I came back to St. Louis last night after staying in Shanghai for the last 10 weeks. The united 836 flight from Shanghai to Chicago took about 13 hours; it took another 5 hours to get from ORD to STL (4 hours stop over included). At one point during my 4-hour wait, I thought about driving from Chicago to St. Louis only takes 5 hours (300 miles). When I was in China, I heard about the MagLev (bullet train) from Shanghai to Hangzhou. It will take half an hour if completed (100 miles), making Hangzhou more like a suburban of Shanghai.
So China is becoming more closer, with more flights between US and China. I am seeing more and more business people (engineers, accountants, etc.), both Chinese and American, on the United flights. The service and food quality is not in terms of: the time between beverage service, simplified food menu. I think interntional travel will be more like domestic travel in the future: it is not a big deal as in the past. Because people travel more often.
We are really seeing the impact of the globalization.