Jet Lag

When we got there, I found both kids still sleeping.  They would not wake up for dinner and slept through the entire meal.  The kids continued to sleep after we got back to the hotel.  Auntie and the others would meet us at the hotel the next day around 9:00 and we were going to go to Xiangjiang safari park, which is the top zoo in china.  However, the kids woke up at 3, after sleeping for 10 hours.  In order for them to hopefully adjust to the time difference quicker and so I could get some sleep, I gave them each ½ of a Dramamine. 

 

The Dramamine knocked them both out sufficiently so that we all slept until about 7:30.

 

ABC

Guangzhou Day 1

The next morning, my mom’s friend (hence forth referred to as Auntie), her husband (Uncle), his sister, her husband and their grandson were supposed to come to our hotel in the morning and take us for dim sum.  However, we did not expect that three of us would be wide awake by 5:30 in the morning, waking the 4^th person (me) up as well.  We hung around the hotel room, waiting for Auntie and the others to call.  Finally at 7:30, I decided to take a walk to get us some food.  I walked to the 7-11 down the street and picked up a couple of buns, a container of plain cheurng fun (rice noodles that are used to make chow fun) and dumplings and coffee for $21HK ($2.75 US).  The food was much better than I would expect from 7-11.  After eating the quick breakfast we continued to wait.

 

Auntie and the others finally came around 9:30 and we went to a restaurant that was actually attached to our hotel.  I don’t know if it was because I was hungry or what, but the food was so good.  We ordered a couple of crock pots of rice steamed with spareribs, har gow (shrimp dumplings), sui mai (pork and shrimp dumplings), cheurng fun with shrimp, veggies and some other stuff.  The har gows were my main focus, as Hong Kong’s har gows are the best I have ever had.  These har gows had two whole shrimp in each one.  The sui mai were amazing as well.  I am drooling just thinking about it.

 

Auntie’s sister-in-law called the man with the van from the night before and had him come pick us up from the hotel to drive us to the train station.  Taxis in Hong Kong have a limit of seating 5 people and charging for additional luggage.  Therefore, for $100HK ($13), it was much easier to use the van again. 

 

We got to the train station 15 minutes before the next train was due to leave, which left us 5 minutes to get the luggage checked and to the train before the gate closed.  We opted to wait for the next train, since we also didn’t have the cash to pay for the train tickets (credit cards are not excepted!).  There was a money exchanger about 20 feet from the ticket window and a bank a bit further down.  We walked around the train station a bit after checking the luggage in.  We then walked around the station for a bit before we were allowed to get to the train gate.  We took the escalator down to the train tracks and there sat a double decker train.  We were assigned seats on the top deck of the first car.  The guy selling the train tickets gave us 4 seats with a table in between.  The kids did not require tickets. 

 

The train ride took about 2 hours, with 1 stop.  We went through immigration and collected out luggage right after that.  We then went through an area with a x-ray machine to scan small bags and there was a dog there to sniff out items that are not allowed into the country, including fruits and vegetables.  Auntie and Uncle’s son (Mun) came to pick us up in his minivan. 

 

Mun drove us to what he thought was our hotel, Guangdong International Hotel and we were told that it was closed for renovations.  The security guard there said that maybe we were booked at the Asia International Hotel, across the street (talk about confusing).  We checked into our hotel, booked through www.agoda.com, which again was a simple process.  They gave us room 3208 and again asked for a $500 RMB ($74 US) deposit and for the passports of all adults staying in the room.  The room is pretty big, again with two oversized twin beds, a closet, a minibar, desk and two chairs.  My only complaint is the moldy mat in the bathtub.  However, since there is a separate shower in the bathroom, I can live with it.

 

After resting in the room for about 20 minutes, we were supposed to go to dinner with all of my mother’s old schoolmates. After 2 minutes after we got into the van, both kids fell asleep.  Mun drove me to meet his wife Kathy, who was going to take me to the supermarket, so I could get some fruits and drinks.   I was not going to pay the $3.75 US for the cans of coke from the minibar, when I could get a can for 37 cents at the supermarket.  I had talked to Kathy many times before our trip; she will be joining us and helped us book plane tickets to Xi’an and Beijing.  Mun took the others with the kids to the restaurant first.   Kathy and I went to a Japanese supermarket which was supposed to have quality stuff.  After getting some fruits and drinks, we met up with Kathy’s mother and sister (Jessie) who were joining us for dinner.  Mun came back and picked us up to take us to the restaurant. 

 

ABC

Hotel #1

The hotel we stayed at was BP International located on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.  The man dropped us off around the corner from the hotel, as he could not park in front of the hotel.  I went to the hotel and asked for a bellhop to follow me to the car.  We got the luggage into the hotel and I went to check-in.  I booked the hotel through 1800Hotels and check-in was really quick and simple.  They asked for the passports of all adults staying in the room and for a $500HK ($65 US) deposit or a credit card.  The whole process probably took about 5 minutes.  We were assigned a room 2116 on the 21^st floor.  The hotel room was extremely small; there were two oversized twin beds, a closet a mini fridge, a desk by the window and a bathroom with a shower. The closet held one of our suitcases and not much else.  The room was simple and clean, no complaints, since most hotel rooms in Hong Kong are similar in size.  We went across the street for a quick meal.

 ABC

Update to Blog
Mood:  chillin'

This is the go to blog..  Facebook and Blogger are banned in China...  If someone sees this, please update my Facebook and let others know.

I will update more probably tomorrow.

ABC

The plane ride
Mood:  a-ok

Living in New Jersey, I always try to be early when I go somewhere, especially since you never know when you will get stuck in traffic for hours.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 3:15 and when I checked flight information, the flight was supposed to be on time.  We packed up the car with the 4 check-in suitcases, 5 carry-ons, 4 passengers and our chauffer (Steve) for the ride to the airport. 

 

My mother started packing for the trip the day after we bought our plane tickets.  She has a lifelong friend in Guangzhou, who has a grandson a year younger than Chubba, so she packed all his old clothes for this little boy.  You have to understand that when you ask my mother how much stuff she is bringing, she will tell you nothing and then have 20 bags.  To her, if the bag is under 100 pounds, it really doesn’t count.  My mother has not flown on a plane since all the regulations regarding liquids and paying for checking bags, etc have been in place.  For this trip, we were each allowed 2-50 pound bags.  Last week, I went into my mother’s room and saw 2 big suitcases sitting in her room.  Out of curiosity, I tried to lift the bigger one and found that I could not lift in more than 2 inches.  I went to the bathroom and grabbed the scale and went back to weigh the bags.  Bag number 1 weighed in at 58 pounds and bag 2 weighed in at 54 pounds.  Upon opening her bags for inspection, I started pulling out bags of granola bars, coffee and other items.  After checking both bags, I realized that there was no clothing in them for her to wear.  Upon questioning, there was a third bag to be brought on the plane in addition to her backpack and her purse.  After pulling items out of bags 1 and 2, she decided to put these items into bag 3 and bag 3 would be checked as well.  I finally packed for myself and the kids this past Thursday, I ended up with 1 medium suitcase (my mother had commandeered my large suitcase (bag 1) and my small suitcase (bag 3)).  I also have two carry-ons in the form of a backpack and a small duffle.  The kids each have a small backpack with a stuffed animal and their leapsters.

 

We left for the airport around 11:15 figuring we would get to Newark around 12:00-12:15 on the early side.  We got to the airport around 12:15 and were told by the agent at the check-in that we had to go two flights down to the domestic check-in area to check-in…  We took the elevator 2 flights down, got checked in in about 10 minutes, at this time I noted that we would actually board the plane at 2:25, giving us about 2 hours to wait around.  As we were on an international flight, we had to have our passports checked at check-in.  We then headed to the gate as we reached the gate, we were surprised by a one hour delay.  We sat for a while and then decided to get something to eat.  We ate at a place called Ruby’s diner, the food was average airport food.  We then went back to sitting.  Everyone boarding the plane had to have their passports checked again at the podium.  We went back to sitting and sitting some more.  Izz started talking to a airplane maintenance man as well as the pilot while we were waiting.  The maintenance man told the pilot that the original plane we were supposed to be one was having mechanical difficulties, therefore we were waiting for another plane.  The plane did not show up at the gate until 3:50.  After cleaning and everything else, we did not get on the plane until 4:15.  We got on the plane and were pleasantly surprised by the fact that we have 6 seats for the 4 of us.  The plane finally took off around 4:50 and we were now scheduled to land at 8:45.  We would fly over the Montreal, Canada, Greenland, the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Beijing, China and finally landing in Hong Kong in just over 15 hours.  Before taking off, we were handed menus in Chinese and English, telling us what we would be eating on the flight.  Right after take-off, we were served pretzels and beverages.  Before I even started the bag of pretzels, we were served dinner.  Three of us had the steak and Izz had the fish.  The food was pretty decent, the rice reminded me more of Japanese rice, where the rice was

stickier than Chinese rice.  After dinner, the kids tried to figure out the video system.  We had movies, games and music right at our fingers.  Everyone on the plane started dozing after dinner time, the flight was pretty quiet.  Mid-flight, at around midnight east coast time, we were served turkey dogs on croissants and ice cream.  We then slept until about 5:00 when I wanted to wake the kids up so that they would sleep when we landed.  Around 6:00, we were fed again; we were given a choice of cheddar cheese omelet or dim sum.  We all picked dim sum.  There was one piece of dim sum (siu mai (a pork dumpling)), a Chinese bun of some sort and some noodles, some cantaloupe, honey dew and grapes.  The food was not appetizing at all and I did not eat anything.  After we finished eating, we were handed papers to fill out for immigration.  We then landed about half an hour later. 

 

Our plane finally landed at around 8:30.  There were free mini luggage carts available by the gate, we grabbed one and headed towards the exit.  After going past 3 people movers, we had to relinquish the luggage cart and walk the rest of the way.  We then went through a health check (thanks to swine flu) and immigration.  Then we headed to baggage claim.  (That’s right, immigration before luggage claim)  My mother took the kids to the bathroom while I waited by our carry-ons.  As they walked back past the carousel, our luggage appeared on the belt and I quickly pulled them off one by one and I grabbed a free luggage cart and we were headed out of the airport.  The time was just past 9:00 PM local time.  My mom’s friend and her husband came from Guangzhou to meet us at the airport and the husband’s sister (who lives in Hong Kong) came with them as well. A man came by and asked if we needed a ride somewhere, after some discussion, he charged us $250 HK ($32.50 US) for the ride from the airport to the city, where our hotel is located.

 

More later…

Obtaining a Visa for China
Mood:  irritated

Getting Visas Part Yut (Yi, in Mandaring, one in English) - Monday

For the past couple of weeks, I had diligently looked at the Chinese Embassy website for instructions on how to obtain a Visa to enter China.  You do not need to go in person, one person can go for the whole group.  I typed up the applications that we would each need.  I took passport type photos and printed them for each of us.  I made sure I had everything that was required as per the list of items needed.  Basically, a passport with empty pages, at least 6 months before it expires, one passport photo and an application.  You pay for the visa when you go pick it up with a credit card, money order or cash, no personal checks.  And according to the website, if you were born in China, you needed to have an old passport with a visa or your old Chinese passport, so I also had my mom’s old passport with her most recent visa to China.  I had everything in my backpack ready to go.

 

So, I woke up nice and early this morning to go into NYC to get our visas for China.  There are six Chinese Embassy offices in the United States and someone must go to the designated office for your state to get your visa.  If you are not near the office, you can have someone go in your stead.  I caught the bus by home, which dropped me off at Port Authority.  This was the first time I had taken the bus from Jersey to NYC, so it was a new experience for me.  This was also the first time I have taken public transportation in at least 1.5 years.  I think the last time was the subway to see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center with the kids in 2007.  The ride in was not bad, took about 1 hour and I didn't have to look for parking.    After getting off the bus on 42nd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues I walked down to the Chinese Embassy located on 42nd and 12th Avenue.  The walk itself was not too bad; it took me about 15 minutes.  I got to the Embassy around 9:10, 10 minutes after it opened.

 

As I walked past the crosstown bus at between 9th and 10th Avenues, a Chinese man got off in a big rush and almost knocked me down.  I had a feeling that this guy was headed to the same place I was.  He set off at a brisk pace, while I walked slowly and when I got to the door of the Embassy, I spotted him speaking with two women.  I also noticed that there was a bus stop right in front of the Embassy, so I have no idea why he didn’t wait to get off the bus.  In addition to the bus stop, the other thing that I noticed was a group of about 15-20 old ladies doing Tai Chi across the street. 

 

The man and his two lady friends got on the line to enter the building right in front of me.  In order to enter the building, you must show the security guard at the door your identification.  After that, there is a bag check with metal detectors.  Apparently two of these three people had never been through a security line with a metal detector before.  Lady #1 walks through the metal detector with no problems.  Lady #2 picked today to wear a lovely belt made of what appeared to be 90% metal and didn’t feel the need to take it off until the third time through the detector.  The security guard asked the guy to open his bag and empty his pockets and he took that to mean take your bag, you are free to go.  So, I stood there for about 5 minutes waiting for dumb and dumber to go. 

 

I get into the Travel Documentation area and there were lines everywhere with no information whatsoever as to which line to stand in.  Line 1, the closest one to the door was apparently for photos.  There is a middle area with four rows of seats.  And there was another line that snaked from the front of the room into an “L” shape towards the door.  This line I later found out was for people paying for and picking up their travel documents.  Two ladies at the chairs in the middle area confirmed that that was where I wanted to be.  Apparently, instead of standing on line, you sit on line.  When someone goes up to a window, everyone slides down one seat until you are at the front of the line.

 

I take my seat next to these two ladies and a man comes up to my other side and asks if this was where he wanted to be.  Apparently, there used to be a number system, similar to the deli counter at the supermarket that they no longer use.  This gentleman proved to be some entertainment for me.  When we first started out, we were in row 3, as we got closer to row 1, he started feeling the need to scream out “Hey you, go to that window” or “Hey, it’s your turn” or something to that effect when someone didn’t get off seat #1 quick enough.

 

Finally I was up; the time spent online was probably about 15 minutes.  I got to the window with the four applications, four new passports and one old passport.  I hand over the applications and passports.  The lady starts going through the documents, making notations on the applications.  Then she asked “where are the old passports?”  I handed her my mom’s old passport…

 

Embassy worker:  Where are the other passports?

Me: I didn’t bring my old passport. 

E:  You need the old passports for everybody; we need to see the old visas.

Me:  The kids do not have old passports.

E:  The form says they have been to China.

Me: They have never been to China.

E: You make mistake.  (Chinese people are just so damned blunt when they speak. I felt like I committed some heinous crime and deserved to be executed).  If they have never been to China, where are there birth certificates?

Me:  I did not bring them.  I did not know that you needed birth certificates for them.

E:  Their parents are Chinese, you need birth certificate.

Me:  Their parents were not born in China. 

E:  Does not matter. 

Me: Your website didn’t say anything about that.

E: There is a whole section on website about this.

Me:  There is a section there that is in Chinese.  What if you don’t read Chinese?

E:  You need to find someone to translate it. Also, you need to show which hotel you are staying in or if you are staying with friends, you need to put their contact information and have a letter from them inviting you to stay with them.

 

Well, there was a section that said For Children with Chinese Parents with it was a link in Chinese.  I took it to mean parents born in China.  My mom read it and said that it is for kids that had parents born in China.  Well, apparently, they did not mean that and it is for any child of Chinese descent. 

 

So, I left there, and started to walk back to the Port Authority.  I had just under two hours to waste for the next bus, so I walked around the station and tried to look for a seat to do some reading.  The seats by the terminals were not made for people vertically challenged like myself.  They folded up, I guess to save room for rush hour, similar to a movie theater seat.  However, they were only about six inches deep and 12 inches wide.  There was no way I would be able to sit on these seats unless I was at least 3 inches taller,  so I found some normal seats and read for a while.  The bus ride home was uneventful, I took a nice nap. 

 

I got home and I called to make sure that I had everything that I needed for tomorrow.  I called repeatedly for about 25 minutes before I got an actual person on the phone.  Then I decided to see what time they closed, so maybe I could just go back into the City today and get everything done.  They are opened from 9-12 and then from 1-2:30.  I am amazed by Chinese beauracracy.   Getting Visas part two coming up tomorrow and part three hopefully on Friday when we go pick them up!

 

Getting Visas Part Yi (Er, in Mandarin, two in English) - Tuesday

 

So, on the phone yesterday when I finally got a hold of a human, I was told that I needed the following items for the following people:

 

Me and my Mom

Application

Passport

Old Passport with old visa to China

 

Izz and Chubba

Application

Passport

Copy of my passport

Original and copy of their birth certificates

 

I made two copies of my passport, reprinted the applications to show the hotel we are staying in, made copies of the kids’ birth certificates and dug up my old passport.  Everything was in my backpack ready to go.

 

I took a later bus today, figuring I didn’t really need to get there at 9:00 when the embassy opens.  Again, the group of old ladies were across the street, this time they were sitting on the ground meditating.  I got to the embassy around 9:45, the line through security was a bit longer by this time and there was no longer a security guard at the door asking for your ID.  I opened my bag for the guy at the metal detectors and he asked me for my ID.  He said “the sign says show ID.”  I showed my ID and looked around for a while but could not find it.  Then my head turned toward the top of the metal detector where there was a 2 inch sign that said “Show ID.”

 

I went inside and went to the middle section.  By this time, the line was much longer than yesterday.  I was seated in seat 32 of 32.  Everyone else had to stand until they became lucky contestant 32.  The line did not move for about five minutes.  Then I moved about 8 seats in 5 minutes.  When I got to the last seat in the 4^th row or the first seat in the 4^th row, depending on how you look at it.  I realized what this line reminded me of.  Every time we moved up a seat, it was like doing the wave at a ball game. 

 

After observing the line for a while, I quickly realized that the line would move quickly for a while because they quickly sent people away.  Then these people would come back after a while and go to the head of the line.  One guy who had been sent away came back to the head of the line and another guy in the seat line told him to go to the back of the line and the first guy got pretty pissed off and started yelling at the second guy.  The security guard had to come over and quiet them down.

 

I stayed on line for about 1 hour and I was finally in seat #1, well seat #2.  The lady in seat #1 was just there to keep someone company and he had just been sent away from the window to refill his application.  I walked up to the window and gave the lady all my documents, neatly tucked into the corresponding passport.  She starts going through everything.  Hands me kids’ birth certificate 1, kids’ birth certificate 2, then she goes, you need a copy of this page (handing me my old passport) and a copy of this page (handing me my mom’s old passport).  Sigh.  Then she hands back everything to me and says, “give me everything at one time.” 

 

I go to the photocopy towards the back of the room.  So, how many Chinese men does it take to make a photocopy?  Apparently six, there were six guys standing next to the photocopier trying to help the first guy make a copy of his passport.  After they finally figure out what to do, the next four guys make their copies.  I guess number six was not paying attention because when it was his turn, he did not know to just press the green button.  He kept pressing the number 1 before pressing the green button, which resulted in the copier not allowing him to make 1111 copies with the 25 cents that he put in the machine.  I made my copies and went back to the head of the line. 

 

I waited for the lady to finish up with the couple she was helping.  The returning to the head of the line is pretty messy as a bunch of people just stand in front of the windows waiting.  I got to the window and handed everything back to her.  She then asked me for the address of my place of employment.  When I told her that I was unemployed at the moment, I was told that my occupation was not Engineer, my occupation is unemployed and I must fill out the first page of the application again.  SIGH. I filled out the first page of the application again and handed it back in.  She then went through everything again and handed me two yellow slips of paper and said to come back on Friday to pick up the passports.

 

So, the lesson here is make copies of everything even if you are not told to.  Bring everything that you can imagine, even if you are not told to, birth certificates, hotel information, flight information, old passports, for you, your parents, children and anyone you can think of.  Everyone I have talked to mentioned that it used to be so much easier to get a visa, you just brought your passport and gave them money. 

 

Friday is visa pick-up day. I noted on both days that by 9:30, there was virtually no line for pick-ups. Let’s see how that goes… 

 

Getting Visas Part Som (San, in Mandarin, three in English) - Friday

 

This morning, I woke up early to drag the kids and my mom with me to the Chinese Embassy.  We left the house at 8:00, I had hoped to get to 42^nd Street by 9:30, as I figured from my past experience on Monday and Tuesday that the pick-up line would be fairly short by this time and I saw a parking lot that had an all day early bird special for $14 after taxes. 

 

Getting out into Manhattan via car took about half an hour longer than the bus.  There are bus only lanes going to and through the Lincoln Tunnel.  We arrived at the parking lot around 9:30 and walked to the Chinese Embassy.  The usual old ladies were across the street doing their tai chi.  The guard was once again missing at the front door and IDs were requested by the metal detectors.  Once inside, I noticed the visa application line was longer than Monday and Tuesday’s lines. 

 

I went to line #9, where I was supposed to hand in the receipts that I was given on Tuesday.  I was the fourth person on line.  The person at the counter would take the receipts and leave the window for a little while, then return for the next customer.  I got up to the window and handed in my receipts and was given a tag with a number on it and the lady pointed toward my left side, signaling me to go to window 8.  Windows 8 and 10 both serve the same purpose.  I stood on line at window 8 for about 15 minutes, apparently there was some issue with the person at the head of the line. 

 

I went up and handed in my number card.  The lady picked up two envelopes which the lady from window 9 had placed next to her and asked me for $520.  I paid with my credit card and was handed the passports and receipt.

 

The pickup process was pretty painless.  However, I did not understand the need for standing on two lines.  Why not just have three windows where you hand in the receipts, pay and pick up the visas?  The Chinese I suppose have their own strange way of thinking or they just enjoy having people stand on line. 

 

Look for my next update probably on September 8^th or so… 

 

ABC

The Blog
Mood:  not sure

OK, so I have decided to start this blog.  The only thing is that once I get into China, I do not know what sites will be prohibited.  Therefore, I have decided to post the blog in multiple locations, so hopefully at least one of them will work.  The two following sites will work in conjunctin with each other, the exact same things will be posted on both: 

http://abcinchina09.blogspot.com/

https://abcok999.angelfire.com/abcinchina/

If they both work, I will probably pick one once I am in China.  Lastly, if both of these sites do not work, try facebook.  :)

 ABC

The Trip
Mood:  happy
Let's start with the characters going on this trip. Me, the ABC that will be in China. ABC stands for American Born Chinese and my initials are also ABC. My mom, born and raised in Guangzhou, she was in her teens when she came to the states. ABC #2 is Izz, her extremely limited chinese includes a hodge podge of Cantonese words that she learned in Chinese School. ABC #3 is Chubba, his chinese is even more limited than Izz's (if that is possible), he knows how to say milk, rice, chicken and that is about it.

I was driving in the car with my mom one day and she suggested a trip to China. The kids, readily agreed to a trip to China, specifically to see the Great Wall of China, which was shown on a recent episode of Ni Hao Kai Lan (a children's show for those who do not have young children, think Dora, but Chinese). According to Chubba, he wants to go to the Great Wall to say Ni Hao to the people.

So, after checking plane ticket prices, we found cheap tickets from Newark direct to Hong Kong. The flight will take us under 16 hours each way, which is much better than the 24 hours it took me the last time I went to HK/China in 2000/2001.

After some discussion, we decided to head to Hong Kong on September 6, returning on September 24. Due to the time difference and the International Date Line, we will actually arrive in Hong Kong the evening of September 7 and get back only 4 hours after we take off on the 24th.

We will spend one night in Hong Kong, then head into China, specifically Guangzhou (aka Canton). After five nights in Guangzhou, we will fly to Xi'an (home of the Terra Cotta Warriors) for two nights and Beijing for three nights before heading back Guangzhou for two more nights and wrapping up with four nights in Hong Kong. I am using nights instead of days because with the train and plane rides, we will spend a bunch of half days in various places.

My next blog will probably be next Monday, when I take our passports to the Chinese Embassy to get Visas.