A Trip to China

[LyleW]

We left on Sept. 12th for Beijing and then on to Zhengzhou to pick up our sweet little (newest) grandchild. Ok, maybe not so little at 28 pounds, but sweet and cute as a button. Inbound to Zhengzhou, the weather was so bad that the pilot aborted the landing and we went to Wuhan for an hour or so and then we were able to land in Zhenzhou.

This is a few moments after we saw her in person and Kimberly was able to hold her.



They hit it off pretty much right away, of course, having snacks helped!





In Zhengzhou, we waited out 4 days of rain and on that Friday went shopping...



Had some dinner at a real Chinese restaurant....Could not eat the feet!



We had a six hour round trip drive to Ella's birth town to apply for her passport to leave China. "Toto, we are not in Kansas any more"
is the best way to describe it. Rained all the way there and back, foggy, polluted and a very dingy city (at least what we saw of it) of Anyang, but still a city of around 5 million.

From Zhengzhou, we flew to Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton). All exit visas for anyone coming to the USA are handled at the US Consulate here. A much more pedestrian friendly city! No scooters on the sidewalks here. This picture is a day or so before we left to come home.



Ella was much happier than she appeared in this picture. Left Guangzhou on Friday the 26th flying to Beijing and then to Detroit and then home. The flight from Guangzhou to Beijing was on an Airbus A380 - that is one big aircraft! Quiet and smooth. About 500 or so people on it.



The pollution in Beijing on that day was amazing. Looked like about 1/4 mile visibility if that much....



But, we made it. A 12 hour flight to Detroit and a flight home got us in about 11 pm on Friday night. That was a long trip to say the least. All told about 16 hours in the air and 4-5 on the ground.

[Thomas_M]

That´s a great piece of a trip report, Lyle! You are really talented to speak about such a voyage, and the pictures are most interesting. Well, except the one with the feet on your meal...

Thanks for sharing this here! Really enjoyed it!

[BorgR3mc0]

But all we want to know is if you bought any Trumpeter of Hobby Boss kits?


Seriously, nice report with all the pics. And congrats on your newest grandchild.

[Fermis]

Nice!

Congrats on the new addition to the family!

[BlackSheep214]

Congrats on the new grandchild, Lyle!

[Paul]

She is such a beautiful child, Lyle, a real special blessing. I am so glad that you took the chance to go and experience that part of the world and culture. Keep the reports on her coming in, brother.

[Stikpusher]

So that is where you have been for the past few weeks. That is something a cut above most journeys.

[LyleW]

Thank you all! Miss Ella is certainly something special. Borg, I never saw a hobby shop, and truth be told, did not go looking. Our bags were right at the limits and we even got screwed leaving for extra bag charges. What can you do? The Chinese airline, China Southern, had a very modern fleet...A380s, 777s, A320 etc. Good pilots, too. For a brief moment, I considered leaving my luggage behind.....I am so utterly tired of the over-the-top security checks on bags and people that have not left controlled areas of the terminal. That is both in China and the US! For example, we had been through 2-3 screenings in Beijing. Cleared to board the flight to Detroit, went through the boarding door and there were 8 security people with a table, re-checking everyone's carry on bags . Took a half full bottle of water we had for the baby. Go figure.

Anyway, glad to be home, glad to be able to drink water from the faucet and breath sparking air (compared to China..). I'm still sorting out pictures. Most are of Ella as you can imagine. I hope to upload them to Photobucket pretty soon and I'll post a link.

[BorgR3mc0]

Yeah, security checks a be a pain in the neck.
My top three worst security checks:
3: leaving the uk, short haul easyjet flight. Some jars of jam where considered a risk...

2: entering the US, just the whole proces of taking finger prints and eye scans makes you feel like a criminal.

1: entering the Netherlands (my country of origin) from curaçao (part of the Netherlands ...) Due to drug traffic these flights have so called 100% checks. Which means that every pieces of luggage, including my sons buggy, had to go to the scanner on arrival. Ever had to take out a tired toddler after a nine hour flight out of his stroller just to stand in line and walk trough a scanner....that was not a happy experience.

So I feel your pain Lyle !

[BlackSheep214]

Wait.... jars of jam is considered airline risk? How so??? I mean it's food items. Maybe you should have had them shipped to your home.