The first five days we will be staying, courtesy of Gulfstream, at a 5-star hotel in Shanghai in the Pudong district of the city, right along the western bank of the Huangpu Jiang (River), which divides the city into east and west sections.  This is the historic and present day financial district and a popular tourist destination to see the spectacular steel and glass skyscrapers of The Bund. To visit the rest of the city, we will either take a ferry across the river or take a taxi which will drive over one of the bridges. We want to take a cruise one of the days up river toward the Yangtze River to see all the wharves.  Shanghai is a busy port that handles one-third of all China’s trade with the rest of the world.

After the conference is over, we will take a fast train (magnetic levitation train which goes up to 267 miles/hour) to Suzhou, the Venice of the East, east of Shanghai.  For two nights and three days, we will stay at a 4-star hotel as we explore, by boat, bicycle and foot, that city and also bus to Zhouzhuang, another one of the water townships.

Then we take a 12-hour overnight train trip to Beijing (hopefully getting enough rest in the sleeping berths). For the next five days we’ll be exploring Beijing and also taking a side trip to hike part of the Great Wall.  Our accommodations will be in a 3-star hotel in a part of the city where the locals live.  On our last day we’ll fly back to Shanghai on China Eastern Airlines to catch our international flight home.

To combat jet lag and DVT (deep vein thrombosis) on our two 18-hour non-stop flights, we have ear plugs, eyes masks, neck pillows, homeopathic medication from New Zealand,  compression socks, electrolyte powder to add to our water, and a list of leg exercises to do every hour. We’ll be so busy with all that we may not have much time for novel reading or pre-recorded videos.