May 18-19
Fly from Atlanta, through Tokyo to Shanghai

5/18 - My Delta flight from Atlanta to Tokyo left at 10:30am so it didn't disrupt my sleep cycle. In fact, the whole trip took place in daylight, and I arrive in Shanghai in the evening, tired and ready for sleep. Hence, the jet-lag effect going over was minimal. The flight to Tokyo took about thirteen hours including three meals. It was uneventful, but it did cross the International Date Line, so I lost a day. Interestingly, the Delta pilot, in an announcement giving our flight path said we would be proceeding down the west side of the Kamchatka peninsula. This brought back scary memories of KAL flight 007 in 1983 that wandered too far west and got shot down by the Soviets. Of course, we actually ended up well to the east of Kamchatka and landed on time in Tokyo.

5/19 - I spent 2:45 inTokyo's Narita airport. I found my way without difficulty to the JAL transfer counter, which gave me a boarding pass for my Shanghai flight and directions to the gate. I should have asked them to reconfirm the remainder of my flights, but I forgot. I made my way to the gate in the same terminal and read until time for my flight.

My China Eastern/JAL flight to Shanghai took 2:30 minutes and arrived on time in Shanghai's Pudung airport. The local time was 7:00pm, but I had been traveling for twenty hours. I had arranged with CTRIP for a driver to pick me up, and I expected to see a sign with my name on it as I left the baggage area, but my CTRIP pickup failed to show. I had arranged to pay the driver 350Y for the trip to my hotel, but now I had to find another way. An enterprising, English-speaking hustler helped me call the CTRIP office, but no answer. He arranged a 580Y trip in a taxi. I was to learn later how bad a ripoff this was, but at the time I was too tired to try for anything better. The ride was like all but one of my rides in China--without seat belts. Moreover, the traffic was often heavy, and the drivers aggressive in their lane changing. In this particular case, there were no problems until the end, at which time I paid the driver 600Y and he gave me no change. The whole incident was a sour start to my China visit.

I had arranged a room at the Pacific Hotel via the conference web site for about $100 per night, breakfast included. This was much better than the nearly $300 per night cost if I stayed in the hotel at the convention center. And the Pacific was quite convenient to subway station that was only two stops from the convention center. My room was somewhat small and dated, but clean and comfortable. In fact, I found the beds in my Chinese hotel to be exactly the way I like them--firm. Interestingly, they all were clothed with a combination sheet and comforter, instead of conventional sheet and blanket that tucked in. I was able to get eight hours sleep because I was really tired and it was dark. You don't have to reset your watch if you come from the East coast of the US during DST and go to China. The whole country is on the same time zone!