wow, thanks for writing out this awesome trip report! i enjoyed reading it! maybe one day i will get to experience international 1st as well

great trip report. Planning my trip now and saw a few excursion ideas in here. Loved your humor throughout!

Congratulations on your graduation and condolences for your loss. I hope your grandfather had a long life but a short illness. Wow, you have a lot of cousins which I assume is becoming quite rare for someone your age and raised in China. It's obvious you enjoyed the trip and the chance to see your relatives. Do they speak English and do you speak Putonghua or any dialect? If not, how hard was it for you to communicate? I didn't notice if you mentioned whether you entered China as a citizen or a foreigner with a visa. Was it just your Mom who needed a visa? Your report is quite long and not the easiest to read so I might not have absorbed all the details. Please understand that I am not complaining, just explaining why I was asking in case you had already mentioned it. I will have to come back to read it more carefully.

The agent who accepted your bag for standby to Austin shouldn't have told you that it may be sent ahead of you. Even though all bags are screened, passengers are still supposed to believe that they and their bags will be on the same flight. Not that suicide bombers really care.

I am surprised that the Arrivals Suite at ORD was part of the IFL. I can't imagine that the majority of Chicago bound passengers would bother making the trip across the airport to the UA terminal and clear security just to use it. Where are they supposed to leave their checked bagage?

Thank you for writing and posting pictures.

Somehow I missed this fine report when it first came out. bniu, I wish you many more trips in International First Class, if only because I'll look forward to reading about them!

I'm an American citizen by birth and have lived in America all my life. I speak English primarily and can speak some basic Putonghua. It was somewhat hard to communicate, especially since I've been away at college the last few years and I don't really speak Chinese except to my parents and when I have to. My cousin in Beijing volunteered to be my "interpreter" while I was in Beijing and also in Xian and when I was away from her, she was just a short phone call away to help with translating over the phone. My mom was with me during my grandfather's funeral, so I had some help communicating.

I entered with a visa, and my mom is also a US citizen and managed to get one of those emergency visas issued same day. Yes, I have alot of cousins, 9 first, many 2nd, and countless third. I only know a select few of my second cousins, and one third cousin (who happens to be my 1st cousin once removed on another branch) and all but one first cousin. Remember that a child of a cousin is also a cousin to you (albeit a generation removed), so that's where the high number comes from.

I enjoyed writing this report and thanks for reading it.