We head back to Air China while Chris is talking to United on Lori’s amazing Iphone which works just fine at calling to the US [at the mere cost of $2.00 /minute with a 53 minute call to United where our call center person is really in Bangalore. While Chris is calling, I am off to try to find a hotel since we then realize we will miss our plane. We get a name of a local hotel near the airport – nice but Chinese,cash only, and plan to stay the night Fortunately we had followed Charlie’s instructions to change money upon arrival.
The hotel restaurant staff definitely didn’t want a tip at dinner – our tip was returned to us.
Monday, June 16th, Beijing & Chongquin
We head back to the airport, talk to Air China and a type A from United who seems totally stressed out. He finally comes up with a plan – 6 boarding passes but Paul doesn’t rate. For some reason he had been put on the prior evening plane list and didn’t show for his seat, according to United. We make clear that 7 boarding passes are required. Our type A finally comes through in time for us to catch the 10:20 flight to Chongquin.
Conclusion: If you are traveling to China with any complications, you could use your own translator. I am not sure where all the staff fluent in English are hiding but we didn’t see them on either Sunday evening or Monday morning.
Upon arrival in Chongquin, we are now in the hands of Charlie’s famous travel agent, Frank, with no problems, with guides holding signs at every transfer point.
Chongquin is a big city – 8 million, big manufacturing town.
We start off at the local zoo where they have 7 pandas who were great to see, all wide awake and energetic. We have time to go to a local tower, a tea ceremony and have dinner before we head to our river boat which will be taking us down the Yangtze River to the Three Gorges Dam.
Chongquin is an industrial city, making 1/2 of all the motorcycles in China. Our guide, Cathy, is a 27 year whose English surpasses all of those whom we met at the Bejing airport.
Tuesday, June 17th, Yangtze River, the Victoria Queen
We are staying in luxury on a 5 star boat headed east to the dam. We had heard ahead of our trip that tourism is down in China after the earth quake by one half. Our boat can hold 260 passengers but has 113 passengers and 115 staff. We get great service. We get a chance to recover from some of our jet lag.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Saturday 6-14-08 off to China
to Paul, Tom and I head out the door to Dulles, driven by John L [aka John Landman], only 15 minutes behind schedule and arrive right on schedule.
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