Multiple Bucket List items checked off - Dim Sum style: bert goes to China with TPR! (a photo trip report with lots of cities, lots of hotels, lots of parks, and lots and lots of food!)

[bert425]

so. . . one of the reasons I love TPR (and there are many, among them the great friends I've made over the years with other posters/trip goers) is that via Robb & Elissa, I'm able to do things I never thought in a million years I would get to do.

this trip to China was one of them.     I'm serious when I say that this trip knocked out several things from my bucket list, including my #1 (getting to visit all currently existing Disney Parks in the world).

I'd looked forwards to this trip for almost a full year, and now that it was upon me I had a bit of panic (the Government had shut down and what would that do to travel?), and a lot of excitement.   Elissa and Robb were invaluable assets in terms of knowing what to apply for Visa wise, what apps to set up, how much local $$ to bring, what VPN to get, what eSim, etc. etc.  

add to this, my Boyfriend was fully moving in with me, 2 days after I left for the trip - after spending the better part of the prior year and a half traveling back and forth an hour 40 minutes each way to stay with me every few days.   and I'd be gone for almost a month, while he was alone in the house.   

But I valued so much that I was invited to join, and overall, wouldn't trade the experience for anything!    

the first installment here is getting to China, so not a lot of pics of things other than myself and plane food.  but we'll quickly get into many amazing things in upcoming installments. 

*and I'm even gonna go back and finish off my Oktoberfest report from last year. . . whoops!  life got in the way, but gonna finish that, as that TPR trip was amazing as well.

anyways. . here we go, off to the races

 

up at 3am, and Jim and I took a pic before he drove me the 40 minutes to the Austin airport, before he headed back to Waco - as he had to work that morning.

 

I always tend to fly United for international flights, because for me?  they are the best of the worst.   They ALWAYS mess something up, be it delayed/cancelled flights stranding me somewhere, lost luggage, a missed connection. . . something!   
(that said, this trip?  first time, EVER, no luggage lost, and no flight cancelled that left me stranded somewhere.. even tho there was a bit of drama, as you'll see).

the bonus is that because I've always had issues, I have a ton of credit and goodwill from the Company, so when they offered to upgrade me to Polaris Business class (after some flight f**kery that moved my flights around multiple times in the month leading up to the trip), for less than $150?   I grabbed it.

and because of that, I had access to the United Lounges on my flight there.

here I am around 4am having a light snack in the Lounge in the Austin airport.

the first flight went without a hitch, and since they had upgraded me to Business for the long flight, this much shorter one (still 3 1/2 hours tho) bumped me into 1st class:

nice, wide seats

and to my surprise, a served, warm meal!    the rest of the plane got the option to buy those meal boxes, but I was able to have Peach crepes.

and they were good!  (but it was too much food)

landing in San Francisco, I had about 3 hours until my connecting flight to Beijing. . . which was a good thing, as the walk from my terminal to the gate for the international flight took almost 30 minutes.
(the gates are NEVER close to each other. . LOL).

took this pic of the plane I had gotten off of as I passed it walking from domestic into the international terminal.

I wasn't really hungry, but I had almost 2 hours to kill, so hung out in the lounge there and eventually had a light snack here too.

I'd been really trying to lose some weight before China (so my big American butt would fit in the Chinese rides). . .but this was a bad start that I was already eating way too much.

spoiler tho: I was only denied 5 things during the whole trip. . and really, it was only 3, because one I didn't even try (knew I was too heavy) and the other I was *just* below the weight limit, but I didn't want to argue with them, so just said ok and stepped aside to take pictures instead of riding.

beautiful day tho. . . so wasn't expecting any issues.

hahahaha. . yeah.

some of the SF Airport artwork as I headed to my gate.

which as noted, was the ass end of the airport, and down the stairs.

but at least made it and the flight showed on time still.

the Polaris Business Class on United is amazing.   Even tho I tend to get claustrophobic in these "bathtubs". . these ones seemed OK, since I was the only one on this side, and there was no "door" so it was open.   the seat reclines all the way down and slides forwards and turns it into a flat bed for sleeping.   

they give you so much stuff, it took some rearranging to fit in.   but I enjoyed my glass of champagne while boarding.

then we sat.   

and sat some more.

and sat some more.

the pilot came on multiple times to tell us that we were holding for the wind to let up, but he hoped we could take off.

luckily I wasn't the only one on the China TPR trip, as Shane and his son Fischer were also on board, and also in Business class, so we chatted while we sat.

I got an alert from United offering us a $25 (I think?) coupon to use in the terminal to get a snack, but it must be used today.   and I walked up to Shane's seat and said - "they're gonna make us deplane"  

not even 20 minutes later, we got the announcement that the crew had timed out, and we all had to deplane, and to come back to the same gate in about 3 hours, as they had already called a new flight crew.

the conspiracy theorist in me thinks it had something to do with Air Traffic Controllers (as my prior pic showed, it was a beautiful day. . and other flights were taking off.. so very odd, the "wind" was only affecting the one runway that we HAD to use, because the other one was under construction).     anyways, we took all our carry ons off, and since we were all Business class, we 3 headed back to the lovely United Lounge in the international terminal to hang out and wait.

exhausted already - and not even on the 14+ hour flight - but sending proof of life home to Jim and telling him what's going on.

eventually, we made our way back down to the gate at the new time, and tho they were late getting boarding going - we started boarding moments after the flight crew came in, but interestingly just after the door steward had announced that they were delaying boarding so they could finish cleaning the plane (yes, the same plane we had been on earlier).

so this is me not really trusting them, but trying not to panic, that if the flight got cancelled, how the heck was I gonna get to China in time for the food tour I had booked on the day after my arrival?

but eventually, we did back away from the gate. . and about 6 1/2 hours after we were supposed to have left, we finally took off and headed towards Beijing.

 

here's a peek at the menu - they really do love to feed ya on international flights.

I didn't have everything - I was simply too full.

but I did have the beets salad:

the prawns:

a few cold brews:

and tho I watched a few movies, and never sleep on flights, I actually did lay the chair down into bed position and napped for about an hour or so.

woke up to desert snack service (that I passed on), and this beautiful sunrise out my window.

I did give in and try the grilled cheese for the 2/3rds flight snack (it looked way better than it was, and funnily Shane, Fischer, and I had all gotten it and all had the same opinion of it).

we were starting to pass over cities . . .and were supposed to land soon

only ~7 hours after we had been supposed to arrive. . but hey, we were here!

and the perk of arriving so late, was that the terminal was pretty empty.  

Which made getting thru Customs and immigration a breeze

Shane had arranged a car, and the driver had been following along with our flight delays.. thank goodness he was there waiting for us, when we finally came out of arrivals.

we all breathed a sigh of relief, and piled into the car, for the drive to the hotel we were staying in pre-trip.   a Hilton, as had been recommended by Elissa.

not sure if it was because we arrived so much later than intended, or what.. but I ended up in a HUGE corner suite for the night. . .for a super reasonable (ie: inexpensive) price.

really, the room was big: 

the first of many hotels that had the bathroom/shower open to the main room.

yes, you could pull out the sliding panels to block it off, but it seemed to be a thing in China, that one would be able to watch someone in the bathroom (tho not on the actual toilet - in most cases) if one chose to.

most all of the hotels on this trip provided bottled water, so never really worried about getting sick (and didn't really, luckily).

the view from my corner room.

at this point i was exhausted. . so after a shower and a call home to let Jim know I had arrived safely (14 hour time difference, so my 1am was his late 3pm) I climbed into bed and was out cold.

I had a food tour booked in the morning, and had to check out and meet Elissa in the lobby by 11.

tho I did get up to pee during the night, and the toilet freaked me out enough by opening up to greet me and lighting up, that I grabbed my phone from the charger, and snapped some pics.

freaky

let the adventure begin!!

 

 

[AmyUD06]

I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of this.  There really is no better place than TPR for Trip Reports (I've got about two years worth to write LOL), and I always enjoy yours, so thank you.

[bert425]

Day 0 - Beijing Back alley food tour & bus to 1st basecamp hotel: Universal Studios Beijing!

part 1 

Elissa & Robb had found a local food tour company that was very highly rated, and had made plans to take the tour.   She offered to anyone that was arriving early, if they wanted to join in, and I believe we had all 12 spots filled with TPR folks.

after a great sleep (thanks to Tylenol PM to knock me out and help prevent jet lag), I got up and got my first look at the actual view from my room.  pretty nice.

it was nice and cool, and I had slept with windows cracked. . .was loving the weather.

but I had an important task to take care of now that I was actually thru Immigration & Customs:  

China parks tend to be very restrictive on age/weight/height.    so anything I could do to make myself look younger, I needed to do.   Cutoff age was 49, so needed to look at least that young - or at least tell them I was that young if they asked.

Some dyed hair, but for me, that meant shapewear (for weight, since they mainly eyeball), and cutting off the goatee, as I knew that would make me look much younger. 

and it did

I made sure to take note of the warning on the Q-tips the hotel supplied, and was aware of my "ear socket and deep nostril"

checked out, and had the hotel hold the bags (as we weren't headed over to Universal until ~3pm, and the food tour started at 11am).

we met up in the lobby, and grabbed a pic with Robb, and the cow that was hanging out by the hotel front entrance: 

my roomie for this trip, Stacy, also did the food tour with us!

with excellent Navigation from Elissa, we made our way over to the nearest metro station, and headed to the meeting spot for the food tour.

random pics snapped while walking to the metro.

this rail system was super easy to understand, and that was true of every major city we took the train in.   
and it was great to see so many things with English translations, even if the vast majority of the people did not speak English.  (translator app is super helpful)

we got to our stop about 40 minutes early, so we were cut loose to explore the area and meet back to start the tour at 11.

the area in central Beijing is absolutely gorgeous

the stop we were to meet at was apparently next to a pretty major landmark - the Central Axis and Wanning Bridge:

all over the city there were little "workout" areas and many of them were being used by older folks staying in shape.

Andrew and Jon too !

these folks were just hanging out on an afternoon putting on a performance in a music circle.

myself and John - he was a huge hit over in China (especially among the kids). . they just hadn't seen a beard like this often. . so lots of folks snapping pics of him.

the aforementioned music performance.

and yes, the singer really did sound an awful lot like Yoko Ono singing.   was very cool to hear tho, and the folks gathered were very appreciative.

absolutely no idea why this "Patrick and Spongebob holding each other's cakey-butts" was on this bike, but I saw it several places around Beijing.   perhaps a local "graffiti art" type image?

Dancing Children, yay!!!    Not today, as it was Sunday. . but later in the trip, we'd see so many children in the parks on school trips.   

back at the station, we snapped a pic with our food guide and then we were off!

our first stop down an alley was this tiny (well, they were all pretty small, local places) noodle house.

looking around the alley as our guide explained how this local place had been here for many years, and was very popular for their pulled noodles.

a peek into the kitchen from the table I sat at.

the 12 of us on the tour took up pretty much all the tables in this place, so we were able to learn about the food, and how it's made and should be eaten.

 

mixing everything together.  

it smelled incredible.    

as someone who likes spicy, I added chili sauce to mine, but not until after tasting it first, to get the full flavor of the noodles

yum!

you can tell I just *hated* this  

the kewl side of the place being so small, is that the owner and chef came out and sat with us to watch us eat and judge our reactions.

they were so surprised I asked if I could take their picture.  (behind them are pics of Chinese celebrities who have come by this place for noodles)

moving on towards our next stop, I did notice that some of the architecture in this neighborhood was very "heavy". . . what I'd expect from a Communist place. . but most of it was not.  which made places like this stand out that much more.   I truly was surprised how much i enjoyed the people and places in China, and found everyone to be just delightful.

(well. . except for that one Disney saleswoman who couldn't understand I wanted to buy a medium shirt for my bf, and kept pointing to my belly and saying "too fat" when I tried to check out with the shirt).   LOL

our guide explained to us how most of these entrances we were passing in the alleys were homes, and the blue "studs" indicated wealth/prestige. . so the more of them, the higher the rank.

many had 1 or 2, but a few had 4.

then we turned onto a little strip center and into our 2nd stop:

slightly bigger place, and we only took up two of the 4 long tables in here.

some of the options, tho we were going to try the first one, a famous Beijing dish called a Door Nail Dumpling (because it looks like a door nail on the Forbidden City giant red doors)

our guide explained the history of the dish, how it got it's name. . .

and broke out a local alcohol - that was quite strong - for us to try.

cheers!

here are the Dumplings.

and they were OMG so good. . . I think would rank way up there in the top 3 things I ate this entire trip.

absolutely delicious

back out into the main street, and down another alley way, and we were at our 3rd stop.
 

this one just looked like a doorway. . but as you went back, it split off into multiple houses/restaurants.

we sat at a table in the "courtyard". . and were served multiple dishes to make a meal.

Pork (or chicken. . not sure which)

oh, maybe that one is the chicken?

lots of options on the table, and our guide explained the proper way to eat everything.

these were a "desert". . which really tasted like a red bean marmalade.

it wasn't bad, but it wasn't a favorite of mine.  mainly because I really hate being sticky, and you can tell from just looking at these, how sticky it was.

here she is explaining procedure to us

again, everything was quite good.    very low on the "spiciness" level (for me), but really great on flavor.

 

as soon as was done, I had to go wash my hands (the sticky thing). . so got to see my first "traditional" Chinese toilet.

ta-da!

and then we were  on our way back thru the alleys and back onto a main street for our final stop.

it wasn't on the main floor tho. . it was on the rooftop (overlooking the historical landmark "Drum Tower")

noted, ummmm. . .

vampire policeman? 

I think? 

adorable that they put "cloud lights" above the stairs as you ascend three flights to the rooftop.

the rooftop was lovely - and covered in Astroturf.

yup, our final stop was Hot Pot (which many of us on this trip had never had before). . with beef, pork, and tofu options

and ADORABLE mustard dipping sauce bowls

the aforementioned Drum Tower view from the rooftop dining.

food tour over, and myself full, fat, and happy, we headed back to the metro to grab our luggage from the Hilton, and head over to Universal via transfer bus that Elissa had booked.

the front of the restaurant entrance that we went into for the rooftop dining.

yeah. . the metro was a LITTLE more crowded on the ride back to the Hilton.

but the transfer bus was there, and we loaded our luggage and spread out.  

the official trip didn't start till tomorrow, so 15 or so more folks would be meeting us later at the hotel.

pics from the bus window as we left central Beijing (since the Universal resort is on the town outskirts) and it had been dark the night before, so I didn't get to see really any of the city

just a tiny fraction of the apartment buildings, that stretched for miles in every direction around Beijing.   and crossing over one of the multiple "moats" that surround the city.

and then. . .glimpsed thru the window on the opposite side?   we turned into Universal Beijing resort.

 

to be continued. . . 

[bert425]

Day 0 continued:

arriving at Universal Studios Grand Hotel is quite an experience. . it's a huge hotel that straddles the entrance to the park, and the Citywalk.

very "vintage" Hollywood designed too.

and they were decorated for Halloween!

for some reason (VERY unlike me) I don't seem to have taken any pics of the room at Universal?

but each room was themed, and ours was "Back to the Future". . so we had pics of Doc

and Doc, Marty, the DeLorean in our room.

and a nice view

the lobby is pretty art deco.  loved this lamp.

you could take these stairs down to go thru security for park entry.

we were going to meet up with 'the Nicks" to go into Citywalk, but Stacy and I headed to the bar first.

where we discovered an entire drink menu themed to 'spooky' 

it was called the "Moonlight Berry Whisper" and had a Berry Ice Dragon in it. . of COURSE I had to order it.

it was really good, tho not much alcohol in it.

Fischer had "Shrek's Vitality Potion" and Shane had a "Spiced Soul" I believe

 

after drinks, we headed out to Citywalk, passing right in front of the park gates.

while Universal Beijing doesn't have "Halloween Horror Nights" officially, they DO have "Scares @ Universal" with some very familiar park landmarks that are from HHN, and some Houses, that are included with admission.    as well as a big show and 3 "scare zones" that feature their Halloween Mascots - represented below in the neon sign.

but we'd be doing that tomorrow.     Tonight was just a visit to the Citywalk to check it out, and grab a bite.

Can't be a Universal without the famous globe out front!

not as big as some of the other CityWalks I've been to (tho I've never been to the US Universals). . .but this one had very reasonable prices on everything, and some very decent food options.

and a Popstore - that of course, was sold out of Labubu

PLENTY of everything else tho. . but I very quickly got over the blind box craze. . I wanna know what I'm buying . . . did pick up a few as gifts tho.

very large food court, that was open after the park closed. . . i think we came in here to eat close to 10:30 pm?

everything was so inexpensive, I ended up ordering way too much so I could try things.

my stomach regretted it later that night, but at least I didn't eat all of it.

and only had one of these (gifted one to others at the table, and tossed one). . I got excited by seeing Door Nail Dumpling as an option for a side, and ordered them.   but of course, they were no where near as good as the handmade by grandmas ones we had had earlier today.   They were ok tho. . . just not amazing.

on the way back to the hotel, we popped into Toothsome's to check out prices 
 

they were reasonable, and we ended up grabbing some stuff for our room.

and then the robot guy (no idea what his name is) was out and about at end of night. . so for some reason, I did a "gangsta pose" with him while wearing my Chinese Grandma red jacket. . . LOL

still a good pic tho.

a pic of some of the fountains as we crossed the lake back to the hotel.

and then it was time to crawl into bed, and sleep.

tomorrow was a big day - breakfast included in the hotel, and then a full day at Universal Beijing to kick off the official TPR China trip.