It’s been about a week since I last posted about my upcoming preparations for my China vacation.  I am now down to a final weekend before I need to get up at 5:30am to catch our bus down to JFK.  I think I got everything squared away at work, or I at least I did as best I can.  I am confident things are in good hands while i am away.

I probably should have started to do some packing in the last day or so to see if I am missing anything.  Well I didn’t, I did pick up a new lightweight rain coat though in case of rain.

Here is a more complete itinerary for our trip.  I plan on keeping a journal while I am away so I’ll write up detailed posts when I get back.

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I know this is my first mention of this trip on my blog, but way back in November I signed up for a vacation to China.  Yeah I know, pretty big trip for my first “real” international excursion.  The trip is organized through a tour group that leads tours all over China.  The trip was organized through the Albany Colonie Chamber of Commerce.  The first China trip took place in the middle of November.  They then planned a second trip for the middle of March, 2009.

After hearing first hand from the people who went on the November trip, I decided it was too good to pass up.  The price was right, everything was planned out, local English speaking tour guides and more.  All I had to do was put down the deposit and get a visa.

Fast forward three months and now we are one week away from departure.  This week is all about preparing at work for my seven day absence.  I expect to be out of cell phone and email contact for most of the trip so I want to make sure everything is in order before i go.  I can tell though I have a busy week ahead of me as there are several projects I need to complete in addition to packing and getting the last minute arrangements done for the trip.

Here is our rough itinerary, I’ll try to do one more post before I leave with a more detailed breakdown.

Day 1: Albany/JFK/Beijing (bus down to JFK and direct flight from JFK to Beijing)
Day 2: Beijing
Day 3: Beijing
Day 4: Beijing
Day 5: Beijing/Shanghai/Suzhou
Day 6: Suzhou/Hangzhou
Day 7: Hangzhou/Shanghai
Day 8: Shanghai
Day 9: Shanghai/Beijing/JFK/Albany (flight from Shanghai to Beijing, Beijing to JFK, bus back to Albany).