China Chapter 5

Well, we arrived safely in Shanghai. We left this morning at about 6:30 a.m. to head for the Beijing Airport to catch our flight. Annie dropped us off, and then got our reservations ready for us, got us our boarding passes on China Southern Airlines flight number 3907. Of course, To Wong Fu and the Empress needed to have an emergency exit row as they needed more leg space since To Wong Fu is tall. Annie quickly shot back, "but you don't speak Chinese, so that's not possible." It was amazing seeing how much the imperial twosome packed in their suitcases, being 4 kgs over the maximum allowed weight, and the fact that I haven't seen them change clothes once since we got here.

Anyhow, Annie then led us to security.

I was a little nervous about going through security, as I always do in any foreign country. They really do a great job of searching everything in China, and little did I know, that my passport set off the metal detector. I'm suspecting that this new passport I have now has a microchip. It sure sent the wand the woman was using to wand me (another difference from the U.S.- two women screening ALL passengers, male and female) into a dither.

Well, we got through o.k. We waited for the other twosome in our group (we're getting used to this about them) to get through, and you would have thought that they had contraband. Instead, because they are heavy HEAVY smokers, their lighters sent the security people into a dither. What should have only taken about 5 minutes, turned out to take 20, and then after we got done waiting for them, they needed to go to the opposite end of the concourse so they could light up again.

It's tiring.

So mom and I walked along the corridor, and ventured into a couple of different stores. We thought about purchasing some of the strange and unusual items in the store, but then thought the better of it once we put things into scope and realized it might make things in our bags smell like poo. We were thinking about getting duck tongue, duck liver, duck legs, or whole ducks for everyone, but somehow I have a hard time believing that it would remain cold for 10 more days and for 4 to 5 more cities.

The cool thing about shops in China are the packaging and how they present everything in the stores. It's really spectacular. It's like Target, only BETTER.

Well, we got to Shanghai at about 11 p.m. The flight on China Southern Airlines was actually fantastic. The service was great, the English was limited, but a cool thing they did was actually thank everyone for flying, and then as they all stood in front of the cabin, they all did a bow, and went on their merry way. And all we got on United was a scolding for not having our seats buckled in time.

Mrs. Xu was there to pick us up at the airport. Mrs. Xu is like the yang to Annie's ying. She's more mature, more relaxed, and more in tune to what we, the tourists, want to do. She's WAY more flexible, and speaks English excellently. Mr. Lee is our driver, and he is about 25. I had the opportunity to ride shotgun through Shanghai to the restaurant and then to the hotel with him. And he's quite funny. At one point, the traffic (which is really amazing since you don't see many accidents when you should see one every 10 seconds) was bad, and a woman with a painted flower car pulled out in front of the van we were in. It said something like "this is Jenny's car" or "Jenny's having a great day," or 3 to 4 phrases like that on the side of it. Mr. Lee said to me, "Jenny must be driving the car." To which I responded, "Jenny needs to get her ass out of the way."

I liked seeing Mr. Lee laugh.

We went to a silk factory before lunch and before we got to the hotel. It was FASCINATING. We saw how silk is made, and how silk thread is spun. We then (of course) got to shop in the silk factory. We got to try our hand at making silk batting for silk comforters (which was really cool), and mom and I ended up buying 2 queen-size comforters each (the top of the line) for dirt cheap. Hopefully we'll remember we bought them when we get home, as they should arrive about 4 days after we get home. But, I will say, they are extremely nice, and very VERY soft.

We then headed to the hotel. The Hua Ting Tower is right near the huge soccer stadium and is directly across from an IKEA shop that mom's been eyeing. It's really a cool hotel. Although, the elevator lobby is a little confusing, since it's shaped like a circle, and there's about 10 different cars you could possibly ride. Once you hit the button to go up, you just never know which car it will be.

It's like Vegas, only funner.

Anyhow, we're relaxing in the room prior to going to dinner. It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, as we have a huge day planned again. We've already had the inkling that the Empress and her consort will probably not be joining us. That might not be a bad thing. I'm afraid I'd probably rip off the Empress' loose, spider-like fake eyelash if she's around me much longer. She certainly likes to let everyone know how much she knows and how she's been around the world, even though half her stories and facts are.....well....fiction.

Tonite we have Shanghainese dinner and then an acrobatics show (I'm really looking forward to this), and then get back late this evening.

More tomorrow.