After Connie and I got engaged, I assumed I'd be visiting China pretty frequently. However, the last time I went was in 2017. Connie has been a few more times. She took Zack a couple times while I was working years back. And, more recently, she took Matt a couple years ago. But this is our first family trip in nine years. So what happened? Well, to start off, the COVID lockdowns. China was the first country to do a full travel ban if I remember right and it was also one of the last to open up. Then Matt was born, and there were a couple of years Connie's parents had things going on and didn't want us to visit so yeah... I assume we'll be coming here more often in the future now that all that's cleared up...but I also thought that nine years ago, so we'll see.

Anyway, this summer Connie was determined to finally do a family China trip. Our initial plan of first spending some time in Korea and Japan with my family did fell apart, but that didn't change things. Unfortunately, it did mean I had to fly back to Virginia at the end of my Japan tour, where I had less than a week to try and recover and prep for this trip. I know I'm pretty good at getting over jet lag, but it was still exhausting, especially since I can't sleep on planes. Would have been a lot nicer if I could have stayed in Japan for few days longer and then met Connie and the kids in China but she really wanted help with the kids. Can't entirely blame her. While he's starting to improve a bit, Matt's at the age where he doesn't like sitting still for long periods of time so lengthy flights are tough. Zack is fine, and can even be helpful, but he also gets curious and distracted at times, which can be a problem. But yeah, the days between my return to the US and the flight to China were hectic and tiring as I scrambled to get things ready. Didn't help that our flight was at around 5 AM (so we had to leave for the airport at 2:30) so I got very little sleep going into it. As for the flight itself, it was long. They don't really have direct flights to China from the DC area anymore (they used to until the Russia - Ukraine war disrupted the routes) so we had to change planes in Texas. That was ok in and of itself, but did significantly up the travel time. Matt did a lot better than on our Hawaii flights last winter but he was still a challenge and, with having to manage an active three year old, I couldn't really lose myself in a video game or movie like I do on my Japan flights. I had to settle for reading a bit here and there and resting when I could. There were also some fairly long bumpy stretches (though not nearly as bad as my return flight from Japan). All in all, while it certainly could have been a lot worse, the flight was pretty miserable for me.

Fortunately, we did make it to Shanghai on schedule and customs and such were fairly smooth. While we actually didn't arrive that late in the day, to keep things simple we had booked a hotel in Shanghai Pudong Airport itself. If you read my old China travelogues, you may remember that I stayed in a hotel there once before. Well, that hotel is still there but this time we stayed in Aerotel, which is newer and nicer. The check-in area just outside the hotel entrance also has a few restaurants and such. Nothing on Haneda, but it's fairly nice. So we checked in, got dinner, and then I had to push Matt around in the stroller for a while since, unlike the rest of us, he wasn't ready to sleep. Eventually though I was able to get some rest.

Random China Comment: Visas
US citizens still require a visa to visit China. And getting one still requires either visiting an embassy in-person or using an intermediary service. On the plus side, the 10 year visas they introduced a while back are now the norm and they finally got around to simplifying the paperwork so you no longer need to submit a complete travel itinerary, letter of invitation, and such. Which makes the whole process a lot quicker and simpler than it used to be.

Anyway, we finally made it to our hotel in Mannshan. Unlike previous China trips, I went for pretty high end hotels due to the kids and everything. We're staying at the Golden Eagle Summit and it's very nice. Not exactly cheap, but quite a lot less than what a similar room would cost me in most parts of the US. And we get a nice view of the city. I also really appriciate that they give us tons of bottled water (an entire case, refilled as needed) since the tap water here still isn't safe to drink.

Connie's parents were there to meet us and we grabbed a quick lunch together at the mall next to the hotel then we took a bit of time to rest before in out room before heading to their condo to catch up and eat dinner. It was nice to see them again (they last visited when Matt was born), though we still have a lot of issues communicating due to the language barrier.

Random China Comment: Booking Hotels
In the past, if you wanted any sort of decent selection, you had to use Chinese sites to book hotels in China such as CTrip and Agoda. I used both and, while they worked, I wasn't entirely happy with either one (see my previous travelogues). It's quite possible that they've improved a lot over the years but, fortunately, I didn't have to find out. Trip.com now features a pretty extensive selection of Chinese hotels, even in places like Maanshan that get hardly any international visitors. It also looks to be your best non-Chinese sources for information about things to do, advance tickets to attractions, and even trains (more on that in a future post). If you're planning a China trip, it really should be your go-to travel site/app.

Random China Comment: The Great Firewall
An important thing to keep in mind when visiting China is that they block a lot of web sites and apps. Pretty much every non-Chinese social media and messaging site and app is blocked, as is absolutely everything Google related. Fortunately, a lot of international data plans circumvent that so I can still access everything on my cell phone, at least so long as I stay off wi-fi. It depends on your provider though (I have Verizon). And that only applies to my phone so I can't access any of the blocked stuff on my latop (well, there are ways around it, but they're not foolproof and, even when working perfectly, often reduce your speed quite a bit). So if you have any critical sites or apps you need to use while traveling in China, it's best to check ahead of time and have a plan for how to access them if they're blocked.