We did not fly over the Pacific Ocean at all, or even Alaska. We flew north from Chicago over Canada and the Arctic Ocean not far from the North Pole, and then over Russia and Mongolia to China. About a 13.5 hour flight, nonstop.
As we landed at the Shanghai airport, we could see several large wind towers and many acres of what appeared to be rice paddies. Also many acres of something (vegetables?) grown under simple domes of plastic sheeting. There was a lot of traffic coming into the city, most of it like any other large city, but one of the interesting cargoes we passed was a truck loaded with maybe a hundred live ducks. I'm sure they are on someone's dinner plate tonight. The Chinese are big on eating fresh food.
China time is exactly 12 hours ahead of East Coast time at present. All of China observes the same time--Beijing time. But they don't observe daylight savings time, so the time difference is not always 12 hours.
Here is the view of downtown Shanghai from my hotel window.
