Thoughts on China

Well, many things are going according to schedule. I got my Chinese visa through BCV Visa and Passport Expeditors. They handled that process flawlessly.

I also got my airplane tickets. Originally, I had planned to leave Tallahassee on October 6 or 7 to arrive in Beijing on October 8, then return from Shanghai on November 10. I changed that to get back on November 15, so that I could go to Huangshan (a very cool mountain), as well. Well, I couldn’t find tickets much under $1200 on these dates. In fact, the prices seemed to go up over the last couple of weeks. Then, one of the travel agents told me that if I left on Wednesday, October 3, I could get the tickets for $980 including all taxes, etc. So this is how my 4 week trip became a 6 week trip!

Now I have to completely review my itinerary to see what I’ll add, change, etc. I already have 4 mountains on my schedule (Tai Shan (泰山), Song Shan (嵩山), Emei Shan (峨眉山) and Huang Shan (黄山). If you haven’t guessed by now, 山 (shan) means mountain, and the character looks like one, too. Well, I might add one more mountain, Hua Shan (华山), near Xi’an. Each of these mountains offers something unique, but I have to look at China again to see if having a full six weeks doesn’t change my mind about where all to go.

Just when I thought everything was firming up, my plans became completely loose again! At least I’m doing this with 6 weeks left and not 6 days!