China Trip - May 15 - May 21st

Byron has travelled with work many times to Asia, but has never had the opportunity to go to China until last month. He was so excited to have somewhere new to visit. The swine flu scare was quite high when he travelled. As soon as the plane landed in Shanghai, China, some men wearing white suits (Byron described them as looking like the men in E.T.) entered the plane and started to shoot laser thermometers onto every passengers forehead to see if they had a fever. If they ended up having one, they would have to be in isolation for a few days. Byron wasn't feeling the best and upon hearing that this was going to happen took some ibuprofen. He was around 35 for his temperature and he thinks that 37 was a fever. Pretty crazy!!! You definitely wouldn't have seen anything like this in America.

Here are some "unknown" birds that Byron saw being cooked.

The beautiful city of Shanghai.

I love this picture with the beautiful reflection of the skyline.

The second tallest building in the world is located there - "Shanghai World Financial Center." Byron has been in the tallest in Taipei and had to add this one to his list of those he has been up in. At the observation deck, there is a glass floor so you can get a better view. I guess it was pretty freaky looking down at such a height. Byron was able to talk himself onto standing on the floor towards the end.

Just beautiful!

There was a KFC that Byron ate at while there. This is a picture of his food that he ordered.

KFC menu - pretty interesting seeing it in another language:)

One of the days Byron was fortunate enough to have a lady, Ann, that Byron knew from China take him around to do some shopping. Luckily she brought an umbrella for Byron to use since it rained most of the day. His favorite part of China was the shopping and being able to bargain. Between him and Ann, they were able to get quite the deals.

A beautiful view of the city during the day - check out all that smog.

Everything including the buildings have their own Asian look. Such a fun culture. Byron had such a great time, but was definitely ready to be home when the time came - other than the 13 hour flight to San Francisco.

One of the hardest things about his flights is that he always flies out from California. Unfortunately this means that he usually has long delays in those airports. He had about 5 hours both ways this last trip. We were so ready for him to be home, but had to wait while he was in San Francisco for 5 hours before he could even board the plane. I am excited for the non-stop flights from Salt Lake to Japan. Those will definitely speed up his flight days.