{"id":165,"date":"2013-07-26T07:51:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T00:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=165"},"modified":"2013-08-11T13:30:59","modified_gmt":"2013-08-11T06:30:59","slug":"beijing-travel-days-72813","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=165","title":{"rendered":"Beijing Travel Days (Gordon) 7\/25-26\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

THURSDAY, JULY 25 \u2013 FRIDAY, JULY 26
\n2:30 am \u2013 up and at \u2018em
\n4:00 am \u2013 catch airport from hotel to airport
\n4:30 am \u2013 load up two luggage carts at airport with our 10 bags + backpacks
\n5:00 am \u2013 Check-in at Alaska Airlines
\n5:20 am \u2013 Security check (I dropped my passport, but a TSA agent got it back to me before I left the area. (almost a disaster)
\n5:40 am \u2013 get to the gate and find a place to settle. Grab breakfast
\n7:45 am \u2013 begin loading the plane (late due to some maintenance issue)
\n8:30 am \u2013 Flight departs DFW
\nPACIFIC TIME (2 hours behind central)
\n10:20 am \u2013 Arrive Seattle, flew in over Mt. Rainier.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 Move to our new departure gate (3 different trains to move us to the correct terminal.)\u00a0 Find a place to eat lunch and wait for departure.
\n1:20 pm \u2013 Begin boarding procedures for Beijing Flight on Hainan Airlines
\n2:10 pm \u2013 Flight departs Seattle.\u00a0 Flight is full.\u00a0 Mostly Chinese on board. Flight attendants speak some English and are very efficient. Meal is served 2 hours into the flight, beginning with warm towels.\u00a0 Food is decent.\u00a0 Choice is beef\/chicken\/fish, with rice and steamed vegetables.\u00a0 Dessert also.\u00a0 Very filling.\u00a0 Another meal was served about 3 hours out from Beijing.\u00a0 Similar options.
\nFRIDAY, JULY 26
\n4:45 pm \u2013 Arrive Beijing.\u00a0 (3:45 am CST, almost 12 hours).\u00a0 Flew over the \u201ctimeline\u201d somewhere between Alaska and Asia.\u00a0 Sleep was intermittent, very cramped seating.\u00a0 Plane unloaded down stairs to tarmac.\u00a0 Pretty interesting after sitting for 12+ hours.\u00a0 Not as spry as I used to be.\u00a0 Boarded tram for a very long trip to the terminal.\u00a0 More walking at the terminal to big room where passports and visa were checked.\u00a0 More walking to baggage claim and started wrestling all our bags again.\u00a0 Push luggage to customs area, nothing to claim, but self-serve unloading to exit scanner, and loading back up on the other end.\u00a0 Beginning to dislike luggage!\u00a0 We\u2019re both pretty sweated up by now.\u00a0 Move out into a large waiting area and wait for BISS to arrive.
\n5:45 pm \u2013 BISS contact arrives (traffic issues).\u00a0 We begin the trek pushing our luggage out to parking garage.\u00a0 Lots of hustle and bustle. Luggage fell off one of the carts, and almost collided with a taxi.\u00a0 Finally arrive at a van and loaded up.\u00a0 Van was for people, not luggage, so no luggage area in the rear.\u00a0 All bags had to be handed in the side of the van and lifted over seats to get to the back.\u00a0 Tight fit!
\n6:30 pm \u2013 Drove out of the airport.\u00a0 Traffic ok, about like DFW area.
\n7:45 pm \u2013 Arrive at the apartment.\u00a0 It\u2019s a large complex with 10 buildings.\u00a0 Call housing agent for a keys.\u00a0 She arrives (Lisa), and we begin ferrying luggage to the elevators and moving it to the 25th <\/sup>floor.\u00a0\u00a0 Lisa gives us a quick tour, some instructions, and departs.
\n8:30 pm \u2013 (7:30 am CST, 29 hours since alarm in Irving hotel) Home sweet home!\u00a0 Finally!\u00a0 Very glad Judy had packed sheets for the king bed.\u00a0 Especially glad she packed toilet paper.\u00a0 Could have been interesting.\u00a0 Ate some snack bars and water we bought at the airport.\u00a0 Defined a plan of attack for the next day.\u00a0 Unpacked a few necessities, made the bed, and finished off the day.
\n9:45 pm \u2013 Heads hit pillows and \u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THURSDAY, JULY 25 \u2013 FRIDAY, JULY 26 2:30 am \u2013 up and at \u2018em 4:00 am \u2013 catch airport from hotel to airport 4:30 am \u2013 load up two luggage carts at airport with our 10 bags + backpacks 5:00 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}