We'll Both in Shanghai, China now.

  Shanghai, China
Friday, May 4, 2007

Mimi picked me up at the airport. No problems with the flights. This was the first time I flew a 747-400 in about 10 years. It took a total of about 21 hours with the longest leg being 12 hours between Detroit and Tokyo. The last few years long flights have been with Boeing 777s or Airbus 330s and 340s.

I arrived around 9:00 pm and it only took about 10 minutes to get through immigration, a lot faster then last year. I did have to wait for my bag but customs is just handing in the form and walking out.

The university's guesthouse near Mimi's apartment has free wireless internet in the lobby so I went there this morning. I was able to call mom using voipdiscount.com for free. The connection was slow so the call quality was not the best. It should be better when we travel and have internet in the room.

As we drove up to the apartment I could see bright lights thought the trees. The apartment is near the edge of the complex. They build a tall office building just outside of the complex. This morning I was a new Day's Inn about a block away. Neither of these buildings were there last year. Shows you how fast Shanghai is growing. I don't know what was there last year but they are gone now. Mimi was worried about the apartment being taken for the new subway they are building. The new subway will not take the apartment but she is worried about other projects taking the building sometime in the future.

We plan to leave for Hongzhou in a few days, then to Yellow Mountain. Then back to Shanghai before we take a longer trip.