The Flight

We took Air Canada from SFO to Vancouver. Then transferred from Vancouver to a 767 for the leg to Shanghai. I chose this route because what we learned from our last trip. Transferring flight at the end of a 15-hour flight is not fun at all. So transferring at the end of a short 2-hour flight is a much better option.

There were 2 lessons learned during this flight. First, Air Canada is not part of the international terminal at SFO. We learned the hard way by walking over to Terminal 1 from International terminal after our ride has left us at the curb.

Second, $100 US currency is deemed worthless on the flight. We couldn't even buy a breakfast with that money until we found a $20 bill in Andy's camel pack.

The 15-hour flight from Vancouver to Shanghai was fairly uneventful in contrast. It turned out to be a good thing to order vegetarian meal and kids meal along with our tickets when we booked the trip through Expedia. Alex and I always gotten our meals first before they started serving the rest of the economy passengers. And the 3 laptop batteries all got used up entertaining Alex for almost 6 hours plus portion of the flight with video games we brought along.

Pudong airport is the newer one of the two international airports servicing flights into Shanghai. Yet, there are already signs of aging and deteriation from how I remembered it the last time I visited in 2001. Almost as soon as we entered the terminals, the familiar sense of hostility hit me. I felt this way whenever I'm back in China. The feeling of insecurity. My inner voice nags at me to stay alert and be prepared to fight. Not literally go punch someone in the face, but the anxiety of it is true enough when most everyone else around us are so much more "asertive," to put it nicely. You cannot afford to be polite because none of it will be given back in return. Especially when it comes to standing in lines. A word of advice, "Don't leave a gap in front of you at any time." However I must admit Shanghai is not the worst place I felt that way. Afterall, Shanghai in China is like Paris in France. Its people are not yet 100% about competition and profit at all times, although it's getting pretty close to it in recent years.