China

Day 10 (Friday, March 24)

Well today was supposed to be the last day that we were in China, but from the heading you can tell we were here one more day.

I started the day on Friday lounging around the hotel watching Basketball and packing all my clothes and items I bought while I was here. My mom only worked until noon so she brought back Papa Johns for us and we ate it in the hotel while we finished off our packing. Yankee picked us up at the hotel around 2:00pm. You should have seen his face when the bellman brought out all our luggage. We barely fit all of it in the van and had to put a few bags in front of the sliding door to make it fit. We all headed to the airport and arrived about 4:30pm. Our flight was scheduled for 6:30pm, but when we arrived to check-in we found out our flight was cancelled.

At first, we thought United would be able to send another aircraft for us but we all had to wait at least another day before leaving. Right away Kim contacted Mike to let him in on the situation. Mike contacted the Ramada right near the airport and confirmed a reservation for us. A lot of other people had the same idea and the hotels were filling up fast. United offered us their hotel with the Ramada in downtown Shanghai but that was approximately 1 and a half hours away from the airport! (No way). The soonest we would be able to leave was tomorrow at 2:50pm. We had to take the 2:50pm China Eastern flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles and then 12:30pm United flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. I know that sounds wierd but with the time changes we had approximately 2 hours in between flights. We had to wait in line for approximately 3 hours to change our flights and we were so disappointed that we couldn't leave tonight. The voucher we received for the China Eastern flight didn't even guarantee that we would get seats on this flight. United was unable to give out tickets for another airline. So the only boarding pass we received was from L.A. to Chicago (What good that does us!!).

Next, we went downstairs to catch a shuttle to the Ramada hotel for the night. After checking into the hotel around 8pm, we ate at the hotel restaurant. There was some confusion if United would be picking up the tab for the entire meal and the night in the hotel but as far as we knew they picked up the entire bill.

Day 11 (Saturday, March 25)

United told us to be at the airport around noon to get tickets for the China Easter flight that left at 2:50pm. We desparately needed to get on this flight so we arrived at the airport around 10am. We were first in line, but soon after we arrived there were about 10-20 other people waiting behind us. Finally after waiting 2 1/2 hours the ticket counter opened. At first they told us that we didn't have a reservation but soon found out that they wrote down my middle name instead of my first name. After resolving that discrepancy, we were able to get tickets. I stopped at a restaurant in the airport and ate lunch and waited for our flight.

Of course our plane was took off about an hour late. We were getting very worried because of our tight connection. Our flight was about 8 hours long. The food was very disgusting that even my mom didn't eat it (and she normally eats all types of food). They played 3 movies on the plane - Batman Begins (seen it), Bad Company (seen it), and Finding Nemo (seen it). I can't believe they would play these old movies on the airplane.

We soon arrived in L.A. and about the same time as we originally expected. We had to get on a shuttle bus to take us to the main terminal and had to go through customs. After customs, we had to get our baggage and take it to another place for our other flight (because it was domestic and we had to claim our baggage). We rushed to our terminal and had to go through security again. We arrived at about 11:30pm to the terminal and come to find out, our plane was delayed about a half hour (what luck we have with airplanes!!). I grabbed something to eat because I didn't eat anything on the plane and was very hungary. I also picked up a Los Angeles T-Shirt to say that I have been to Los Angeles and a Sudoku puzzle book. Since then I have been hooked on these puzzles!! Still waiting for our flight, it was delayed another half hour.

We finally were able to board the plane and took off about 2pm. I was in seat 1A on the plane, First Class! I have never been in first class before so it was really cool. My mom was in seat 1B so she was able to see inside the cockpit and the pilots in there doing their checks. We got a lunch with real plates and glasses. After lunch, we each got a huge chocolate chip cookie that was very warm! There were 2 flight attendants that served first class which was about 24 people. They came around so often that you almost wanted to say, "Leave Me Alone". I watched part of the movie Prime and soon fell asleep for about an hour. When I woke up I must of ate something that made me feel very sick. I took some medicine and after landing I felt a little better.

We proceeded down to the baggage claim around 8:00pm. We were kind of worried because we had to catch the bus going from O'Hare to Rockford that left at 8:30pm. We retrieved all of our bags at 8:20pm and rushed out to the bus. We caught it in time and stepped onto a packed bus. My mom and I had to sit apart, but we were thankful that we had seats.

Come to find out, most of the people on the bus were from another cancelled United flight. They were supposed to fly from Denver to Rockford but their flight was cancelled and they had to fly from Denver to Chicago. Therefore, that is why the bus was so full. Someone on the bus said that United has had a lot of cancelled flights lately and a lot of veteran employees have resigned because of the state of the company.

We arrived in Rockford around 10:00pm and my dad came to pick us up. We were so happy to get home and go to bed. We had been up approximately 36 hours and I only got about 2 hours of sleep the whole time.

Well, that was the end of our trip. I had a good time, but wished it would have ended smoother than it did. I hope to travel overseas again sometime and explore more of the world!

Until next time,

Jennifer

Day 8 (Wednesday, March 22)

Wednesday was the day Chelsie and I would go to the tailors to see our prom dress and shirt. Both of us were hoping for the best, but figured for the amount of money we paid it wouldn't be a total loss if it didn't work out.

I slept in this morning and woke up about 9:30am. I took a shower and then proceeded to breakfast. It seemed that breakfast ended at 10:00am so I missed breakfast today. After updating the journal from the previous days, I talked with Chelsie who was doing her homework and planned out the rest of the day. We would first walk down to McDonalds for lunch and then walk down to drinking street. At McDonalds, I got an ice cream cone after lunch. Its funny how different the ice cream tastes from America. While walking down to drinking street we stopped in a bakery that sold candles that others had talked about previously. These candles are a flower and when lit, they open up and play the Happy Birthday tune. Chelsie got one for her sibling who has a birthday coming up. After walking around drinking street for awhile we walked back to our hotel.

Susan picked us up at the hotel at 3:30pm. She first took us to the tailors and we saw our shirt and prom dress. My shirt fit perfectly and Chelsie wasn't too sure about her prom dress. I thought it looked beautiful, but she didn't like how it bunched a little in her stomach area. After some debating, we both paid for our items and headed to the watch store. Chelsie's watch that she bought stopped working so she wanted to get it fixed. We found out that it needed a new battery and the guy put the new battery in and it worked fine. After walking around walking street for a little bit, Carlos (our driver) dropped Susan off at her house and we headed to the Chinese restaurant where we were having dinner with a bunch of Eclipse employees (including our parents). There was a gigantic Buddha in the entryway and some neat furniture inside. We went upstairs and went into a private room. There were about 10-15 chairs around a big table which had a turntable on top.

We waited for about 30 minutes until everyone arrived and they ordered a tremendous amount of food. The servers would bring out the dishes at different times and place them on the table. It was kind of a buffet style in that we would turn the turntable and get what we wanted. Now this is real Chinese food and after trying some chicken and other dishes I was finished. I didn't like the food at all and something about seeing the chicken head beside the pieces of chicken didn't make it look very appetizing. At the end of our meal you would think we would get fortune cookies but that is an American invention. We had to explain to the people that were with us what fortune cookies were. Instead, we got toothpicks and a plate of watermelon was placed on our table. Watermelon, I guess, is the dessert of the meal.

After the meal, we took a group photo in front of the Big Buddha. In the back of the entryway, there was a kind of display of wedding rituals. There was a rickshaw that I think carried the bride and groom on their wedding day. Chelsie and I both took pictures inside. That rickshaw was so small for me I barely was able to see out the front.

About 6 of us headed back to the tailors. Chelsie's dad (Kim) had a suit made and he wanted to pick it up. At the same time, Chelsie tried on the dress again to show her dad. She was still unsure of the fit, so my mom started looking at other dresses on the rack that were pre-made and ready to buy. After trying on a red dress, it fit perfectly!! We bargained very hard and Kim purchased both dresses for her (because she already bought the tailored dress and couldn't return it).

My mom wanted to do more shopping around walking street so we walked around and she bought a few things. Having not eaten very much at the Chinese restaurant, I was starving so we stopped by McDonalds (again!) and I ate some dinner. I had some DVDs that didn't work so we headed to the DVD shop on drinking street and returned them. I also bought the series DVDs for the show 24 (Season 1-5). After buying the DVDs we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Day 9 (Thursday, March 23)

Today was the day Chelsie and I would get to go to the Fake Market again. Mike, Kim, and James had to go into Shanghai to meet with a client so while they were meeting with them, we could spend about 3-4 hours and the Fake Market.

Yankee picked us all up at the hotel around 7:30am. After picking up Mike & Virginia we headed to the plant. My mom had to work at the plant all day so we dropped her and Virginia off and picked up James. We got to Shanghai around 10:30am and dropped them off at the client's place. Chelsie, Yankee, and I arrived at the Fake Market around 11am. I bought various gifts, a suitcase, shirts, and other souvenirs. Around 1pm we ate at McDonalds (again!) and shopped some more. We had to pick the guys up at 2pm so we had to hurry. Chelsie and I wanted to pick up gifts for Mike, Virginia, Steven, and Susan because they spent so much time with us during our stay. After alot of bargaining, we got gifts for everyone. Trying to fit 3 suitcases and all the rest of our bags in the trunk of the van was so funny.

We picked up the guys and headed back to the plant. I spoke with my mom and Chelsie and I waited until 5pm so we could go out to dinner. We all went to the Blue Marlin, an American Restaurant, and I had spaghetti. We presented our gifts to Mike, Virginia, and Steven and it seemed they really liked the gifts and appreciated the gesture. Also, I met some family members of an Eclipse employee that just got in from New York attending a funeral. Their kids were so cute and I wished I could have spent more time with them while I was here. We said our final goodbyes to Mike, Virginia, and Steven as it is the last time Chelsie and I would see them on our trip.

Because we had a lot of bags and wanted to do more shopping, Yankee dropped us off at the hotel and we dropped off our bags. We then proceeded back to Drinking Street to Dream Hollywood, a restaurant. My mom wanted to buy a polo shirt there and we then went to the other end of Drinking Street to do one last night of shopping. Yankee dropped us off and we would then catch a taxi after we were done shopping. My mom and I purchased a few sweaters, picture frames, a vase, and a few figurines. I really wanted to get a silk embroidery picture, but the ones I liked were really big and I didn't want to mess with it on the plane back home.

We then caught a taxi back to the hotel for the night.

Day 6 (Monday, March 20)

Monday was a day for Chelsie and I to spend walking around Suzhou. After going to drinking street last night, I thought Chelsie would like to go down there today. We proceeded to walk down there because it was such a nice day. The block before Drinking Street was the alleyway to the Master of the Nets Garden. We didn't go in, but there were some small shops along the entryway to the garden where we shopped for a little while. Chelsie bought two perfume bottles that were painted from the inside. She paid about $10 US for each bottle and as we shopped at the other shops we found out that she was ripped off for the price she paid. She tried returning them, but the lady soon acted like she didn't speak any English and didn't give her a refund. Oh well, as long as she is happy with the gift she got, it all evens out. At the fake market, she bought lots of things for an average price of $5 US. Anyway, after we shopped there we walked along drinking street, but when we were there (approx. 11am), most shops didn't seem to be open yet. So we just walked around and walked back to our hotel. We got some good pictures of the scenery and just normal life here in Suzhou.

At the hotel, we thought we would do an American afternoon. We watched a Edison on my laptop, ate lunch at the hotel restaurant, and then went down to the fitness room and swimming pool. In the fitness room I rode the bike and lifted weights on the all in one fitness machine that they had. Chelsie ran on the treadmill and lifted weights too. We waited until 5:00 when the pool opened because we wanted to go into the hot tub. We told them we wanted to go into the pool and the staff said that we had to wear a swimming cap. So they gave us this pink, orange, and yellow flowery swimming cap that was obviously made for the chinese. They were so small that we barely fit them on our heads. Come to find out, they didn't have a hot tub so we settled for the cold pool and then went into the sauna that was in our locker room. Virginia said most houses in her neighborhood have saunas in them (very nice).

Our parents met us back in our hotel rooms and we headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. After dinner, we thought we would head back out to drinking street because we wanted to get more DVDs. I ended up getting about 10-15 more DVDs and Kim got a few as well. Everyone was tired so we went back to the hotel and retired for the night.

Day 7 (Tuesday, March 21)

Tuesday was gardens day. Susan is Steven's wife and he works with our parents at Eclipse. Susan was nice enough to pick us up at the hotel at 9:30am and take us to a few gardens. First up was Tiger Hill, "The Number 1 attraction in Suzhou". It was very nice inside the gardens and it is well known for a leaning building. Susan said that this was the first leaning building and then in Italy, of course, was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After walking around for about an hour and a half and taking lots more pictures, we headed to lunch. We all ate at KFC and I remembered how spicy their chicken was. Chelsie had to use the restroom so Susan showed her were it was and while we were waiting she came back out really fast. She told me that she didn't use the restroom because it was just a hole in the floor. I told her she should take a picture of it next time.

Next stop was the Humble Administrator's Garden. This was a huge garden that had some beautiful scenery and lots of water features. I love the water and the different bridges they have running across the rivers. This garden also had a little area of all different kinds of bonsai trees. One bonasai tree was approx. 250 years old! The guy who works there told Susan that he had just repotted the plant because of how big it was. After another hour in the garden we exited and shopped around a little bit. I bought some little things, but that was about it. We got back into the car and headed for our hotel. Chelsie and I then watched another movie on my laptop. We watched "Walk The Line" which was pretty good and waited for our parents to come pick us up for dinner.

For dinner we went to the Drunken Chef. This was like an Australian Restaurant that had anything from Australian burgers to mexican food. I had an Australian BBQ Burger which was pretty good. After dinner we went back to the hotel for the night.

Continue from Day 3 (Friday, March 17)

Yankee picked Chelsie and I up from the hotel around 3:30pm. We went to the Eclipse office in Suzhou. It took us nearly an hour to get there from our hotel. The office is located in the new Suzhou Industrial Park where a lot of new businesses are locating. I found it just incredible at how much they are expanding. SIP is about 10 miles of new businesses. My mom said that the whole land in SIP is sold, but they are just waiting for them to build everything. After touring my mom's plant, Chelsie and I played ping-pong in the shop. All the guys that work there were watching us play and probably thinking that we are horrible (which I am). After spending time at the plant, we went to Mike & Virginia's house. Mike is the head of the Suzhou office. He is originally from England, but has lived in Florida, Rockford, and now Suzhou.

When arriving at their house, it seemed just like an American house. It is a gated community and they said all families in the community are English speaking and most from America. Virginia said once she enters her house, it feels like she is in America again. After talking for a while and meeting their dog (Foster), we headed off to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Even though Mike and Virginia live in China, they don't like Chinese food. This is good for me since I don't either. Also, one thing about China is their spicy food. After eating at KFC one day, we know how spicy their chicken can be and any other food you can imagine. Pretty much everyone asked for their food as non-spicy. Yankee of course likes the spicy food and at the end of the meal he was wiping the sweat off of his forehead. It was so funny. The meal was good and we headed back to our hotel and rested up for a big weekend ahead.

Day 4 (Saturday, March 18)

Saturday started off in Suzhou at the pearl market. If you look at the pictures, it is the building with the gorgeous sphere at the front of the building. Inside are just tables full of pearls and any other jewerly you could look for. I bought some necklaces and other jewerly as well. My mom had a huge list of white pearl sets (earrings, necklaces, bracelets) for other people. After the pearl market, walking street was next. Walking street is known for its shops and restaurants. We ate at Southern Cross, an Australian Restaurant, and headed for the shops. We shopped at a watch shop that had a lot of brand name watches (Rolex, Cartier, etc.) for about $5 or $10. We then went into a tailor shop because Chelsie is wanting a prom dress made for her prom this year. She was able to pick out the fabric and the style she wanted. While I was there, I decided to have a shirt made as well. I hope it will turn out. Most shirts I find here are very small for me. Chelsie only paid about $50 for the dress! We pick these up on Wednesday so hopefully they will be okay.

We then wanted to take a boat tour so we tried to get a taxi to the boat place but had so much trouble getting a taxi. After walking for about 30 minutes, we finally found an empty taxi and headed over to the boat. The boat tour lasted about 1:15 and was very pretty. I tried to take a lot of pictures, but most didn't turn out because it was at night and the boat was moving very fast. After eating dinner, we went back to our hotel for the night.

Day 5 (Sunday, March 19)

Sunday we headed to Shanghai. Shanghai is about an hour and a half away from Suzhou. First, we went to the "Fake Market". This place sells Gucci, Prada, Ralph Lauren, etc. for really cheap. These are brand name items that are basically rip offs. Some people say that they have bought watches or purses here that workers in the real store can't tell that they are fakes. The others that went with me bought alot of things, but I only came out with a pair of Diesel jeans and a Ralph Lauren sweater. We are going back on Thursday so I hope I can find more things for me. This place is huge and I was probably asked 300 times if I wanted to buy a watch. If you like something and ask how much it is, they expect you to buy the item in the end. You have to bargain pretty hard with them to get the item at a good price because they will put on a sympathy show for you.

We then went to the Bund in Shanghai. We previously visited the Bund on Thursday but Kim and his daughter didn't get to see it. The buildings are so wonderful and I have a lot of pictures of them. With these pictures you might see a few of some little kids on the walkway. One in particular was of a little boy and he had a slit in his pants. The Chinese use this as a method to potty train the little kids. I was able to get a picture of his little behind which I thought was so cute. All of us were hungary and we ate at a very nice Italian restaurant. I have heard from two people that it is the best lasagna that they have ever had was from this restaurant. Its funny to know that in China you have great lasagna. After a full stomach, we headed back to our hotels.

My mom and I wanted to go to drinking street in Suzhou. I've heard of some great shops down there including a DVD and CD store. We proceeded into this shop and was amazed at how many recent DVDs were there and how cheap they were. Most discs were 6RMB which is about $0.75. I bought 40 Year Old Virgin, Edison (with Justin Timberlake), and the boxed set of The Office (from the UK). At these prices, you can't pass them up. I'm sure we are going to come back to this shop so I will have to research more movies that I would like to see.

Later,

Jennifer Neese

Sorry I haven't had a chance to write. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will try to catch everyone up with all the activities we partaked in this weekend.

I found a place for all my pictures so far. Travellers Point only allows 10mb for pictures so I put them up on Yahoo. Please go to http://photos.yahoo.com/jennifer_neese to view the pictures. I will try and update these pictures every day. We are going to the gardens tomorrow so watch for some more pictures!!

Thanks for the comments. I heard about the big snowstorm coming, hope its not as bad as they predicted.

Later,

Jennifer Neese

Well this is my first entry in the China blog. This is day 3 of my trip to China. I've been so busy up to this point, so this is a good time to reflect the past 3 days.

Day 1 (Tuesday & Wednesday, March 15 & 16)

I left Chicago O'hare Airport on Tuesday afternoon at 12:30pm. Our plane didn't take off until about 1:15pm. I had about a 14 hour plane ride -- way too long for me. I was looking forward to the movies onboard, but most didn't work in the plane and the movies that did work, I had already seen. In addition to the bad movies was, as you can guess, the bad food. They served chicken teryaki (gross) and pasta (really gross). I lived off of my peanut butter crackers I packed in my carry on bag. I slept about 3 to 4 hours on the plane which isn't too bad. It was very uncomfortable trying to sleep on the plane. I ended up leaning over my mom's extra seat with two pillows and sleeping.

I arrived in Shanghai at about 6:00pm Wednesday night Shanghai time (4:00am Wednesday Illinois time). After landing, I went through customs and retrieved our bags. From there I took the hotel shuttle to our Ramada hotel located right outside the airport grounds. After checking into the hotel, we were starving. We went down to the Western Restaurant in the hotel and had pasta with bolognese sauce. After eating a good meal, we were pretty tired as you can imagine so we went to bed for the night.

Day 2 (Thursday, March 16)

The bed in the hotel is really low to the ground and very hard. I was unsure if I would be able to sleep on such a hard bed, but I guess if you are tired you can sleep on anything. I did pretty well sleeping through the night, only waking up at 2:00am and 5:00am. I finally got up around 6:00am. My mom and I went down to the fitness center and worked out for about 30 minutes. We then went back to the Western restaurant and I had french toast for breakfast and my mom had the pancakes. She got 3 very small pancakes and she had a piece of my french toast. We were energized again and looking forward to the day ahead. My mom's company has a full-time driver so he picked us up at the hotel at 10:30am.

First stop - People's Square. This is located in downtown Shanghai and a few parks and museums are there too. As we approached downtown Shanghai I was really surprised at how many buildings I see and how many people there are. All of the apartment buildings had clothes hanging outside drying them. Most residents rode bikes or mopeds around town. As we arrived to People's Square we took pictures of the museum and the buildings surrounding the area. There was one spot where a lot of people were feeding the pigeons. We took a few pictures and proceeded down the sidewalk when a lady stopped us and wanted to take our picture! I was surprised that she wanted to take our picture, but my mom said that they don't see a lot of foreigners here.

This is something that I will have to get used to. Just walking down the street people stare at you and talk about you. It was very sunny and nice that day so I had my sunglasses on. I think that made me stand out even more. My mom said they might think I was a movie star! Anyway, after seeing the museum we found an underground mall and looked around at all the shops. My mom bought some nail polish, but we didn't see anything that looked tempting.

After People's Square we proceeded to Yu Yuan Gardens. We were getting hungary so we ate at McDonalds. Our driver ordered for us and I told him to order me a double cheesburger with no onions. I am grateful that he was there to order otherwise I would get onions on my burger. After we ate lunch, we stopped at the restroom and very grateful that they had toilets in the restroom. As you may know, most of the public restrooms are just holes in the floor. Anyway, we went to Yu Yuan Gardens and I really enjoyed the architecture, waters, and the landscaping. They had a lot of shops outside the gardens and we purchased some T-Shirts and I got a budda head with 4 different sides, each with a different emotion.

After the Yu Yuan Gardens, we went to the Bund. The Bund is in Pudong, across the river from Shanghai. We went on the sightseeing bridge and took some great pictures of the buildings in the Bund. While I was taking pictures, a guy took a picture of me. I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I just can't believe that people will just take my picture!! Oh well, the Bund is known for the futuristic buildings including the Pearl Tower. We are scheduled to go there again and go to the top of the Pearl Tower on Saturday or Sunday. It was getting that time to pick up Kim and Chelsie (my mom's co-worker and his daughter) from the airport. We wanted to ride the new Maglev train which stops at the airport so our driver dropped us off at the stop and we rode it to the airport. The train went up to about 431km/hr which is about 200mph to 300mph. After picking up Kim and Chelsie we drove to Suzhou which took about 3 hours (lot of traffic!). We checked in and went to bed for the night.

Day 3 (Friday, March 17)

I woke up at about 6:00am and ate breakfast with everyone. My mom and Kim are going into work today so it was just Chelsie and I today. Chelsie's bag was lost on her airplane so she wanted to go shopping and buy a few clothes. We took a taxi down to walking street (a popular shopping area in Suzhou) and she bought a few clothes and I bought a cross stitch kit. It was a chinese character picture, but I am unable to understand what it means. I will have to get Yankee (our driver) to translate it for me. Hopefully it doesn't say anything bad . We ate at Pizza Hut for lunch which was very good. Chelsie had the veggie pizza which included pineapple and corn! She said it was good, so I'll have to take her word for it. We came back to the hotel around 1:00pm which gave me time to watch the Indiana Hoosier's game. I am grateful that CBS is broadcasting the games free over the internet and I was able to watch Indiana beat San Diego State.

Well Chelsie and I are getting picked up by Yankee at 3:30 and we are going into my mom's work and then going out to dinner. I am crossing my fingers that the restaurant has something I like. All over China that have some disgusting food like Chicken on a Stick. Not chicken like chicken fingers or chicken tenders, this is little chickens (the whole chicken) on a stick!

That is all for now. Hopefully I can write sooner next time. Later!

Jennifer