Countdown to China

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls-

Welcome to another great summer of travel posting! The 2009 edition of "To Infinity and Beyond" will feature six weeks of travel to everyone's favorite communist country, China. As of now, it is only 2 weeks and 6 hours until our plane takes of from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Here are some other basic details of my trip:

When: May 11-June 24
Who: 16 NCSU Civil Engineers
Why: To study abroad in China. The program features two courses: Traffic Engineering and an intro to Electrical Engineering/Thermodynamics/Vehicle Dynamics class
Itinerary:
-May 11-12: Fly (via Chicago) to Shanghai
-May 12-14: Tour Shanghai
-May 14: Travel to Nanjing
-May 15-June 20: Nanjing program; class to be held 8:30-11:30 each day with afternoons free
-June 20-21: Night train to Beijing
-June 21-24: Tour Beijing, Great Wall, Olympic Sites, Forbidden City, etc.
-June 24: Fly back to Raleigh (flight leaves at 4:10 pm in Beijing and gets into Raleigh at 11:55 pm, including a short layover in Chicago. HA!)

So, one and all, let another excellent summer begin!

PS - In the event that Blogger.com is subject to government censor in China, I will be emailing blogs to one of a couple friendly assistants who will post on my behalf. :-)