Arrival in Beijing
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2006
1
2
13
Trip End
May 10, 2006
Beijing,
China
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The flight from SFO to PEK was smooth and relatively uneventful. After all the choppy plane rides that I took back in India 6 months ago, the dullness of the flight was a welcomed experience.
The great thing about being a Star Alliance silver member is that you get automatically bumped up to Economy-Plus on UA. Economy Plus is basically economy class but with an added 6-inches of legroom. While 6 inches may not sound like much or all that useful, they are without a doubt much appreciated on a transcontinental flight. It allows you to fully stretch your legs when you lean back on your seat making sleeping easier and blood circulation better. While this may not be a problem at my age, it is definitely an issue for some of the older people with harder veins/arteries and higher cholestrol because of the possibility of blood clots (DVT) forming from sitting stationary on the long flight.
The other nice thing is that it is relatively empty in the economy plus section. There were only 2 people in my row of 3 and the empty seat between the two of us was extra space to put drinks, books, newspapers between the two of us. The lady in my row was a really interesting. She was a Shanghai native who had an antique import/export business and lived in Idaho on a ski-resort with her American husband. Her husband was a mechanical engineer and his firm designed military goggles. In some sense it was ironic because her husband was in essence "arming" the US military in an era of rivalry between Washington and Beijing. I could tell the lady was fiercely loyal to China but I guess since she quickly pointed out that her husband made goggles and nothing more that it wasn't a conflict.
I enjoyed chatting with her about world travels, regional food, and her search for antiques in the smaller provinces of China. In particular she mentioned that experiences as a small business owner compared to her former life as a professional working in Shanghai made it obvious to her that she would not exchange her current profession with anything else. Her descriptions of the people in the Idaho resort town of 5000 people made for good stories. I had not known the abundance of ski/snowboard equipment manufactures were based in the area and I definitely did not know about the lavish parties thrown by them in that small town. The net effect was that it made the flight much quicker.
Beijing
We arrived in the Beijing airport and it was relatively painless going through customs. This was the exact same experience on my previous trip to Beijing. The only difficulty and inefficency experienced on my last trip on the way out of Beijing. I'm wondering if it'll be the same this time as well. I'm supposed to meet up with the Real Estate group in at the Starbucks in the airport. I have no idea what any of them look like nor where we'll be staying but I guess finding out is part of the adventure...
