We were up by 4am to leave by 5am to pick up my younger daughter, Tamar, at 5:30am, to get to Dulles airport at 6am, where we got through the entire ticketing process and security within 30 minutes so were way early for our 8am flight. I can never get the timing of these things right.

We had two flights to take us to Shanghai, the first to Chicago and the second from Chicago to Shanghai. The second which was scheduled to take off a little after 10:30 was about ½ hour late due to debris on the runway, a new reason, at least for me, for a delay, and took just under 14 hours; the longest flight I have ever had.

BUT it turns out after talking to one of the United staff on the plane, only the second longest run that United has, the longest being from Chicago to Hong Kong, which takes about 15 hours. All I know is that after a lunch and a movie and a brief nap, when one of your daughters asks how much longer to go and you answer 10 hours, it means the flight is more than long enough.

The highlight of the trip happened just after we landed. We had been warned by announcements on the plane a few times and then again when we landed that Chinese authorities would be boarding the plane and taking everyone’s temperature one-at-a-time to verify that no-one had a fever. Their goal was to check for swine flu. Evidently if you had a fever or were within three rows of someone who did, you had a chance of being quarantined for up to a week.

When we got to the gate, there was an announcement that we were the first flight that they had decided to stop checking and that therefore we could immediately deplane and proceed. When we entered the terminal, we did have to pass a scanner which evidently was checking body temperatures but a variety of Chinese officials with masks on, but otherwise got through customs in a matter of a few minutes.

Shanghai

My first impressions of Shanghai were that it reminds me of New York but with a LOT more Chinese Restaurants. Lots and lots of construction. Very vibrant, felt pretty western actually. The hotel we are staying at, the Huating Towers, which used to be a Sheraton is pretty nice.

We saw but did not ride the maglev, which is a high speed wheel-less train which goes between the airport and the center of Shanghai. The train which evidently cost over $1.2 billion to build goes up to 270 miles per hour. It evidently can go faster but the less than 8 minute trip that it takes at that speed isn’t long enough for it to get to anything higher. We were told two or three times that the Shanghai maglev went faster than any comparable train in Japan, in case we were unaware.

We had dinner with an old friend of mine who I worked with at Sun Microsystems, and who returned to China to take over her family business a few years ago. We went to a local dumpling restaurant with her husband, who is of Chinese descent but was born in New York City and grew-up in New Jersey and young son. While my family was fading as the night went on from the flight, the food was great.

Back at the hotel, we ran into many of the people who will be with us over the next few weeks including a number we had met at the 2006 Turkey eclipse trip. We staggered back upstairs and were sound asleep by 9:30pm.

Accessing the Web

Thus far I am unable to access facebook, twitter, or dorobekinsider; so have no idea as to if/how any of this is being received. I do post after I send a copy to Chris, a copy to www.ourownlittlecorner.com so to the extent anyone cares hope they look at one of these locations.

Eight days later we hope to see the longest total solar eclipse in this century, slightly less than six minutes long at Wuhan, China. Regardless of the viewing conditions that morning,  we will get an all too short glimpse of this still controversially emerging global super-power between July 14^th and July 27^th when we leave Beijing to return home.

How This Trip Came About – Turkey

The possibility of the trip to China actually began in late 2004, when I decided that it was important for me to see a total solar eclipse.  It turned out that one was scheduled to occur in March, 2006 in Turkey, a country I had always been interested in because of the many cultures that had occupied that territory over time.

Searching around the Internet I came across a web site called Eclipse Chasers and was referred to someone who organized Eclipse tours, Rick Brown.

My wonderful wife, Ellen, was used to these kinds of random thoughts, and while Turkey was probably not on her top three list of countries to visit next, acquiesced to going.

We had a wonderful time in Turkey, saw many wonderful sites, and had a great time watching the eclipse in Side, Turkey, at a resort on the Mediterranean. We literally were able to see the shadow of the eclipse come at us from the water and cross over us as the eclipse became total.

For those who are interested in what it was like to be in Side, here is a summary from one of the participants:

http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/tse2006p2.html

We made many new friends, a number of whom we have kept in active touch with and who have since visited our home. And, of course, we enjoy the Turkish rug we bought while there – is it possible to go to Turkey and not get a rug?

One final story from the Turkey visit is that before I left I had started serious conversations with the Bush Administration about joining the Department of Transportation as the Chief Information Officer.  We had gotten to the point where the next step was to make an ‘almost’ final decision and then have that likely choice meet Secretary Mineta for a final sign-off.

When we arrived, tired and jet-lagged late afternoon, I confirmed that I had received no phone calls or emails. Assuming this likely meant that they were delayed in deciding or had decided to select someone else, I called the White House liaison. Though it was very late in the day, she was still cheerful, I was to learn she always was, telling me she really looked forward to seeing me at 10am the next day for my meeting with Secretary Mineta.

The next morning I arrived at the Department, thankful that I had checked in but to be honest barely awake. Evidently I didn’t make a complete fool of myself because within a day after that final meeting I was offered the position and happily accepted leading to almost three greats years working with some of the finest people I have ever had the good fortune to meet.

How This Trip Came About – China

The first email from Rick Brown, the organizer of the Turkey eclipse trip, about joining him in 2009 in China came in September, 2006.

Though we really hadn’t planned to go on still another eclipse trip, both Ellen and I had talked about visiting China and once we found out both of our daughters would be interested in going, we let Rick know we were in.

The plan for the trip is pretty extensive:

http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/esafari/default.html

Our group this year is almost 50% bigger than last year with just about 90 people. We will typically be going in three buses when on land.

We land in Shanghai, tour for a few days while getting used to the time change. Then fly inland to take a cruise down the Yangtze River. During the four days we are on the Yangtze we take a number of side excursions visiting the three gorges and other sights.

July 21^st we fly back to Wuhan where we will watch the eclipse the next day. Up at 5am the current plan is to go to a local university to watch the eclipse.

For those who are interested, the University of North Dakota plans to do a web cast from our site:

www.sems.und.edu

and I am told we will have a New York Times reporter joining us in Wuhan.

After the eclipse we leave Wuhan that afternoon, flying to Xian to see the Terra Cotta soldiers and finally to Beijing.

Assuming we have no problems accessing flickr, we plan to upload pictures from time to time to:

www.flickr.com/technogeezer

As we finish packing for the trip and our older daughter comes back to DC from NYC, where she continues her efforts at perfecting her acting craft:

www.miriammintz.com

our excitement only builds; from the opportunity to see China, to spend two weeks with our entire family, and naturally to see another eclipse, a very special experience.