!!! was talking to a friend tonight and he offhandedly mentioned China has 10-year visas now. (I lived in China for a year, and he came to visit, we traveled together for a while, etc. Coincidentally this friend is also gay and we had a mini-adventure one night, visiting a bunch of gay bars/clubs in the ~underground Shanghai gay scene~
)
anyway. this was news to me. so, on a whim, I just checked flights... tons and tons of
roundtrip flights from two airports on the west coast (my current home) to Beijing/Shanghai all for under $500, for many months out
I had a one-way flight for $600 in 2011 and thought that was the cheapest I'd ever fly. But less than $500 roundtrip!!! now I'm torn, because of the whole needing to figure out my next job/location deal -- difficult to really plan, although part of me feels I should be irresponsible while I'm still relatively young and just go.
Do I... cancel our Disney trip, and we both head to China?! We could stay longer, go to so many places, and even hit Shanghai
Disneyland all for well under the price of our trip this fall. Plus, my partner has never been to China, and it was a strange wave of nostalgia that initially brought up the conversation where my friend mentioned the new visas.
...or do I plan a shorter solo (maybe not solo) trip to China around our Disney trip?!
...or do I just book for Jan/Feb/whenever and visit Shanghai Disneyland then? It might be possible to do a week in China then a week in Tokyo, and while there visit... Tokyo Disneyland!
*reeling from the possibilities. also from the caffeine, which I no longer have a tolerance for*
It's just been so long since I've been out of the US, and in the last three years I've traveled very little, in part due to work and medical-ish things. But now I want to seize the day (and those seriously outstanding flight prices!).
okay. probz gonna regret posting this tomorrow. I want unlimited funds to travel, forever
ETA: omg completely forgot about Hong Kong Disneyland. We could possibly go there too!