The China 2009 Total Solar Eclipse
Omega Holidays, Wuzhen China.
Omega Holidays, Wuzhen China.
Webmaster © Paul L Money/Astrospace 2009
Arrival in China
Pete Lawrence and myself were scheduled to be on the Sunday July 19th BA flight and were accompanied by fellow Lincolnshire Astronomer and good friend Jayne Eames Jevons. Unfortunately our attempts to pre book our seats online the day before were a failure and after some waiting around at check in we were informed that along with quite a few others BA had overbooked the flight. Because Pete and I were giving presentations on how to view and photograph the eclipse we initially considered the option of flying via Munich but BA couldn’t guarantee a place on that flight for our little group.
By now we had identified several fellow Omega Holidays Eclipse travellers and whilst Pete maintained contact with Peter Truman in China apprising him of our situation, I gathered those Omega travellers so we could try to keep everyone together. We eventually were able to have BA guarantee our places on the flight the next day and they arranged for us to be put up nearby in a ‘basic’ hotel - the Ibis.
Next day we were pleased and relieved to be on the flight out and on our way. The 11 hour flight wasn’t too bad and we arrived in Shanghai a little tired but pleased we were in China. The only concern Pete and I had was that we were arriving on the afternoon of the evening we were due to give our talks which left very little time for us to prepare. Pete had a taxi waiting as he was to be taken to Anji whilst Jayne and I were at Wuzhen. Pete’s Eclipse report can be found on his web site from this link. On our 2 and a half hour minibus trip to Wuzhen it seemed like ages before we cleared the outskirts of Shanghai - it’s huge!! During the trip I spotted Shanghai Observatory and we noted rice paddy fields and lots of development - Shanghai is still growing!