Thursday, September 20, 2001 - Shanghai

We left home September 19, with a stopover in Vancouver. We arrived in Shanghai and checked into the City Hotel. We had hoped to catch the train from Shanghai to Beijing, but because of increased security (it was just over a week since 9/11) our luggage didn't make the flight from Vancouver to Shanghai with us. So...
We spent a day shopping for underwear and deodorant (most of the former were designed for small Chinese butts, and we never did find any of the latter! -- perhaps the Chinese don't sweat?). We went to the train station to see about booking our train, but with the uncertainty about our luggage, we really couldn't book anything. We ended up deciding NOT to take the train, and the bell boy at the City Hotel (pictured here with 2 relieved Canadian tourists -- our bags arrived at 5:00 am on the morning of our departure) helped us to book flights to Beijing on China Airways.