Beijing – Shanghai Trip

Beijing-Shanghai Trip: November 10-18 2016

Introduction:
Money: $1.00 = 6.74rmb (adjusted to $1.00=6.87rmb on 10/15)  Time:  China +15 hrs.

The driver for this trip was to walk the Great Wall of China.  I visited Xi’an in October and a visit to Beijing and Shanghai would complete a look at the big three cities, aka the Golden Triangle.  Once again I had a short duration window to travel.  All facets of the journey are of interest, for the most part, including the planning/research, transport and the destination activities. The train between the cities seemed a logical choice as I would get to see some of the countryside in approx. the same time frame and cost as flying. I have platinum status with United, Marriott and Starwood and they continue to be my travel partners of choice.

Itinerary:

Thursday November 10, 2016:

UA277 DEN to SFO – depart 8:00am arrive 09:47am Boeing 757-300

UA888 SFO to PEK – depart 11:00am arrive 15:30 +1day Boeing 747-400

Hotel in Beijing:  Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall

Transportation in Beijing:  Airport Express Train, Metro & Taxi

Tuesday November 15, 2016:

G13 Train Car 3 Seat 1F – Beijing South Railway Station to Shanghai Hongqiao Station

Hotel in Shanghai: Renaissance Shanghai Yu Garden Hotel

Transportation in Shanghai:  Metro & Maglev Train to Pudong Airport (PVG)

Friday November 18, 2016:

UA199 PVG to LAX – depart 20:25 arrive 15:45

UA750 LAX to DEN – depart 17:25 arrive 20:42 – Scheduled

Late arriving flight from Shanghai resulted in the following changes:

UA481 LAX to SFO and UA1139 SFO to Denver

Thursday November 10:
Early pre-sunrise ride to DIA w. quick stop for lotto tickets. Easy check in and security. Heading to gate 32 for the flight to San Francisco. We have a plane, it arrives as the sun makes an appearance.
Boarding only got me to the door of the plane. 10 min wait in the jetway as economy loaded. The flight attendant said the delay was due to catering… Half of the front cabin had already loaded. Who knows, anyway seated in 3F. 3 tech ops guys are moving through the cabin. Door finally closed. Pilot advertised 2hr 3 min flight time to SFO. Boeing 757-300. Wheels up at 8:17. Clear sky good view of the very bare snow cover on the Rockies. We pass over a few ski areas with limited snow cover, not ready to open. Keystone and Breckenridge have delayed opening. Warm for November with no moisture on the 15 day weather.com planner for Denver. Weather for Beijing forecast calls for clear w. low 50’s/30’s and Shanghai rainy w. mid 60’s/40’s. 37,110′ heading 240 SW.
On the ground 9:19 PT at SFO. Arriving early gate 83. And we have a gate!! First time we didn’t have to wait for the gate in my last three trips through SFO.
Check in at United Club and get my phone charging. Plane boards at 10:15 gate G101. UA888 747 seat 14K. Nice day in the Bay Area.

Short stay in the lounge, got some water and talked with my daughter in Campbell (just down the road). Headed to gate G101 for the boarding and loaded into seat 14K on the upper deck. The business cabin on this United 747 is outdated, but still the more comfortable option.  The United refurb/Polaris option is starting with new 777-300 airplanes so probably years before this old bird gets a facelift or retirement. By the time they actually get their Polaris program in place it will be time for another update.
Push back at 11:00, wheels up at 11:25 PT. Set my watch for Beijing time. The captain advertises the flight time as 11hrs 30m. 2:54PM China Time touchdown.

Flew over SF with good views of the Golden Gate Bridge and headed north along the coast. Headed out further into the Pacific around the Oregon coast with an ancient Volcano (Lassen Peak or Mt Shasta?) in the distance to the east. 585mph 27,992′
Lunch Service.
1:23PT. 31,994′. 134MPH Tailwind, Ground Speed 657mph, 4792m to go, 9hrs 17m to go
2:03PT 31,990′ 630mph. 4388. 8hrs 38m
Filled out a landing card and lowered the shades as the cabin went into sleep mode. Meal was good and drank some Malbec. Reading up on what to do in Beijing. Listened to some music. My list of things to do in Beijing is now pretty long. I have the Great Wall trip scheduled for Sunday. My Train ticket for the ride to Shanghai was mailed so should be at the hotel when I arrive.
6:30PT 35,994′ 530mph 1980m to go. 4hr 24m to go
Following the sun to China.
The flight attendant is making me some Chinese Style Soup. Debating taking a taxi or the train from the airport. By the time I get out of the airport it will be rush hour. It will be interesting either way.
9:19PST 38,093′ 1:31 to go 507mph 545m to go 5362 miles traveled
Lights on in the cabin for “breakfast.” 2:25pm ct, snow and ice outside on the ground and lakes. Coffee and OJ trying to fool the body that it’s daytime when it’s nighttime, at least back home. Flying north of North Korea, over Mongolia. Listened to some more music.
Breakfast is the same style omelette I had on my first flight from Denver to San Francisco.
1hr to go 217miles, we have started our descent into Beijing. 27,600′
Packing stuff up. More Coffee and OJ. Ready to get off the plane. Beijing – Shanghai China Trip is underway!

Friday November 11
25min 5874m 383mph 9826′ 19m to go
Sunny and hazy
Very mountainous on the approach.
5901m. 6738′ 15 min to go 273mph
Heading 168 South 216mph
Now heading north circling 5917m 222mph 7min 26miles to go
On the ground 3:02pm ct

Easy roll thru immigration at this huge airport. Train to T3C for baggage claim. Carousel #42 and luggage took awhile. Once the bags appeared they came in force. Hundreds of bags and then they stopped coming. I started thinking that my bag didn’t make the exchange in San Francisco, but the belt started up again and another hundred bags later here it came crashing off the belt and into my grasp. With United, priority is not priority when it comes to baggage. Got the 25RMB ticket for the airport express and got on the train around 4:15pm. No seats. The train stops at Airport Terminal 1,2 Station where many folks get off and I grab a seat. Airport Express is cruising to downtown. I will get off at the second stop and transfer to the metro line 2. Good thing at this point that I didn’t take a cab as all the roads we are zooming by are packed and crawling. Everything is hazy guessing it’s pollution. Many “new” high rise buildings with construction apparently halted, vertical skeletons.
Train rolls in to Dongzhimen Station, my stop, and I exit with the pushy mob. Some stairs, purchase a ticket for the metro (3RMB) and get to the platform for Line 2.
Three stops to Jianguamen and pop out at exit C as advertised on the Marriott website. The location of the hotel is not immediately apparent.  I let the compass app on my phone point me south and soon I see a giant Marriott sign not far off.

Confusing hotel entrance after getting under the busy street from the north. The Hotel is part of a business complex and I enter through a side door. I wander around and soon find a sign for the Executive Lounge and stop in. Lounge Manager Alla gives me a welcome and a room and I am shown to the elevator by one of the lounge staff. Rm 20063 is a great suite (sweet suite?) that looks like it was made out of two  rooms, with two full bathrooms and double similar appointments, closets, safes, and refrigerators. This will work! After some unpacking I head downstairs to look for my train ticket which has been mailed to the hotel for my arrival. Alla has moved from the Lounge to the Reception desk and helps me locate the express letter which should be at the Bell/Concierge desk next to Reception. After a few minutes of rummaging through their lock up they emerge with my train ticket letter which I sign for. Alla escorts me to the lounge finds me a table, gets me a beer (Carlsberg) and I grab some food. Extensive selection none of which really gets me going after the mass amounts of United food and my lack of sleep.  There are a number of people in the lounge who are part of a “cruise”tour group. I  run into a couple in the elevator who are on that tour and the conversation turns from where are you from to upstate New York to the man graduating from Syracuse 5 years in front of me. Small world. I get in touch with Jo via FaceTime and head to bed. 2.6 mile day.

Saturday November 12

Not much sleep and up at 5:00 to sort out the events for the day. Breakfast opens at 6:30. I will head to the Panijiayan Flea Market once I figure out the routing. I need to look for an Irish Pub, but so far I have only come up with Great Leap Brewing, a microbrewery. Another choice is Paddy O’Sheas, a 10 min walk to the east of the Dongzhimen Metro stop.  The Brewery/Pub search is set for tomorrow depending upon my return time from the Great Wall Trip.

Breakfast in the lounge, some juice, coffee and an omelette. Alla shows me a video of her two year old, William. Coffee to go and back to the room. I am completely locked out from Gmail,  nothing related to Google is working, the Chinese Government internet block is causing App Panic on my devices as the phone calls out for passwords thinking that’s the solution for lack of connectivity.

Cold out there in Beijing this sunny morning, 38 degrees. Walk up to the Jianguamen Metro station and get on #1 east to Guomao Stop then switch to Line #10 – Long walk on the transfer between lines, then catch the south bound train to the Panjiayman station. I take the Northwest exit and emerge into a semi chaotic crowded scene, many people trying to exit the station and maneuver around multiple vendors with their goods laid out on blankets on the sidewalk just in front of the station.

I turn right out of the station and wrap around to the right. A short walk down the street lined with vendors and their make shift displays,  small areas with booths and a courtyard full of calligraphy. Crossing the street I enter the main marketplace and it is very large and very busy. I move left and enter a large covered marketplace with rows upon rows of booths pretty much organized by products, pottery, calligraphy and paintings, “antique” artifacts, and an endless variety of rocks and stones. Around the periphery are private stores in actual buildings selling furniture and assorted items. On the backside of these stores is a long line of book and document sellers in booth type arrangements and some less organized with their wares spread out on the ground. And all areas are packed with bargain hunters and getting more so. I wander in amazement and pick up a few items that catch my eye. Around the corner from the book sellers is another large uncovered area with hundreds of vendors selling a varied assortment of goods spread on blankets on the ground or a table, general flea market style.

Ready to go, I have spent about two hours in the marketplace, more than usual, so backtracked to the metro and headed back to the hotel to drop off my purchases. I stopped at one of the “fast” food shops next to the hotel. Not a good move as the food was poor and listening to the workers yell at each other less than interesting. Next stop was a walkabout of the Forbidden City area. I took the metro to Tian’anmen east and as I was leaving the metro station I was intercepted by a woman who claimed to be an English teacher who wanted to practice her English and soon we were joined by her friend who said she was a medical doctor. I couldn’t shake them, no didn’t work and as much as I tried to ignore them they just kept at my heels talking away. So this unlikely trio crossed over to a parallel road to the Forbidden City along with thousands of other tourists. The teacher suggested we have a coffee while the crowds diminished and steered us into a hole in the wall establishment where we were seated in a room and where we ordered tea. We conversed sometimes well sometimes abstractly and sometimes I didn’t have a clue and we emerged to find the crowd had died down and we made our way to the ticket booth and into the city grounds. Trees are color tagged with the color of the tag indicating approx. age and we were in the midst of 3-5 hundred year old trees. The Palaces of Forbidden City are 14-15th century so these trees were most likely part of that era’s landscape plan. They were starting to close the entrance into the City buildings so I didn’t get a good look at all of the buildings,  a good reason to return if time allowed.

I finally shook off my shadows who were suggesting I take them to dinner and took the Metro back to the hotel.  I enjoyed some snacks in the lounge before some prep in the room, getting ready for tomorrow’s journey to the Wall. Still lots of folks at the Marriott as part of a Princess end of cruise on shore excursion. According to a man on the elevator the cruise originated in Singapore and ended in Beijing. I didn’t realize you could get a cruise ship to Beijing. ??? I get a call from the Wall tour guide, Rico, and we set up the pick up time for tomorrow.
5.7 mile day.
Sunday November 13

Great Wall day!
Sun’s not up, looking cold and gloomy as I roll out of bed around 5:00am after tossing and turning while they were mining gold on the Discovery channel. Caught up on some admin and headed down for breakfast. Coffee to go, pack my stuff, batteries charged, layer up and get to the front door for my 7:20 pickup. Advised the bellman of the pending arrival of Rico. A van pulls up, right taillight out, and Rico pops out and welcomes me into the van. 3 folks from Montreal are on board, Chris, her son Phil and his wife Isabel. Out into the cloudy cold morning to p/u one more member of the tour. A little confusion finding the Fairmont Beijing, but once found we pick up Sandra from Washington State. On the road for the 120km 2 hr drive at 7:50. Traffic is light as we wind our way through the labyrinth of roads & highways out of town. Rico runs through the basic itinerary: drive hike lunch drive and smiles as he passes out water. Quiet group. 8:08 headed NE through a toll booth. Smell of wood smoke when the driver rolls down his window. Making good time on a busy three lane expressway. Still grey. 8:15 out of town 6th ring road office parks and forests, transmission towers and some low-rise residential and commercial. Miyun 40km. 8:30 starting to see some mountains outlined in the haze. Very light traffic. Miyun 25 km.

8:55 still cold and hazy with no sign of the sun.  Climbing through hilly terrain passing through occasional long tunnels. Trees planted uniformly with painted lower trunks in many locations along the road and out into the surrounding areas. Mostly hilly/ mountainous, but still no sun just grey. 9:10 starting to rain windows are fogging up in this chilly van. Didn’t bring my rain jacket. 9:18 toll booth, we just passed an exit for a water town? Now down to a two lane road each way just prior to the turn off for the great wall approach, Jinshanling 4 km.
We exit and stop at a reception center and use the restrooms. Loading back up we head off to the Jinshanling East Gate, our access to the wall. Rico gets the tickets and we shuffle through or around the turnstile and head up to the wall via a staircase that winds up a hillside at a fairly substantial grade. I am quickly breathing hard and warming up. Rico appears to be concerned about my ability to keep up with the tour. Interesting. The elevation at the wall is 800 meters or approx 2500′. Denver is 5280′. The stair-master aspect is a little strenuous, but manageable. I feel good, I knew that I would… Finally through the fog appears the Tower of the 5 Windows. We are on the wall!! Visibility is very limited. My expectations of wide vistas including the winding wall views along the ridge are adjusted down to the next 50′ at this point. It is early, it’s not raining and conditions may improve. Rico fills us in on the wall history and shepherds the 5 of us along our route. A vendor attaches to our group with hope of some sales.

Walking the wall, amazing, and the air is breathable and the thick fog is slowly giving way to a more porous mist but visibility is still restricted to 100′. The section of the wall we are on is in fair to  good repair with the last major maintenance about 35 years ago when several sections and some of the towers were rebuilt or repaired. We wander from tower to tower sometimes over rough areas and sometimes getting extended glimpses of long stretches, but just outlines in the distance never detailed clarity. I did not expect the extensive stairs or rough blocks in some cases that need to be traversed up and down. The steps in come cases are 18″ in height and not uniform. What a workout! Fantastic to be doing this. Some of the towers that have been rebuilt include a second floor that is accessible by stairs. These were designated as sleeping rooms for officers. In some cases there was just an access hatch reachable by ladder. Rico explained that the removable ladder kept the enemy from getting up as well as an impediment to the defenders of the wall from getting down and  running away.

No one else was on the wall in the area where we started, however about half way through our hike we started to get some pedestrian traffic coming at us, but never in large numbers, no crowds at all. I picked this tour because it promised a good moderate hike on a less traveled section which it proved to be. The only thing missing was the perspective of scale that was hidden in the mists. Good excuse to come back for another visit to the Wall.
We get off the wall at the Zhuanduokou Pass exit and walk to a parking area where we meet the driver. It was maybe a 4.5 mile hike though the ups and downs were often strenuous making it seem like more.  After a 15min drive we enter a small town and pull into a parking spot in front of a restaurant that Rico frequents with his tour groups where we are seated in a private room.  After polling the team, Rico ordered multiple dishes that soon overwhelmed the table and we enjoyed our late lunch.  Rico and the driver did not join us, but ate in the main dining room.
2pm starting back to Beijing via local hwy. We survive some sketchy passing and turn onto the Jincheng Expressway. 103 km to Beijing.
4pm We have been in a massive slow flow of heavy traffic for 20 min getting through a toll booth 8 lanes wide that then merged back down to three lanes. We are approaching ring road #5. We are moving in spurts. Everyone returning into the city after a weekend outing? Now down to two lanes. Peeling off into city streets. Insanity. Driver on his phone maneuvering around in mixed flow of lefts and rights, pedestrians cars and bikes. Back to seeing the world through fogged up windows. I will be the first dropped off. Sneezes as we adjust to Beijing dirty air.  More crazy driving, maybe the driver is just using his survival skills to get us up and back in one piece, just adjusting to the flow, but I am not appreciating the technique. The Beijing drivers exhibit an indifference to any type of driving protocol. Zig-zag arbitrary turns from the wrong lane, scooters driving against traffic, autos broadsides to on coming traffic, inching their way into one way streets the wrong way. All driving rules that we take for granted are tossed out the window in Beijing. But most don’t seem to care and if things really run amuck then that’s what the horn is for. So what must be just another day for Beijing drivers turns into semi managed chaos for this out-of-towner.

And suddenly we turn into the hotel drive and I say my good byes to my fellow wall travelers as the door opens and I thank Rico and head into the lobby flow. Elevator up to 20 and then back into 20063. The door closes and there is a break from the day’s activity and some time to reflect. The maid has done a better job servicing the room especially the bathroom where once again I have a bath mat and wash clothes. Some regroup. I still can’t access gmail (like that was going to happen.) Rico recommended that I visit The Temple of Heaven tomorrow to observe the “old people”, like me, practicing their Tai Chi. I forget how old I look, but still a tough realization. Phil, Isabel and Chris went to the Temple of Heaven grounds yesterday and recommended the walk around the park. Rico mentioned that the Lama Temple was also a go to spot in Beijing. What a great day! I will try to untangle today’s numerous impressions. 5.7 mile day.

Monday November 14

Slept in to 6:30. Breakfast in the lounge, some admin then out the door to the Metro Station. Morning destination is The Temple of Heaven, #1 line to Dongdan, transfer to the #5 line to Tiantan Dongmen Station. Exit to street than wrap around right to the park. 28RMB buys access to the park and all of the Temple of Heaven Structures. You can also buy just a park access. I came in the east Gate and headed west. The first structure I came to was one of the Kitchens which had a long balcony where scores of people were playing card games.

The next building was the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. This was accessible with my ticket, a massive circular building set in a large courtyard on top of a triple layered circular stone base. The original, built in 1420, burned in 1889. This is reputed to be a near perfect rebuild. The supporting columns are tree trunks imported from Oregon.

Heading south I visited the Imperial Vault of Heaven surrounded by the Echo Wall. Next was the Circular Altar atop another three tiered marble terrace where the emperor and his cronies would sacrifice animals to heaven for next year’s crops and the general well being of the empire.

Leaving this site I headed east through the trees and walked to the edge of the park following the wall north. By the east gate there was a large stand of Birch Trees that still had enough leaves to make soft sounds as the wind blew through. There are a number of very old Juniper Trees in the park some dating back 900 years. Out the east gate and back to the metro for the ride up to The Lama Temple. This is a straight shot north on the #5 line with the final stop Yonghegong Lama Temple. Exit to a very busy tree lined street with many shops lining the walk on both sides of the street. Also in this area is the Confucius Temple and most of the shops are selling articles linked to the temples such as incense, statues and flags/banners with an occasional food stall.

The Lama Temple is classified as a Tibetan Temple. The entrance is at the south end of the complex and leaving the metro I followed the flow of people along the western wall of the complex. A left through a gate brought me into a large courtyard/car park. Digital signage leads me to the ticket windows and then into the entry ticket scan at the main gate and I am into the Temple grounds. Religion is big business here at the Lama Temple. There is a tree lined walkway to the first temple building with many photo takers of the yellow leaves with some girls throwing hands full of leaves in the air for a golden leaf shower photo op selfie moment. Incense fills the air and there is an incense service window to pick up some complimentary sticks. Big Buddhas in multiple buildings and other religious icons are being worshiped. Pretty relaxed afternoon. Sunny golden trees in the incense clouds.

I head back to the metro and after a transfer to line #1 at Dongdan I emerge at Tian’anmen East for another look at the square and the Forbidden City. Crowds are down from the weekend experience and security lines are short and I am into the square across the street from the Forbidden City. An underground passage gets me under the street and brings me out in front of the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tian’anmen). There is a long walkway north towards the actual City. I buy a ticket at the first booth I get to thinking I was lucky to beat the crowd as there was a very short line. I don’t know what I bought but it didn’t get me in. So much for a re-visit. I walk around the city wall and am approached by another “English Teacher” and friend.  Obviously a scam to get some commission from a restaurant for luring me in and some food and drink for themselves. Once was enough. I firmly and somewhat rudely voice my objection and move on. It had already been a long day so I exited out the east exit and made my way back to the metro and got the train back to the Jianguomen Station. A quick walk back to the hotel as the night begins. After some food and drink in the lounge I walk down the street to the Beijing Railway Station. At this point I am still thinking I will take the Metro to the Beijing South Railway Station tomorrow where I catch the train to Shanghai and I could have an easier time with my luggage rolling down the street than I had at Jianguomen with all of the stairs.

What a mad house! It’s 9:30pm and there are thousands of people going in/coming out of the station and there is an extremely long line at the entrance to the metro station to get through security. I hang out observing the scene bathed in the bright super moon. Amazing human traffic for late on a weekday. Still not sure which route I will take tomorrow, but now thinking a taxi might be the easiest. Back in the room I get a start on packing. 9.9 mile day.

Tuesday November 15
Currency adjustment: $1.00=6.87rmb

Up early, travel day, train to Shanghai. Do some admin and packing then down at 6:30 for some breakfast. I cut up some bread and cheese and pack a water for a train snack. Looks like a sunny day in Beijing and it is forecast the same in Shanghai. The journey is approx. 5 hrs. Taking the G13 fast train at 10am. The reception desk is busy so head into the lounge to see if someone can check me out. Alla is back after a day off and she takes care of business. Do I want a taxi? Yes, decision made. She calls for a taxi makes me a coffee and a few minutes later one of the staff arrives and escorts me to the taxi. He lets the driver know where to take me and we are off. Traffic is heavy but moving well. It is pretty much a direct shot south then exit east to another huge building, Beijing South Railway Station. I get dropped off on level 2 the waiting/ticket check floor. Taxi fare 33rmb, approx. $5. The taxi was a good choice, much easier than the Metro adventure I had envisioned. Once inside there is a security check and then I am into a large space with a high ceiling and arching spans.

Designed to have the round design feature of the Temple of Heaven’s good harvest building from the outside, but the interior scale is unbelievable. The waiting room is the size of multiple football fields with seating down the middle with shopping and eating places around the periphery. Adjacent to the seating on the east and west sides are the boarding / ticket check gates. I take a lap around the space then look for the business lounge. I poke into an area where I am not supposed to be and quickly get re-directed to the lounge. The closest lounge is closed so I move down to the other end and find one that is open. Comfortable room with cold drinks, tea and snacks, cookie things. Boarding should be 30min prior to departure. They are making announcements, however only in Chinese, so I will go to gate 6 at 9:30 to see what’s happening. I am on the G13 train car 3 seat 1F.
I give Jo a call and get through. Might as well get something out of the Verizon International Plan. I enjoy a pack of Coarse Edible Grain Biscuits and a small bottle of water then head out to the boarding / ticket check #6. Passengers are passing through the check point so I queue up, get my passport checked, ticket punched and ride down an escalator to the platform.

Nice looking train, find my seat and go through some chaos as a group from India occupies everyone’s space on my end of the car with their luggage, picture taking and other assorted disruptive behavior. No consideration, totally pre- occupied with themselves. They are attended to by two Chinese men who appear to be their tour guides. Eventually the majority of the group go back to another car and the three who remain calm down somewhat. We punctually pull out at 10:00 heading south and before we have cleared the city we are going 305km/hr. A parade of vendors with carts of food, drink & toys start to make their rounds. Outside big stretches of farm land take over from the concrete. Some large cities stick up to the east. I get the headphones out and blot out the busy commotion. No wifi on the train so can’t synch up devices and maybe get to google mail.
An attendant comes by checking tickets and brings a green tea. The seat is adjustable similar to the business seat on United and a blanket/ pillow are part of the deal, so I kick back with tunes, tea and the streaming countryside. Next stop Shanghai.
A parallel elevated track bed is under-construction. 11:30 stopped at Jinan West railway Station. 3 min stop. For the next 20min we pass continuous new high rises in uniform regimented order. Building construction yards with row upon row of temporary offices slowly giving way to mostly rural farm lands with workers scratching fields with hand implements, shovels and rakes. The mountainous landscape has become distant with occasional large sky rises along the horizon. Big country in fall colors then back into hills with small villages next to new processing plants of some sort. All through this fabric are high power lines running to all points. Not much livestock populating these large tracts of open land. Now another large city, I should have printed out a map to place a name to these large outposts on the path to Shanghai.
Hilly landscape with a wind farm, the tall rotors slowly spinning with a coal fired power plant smoking in the distance.

13:11 Van Gogh fields, rivers, farmers scratching the big vibrant earth. And the power lines radiate like big spider webs. Cell towers line the tracks. A Ferris Wheel on a hill marking a land of make believe and games laying below on a plain stretching to a large city. Ponds of swans next to a manual harvest of hay. No farm machinery, just hand carts and sickles.
13:39
Cities getting bigger as the countryside gives way to fields of concrete and mountains of high rises. Slowing down to a stop at Nanjing South Railway Station another huge modern multi-track transport hub of glass and steel. Vehicles on the platform ??? Some VIP? Unusual. Now passing Nanjing robotics r&d park.
14:43
Continuous city/industrial park/landfill. We are arriving into Shanghai Hongqiao Station. Very modern and once again built over scale with soaring ceilings and long hallways leading to the Metro.

This station shares duties with one of Shanghai’s airports and there is a large crowd vying for position at the metro ticket machines. Very frustrating ordeal to get a ticket as most of the machines refuse to take a 5RMB note. Eventually the crowd thins and I find a machine that will take my money and 5 rmb and twenty minutes later I am through the turnstile (had to squeeze through as the ticket scanner wouldn’t recognize my ticket and directs me to “service” whatever where ever that is). Down to the platform for line 10. Train is not made for suitcases so end up finding a spot to park my bag near a door and stand for the 14 stops to Yuyuan Garden Station. Not a big deal and I emerge into a sunny day w/bustling crowd about a block from the hotel. I am met inside the hotel entrance by a security person who informs me that the reception is on the 4th floor and leads me to the elevator and escorts me to reception. Easy check in with an upgrade to the Executive lounge floor, room 1804. Nice room but smelling a bit like pipe tobacco. I get unpacked and check the mail. Great North facing view with partial River view to the east. It’s dusk and the lights start coming on in the big buildings along the Huangpo River.

I watch TV with my eyes closed for an hour and when I wake I head down the hall to the lounge entrance. It is a two level lounge and I walk down a staircase to the 17th floor which houses the food & drink and out their windows the light show has started complete with a large moonrise, super moon. Best lounge food I have had since Hong Kong and the service is excellent. I make an early exit and head to the room. I had forgotten about the room smell but it was still there to greet me. I will see what can be done about that tomorrow. I attempted to take some pictures of the night lights but hard to do through the glass. One of the lounge attendants said there was a roof top bar that opened at 8:00pm that had an unrestricted view, but not tonight. I watched the NZ All Black rugby team shred the Italian Team (replay? Real time?) and drifted off. 2.4mile day.

Wednesday November 16

Slept in and got to the lounge around 8:00am for breakfast. I was greeted by lounge manager Alice and seated. She brought some coffee and I got some food and juice. Sunny morning with some clouds. Forecast is highs in the 60’s with some rain moving in tonight into tomorrow morning. Today’s plan is to check out the Yu Yuan Gardens and take a walk on the Bund Promenade which flanks the west side of the River opposite the skyscrapers on the eastern shore. As I enter 1804 the smell hits me and I return to the lounge to see if there is something that can be done to clean that out of the air. I see Alice who has the title of Navigator which is Renaissance for Concierge and tell her my story and she puts a call in to housekeeping. I return to the room and several minutes later a housekeeper shows up with a spray bottle. She sprays the carpet and leaves. Fabreeze equivalent? Maybe that will work? The phone rings, it is Alice. She asks for status. Too soon to tell as all I smell is whatever was just sprayed. She says she will look into moving me to another room if the smell is still there when I get back from my morning walkabout.
The street one block up from the hotel towards the metro station looks like it will lead to the Yu Yuan Garden so I head east on it and enter a shopping street. Good fun checking out the trash and trinkets at the tourist stores.

I don’t find the Yu Yuan Garden entrance and wind up instead in Gucheng Park which is on the route to the Bund. Interesting area with people singing, a flute player playing, a tea house, kids w/ their parent(s) or grandparent(s) playing in a courtyard and groves of bamboo. As I leave the park there are a group of people ballroom dancing to tunes emanating from a boom box. Crossing several large not traffic busy streets and up a flight of stairs and I was on the promenade. Nice walk North along the river with a varied crowd of selfie takers, wedding posers and people just shuffling along.
A Chinese couple asks me to take their picture and then engages in conversation. They suggest that we travel as a group so they can practice their English which I reject as I just want to walk. Memories of the Beijing “English Teacher” scam.

I get to the end of the Bund by the bridge and Monument and loop back. On the way I pass that same couple talking with a woman and I laugh when I hear her say she is from Denver. I am not sure what scam if any that couple was working but I am glad I didn’t engage any further with them. I walk back through the Gucheng Park and take a left into the market next to Yu Yung Garden and end up finding the garden entrance which is in the middle of a very crowded tourist area with shops and Starbucks and KFC and hundreds of people. I think I will get to this attraction when it opens at 8:30 the next morning and hope that it isn’t so busy. It’s 1230 and I head back to the hotel to check on the potential room move. The morning spraying worked somewhat, but the room still smells like tobacco so I head to the lounge to find Alice and discuss next steps. She is way ahead of me and has a room reserved in case the smell was still a problem. In a few minutes she handed me new keys to 1820 which she said had a great view of the Bund and she was sure I would like it. I checked it out on the way back to get my stuff. Wow! Bigger room with a bathtub by the window and a pretty amazing panorama of the Huangpu River and the large sentinels lining the Eastern Pudong shore. And it has a wood floor and no smell. Bonus! A nice  upgrade of my original upgrade.

I made the move and returned the old keycard and thanked Alice. I told her she had exceeded my expectations which made her happy. I got my stuff arranged/sorted out and got out again this time in search of the Bird Fish Insect Flower market. First I returned to the marketplace I stumbled into this morning when looking for the Yu Yuan Garden entrance. I found an interesting looking gate and as I attempted to pass through I was stopped and directed to a ticket window. I had found the Taoist City God Temple. I paid 10rmb for a look at this small temple. Interesting statues of gods & idols.

Exiting I ended up by a Starbucks and the large crowded marketplace I visited earlier. I sourced my map and got headed out of there on the way to my original destination. Some old guy stopped me as I passed his shop and showed me his Antiquities Authorized Sellers card wanting to sell me some Ming Dynasty artifacts and when that failed he substituted setting up a massage across the street where I could get sexual favors included in the deal. Interesting how we went from antiquities to sex. I kept moving and came out the Western Celebration Arch at Henan Nan.

At this point it was getting late and it was starting to sprinkle some rain. I still had about a 30min walk to get to the Insect Market, so headed back to the hotel for some food and drink and a regroup. The forecast called for heavier showers around 9pm, the weather was changing earlier than expected. Tomorrow was forecast to be rainy all day. After dinner I made a dash for some night time photos from the promenade before the weather got worse. The rain held off and I got some photos of the light show then headed in for the night as the rain started to come down. I hit the lounge for an evening beverage and called it an evening. 8 mile day.

Thursday November 17
Slept in, 6AM and woke to a cloudy rainy morning. All of the walking and hiking was starting to catch up with me and I took advantage of the window facing bathtub to soak my achy joints.

Today I will get to the insect market I was headed to late yesterday and then head up to the Shanghai Museum, reputed to be the best Chinese Museum. I hope it is not the same experience as the crowded not so good Shaanxi Museum in Xi’an.
It is a quick walk to the Bird Flower Fish and Insect Market and a quicker walk through the chirping crickets, birds singing and the occasional tanks of fish and potted plants. I walk down Fangbang street for a block and check out a variety of local neighborhood shops and small markets.

Next stop, the Shanghai Museum, takes about 20min to reach and I walk in the rain out of a pretty poor neighborhood into an upscale part of town with high end shops and restaurants and more high rise office buildings.

I have timed my arrival for the lunch hour hoping that it will be a slow time at the museum and it seems to have worked as there is no line as I go through security and there is no charge as I gain the foyer of the museum. I start at the top on the 4th level and work my way down.

Great exhibits of Chinese treasures in uncrowded exhibit halls. By the time I reach the 2nd level, that all changes as kids on class trips invade the museum and the flow of adults increases to the point it is getting noisy and harder to get around. I finish my viewing, visit the museum shop and head out the exit passing a long line of people waiting to get in through the security screening.
The rain has died down to a drizzle as I walk back towards the hotel. I zigzag through a restaurant area and then turn east on Jingling Dong Lu. Interesting walk as I go through a three of four block area of musical instrument stores prior to reaching my right turn on to Henan Nan.

The clouds are low and obscuring the view out of my hotel room, but the flow of umbrellas in and out of the market below has not abated.
Food and drink in the lounge. Alice is still working and sets up a late checkout for tomorrow. I take a fast walk down to the Bund to get some photos of the foggy night lights. Rain is intermittent but there is still a large number of fellow tourists enjoying the views.

I get some packing done and plan to visit the Yu Yuan Garden early and hopefully avoid the tourist influx.

Friday November 18
My extra long Friday has arrived as I will peel back the clock heading homeward to the east. It looks like the rain has stopped, still foggy but brighter than yesterday. Breakfast in the lounge, Alice reprograms my key card for a 5pm check out. A little more packing organization and I am out the door by 9am on my way to the Yu Yuan Garden.

Not too much activity in the market area out side the garden and I show my passport and get in for 20 rmb.(old guy rate) Just a few folks in the garden as I enjoy this 15th century jewel. Yu Yuan, Garden of Peace and Comfort, was built by a city official as a retreat for his father and is considered a Classical Chinese garden. It is a wonderful walk around through different sections of buildings and gardens with fish ponds and rock formations. There was also a very good display of Ming & Qing Dynasty Porcelain. Interspersed were a few shops. It started getting busy as I was leaving. This is a small property with restricted walkways and passages and would not be very enjoyable when full of visitors.

The exit flows into the marketplace which was already very busy. I headed back to the hotel and looked up my next stop, the area called the French Concession. I took the metro west line#10 to the Shaanxi Road South Station and walked up to the Shanghai Brewery on Donghu Rd, then circled around through Xiangyang Park then back down to Fuxing Zhongshan Lu and headed east.

A quick walk around the beautiful Fuxing Park then east to Xizang Nan Lu, north to Fangbang Zhongshan Lu where the Insect Market is and headed east again into the Yu Yuan Garden Marketplace then back to the hotel. Clean up and finish my packing then head to the lounge to checkout. The plan is to take the metro line#10 to the East Nanjing Road Station, transfer to the line#2 and go east to the Longyang Road Station where I can catch the PuDong Airport Maglev Train for an 8min ride to Terminal 2.

Head to the lounge for checkout. No Alice but Jone is there to assist. He gives me business cards and I give him some feedback. He is good with me hanging out until 5:30. Some folks doing business in the lounge. Kelly shows up around 5 to start the evening setup. The lights are coming on in Pudong and the mist descends. Jone & Kelly ask me to eat and drink before I go and Jone is amused that I am taking the train and writes down the sequence of trains to get to the airport. Looks like I have moved from 3 to 8 on the flight upgrade list and all the seats are gone anyway. It will be a long ride in coach. I say my thanks to the lounge team and head to the reception to get some small bills then out to the street headed for the Yuyuan Garden Metro Station. Rush hour and I get a ticket for Longyang Station and jam my way onto the packed train. Not a good idea to travel at rush hour especially with luggage. Change trains at Nanjing and jam on another train, 6 stops later I’m off and headed out exit 7 and up the escalator following a sign for ticket office (no signage for the maglev itself). I reach in my pocket for the small bills I got at reception and they’re gone! I must have dropped them when I pulled a ten out to get the metro ticket. C’est la vie say the old folks…..40 rmb later I am heading to the platform then on the train. We hit 301kmh for the short duration to the airport. Nothing to distinguish the ride from a wheeled train but interesting technology. Security check on the way to terminal 2, long walk then up an escalator into a massive hall with lettered check in areas A-M.

I head for E based upon the digital signage for United Airlines and checked in. It is extremely hot in the terminal. My bag got checked and security had an issue with it so I was instructed to go down the hall to reclaim it and bring it back to get shipped out again and get my boarding pass. The agent tells me I get access to lounge #1 and I get through Immigration passport check and security and head towards gate 87 expecting to find the lounge on the way. But no lounge #1. I ask the agent at the gate where the lounge is and he says to look for lounge #71 which is where I just came into the terminal. I retrace my route and find the Air China lounge. By this time it’s 10 minutes to boarding so I get on the lounge Internet and text Jo have a beer and head back to board. There must be 100 people in the #1 boarding line and we stand there for 30 minutes before we get to load. The talk from folks in the line is this is the norm for Friday night travel for the business folks commuting between China and the States. Lesson learned, don’t fly on Friday and expect an upgrade. So I am in seat 16F aisle bulkhead and I’m thinking it should be ok.  The plane is delayed due to maintenance issues. The expected flight duration is advertised as 10hrs 37min whenever we get off the ground. It’s 9:18pm we have had the safety video and the cabin lights have been dimmed and we are still sitting at the gate. Push back an hour late. United late again. The pilot blames the delay on air traffic control but if they had been ready to push back at the slotted time there wouldn’t be additional delay waiting for a window for the late United flight. Wheels up at 9:45pm, an hour plus late and no way to make up the time.
It has been awhile since I have flown in economy internationally with United and it sucks in comparison to other carriers. The food is inedible, the flight attendants seem like they are on a personal agenda rather than focused on customer service. The seats are so small that the tables are too small to accommodate all of the associated meal packaging let along the actual meal tray itself. Very poor experience for the customer. I usually feel that United business class is marginal however United economy plus is a joke. I am going to have a tough connection at LAX due to our late start. I guess United will find some reason to make a failed connection my fault for not booking more than the two hours I allotted between flights.
So that was torture and we will be at least 30 min late assuming we get a gate. Getting through global entry will be the easy part, it’s the luggage and the inability for priority bags to come out first that will be issue one and then getting through security will be problem two and then getting to whatever gate for the Denver flight will be issue three.

Priority luggage came out last so I was delayed even more and by the time I got through TSA back into the airport (thanks to those who let me cut the line) there was still a very long walk (run) to get to the domestic gates only to find they had given my seat away and the door had just closed on a full flight.  One of the United staff re-booked me through San Francisco but the gate for that flight was even further away and they were already boarding.  I got the last seat in the last row and by the time I boarded and got to my seat I was a hot sweaty mess.  Quick flight to SFO and then got an email notification that I had an upgrade on the Denver flight which was ready to board.  Don’t know why, but the gate agent had an attitude when I asked for a new boarding pass, but got it done and I took my seat and settled in for the two hour flight. Made it to Denver and closed the chapter on this trip.

Summary:

Observations-
The pedestrian comes last in China. There are fewer scooters & motorbikes than Vietnam, but the majority in China are electric powered so you don’t hear them coming. All vehicles drive on sidewalks and even when they stick to the roads they can be going against traffic.
There is a lot of spitting, maybe getting rid of the funky byproducts of the extreme pollution?
Not a lot of visible homeless people, a few beggars and people sleeping in doorways. And there are not large people everywhere as there are in the states.
The hotels I stayed at, a Marriott and a Renaissance, were very customer oriented much more so than in the USA. The food in the Shanghai Renaissance Executive Lounge was excellent and I was treated like a rock star. The metro systems in both cities were inexpensive & frequent with very good access and riding the Maglev to PVG was unique. Just don’t try to move luggage on either system at rush hour. Beijing was more polluted than Shanghai. The Panjiayan market in Beijing was excellent for what they had. The hike on the Great Wall was the highlight of the trip. When buying tickets on the fast G train between Beijing and Shanghai select a seat mid carriage to avoid the constant chaos of restroom access and luggage getting dumped behind the seat at the back of the train car. The seats in the business car are three across A C together and F as a single. Sitting in economy on United International flights is a challenge especially the long haul flights. Don’t expect to carry liquids onto a United International flight, even though you bought them on the plane side of security. When queried why they were doing that, the security checker said it was a TSA requirement. In China?  TV programming always seemed to have 5-6 military channels showing historical conflicts. Shanghai is a more pedestrian friendly city than Beijing and Shanghai also has more positive energy than cold sterile Beijing. The Yu Yuan Garden was the highlight of Shanghai with the Pudong light show and Bund Promenade in a close second position. Clean Public toilets are readily accessible in both cities. Google is denied in both cities. (I was able to get gmail in Xi’an.) The Apple Map App worked well in both cities. Not much respect for personal space and citizens are addicted to their cell phones to the point of being oblivious to all else. They would rather walk into you than yield and they would rather push to the front of anything that resembles a line, cutting the line is common. All of the airports and train stations I used were huge and the train stations were very busy, well used. Signage for the most part was dual language, with English being the second language. There was a highly visible security and police force everywhere so much so that I never was concerned about my well being other than getting run over.

Not having any Chinese language skills was a handicap, however the support I received from the Executive Lounge Staff at both hotels was invaluable.  The English language capability of both Alla in Beijing and Alice in Shanghai was like talking to your neighbor and they were able to bridge the gaps that my lack of language exposed.  Very supportive and helpful.

I arranged/booked/paid for my Great Wall Tour on the ChinaHighlights.com website.  I recommend the moderate less crowded walk from the East Jinshanling Gate to the Zhuanduokou Pass Exit.  Hopefully you get better weather, but my experience was good despite the rain and clouds.

I scheduled/booked/paid for my Beijing to Shanghai train ride on the TravelChina.com website. As part of that process you input your hotel & dates where the ticket should be delivered.  It is shipped out several days before arrival to your attention.

The Frommer’s Guide was very helpful with my travel planning and offered some good context and history as well as practical advise such as getting to attractions during the lunch hour in between the tour traffic for a less crowded experience.

Resources:

ChinaHighlights.com

TravelChina.com

Frommer’s Easy Guide to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai, 2016 edition