Saturday, February 9,
2019 Long Beach Port and LA Airport
We arrived back in California and disembarked the ship
around 8:00am just in time to meet Mark and Julie at the Long Beach Port. They
graciously picked us up to take us to the airport to insure that we met our
12:15pm flight into Shanghai, China. We felt great relief in making it to the
terminal with time to spare.
Our flight on Delta 89 was totally booked. The flight
attendants announced a need for three tickets and offered passengers a $800.00
voucher plus a hotel room for the night to fly the next day. It was a very
tempting offer…but we were flying into Shanghai to get our bodies accustomed to
the time change (13 hours difference from the US east coast) and to have a
chance to explore a city that had been on our bucket list for awhile.
We watched several movies and had several meals and tried to
sleep, finally arriving (14.5 hours later) at Shanghai Airport on
Sunday February 10 at 6:45pm. After going through customs and gathering our
bags, we met a non English speaking driver with the HIXSON sign waiting for us
in the terminal. She transported us 65 kilometers to our Airbnb in The French
Concession, a trendy area of Shanghai.
Shanghai is a city of superlatives: the world’s biggest city
and its most populous with 28 million people as well as the world’s biggest
port. Some say it’s also the world’s
most modern city.
Shanghai grew as a trading port and in the early 19th
century was the site of the Opium Wars with England. After the Treaty of
Nanjing, British merchants were granted part of the city, and soon the French,
Americans, and Germans had “concessions” (business districts) in Shanghai.
These communities flourished here until the city was taken over by the Japanese
during World War II and foreign residents were forced into camps. Shanghai is
also known as one of the world’s leading financial centers.
What a trip we had getting to this incredible city! Larry
and I literally crashed after being up over 24 hours….dreaming about our days
ahead.
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