Well, I’m back in China now. I’m in Shenzhen at the moment, but I’ll be heading to Beijing in a couple days. The flight over here was a long as ever. I managed to take a short nap on the flight, but not nearly long enough. The movies weren’t much help either. Of the 5 movies they showed, I had already seen 3 of them on previous flights. At least I managed to sit in Economy Plus which has decent leg room.

Around half way through the flight, I happened to look out the window to see the ice covered Bering Straight. From the GPS map they show on the plane, I could see when we passed the International Date Line, so I took this picture. Too bad I hadn’t been paying attention a little earlier. It looks like we had passed fairly close to Mt. McKinley. That would have been neat to see from the plane.

A little further on I could see the coast of Russia. Here’s a shot of what I imagine is Siberia. It certainly looks cold enough. It’s funny how far north we travel to get from San Francisco to Beijing. I guess between the funny curve of the earth and the jet stream, it makes sense, but it just seems a little odd.

During the flight you end up getting 2 full means and a mid-flight snack. The meals usually have a choice of a western style or Asian style meal. After taking off around 2 PM, we usually get a dinner service. Then, around mid-way through the flight there’s a bowl of instant noodles. Then, before we land, there’s a breakfast meal which usually means a choice between an omelet or some noodles.

After about 12 wonderful hours of sitting in a big tube with 300 of my closest friends, I finally arrived in Beijing. It was nice to be on the ground and walking around again! However, I only had 2 hours before I had to catch a flight to Shenzhen. So that’s gonna be another 3 hours of sheer joy. Oh, and as a bonus, another round of airline food! How lucky can a guy get?