China-- Here we come!!!

When we learned we were going to be stationed in Okinawa, we began with the “OH, we could go here,” and “OH, we could go there!” Australia, Singapore, and Bangkok being mentioned.  But, always at the top of our list was the Great Wall. When we found out about the eight day/three city tour, we decided, if we’re gonna do China, we might as well do China!! Our friends, the Baileys, had had the same idea and we determined, it would make the trip even more memorable to take it together. So, now here we are standing in the commissary parking lot on Camp Foster….It’s almost 2:30 Sunday afternoon, November 18, 2012, and here comes the bus (A Navy MWR bus, I might add!!)!!! We are merely steps away from the beginning of a trip of a lifetime!!!!

 

The Baileys and the Weavers and nine other families are boarded and ready to go to the airport!!

 

Meet Yuki, our tour escort. Once he led us through check in for our international flight, we were bused out to our plane for the first two hour flight on China Eastern to Beijing via Shanghai.

 

 

We were able to see a beautiful sunset through the clouds as we flew…

 

At one point, we were able to see the lights of fishing boats on the water… It was a lovely sight!

For our in-flight dinner, the choices were fish rice or pork rice. (I misunderstood and said I’d take the chicken!!) I then asked for the pork.  It came with watermelon, a cup of water, potato salad, (the green is a divider) ‘something’ with sesame seeds on top,  a pickled slice of vegetable, an octopus ‘salad’ in the silver cup, and a pretty tasty custard for dessert.

We had a sparkly nighttime view of Shanghai at the end of our first flight. Yuki escorted us through customs and immigration and from the international terminal to the domestic for our flight on to Beijing.

Finally, after midnight, we had met our Chinese tour guide, Sunny, had arrived at the China World Hotel, been checked in, and began to settle ourselves in Room 602. We delayed our crash into bed long enough to snap a few initial pictures.

 

I feel safer already, knowing there is a fire escape mask available, should the need arise!!