In China now on an ABD and ...

Such awesome pictures. I just love, love your trip report. Excited every day to see if there is a new entry. Can't wait to read about Shanghai.
 
Beautiful! What an amazing sight those Gumdrop mountains are!

That boat deck you're posing on looks MIGHTY slick! :eek:

What did you end up with for the White Elephant exchange?

Sayhello

The deck was ok..the steps were slippery though. Our guides were always watching and reminding us to be careful. They really our our moms. On our way exiting the bus at the hotel, I think somebody slipped on the steps of the bus. I was still on the bus when I heard ... plunk, plunk, plop and everybody outside going, 'Ohhhhhhhhh'. When I got out, though, it was as nothing happened.

In the White Elephant, I got a wall scroll for "winter". Coincidentally, my mom go the wall scroll for "fall". Obviously somebody got a deal on scrolls. LOL One of the funniest gifts was the rubber chicken. I almost peed in my pants when everybody was waving their gifts around to be stolen and there was a lull in the yelling and all you heard was, "waaaaaongggg" as the rubber chicken was squeezed. It's funny ... all the sights, the amazing wonders and the white elephant is a highlight in this trip. Just goes to show how human friendship trumps all.

I'm now home so will be able to type a report faster and upload photos easier. But it's time to recover from the trip home. My next trip back to the area won't happen until at least 2014 or 2015 when Shanghai Disneyland opens. :rotfl:
 
Day 8 of the Adventure

Forgive me but since I'm not doing this the day after anymore, I can't remember a lot of the times for the morning meetup. :) Anyway, as we met in the morning to board the bus to the hotel, Jennae was sorting out our boxed lunches. Yes, again, we were getting boxed lunches from the Shangri La Guilam because ABD didn't want us to rely on the airline supplied lunch... just in case it was ... squid paste (hey, the guides said this, not me.) So off we trudged onto the bus with our tuna sandwiches. (Ugh...I do not want to see another tuna sandwich in a very long time). As I mentioned earlier, we were given orange juice in the boxes and some people abandoned them at the hotel. We were told just to make sure we had drank them before heading to security.

Our guide Joyce (i have a hard time remembering some of the guides because at one point, it seemed they all started with the letter "J" :lmao:) spoke a bit more about Guilam and then sang us a song.

Arriving at the airport, we met Daisy, Steven and Joe who had checked all of our luggage and gotten our boarding passes. Daisy handed back our passports and we went to security. My family gave our orange juices and some sealed bottles of water to a lady whose job, I think, was cleaning up the area where people left their liquids. We told her the bottles were still sealed, in case she didn't notice, and she smiled and took off with her free drinks. We all said good-bye to Joyce and went through security. Its interesting to note that our flight from Beijing to Chengdu was mostly filled with Chinese as was our flight to Xian. Our flight from Xian to Guilam however filled up with tourists from Germany (I think). The number of tourists flourished in Guilam and the flight to Shanghai was loaded with tourists ... some who probably came with us from Xian! By the way, it wasn't squid paste but chicken and rice on the plane. It's always chicken and rice. :lmao: Even if you don't want the chicken and rice or hot meal, take the little box it comes with ... it has a bottle of water in it along with some other stuff you may be interested in (wetnap, salad, cookies).

When we got to Shanghai, Daisy and the shadows again raced to baggage claim while we assembled in the area outside the jetway. Jennae announced that we had reached Shanghai and all the toilets were very happy and western. Us women practically ran to the toilet. :rotfl: Shanghai signified the end of the Toilet Adventures.... thank goodness. When we arrived in baggage claim, Daisy, the shadows (Steven and Joe) and the porters were still grabbing our bags. We waited in an area out of the way with Jennae and our Shanghai guide who I can't believe I can't remember her name, until 5 porters pushing carts of our luggage passed us and we followed them out. (We only had 26 people --guests and guides -- on our tour. It will be interesting to see how many porters will be needed for the 40 plus tours in June.) The luggage got loaded into a big white van while we loaded onto a bus.

On the bus we were told that when we arrived at the Peninsula Shanghai, we would be taken to the boardroom where we we would be given a presentation on how our room works. :lmao: They weren't kidding!!! We sat down in this board room, then hotel staff members came to each family with the room keys and then started the Powerpoint presentation on how to operate the curtains, the lights, the nail dryer, the bathtub, the free coffee maker (Nexpresso!!!!!), the VOIP free international calling, etc. etc. etc. And then ... we went to our room. Holy crap. The BEST hotel I've ever stayed in. My brother and I had adjoining rooms with my parents so we had a community foyer and then our separate rooms ... it was like one huge suite. I love expresso and the coffeemaker in the room was to die for. I mean, if I could have that instead of the Keurig, I would but these machines cost a small fortune. There was a dressing room ... a DRESSING ROOM!! The shower had a rainforest shower head. It was a beautiful room. Our luggage soon arrived and then we received a small fruit platter.

We met in the lobby at 6:00 for dinner. The bus took us to M on the Bund. We had been told earlier that if we wanted to dress up, this was the night to do it. Some people dressed up and others didn't. It was no biggie. Dinner was French.

Ok, so here is one of my complaints about this ABD tour. At the beginning of the tour, they provided Chinese cuisine almost ad nausem but once we left Beijing, we had only one Chinese meal (our arrival dinner in Chengdu) and this would persist until our last night in Shanghai.

So dinner tonight was French ... a choice of Lamb or smoked salmon. Well, beware ... when most of us read smoked salmon, we thought smoked salmon like lox. My parents do not eat lamb or smoked salmon so they were in a quandry. They thought of ordering the kids steak and fries. We told Jennae and the restaurant manager came and suggested that they could make them a chicken dish because the kids steak wasn't big enough for an adult. (My mom would argue that but my dad probably wouldn't.) So my parents got a chicken dish. Well, the smoked salmon came an was a salmon that wasn't lox but a salmon prepared in a way my parents would have eaten it. It was, in essence, a salmon steak. My parents' chicken dish turned out to be something like Chicken Marakesh (according to one of our fellow ABDers who loves Morrocco in Epcot... :rotfl2:). My mom liked it but my dad wasn't impressed.

We went out onto the terrace of the restaurant that looked onto the amazing skyline of new Shanghai. We took many photos, probably annoying all the diners on the terrace but we have the power of the Mouse behind us so we didn't care. :lmao: After dinner, we were given a choice of walking back to the hotel or going back on the coach. Most of us decided to walk back. Some of the older ABDers, including my parents, decided to take the coach. It wasn't a long walk back so I think my parents could have made the walk back.

My brother and I walked along the Bund back to the hotel taking a lot of night photos. One thing that has struck me about China is the large number of people smoking. I thought Europe was bad but China (and Hong Kong) were worse. Practically everybody smokes. As a non-smoker, I was glad to see that nobody on our tour smoked but the populace smokes so you can't get away from it. Even as we walked along the river, it's not fresh air you smell but cigarette smoke. Oh well...

There's a clock tower in that area ... listen to it chime. Every 15 minutes it'll chime but on the hour, it'll do the extensive chime song. Those going in May and June ... lets see if you recognize the tune. :teacher:

We got back to our room and I made myself a decaf coffee :thumbsup2 and that was the end of Day 8.
 
The boxed lunch. <shudder>
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Jennae and Daisy stamping the Junior Adventurers' passports at the airport
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Our fruit platter courtesy of the Peninsula
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Smoked salmon (really...)
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Shanghai at night
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Day 9 of the Adventure

We started our day after breakfast with a bus ride to Fu Xing Park for our sword dancing and fan dancing lesson. The park is full of people dancing in all kinds of manners. We drew a crowd of people who wanted to watch us fumble our way through our dance lesson. This one guy either liked us very much or was a government agent. He kept taking photos of the group. At one point his lens was on top of my mom's head and it bopped her once. My mom was kind of annoyed at him. Despite the gawkers, we had a lot of fun. The kids had lots of fun with the swords and fans. Our teachers were wonderful and patient. They had to be! :rotfl: We had our photos taken with them afterwards. One of our group jumped in with a group of ladies and danced with them ... a little more loose and sexier than them. The ladies loved her and laughed with her as she did her moves.

We then loaded onto a bus and headed to Yu Gardens. There was a huge marketplace ... kind of a huge tourist trap if you ask me but lots of locals seem to be there too so who knows. We walked through the area to Yu Gardens where we saw some pretty awesome landscaping and architecture. After the gardens, we were allowed some free time. We were told to meet back at a certain time but we should get lunch. I think most of us ended up eating at the McDonalds. We had an early dinner that night so I think McDonalds was just easy to get stuff and not overeat. My brother and I did some shopping. We found a post office so my brother was able to buy some collectors stamps. I bought some tea. Our guide took those who were interested in silk to a silk store and this silk was good stuff. There was quality in the silk and in the stitching of the clothes. You didn't bargain (much) here. There was a beautiful silk robe here but I think it was meant for the emperor. It was not Chinese priced. :rotfl:

It was a drizzly, rainy day. When we got back on the bus, they said they could drop some of us off at the Financial Building (the tallest building in Shanghai) where we could look out the observation deck or drop us back at the hotel. (Free time). My dad, mom and I along with 2 other families decided to try our luck on the observation deck. So, they dropped us off there and reminded us to be in the lobby at 5:00 for our dumpling dinner. Well, our view on the observation deck, was of clouds. We were in a heavy cloud layer. Every once in a while, a hole would form in the clouds and you could see down. It's a shame. The day before or the morning after, the weather was absolutely perfect. Oh well.

We took a taxi back to the hotel and it was really painless. I spent the rest of the afternoon packing for the next day's flight to Hong Kong.

Now a story about my brother and how great the guides are. :lmao: My brother let the guides know back in Beijing that he wanted to go to the Hooters of Beijing (also known as the American Owl Restaurant). Daisy and Jennae actually looked it up and they wrote it on a card for my brother to give the taxi driver in Beijing. Shadow guides Steven and Joe knew where it was too and were interested in my brother's photos. :rotfl: Well, there was no time to go to the Hooters in Chengdu. BUT lo and behold, there's a Hooters in Shanghai. My brother wanted to go to it on his free time so he got directions from the guides on how to get there from the hotel. ha! He didn't need them. After the bus dropped us off at the Financial Tower, they dropped my brother off at the Hooters. :rotfl: Now THAT'S taking care of your guests!! :thumbsup2

Dinner that night was at Ting Tai Fung, the famous dumpling place. This was the BEST meal of the entire trip. Dumplings are simple but tasty. The hot and sour soup was one of the best I've ever had and I've had a lot. You do not want to miss this meal. And if you have room for dessert, there's a Coldstone Creamery across from the restaurant.

That evening's entertainment was Era, acrobats in the style of Cirque du Soleil. We had prime seats. We were also warned not to take photographs or video during the show but at the end of the show we could take photos. I left mine behind on the bus. It was becoming a burden carrying it. :rotfl2: Ok...I won't say why but... take your camera. ;) Anyway, the show was fun. I mean, I've seen Chinese acrobats before but these guys had their own charm. The last act with a gazillion motorcycles buzzing around in a giant hamster ball was quite spectactular. I think I heard somebody mention that some of the acrobats that work at Epcot have come from here.

Then it was back to the hotel and that's the end of Day 9.

By the way, as the tour has gone on, the weather has gotten progressively hotter. And at the end of the report, I'll list all the airlines we took so you can check them out.
 
Our sword dancing master and fan dancing master in Fu Xing park.
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Jennae and Daisy show us how it's done (at least in a still photo)
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There's dancing in the park.
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Yu Gardens
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A partial view from the observation deck of the Financial building
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Shanghai Disneyland blurb!!
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McDonalds! They didn't have the fried chicken they had up on the board so I settled for this.
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Ok, this sign amused me. It had a Canadian maple leaf on it but then said their beef came from Australia. Uh... what's the point of the maple leaf then? :rotfl:
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The best hot and sour soup.
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Dumplings.... Xiao Long Bao dumplings to be specific (soup dumplings)
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ERA
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This is an amazing trip report thank you so much for sharing your adventure with us!! :flower3:

The Forbidden City is actually the reason I've wanted to visit China along with the Great Wall. You have gotten to do that and so much more!

The pictures are wonderful too! :)
 
Glad to see more of your report! The "dancing" in the park sounds wonderful!

A partial view from the observation deck of the Financial building
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Wow! Even *with* the fog, it's amazing! I can't imagine the view on a nice day!
Ok, this sign amused me. It had a Canadian maple leaf on it but then said their beef came from Australia. Uh... what's the point of the maple leaf then? :rotfl:
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I'd assume Julie's Bistro is a Canadian Company. :confused3 But that's just a guess. :)

Sayhello
 
Pxlbarrel, please finish the story! I can't remember how it ends? (Sure, I was on the trip with you, but I am *loving* reliving it through your report.) Great photos too!

To answer one of your mysteries: my husband was the one who slipped off the bus in Shanghai. He has an *impressive* bruise to show for it.

Oh, and while you were lost on the Great Wall, my son entertained the group flying the kite my mother made at the evening activities the night before.
 
Pxlbarrel, please finish the story! I can't remember how it ends? (Sure, I was on the trip with you, but I am *loving* reliving it through your report.) Great photos too!

To answer one of your mysteries: my husband was the one who slipped off the bus in Shanghai. He has an *impressive* bruise to show for it.

Oh, and while you were lost on the Great Wall, my son entertained the group flying the kite my mother made at the evening activities the night before.

:rotfl2: Ahhh, the mystery is solved. I know there was a very impressive sound of exclamation when he slipped.

I couldn't get my kite to fly very much on the wall ... ironically, there didn't seem to be much wind when I was trying it....could explain how I was so distracted I missed the exit from the Wall. :lmao:

Thankfully, my report has gotten us to Shanghai...land of Happy Houses. <sigh> I will finish the report soon. I'm working on photos right now. Your parents show up in an awful lot of my photos. LOL
 
I apologize if this has already been said (I haven't read the entire thread yet). When we were in China adopting our Dd in 2010 we bought a month of a VPN virtual private network. We used Freedur. It allowed us to update our blog for our friends and family to follow along and also allowed me to check my gmail and facebook, both of which were blocked at that time in China. Just a tip for any of you going to China anytime soon.
Karla
 
I apologize if this has already been said (I haven't read the entire thread yet). When we were in China adopting our Dd in 2010 we bought a month of a VPN virtual private network. We used Freedur. It allowed us to update our blog for our friends and family to follow along and also allowed me to check my gmail and facebook, both of which were blocked at that time in China. Just a tip for any of you going to China anytime soon.
Karla

I wish I had known before I went. ;) But still, it's not a bad thing to be off Facebook for 2 weeks. :lmao:
 
Day 10 of the Adventure

It was another flight day but first, anybody who wanted to go see the Shanghai museum, even for only 1 hour, met in the lobby at 8:30 am. Bags had to be outside our room at that same time. Those who didn't want to go to the museum were to meet in the lobby at 10:30 (or 10:15... or around then. :rotfl:)My brother went to the museum but my dad and I walked out onto the waterfront instead. My mom stayed in the hotel to rest up some more. It was a very hot day already at 8:30. The sun was shining and the haze over the buildings almost obscured them across the water.

When everybody was back, we boarded the bus that would take us to the maglev train. This train would travel 301 km/h to the airport. This journey would take 8 minutes. The bus ride to the train station was definitely longer than the train ride. :rotfl2:

When we arrived at the airport there was time for people to grab a bite in the food court on the second floor/mezzanine level. There's a Burger King, an Italian fast food place and other assorted restaurants. It was about this time the gate kept changing. First here, then there, then all the way to the other end of the terminal. :lmao: Thankfully, we didn't lose anybody. Now, on our last flight, we ended up being the last to board because we didnt line up soon enough or we were too polite to butt in ... although we did eventually line up the Chinese way -- entering the line from the side. But being last to board meant that overhead storage was almost non-existent when we got to our seats. THIS time, we were all lined up about 20 minutes before the scheduled boarding time ... probably because of our last experience but also because they had moved the flight to a gate with practically no chairs. If we can't sit, we might as well line up ... much to the annoyance of the gate agents. :rotfl2:

The flight was about 2 hours long and included lunch. The best part of lunch was Haagen Daz ice cream - strawberry or vanilla. It was frozen solid but after a bit of a thaw, it was a very nice treat.

We arrived in Hong Kong as the sun was setting and met our local guide Bruce. My dad is from Hong Kong and we, as a family, understand Cantonese which is spoken here. (I can understand it but can only really say food things in Cantonese ... the important stuff!) It was, kind of a relief, to be able to understand when people rattled off stuff. For the past week and a half, people would go in length in Mandarin to us because they expected us to understand, only to have us go, "Huh? what?" :rotfl: Anyway, our bus left the airport as the sun was setting behind the many hills in Lantau Island. When we arrived at our hotel, the Shangrila Kowloon, it was already around 7 pm. We got our keys and went up to our rooms waiting for our luggage to be delivered. The view from our room was of Victoria Harbour. It was a beautiful sight. In our room, we found Mickey Mouse cookies and a teapot of hot tea stored in a little wicker basket. My dad said that's how he remembered tea back when he was a kid.

The harbour light and laser show occurs every night at 8 pm. From our vantage at the Shangrila, you can see some of the light show from your room but you are really too east to see it best. If you want to see the show, go out onto the Avenue of the Stars (the waterfront walkway) and head towards the Space Museum or Kowloon Railrood Clock tower area. You have to really get past the Intercontinental Hotel which blocks a fair portion of the view if you watch it from our hotel. There's a bridge from the hotel to the other side of the street (Avenue of the Stars). You can access it on the same level where you'll eat breakfast in the morning. Just be aware that they do close this access at some point in the evening. It'll take about 10 minutes to walk to an area where you can view the show relatively unobstructed. If you walk out onto the waterfront, you get to listen to the music that goes along with the show. We watched it from our room ... because were tired and we've seen it before.

We headed out afterwards to find something to eat. Bruce had recommended a place called Ho Choi so we found it and had a really good dinner there. It's a seafood restaurant so be aware it's not a place to get the really simple meal of noodles or fried rice. The price was reasonable though and it was about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. There's another restaurant in the same mall that has more simpler fare that you might want to try. It looked ok. There is also a Starbucks nearby. :thumbsup2 (Honestly, we were never far from a Starbucks throughout the trip.)

This was also our free night in Hong Kong... so despite being exhausted, my dad, brother and I headed out after dinner to Temple Street for the night market. Oddly, it seemed smaller than I remember it from past trips. We took a taxi from the hotel and it cost about 28 HKD. Not bad at all. Temple Street market and the Ladies Market are places where you can practice your bartering skills. You can get amazing deals on lots of crap here. My brother and I got a 2 for $80 HKD shirts. If you like Angry Birds, this is the place for you... it's everywhere. I got a t-shirt with Angry Birds on it ... not sure how long it'll survive but it was only a few bucks. They have an entire area of fortune tellers and another area for open air karaoke. Really kind of bizarre. We got a taxi back to the hotel (this time only the minimum 20 HKD!)

Bus rolls in the morning at 8:00 am!

End of Day 10
 
Jennae taking care of our luggage
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Hazy morning in Shanghai
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Shanghai waterfront
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Maglev train station in Shanghai
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View of Victoria Harbour from our room
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Cookies!
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Temple Street Market
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Karaoke at Temple Street Market
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Forgot to add ... there was a bit of a thing at Shanghai airport. It took forever to get us checked in which is why the guides get us there so early. At one point, it looked like they wanted to weigh everybody's carry on. Now, before I left on this trip, I found out from ABD that carry on for the domestic flights was limited to 5 kgs...and I paniced. My carry on, even when lightened up to only essentials, was 6.5 kgs. It was the reason I left my wireless keyboard at home. Up until Shanghai, there was never even a hint that anybody wanted to weigh our carry on. In Shanghai, the Dragonair agents were giving Daisy a hard time. They apparently pointed to all the carry on we had (a lot of the group had rolling 20 inchers) and said they were too big. The guides argued that they were regulation size. Around that time, they started talking about weighing the luggage. We already had our boarding passes and were just waiting for the guides ... but when they started talking about weighing luggage, we all disappeared into the bowels of the airport. With nobody left to weigh, they insisted on weighing Daisy's carry on which was full of pins and assorted ABD stuff. Of course it was overweight. They tried dispersing it amongst the 4 guides (Daisy, Jennae and the shadows) but it still didn't work. I'm not sure what eventually happened but Daisy may have been forced to check that. She sacrificed her carry on for us!

Another thing, I think by this time in the trip, most of our checked luggage was overweight or getting there. I know that all four of our checked bags were overweight (stuff that was on our carry on for the overseas portion of the trip and our winter jackets were now in checked!). The Mouse covered this for us ... Dragonair never said anything to us when they weighed and tagged them. This is not to say that they do this every trip and remember that on the way home, as Jennae reminded us, the Mouse can't help us. :rotfl:
 

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