about 2 months ago, i got an email from one of my ft friends (who i won't name without his consent) who had booked me a prepaid room ($1) at the shenyang trader's for tonight and tonight only.

up until yesterday, i was pretty much intent on writing the trip off and sending my apologies to the said fter. however, i ended up getting roped into a meeting yesterday with some shenyang government people who invited me to visit so i thought "serendipity" and bought myself a plane ticket.

i didn't bring any sort of travel guide with me so my stay thus far has pretty much been limited to massage, sauna, expensive hamburger, bath, nap, second sauna, and brief trip to the local babyface (which was pretty cool, i have to admit).

all that said, this place beats the pants off my last two short trips (zhengzhou [yuck] and wuhan [yuck++]).

the only downside is that it is far colder than i ever could have envisioned. (right now, i'm thinking of all you romantics that pine to check out the harbin ice festival; pack heavy!)

i'll try to take some pics tomorrow and the next day. my primary objective there will be to capture images of what may be the saddest trees on the planet (you can't see them from the plane because they're so frail!).

in any event, i am greatful to my ft friend for giving me a new experience.

today, i woke up at 6 because my mother called me; she still isn't good at the whole time zone thing. since i was already up, i hit the sauna (again) in order to prepare my body for the day.

then i returned to my slumber for a few minutes and was awoken by ms. helen, who was waiting at my door (i had given her my room number the night before).

i quickly threw on some business casual attire and set off with her. what followed was a typical day in the hands of a local government, eager for foreign money.

the highlights:

-an hour of skiing to start the day (chinese ski areas are really lame, but there is some entertainment value)
-a walk in a treeless park that gets 12 million visitors per year
-an hour of paintball
-a really wierd lunch (not as bad as the stuff the guys in the south like to feed me, but plenty of unidentifiable dishes), which included copious amounts of baijiu
-a visit to the new aquarium; i love aquariums, even smelly ones; the most interesting part of this one was the snake room because, rather than feeding those guys at set intervals, they give them an extra supply of mice to devour at will; those mice were living in fear
-another aspiring resort was next on the agenda; we rode bicycles
-a formal meeting; nothing was really accomplished, but i liked one of the guys so it's conceivable that future business will result
-a banquet. i tried my best to get out of this without being rude; the best i could do was a 7p deadline. the food was ok --way better than lunch-- and i was impressed by the room.... santa scene using actual stuffed reindeer, manmade snow falling from the ceiling, waitresses adorned in santa mini (or maybe "micro") dresses.
-later, the guy that i liked brought me to his favorite bar (Party), which was ten-fold better than babyface

regarding the hotel; i really like it. however, no less than 3 of those guys told me it's a bad hotel. when i asked them why, they were at a loss for words. in any case, i extended and have no idea how much the second night's going to cost me.

i took lots of pictures throughout the day, which i'll try to incorporate into this when i get a chance.

Interesting report so far thanks.^

Did you fly from Beijing to Shenyang and which airline did you fly with?

i flew ca because their schedule worked and their prices were in line with the rest. secondarily, i'm trying to make platinum and i'm pretty high up on their learning curve (i.e. i know how to get good seats, figure out if my plane is delayed, and change tickets quickly). but, the platinum allure is largely a pipe dream; in spite of the fact that i'm pretty close in terms of kilometers/segments, only about half of my flights have actually posted. sure, a little motivation on my part could change that, but it's really not worth the hassel. the way i see it, i'm well on my way to scoring some transpac upgrades, which puts me way ahead of my colleagues, many of whom fly much more than myself.

Thanks for the report, moondog. The good folks in the MR forum will continue to do their best to send you to exotic destinations.

I've never seen better evidence to support a theory which often comes up in MR forum discussions of mistake rates; namely that it is good for the properties to honor their mistakes, as it cerates goodwill and repeat business.