Summer Break in China - Day 1 & 2

 

Much awaited embrace with grandma

Can you believe this is the first time we all went to China together? The kids and I went to China in 2016, then Teddy and I went to China in 2018. So this was the first time the 4 of us went back together. The kids don't even remember what their last trip to China was like. They were just 3 and 5 years old. We were supposed to be back earlier than this, but COVID made traveling to China difficult, then all the bad blood between US and Russia made traveling to China extremely expensive, so things got delayed. Even now, our trip to China is around $3000 a ticket for Economy class. A drastic difference from our trip last time ($700 a ticket in 2018). 

June 13, 2024

 Our journal started with a flight to Seoul, South Korea. We flew on Korean Airlines, which was quite nice. The service was good and the flight felt much shorter than it was. The kids enjoyed their entertainment offerings.

Prior to the flight, I went on Korean Airlines app and noticed that you could request "seafood" option for the meals. So I did. This turned out to be a mistake. The regular offerings have seafood in them too, whereas the "seafood" options only have seafood every meal. I would have appreciated the options.

Seafood option requested pre-flight

The flight was long - about 16 hours, but felt more like 8 hours. By the time we landed, it is June 14, 2024.

June 14, 2024

We got off the plane this afternoon in Incheon International Airport. It's a beautiful airport with a beautiful indoor garden.

Incheon International Airport

Our next flight is to Beijing, which is in a few hours. We were given some lounge passes to KAL lounge due to our SkyTeam Elite benefits, so we spent the next hour in the lounge.

KAL lounge food

KAL lounge food

The lounge was spacious and the food was much better than the plane's food. Back on the plane, our flight is only 2 hours long. Yay!! We land again, this time, in the capital city of China, Beijing. As soon as we land, we are presented with this wall picture of Great Wall.

My mom and cousins picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel. The hotel tonight is the 5 star newly constructed GooHug Beijing. The hotel was GORGEOUS. Our room was HUMONGUS. In a city where real estate is at a premium, this hotel was a gem.

Kitchen & living room

Living room (upstairs has 2 bedrooms)

I'm in love with this beautiful hotel. Unfortunately, we are only staying here for one night. We chose this hotel to stay the night because it's close to the airport, since our flight came in so late. Tomorrow we'll be heading towards Shidu and won't be looking back!