My thanks as well to spaceman, TravellerOnline, and Freepoint... should the FlyerTea folks decide on a US DO, make sure to let us know! Great to meet so many new folks...

We had 160mph tailwinds on the way back and got into DTW 2 hours early. I bolted across the terminal (after pausing for my complementary TSA grope :rolleyes:) for an earlier connection and managed to get home 4 hours early.

I'll echo everyone else's thanks to the organisers here - great to see everyone and to meet friends old and new :D

I'm almost home - although I left China on Sunday I've been in transit pretty much the whole time since. I did have a night at Hyatt Place Kansas City... but didn't get to sleep there as was trying to plan my re-route if things went wrong on my AA flights. Fortunately they didn't (in fact, quite the opposite - thanks for the op-ups, AA!) and am now sitting in SYD for a few hours catching up on work before finally getting home at about 0200hrs on Thursday :eek:

Had a fantastic time and am looking forward to China DO 2! Perhaps we can time it with the Auckland -> Macau 747 charter I'm helping a friend plan next November ;)

I also want to thank spaceman, TravellerOnline, and Freepoint for putting the weekend together. The Friday tour was fantastic, the meals good and the company great.

I really liked Shanghai and look forward to returning to China. If there is a China DO in 2012, and I hope there is, it would be nice to make it a few weeks earlier so our visas are still good :)

wow,i just know u had this plan~and......it's so pity, if I knew that earlier,I would tell u many tips in shanghai

Had the same with our flight back to ORD. Scheduled to land at 5:30pm. Instead, we landed at 3:37! :D

And there was no Nude-O-Scope in the priority AAcess line at ORD.. No grope :)

Great meeting you!

a nice Do,many thanks
 

many thanks to organizers,it's a wonderful Do ,let us meet many interesting people ,and wish many activities like this would be take place~many thanks!

Perhaps you could stay a little longer next time! :D

Thanks, Kerry. The next time I am in Shanghai, I will have to take you up on your offer.

Good, I will let you honcho this one :D

You should have come to the UA priority access lines - many of us got the full Nude-O-Scope and then the "custom massage" from a very polite TSA person :( as he offered to send you into outer space :o

Nice try! You're a man of leisure and I'm still a working stiff.

Thank You! :)
 

A big belated Thank You to spaceman, TravellerOnline and Dale for everything! However may I humbly request cheaper choices of restaurants next time? I'm afraid I cannot afford to spend on such a level so often, and it's not possible to blatantly sit in without ordering anything... :( Also, will anyone be collating a contact list for those who might want to stay in contact for the future yet forgot to get the relevant information?

wrxmom, looking forward to seeing you in a few days -- let me know where/how to meet up! :)

BTW if anyone is interested in some restaurant reviews for Shanghai (and lots of other travel pages too), here's a link to my VirtualTourist Shanghai Restaurants travel page: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1d57/5be/2/

For those on the trip to Zhujiajiao, one of life's mysteries solved courtesy of ellyse's Virtual Tourist page.

Goldfish sellers at the Fangsheng bridge.

"Fangsheng" means "to set free", the traditional Buddhist custom of setting free small animals such as turtles, fish and such so as to accrue good karma. Here there're aunties with plastic bags of small fish which they try to sell to visitors and other passers-by for this "good" purpose.

Read more: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/1f6ecf/#ixzz1dtbr9Td1"

ellyse's detailed explanation of where to locate the express bus to Zhujiajiao would have saved NewbieRunner a scouting tour around People's Square, but we all thank Newbie for keeping us from getting lost on more than one occasion.

-sigh- Too bad I didn't see anything about the Zhujiajiao trip till too late, or else I would've posted that Zhujiajiao travel page before and not only now!

Sent you a PM :)