Looking back: Chicago to Beijing

Fell asleep putting Katie to bed and now I am a awake again. Every day seems a little better for us with respect to jet lag, but the process seems so slow. Karen took Katie to a preschool that she (Karen) used to work at to introduce her and to get her signed up for next fall. Katie was shy but seemed to enjoy the place. More pix from the Chins trip, this time of the Chicago to Shanghai flight, I just could not get over how big those Boeing 777s are. The ordinary class section looked like a lecture hall. It was 2 seats, an aisle, 5 seats, an aisle, and finally another 2 seats. First class had fewer, bigger seats that could swivel and recline all the way. I estimated the overall capacity around 230 passengers, though the internet said over 300. We always wound up in the middle seats on the way there and back. They were pretty big for airplane seats, but they were still airplane seats. At least every seat had its own TV set to keep us occupied. The novelty of the whole trip and the TV set carved into my sleep time. If I had been seated at a window it would have been worse for distracting me, but there would have been more pix even though much of the trip was cloudy. We flew sort of a great circle route between Chicago and Shanghai, except we appeared to fly west of that course to avoid, I believe, North Korea. We flew over northeastern Wisconsin, over Hudson Bay, and way north beyond the Arctic Circle over the northern edge of Alaska into the winter darkness up there. We came back south over Siberia and the sun rose again. I tried to convey to Kris that when I was her age things were so different that that is where Russia used to put its political prisoners. We flew over northern China close to Harbin (known for its famous ice festival), near Beijing, and finally to Shanghai. We were pretty well fed on the flight. We flew some 7050 miles, as high as 35000 ft, as cold as -88 F, and as fast as 625 mph. The Shanghai airport was where we first encountered mainland China, but it was still pretty westernized and therefore a relatively gentle culture shock. We were able to get our luggage, rechecked in for a domestic flight, and through airline security without too much hassle, though we did get lost a couple times. The terminals for Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou were all similar in that they have this cavernous look with really high ceilings. Even these high-tech terminals had a use for bamboo, like this support for window washing - little did I realize just how prevalent bamboo lumber really is in China. Shanghai is prepping for a World Expo this year, so we saw lots of views of the mascot Haibao (looks like a cross between a tooth and the letter "A" to me). I remember being so exhausted at the Shanghai terminal waiting for the Beijing flight. The flight from Shanghai to Beijing is sort of a dim memory to me. The instructions were in Chinese and English - this time the Chinese came first. I seem to recall a warning that if you had to abandon the plane via an inflatable slide that you should remove your high-heeled shoes first. The flight instructions also featured sign language. At Beijing we met our guide, Joy, and our driver, Mr. Wong. Got to bed in the hotel around 12:30 am.