Headed to Shanghai

Day 3 in Beijing was rainy and we tried to sleep in to no avail. We really lucked out the past two days on the weather as it was mostly clear and not too hot. We could not have toured the Forbidden City or the Great Wall in the bad weather. Save TJ falling a bit ill last night right before our Peking Duck dinner banquet things have gone very well.

When we planned this trip we had 3 days in Beijing and then were going to take and overnight sleeper train to Shanghai Saturday night arriving in Shanghai Sunday morning. Anyway, I couldn't figure out how to book a Chinese train from the US - it is not that straightforward - and I forgot/procrastinated asking for help from the concierge at our hotel in Beijing.

This morning just before breakfast, TJ and I stopped at the concierge desk and asked them to book us train tickets to Shanghai. The woman behind the counter was surprised (i.e., she thought I was crazy) when I told her that I wanted tickets for tonight. She said all of the trains sell out at least 10 days before the departure date. She made a cursory call, only to confirm that there were no trains

Then we tried to book a flight to Shanghai, but that is easier said than done in China. I made several attempts online, but without a Chinese bank account, the system would not let me complete the transaction. Eventually, I went back to the concierge desk and asked them to book a flight for me. It took 5 minutes and to my surprise, they said that the tickets would be delivered in about 2 hours which would give us 3 hours to get to airport and check-in. It surprised me that the tickets were paper based.

Anyway, we got to the airport 2 hours before flight time and the Beijing airport terminal is probably the biggest most expansive indoor room that I have ever seen. No problems getting through and we cleared security with our shoes on in about 30 minutes.

Everyone has told us that the EXPO (World's Fair) is very very crowded. If it is too much, we may modify the itinerary and head to Hong Kong.