China 2002

"I see the middle kingdom between Heaven and Earth..." 

N. Peart     

My father announced to our family sometime last year that he wanted to take all the kids (plus spouses) to China for a family vacation.  Of course we all jumped at the chance!  Not only was my father able to show his family his homeland but we had the experience of a lifetime.

Because we made plans so late, our options for flights to China were limited.  Our first flight was from Houston to Dallas where we changed planes for the leg to L.A.  From L.A. we flew to Shanghai (with a stop in Anchorage, Alaska to refuel).  After passing through customs in Shanghai we boarded our flight to Beijing.  We ended up using four different planes to get to China and three different planes to get back.  If you count the flights between cities in China we made a total of 22 separate takeoffs or landings.

When we were boarding the flight to China in Los Angeles a security person (FBI?) pulled my sister and I over in the jet way and started asking us questions.  This was after we had already gone through security.  He asked the purpose of our trip to which we replied "Vacation".  He then asked us how long we were going to stay in China and I blurted out "two weeks!" and Mari blurted out "ten days!" simultaneously!  The security guys gives us this "Oh, so you guys don't have your stories straight, do you?" kind of look.   I then say "11 days" and she says "Charlie!  It's a ten-day package."  I reply "Well, don't forget about our rest day!"  The security person's face goes from suspicion to amusement when he sees us arguing and then says "Just get on the plane!".

Our itinerary was four cities in about 10 days:  Beijing, Xi'an, Guilin and Shanghai.

Since I have so many pictures from this trip I've decided to organize this section a little differently from the rest of my website.  On the main pages I'll have the usual commentary and a few key pictures to give you a feel of what it was like.  For each section I'll also have a "More Pictures" link for the rest of the photos plus I'll also have a "Family Photos" link for the people (like Mom!) who are interested in seeing pictures of my family posing in front of stuff.

Check out the pictures from Beijing...