A Night in LA

November 12, 2009

Some months ago my cousin Beverly and her husband Joe had contacted us to tell us that there was a Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce trip to China and would we be interested. We thought it over about 30 seconds and said "yes". Actually we gave it a little more thought than that. We had gone to Italy with Beverly and Joe and had a great time touring there and knew that we would have a good time in China if we went. After reviewing the itinerary and information about the trip we said of course we would go and signed up.

A visa to China was required and we needed passport type photos to send in with the application so we went down to the Akron AAA to get them taken since they don't charge if you are a member of AAA. During the course of getting the photos taken the person taking them asked where we going and we said China. She asked if we were going with the Akron Chamber of Commerce as there had been over a hundred people getting their visa photos taken. That was when we found out that the Akron Chamber was also sponsoring a trip to China. We had not seen the ad from the Akron Chamber but later we talked to a number of people who had. After visiting and reading the Citslinc tour company website that handles the trip we found out that thousands from across America make this trip every year. Citslinc apparently was founded and set up by a Chinese business man for the purpose of creating business connections between China and the US. Some think that the trips are subsidized by the Chinese govenment. We do know that the price for the trip was very reasonable and would be impossible to do on your own for that price. If you have a business here and would like to talk to someone in China that you might want to establish a connection to while on the trip Citslinc will set it up.


So, with that background we had to be at LAX the morning of 11/13/09 to meet the Palm Springs group and my cousins for the trip. We were to meet around 9 AM in order to allow plenty of time to get checked in for the 12:30 PM flight. We had decided to fly over to LA on the afternoon of the 12th and not have to worry about a late or cancelled flight from Phoenix the same day of the China flight. We made reservations at the Ramada El Segundo which is close to the airport and has a free shuttle. We had stayed there before on our trips to New Zealand but the place seems to be going downhill from the last stay there. The restaurant didn't seem to be in operation even though the desk clerk said that it was and we ended up eating in the bar.

The room was clean but worn and dated. It did provide a good nights sleep and time to relax before the long flight on the 13th.