Oh, you, piker, complaining about traffic??? Have you ever crossed a 4 lane road in Rome? Didn't think so!

BC

Another vote for Boo Boo. Does that make rhkkmk Yogi?

Is that the funny story above, the dessert? I couldn't tell...

Doesn't mattter. Good report anyway, and I love the "Live From..." TRs.

Leave it to the Farang (insert Mandarin equivalent) not to appreciate the famous tea ceremony. Maybe he actually did have the 53 year old tea server and the guy just looked very young? The spilled tea was also probably part of the ceremony.

Now, if Panda's official nickname for this trip is Boo Boo -- someone is going to have to ask, "how about another picnic basket?"

The way this trip seems to be heading, at least on the food front (except for Shanghaineses's good recommendations), we are all soon going to read a "live report" from the closest McDs in about one more day. And, one more hint Boo Boo: people love when, in an effort to get them to understand you notwithstanding they speak not a shred of English, you really raise your voice and shout!

Have a great time. We expect souvenirs upon your return.

Very lovely report! Hilarious comments from your chorus!

Wondering about choice of hotel - whose idea was this? Was it worth it?

Also wondering what happened to your good intentions to eat many dumplings?

the reports are soooooooooooooooo brief and business like, its hard to know what is really happening....
it must be that the pay for internet service is by the second so he has to type fast....notice the lack of typing errors?

Gpanda probably dictated it to the blind Chinese masseuse who are notoriously good typist!

I would rate Shanghai a solid 8 so far on a scale of 1-10. But Beth says we haven't seen enough of it to rate it, so my rating is untrustworthy.

Easytraveler, the hotel choice was Beth's. The need for her input arose out of my screwing up our original reservation at the Meridien. I had us beginning our stay when we were still in the air. Pandas are not detail-oriented creatures. We like to think of ourselves as big picture guys.

Karen-we really liked the Rui Jin. It was a very nice room, breakfast was great and the grounds were peaceful. The room had a lot of space with a couch running parallel to the bed past its foot and a table across from the bed. We did not get a look at the rooms in the old building. The original building is a lovely historical mansion. beth complained that the beds were too firm, but I liked them.

Boo Boo is fine, but I'm not sure the little guy weighed 100 kilograms. If the truth were to be known, the fictional character to whom I aspire is Bertie Wooster. Beth would of course play the role of Jeeves quite nicely. Bob would be one of the old school buffoons from the club. The role of Aunt Agatha is open.

Andy
Good to see you are keeping us up to date with daily details, sounds like you are having a great time. Although i REALLY don't see you as a Bertie Wooster type AT ALL......

i like that word buffoon....

and Beth definitely isn't Jeeves!

(Does she ever read your postings on Fodors? :) )

Uh oh.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32974370...ent/?GT1=43001

Poor BooBoo.....Can' find dinner in a city of millions of restaurants...no wounder they are a dieing breed.

OK, here's the slightly humorous part in all it's unadorned glory.

Up early the next morning for our flight to Beijing. Packed the night before. Ate breakfast as it opened at 7:00 a.m Once again, I ordered the soft boiled eggs, three minutes. They were nearly hard-boiled and I sent them back. Bad karma.

Easy check out and the cab they had called for us the night before was waiting at 7:45 for a rush hour ride to the airport for an 11:15 flight. The cab driver drove as if he were a Formula 1 driver. Switching lanes and accelerating quickly. The road to the airport was pot-holed and covered with water from the hard rain that continued.

We were dropped at the near end of the airport and we walked the length. As we were walking I noted that there was no 11:15 departure listed. Foreshadowing of the worst order. We found the Shanghai Airlines ticket counter free and walked right up and presented our E-mail confirmation. The agent glanced at our tickets and immediately got on the phone. As an aside, this is never a good sign. If things are proceeding normally, the agent needs no other information and can process one with the mere 200 keystrokes that always transpire. Here, no keystrokes, just a phone call. He was off the phone in thirty seconds, looked up at us and said:

“You’re at the wrong airport.”

Apparently, the Shanghai Airlines—Shanghai to Beijing flight did not leave from the Shanghai airport. Actually, there are two airports, Pudong and Hongqiao . Who could have known? From the US we had flown into Pudong and mistakenly assumed that our Beijing flight flew out of the same airport. Now, in our defense, the CTRIP tickets we booked had a confirmation that read:

Shanghai-Beijing

No three letter airport codes were listed. The only notation of our departure was Shanghai. Also, when we booked a cab through our hotel to the airport, no one said “Which airport?” They told the driver Pudong and that’s where he took us. So the long and short of it was that we were at the wrong airport.

Cleverly, I went to the Shanghai Airlines counter and quickly inquired whether we could pay to switch flights to one that went from Pudong to Beijing. I was informed that Shanghai Airlines did not fly from Pudong to Beijing and I was at the wrong airport. Mistake confirmed.

Rushed down to the taxi line and told the driver we wanted to go to Hongqiao. He started laughing and told the dispatcher. He also thought this was funny. Off we went. Unlike the first cab driver of the day, this one drove like Morgan Freeman in “Driving Miss Daisy”, i.e., nice and slow. The good news was that there was no traffic and almost the entire trip was on freeway. There were symbol signs for airport and kilometer demarcations. I continually multiplied by 5/8, looked at my watch (we began this move from Pudong at 9:15), looked at the speedometer, multiplied by 5/8 ( I know I did not have to convert to miles to deduce the anticipated time of the trip, but it made me feel useful) and told Beth “We can still make it.”

We arrived at Hongqiao at 10:10 and went to the Shanghai Airlines counter. Naturally, there was a nice long line. It moved and we got our boarding passes with time to spare. Out to Gate A6 and thankfully collapsed. However, the malevolent travel gods were not done with us. At about 10:45 an agent inquired whether we were going to Beijing. This is not normal. The gate agents never voluntarily speak to anyone. When we answered in the affirmative, we were informed that the flight was now leaving from Gate B2. A very brisk walk to the new and improved gate and we got in the boarding line. Finally, we were seated in our actual seats to Beijing and ready to go.

Unfortunately, the pilot was not ready to depart. One last guffaw from the MTG and we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. In other words, it was being pointed out to us that our reward for going to both Shanghai airports and still making our flight on time was a delay.

Upon reflection, I note that both airports were very busy, but well run. There were lots of flights from both. I can vouch for the taxi service, personally. Even more importantly, my predilection for getting to airports very early was sufficient to overcome the slight mishap. One major character asset triumphs over a minor flaw in planning ( Again, I note that CTRIP or the hotel could have saved me the double cab fare, but they elected to decline).

The flight was easy and baggage retrieval was simple. A cab into the Beijing traffic was smooth. I’m thankful that the horrendous traffic was on this end of the journey and not the other. If either of our cabs had encountered traffic in Shanghai, we would have been sunk.

Check in to the Westin on Financial Street. The room is very nicely appointed with softer beds than the Rui Jin. We made it, somehow.

why does this not surprise me....and its the airline's fault...

there will be no problems like this in november, and we will have enough time for an afternoon dinner at SRI....

'alls well that ends well'....

tell me that you are not having pub grub for dinner at an irish pub...

Am so glad, what a horrendous discovery. Enjoy Beijing and all it has to offer.

I forgot to mention that the TV screens on the plane from Shanghai had a pictures of a male and female cartoon pig with the caption "Swine influenza comes from America". After seeing this Beth and I attempted to look Canadian. It was on the screen for most of the flight. We did not take it personally.

Yikes. China is a tough place to travel.

My guess -- completely uninformed -- is that a relatively high percentage of visitors to China elect not to return (compared to other Asian countries known for tourism -- Thailand, Indonesia, Japan).

Not that there's nothing interesting in the place -- there's heaps and heaps of amazing things to see and do. But the country doesn't seem to have mastered the trick of making it relatively appealing and untroubling for the tourist. The Panda got taken to PVG instead of the right airport because none of the people who could have prevented the problem thought to do so. That almost certainly wouldn't have happened in Japan, or Thailand. And I find the food in China to be problematic, as well: a higher-than-acceptable chance of getting a meal that's disappointing.

SAVE BOO BOO, SAVE BOO BOO!!

As so often happens with focusing on the "big picture", the details just go by the wayside. Blaming the locals on your lack of research is not a legitimate excuse. Just have Bob arrange your next trip.

This all being said, I am glad you made your flight and that you are enjoying your time lost in China, for the most part.

Yanks picked up a game on Boston last night while clinching a playoff berth. Magic number is 6.

What an ordeal. I can't believe you didn't have traffic in Shanghai. It was a mess the days we were there. And, Beijing had no traffic upon arrival. Go figure!

Go to "Made in China" at Grand Hyatt and have the Peking Duck. Maybe you'll feel a lot better after this. ;)