That wasn't so bad....

I am now in Shanghai, one short 15 hour flight later.

I am not going to write much....have a little jet lag!  But, let me share some of my random observations from the trip to China:

1.  Always fly business class (as long as you are not paying for it)!

There were at least 100 people waiting to check in for the same flight as me.  There was no wait for business class.  There were another 50 people waiting to drop their baggage to be scanned; the airline took mine for me.  I was ticketed and done in five minutes max.  Then they sent me to the Air France club....though it was funny, it was excellent!  They came and told me my flight was boarding....I proceded to the gate and walked through 300 Chinese people and got right on the plane.  Not to mention the seats that extend to nearly flat to sleep on, the full a/v system with a complete catalogue of movies and music, the free slippers earplugs and eye cover, the excessive food and beverage services, etc.  The cherry on top was waiting at the baggage claim in Shanghai.....the first bags that came out had a sign for first class and business class.  Bags in two minutes.  I give China Eastern Airlines an A.  The 15 hour flight felt like a trip to California from New York....amazing!

2.  Chinese love their anime.

Even the safety video they show on the plane has world class anime action!

3.  Real Chinese food is tasty....just be ready to be baptized by fire!

They served us a meal at 3:00 AM NY time.  They called it dinner.  You could choose pork or seafood.  It was serious Chinese food!

4.  Tetris rules.

I probably spent three hours playing tetris on the airline video system.  It never gets old!

5.  I don't know Chinese.

As soon as I got to the gate at the airport, I was reminded that I was flying a Chinese airline to China.  I have heard more Chinese in a day than I ever have, and I have only actually been in China for four hours.

6.  China's stop lights are neat.

The green light flashes before it turns yellow.  When a light is red and about to turn green, the yellow light comes on.  It was cool....though most drivers didn't seem to care what color the lights were.

7.  Is smog really that big of an issue in China??

Yes.

8.  Chinese music is awful.

All I can say is the first song I heard was Ace of Base...I saw the sign.  That song was bad enough, imagine the same song with Chinese lyrics!

Those are some of my random thoughts thus far.....

PS....if you are calling my international cell phone, don't expect to get connected to voicemail.  I forgot to set it up before I left.  I talked to AT&T today, apparently it is impossible to set it up outside the US......LOL!