We are HERE! (OLD Post from Beijing!)

NOTE:  Just found this post in my draft folder! So, I decided to post it! NINE years later!


The techcomm delegation is in Beijing. For some reason, I can't get into the techcomm.livejournal blog, so I'm making this the official team blog for today and hoping someone else can post it.






All 20 of us are here at the Swissotel Beijing. The journey took me 29 hours of traveling--if you include the time waiting in airports! The trip from LAX to Hong Kong was 17.5 hours. Captain told us that a huge headwind was blowing our way, so they rerouted the trip up to the Aleutians, the Bering Strait, and then down through Russia to Hong Kong. From what I could see, we might have been in a windowless tube. We flew all night and I watched two movies, slept, read some trip-related stuff, and talked to Sherry Michaels who was sitting on the other end of our row. We were pretty lucky. We each had aisle seats and had 2 empty seats between us. We flew Cathay Pacific. Coach was well-served, and the seats weren't too uncomfortable. The plane left LAX at about midnight Sunday, and it arrived in Beijing Tuesday at 11 am. We completely lost Monday.






Fifteen of us arrived in Beijing on the same plane. The three folks who flew from Chicago didn't get in until about 4 pm. We arrived in Hong Kong at about 5:30 am. The place was empty. Couldn't even find a spot to buy a bottle of water. Starbucks opened at 7, but when it did open, the line was too long to wait in. The sun coming up over the mountains to the east of Hong Kong was cool. Much of the trip comprised standing in line. Security lines, immigration lines, train lines. and custom lines. And, because of my knee replacement, I have to get searched every time I went through a security checkpoint. And, I went through four of them! Had to go outside to change terminals at LAX, so that meant a new security check. Then, we had to go through one at Hong Kong (although I don't know why) and then the immigration line at Beijing.














I got a few pictures, the view from my hotel is pretty cool. It's also pretty hazy/smoggy. Our guide, Huang, says that it is the weather, and that the air quality is rather good. But I'm having a tough time believing it. The day(s) were long, but the people are friendly. We all met and connected immediately. Having the Yahoo group for these last few months worked better than I could have imagined. The hotel is comfortable, clean, and there's even several channels on TV in English! I almost left my laptop at security again. Thank goodness Sherry pointed it out to me! Here are some of the folks on the delegation: