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Since pandemic, I have been back to China twice, last year in the spring break of school year 2022/2023, which was the 1st time I visited China since pandemic, when the PRC (People’s Republic of China) just relaxed in-bound travel in Jan 2023, and I booked ticket on Jan 29, 2023 via Expedia.com – refer to this blog post China Trip Spring 2023 – Logistics if you like to learn more. I also wrote another blog post China Trip Spring 2023 – Observations And Thoughts shortly after the trip.
This most recent trip is the 2nd trip since 2020.
Visting China mainland is a bit more challenging since pandemic, overall. One main factor that people often talk about is the cut back of the direct flights between two countries: I recall it used to be in the range of 150 weekly flights. This Reuters article has more details, and I will quote some content below. Keep in mind that the regulator approving more flights does not mean the airlines will add them. This is especially true in the USA, because all the airlines are private owned, profit driven. 油管上弘哥有关于这方面的分析，我觉得比较客观。
Chinese passenger airlines will be allowed to boost their weekly round-trip U.S. flights to 50 starting on March 31, up from the current 35, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Monday, returning the market to nearly one-third of pre-pandemic levels.
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More than 150 weekly round-trip passenger flights were allowed by each side before restrictions were imposed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but until August 2023, Chinese and U.S. carriers could each fly only 12 a week between the two countries.
The number rose on Sept. 1 to 18 weekly round-trips and then to 24 per week starting Oct. 29. The USDOT approved 35 for Chinese carriers in November.
FlyChina.com
If you happen to know Chinese 如果你会中文, the flychina.com website has a complete list and collection of updates (for example, you can click on this “今年已增航班班详细公告” on the up to date US/China direct flights. The website has English version too, but I have not checked or verified how good are the English content there.
Anyway, amid all this aka the new normal (reduced direct US/China direct flights), we booked air ticket quite early and I talked about it in my blog post here too – Bought Air Ticket For Summer Trip To CHN. We were somewhat nervous because this is complete new route to us, and there are some uneasiness of going this route: STL <=> ORD Chicago <=> YVR Vancouver <=> HKG Hong Kong. We took Amtrak for STL to Chicago union station (and took Uber from the union station to the ORD airport or hotel near airport). We also built in some sleepovers in hotels (Chicago one night, Vancouver 2 nights, and Hong Kong 3 nights. We also tried to use the hotel airport shuttle bus when I stayed at hotel near airport.
Note both my wife and I are from mainland, so there is one more leg after reaching Hong Kong. We took the air route. There are land route aka the high speed train (Gao’tie) as well. We book those separately via trip.com.
Places we visited in China
Both my wife and I are originally from Zhejiang province (you may be interested in this blog post Hometown Is Always Special). In addition to seeing families in Zhejiang, we also stopped by Shanghai, where my wife and I met in 2006, to see her side of families and friends. I also still have families and friends in Shanghai too: but I kept my head low to focus on my supporting role. Also the few days we were at Shanghai we had quite high outdoor temperature.
Overall score: pretty good
Now that we are back, and I am happy to report that the trip is a success in terms of the new route and the overall experience. We didn’t have any major hiccups. We do have one minor thing when we leave Hong Kong hotel for the airport. Right out of gate at the taxi, our 14 year old said: I forget my hoodies in the hotel (in the closet). Let me emphasize at that time we already checked out the hotel, and we are in the taxi, and the taxi was about to leave 🙁
Minor hiccup
To say I was annoyed is definitely an understatement. First let me say after this is all over, this scene is not new to me, and I recall at the 宁波北仑世茂希尔顿逸林酒店 (note the local people call it 希尔顿逸林酒店) that I stayed since 2017, and I saw this scene in the elevator video (they haven’t changed the video since 2017 🙂 Let me repeat, in the scene the hotel staff tried to catch the minivan in which the guests are leaving for airport, and make sure the little boy has the “lost” stiff animal. Sweet, ah? The real life is not usually like that.
Anyway, let’s back to the topic. I immediately asked the hotel reception desk, and she suggested I go up to the 22nd floor lounge, and asked for help there. The lady at the lounge listened to my issue patiently, and typed something in her system, mainly notifying the house keeper. And my 14 year old and I waited there, for about 25 minutes, with my daughter much more composed than me. Eventually the house keeper showed up, and delivered the missing hoodie to us, in a nice bag. We tipped him the housekeeper $100 (Hong Kong dollar, worth about $13 USD). We offered tip to the the lady assisted us at the lounge too, but she didn’t accept. After we got back to the taxi, I immediately tipped the taxi driver 100 HKD. The driver was happy and he drove very well in terms of the time it took us from the hotel to the #HKG airport.
Lost and Found
As a postpartum or post mortem review with our 14 year old, I told her that we (my wife, her little sister, and myself) are not going to be her “lost and found department” forever. She needs to step up her game and be responsible for her own belongings and so on. I said that in the light of two “thew away retainer” incidents last semester – read this blog post I Am Exhausted, But I Will Soldier On if you are interested to know more. I guess I may have ranted too much there or here – but my intension is help her be responsible. Personally I don’t think physical things are do or die, but if one does not pay attention to his surrounding, especially as a girl at a wrong place or wrong time, things can get bad pretty quickly. That’s my main worry as a parent. Not an broken iPhone or missing stuff animal or hoodie 🙂
Things I learned or relearned: some odds and ends
When leave Vancouver for Chicago, the “entering US immigration and customs” are done at YVR. After we landed at ORD, we just exit and get our luggages like a domestic flight.
In China it’s still best to have a local mobile phone number with cellular data. We need it for WeChat pay (or Alipay), rideshare apps (Didi Chuxing or Gaode Map), as well as ordering food and drink in many places via WeChat Mini Program 微信小程序. I actually documented some of all those tips and tricks in my Twitter (X) thread. I think FlyChina.com has some quite practical advices on those related topic as well, such as this one and that one.
Get cash in HK, which is needed for taxi and the MTR (subway), I used Schwab debit card, and it has no foreign transaction fee, and offers unlimited ATM fee rebate. I had this card for a few years now, and I am glad I put it to good use for International travel eventually.
Must see places in Hong Kong: Victoria Peak aka 太平山(day, tram starts near Hong Kong Park), and Victoria Harbour (night view, looking from Tsim Sha Tsui). Please refer to my other blog post – Some Random Thoughts During My Recent China Trip – 我2024年夏天中国行的一些观察 if needed.
Starbucks are everywhere. But in China they don’t have cake pops that my 14 year old like. In YVR Tim Hortons is as popular as Starbucks. I used credit card for the purpose at YVR, the Starbucks US app does not work at YVR.
In Vancouver I tip in USD. It seems USD cash is fairly widely accepted there: as I saw a sign in the hotel lobby talkong about taking 25 CAD or 20 USD for the shuttle to the cruise ship. You got the idea.
I knew in Vancouver there are a lot of ethnic Chinese people: some moved from HK to Vancouver around 1997. I also noticed there are quite a few Indian (or south asians) immigrants at hotel and at the airport as well. Canada is q quite diverse country. The YVR has 3 languages for most signs: English, French and Chinese.
Last but not least, the Boeing planes. I noticed the Boeing 737 Max 8 of Air Canada has a very quick acknowledgment of flying over native people’s land and water. Some may say that’s “woke”, I say that’s good. Also both Boeing 737 Max 8 and 787-9 have modern infotainment system, and I played chess a lot during my trip. This is aso the 1st time I rode a 737 Max, I believe. I rode 787-9 once on American Airlines ORD to PVG once before pandemic.
Summary
Overall this is a decent route if we want to save some $ and have some extra time to spare. An added bonus is we took kids to see places we normally don’t go often: Vancouver and Hong Kong. Although I admit it’s still hard to persuade my American girls to try Tim Hortons over Starbucks 🙂
