Review of Air China flight from Hangzhou to Chengdu in Economy

This flight was part of several flown in Mainland China for business. I usually fly Economy on domestic flights, per company rules, but I was traveling with a colleague with Star Alliance Gold status, and he invited me in the lounge, and you'll get a full report on it here.
This FR begins just after at the toll gate of the expressway exit to the airport. These men with signs were not hitch-hiking, but proposing informal parking spaces, presumably cheaper than the airport’s parking lots.

Arrival at the airport’s terminal ; I do not remember if the one in the background was in operation.

Ours was this one, anyway

As a sign of their respective weights there, CA, on one hand, and CZ with MF (both in Skyteam) on the other hand, monopolize a checking counter zone each.

It had been raining continuously in Hangzhou, in the city and in the airport, and even in the terminal : these are pails to collect the water from the roof’s leaks. The problem was limited and correctly managed, and this did not count as a cleanliness issue in my rating of the airport.

Quite a lot of people waiting at the CA flights check in

Some counters in Zone D were dedicated to specific destinations

The flights to PEK were there, but this was not our destination

If you miss my Taiwanese Flight Reports, note that Hello Kitty is popular on the Mainland too.

A quarter of an hour to obtain this BP: it could have been faster, but this was still acceptable

No problem at the security check ; a peek at a CA A319 on a wet tarmac

An overall view of the terminal’s airside area where I did not stay long

I could not refuse an opportunity to see the CA lounge at the invitation of my *A Gold colleague !

Smiling welcome by the staff at the desk

There was a daily newspaper and weekly magazine stand just after the welcome desk. There was a decent selection in English and Chinese (I remember struggling on a nevertheless fascinating article from the 周刊生活 that one of my Chinese teachers had made me study). The magazines had “for reading in the lounge” stickers.

On the other hand, the China Daily is a quick reading matter because it is so hopelessly politically correct.

The day before, the China Daily had published in full the annual Chinese Government White Book on Human Rights in the country, which took six full large format pages. It was worth reading, because these were six pages of referenced figures measuring the standard of living in Mainland China. This yearly publication is a manipulation for domestic use: the Chinese population is lead to believe that “human rights” is a synonym of “material comfort”, and cannot understand the foreign criticism of China on human rights, because they do not even know that the issues at stake are not what the word has been warped to mean in China.

This was the only part on freedom of speech in six pages. Another accumulation of date on the number of internet users and newspapers, where the only significant sentence was the last one: “A cleaner cyber space is becoming an ever important place for the public to get information and make their voices heard”. In Chinese politically correct jargon, “clean” or “healthy” means “censored” or “closed to foreign influence or companies”. This seemingly innocuous sentence means that it is important to reinforce the internet censorship, a.k.a. the Great FireWall, and I am indeed impressed by the number of websites, services and foreign media which are now blocked if you don’t have a VPN.

Let’s revert to the discovery of the lounge which is symmetrical on both sides of the welcome desk :it was small, and the windows did not provide a view on the tarmac (the weather was so bad that day that it did not make a difference).

The lounge seen from the other side

A FIDS in the background. All flights being checked in were listed, without any delay information, including our own in the center of the screen (CA1741, to 成都)

A wall separated the welcome desk from the catering area, seen here on the right

The catering area, seen from a closer position

It was still early in the morning and this was therefore the breakfast offering. There was a decent variety, despite the small size of the lounge.

It was of course a 100% Chinese breakfast, that may not be to the taste of foreigners, who were unlikely to be many. The only concession to their habits was the presence of plasticware, to the right of lacquered wood chopsticks and Chinese spoons in porcelain.

The hot meals

Resupply came quickly : the empty slot next to the Chinese noodles

… was soon replenished with steamed vegetable wrapped in leaves tied with.

Another concession to Western tastes : sandwich bread and a toaster, as well as coffee.

Yogurt did not count as a Western meal : the Chinese have adopted it and eat vast quantities of it.

My selection : rice porridge (“congee") with some vegetables to give it taste, noodles and a steamed bun.

These armchairs were « temporarily closed »

Or rather out of order

There was no similar sign for the power ports

… but with or without a cover, some had obviously a problem

It did not matter since I found one which could provide power to my laptop. Like nearly everywhere in Mainland China, it was multi-standard, compatible with Type A, B, C, E, F and I plugs (the appliances sold in Mainland China have Type I plugs, or Type A for low power ones).

The toilets were all the cleaner that a cleaning lady had just been there

This was no cleaning lady, but a lounge staff announcing the boarding of a flight (not ours), all the way to the toilets’ entrance.

On the other hand, the internet access was inconvenient

In the same manner as in the general airside area in Chinese airports, a code sent by SMS to a Chinese cell phone was needed, and I had not bought a local SIM card for that trip. (It created repeated minor inconveniences during that trip, and I would buy one next time)

I used the cell phone of my Chinese colleague and it failed. It did not matter: we did not have much time until boarding and at that time, Europe was getting to sleep and the Far-East was waking up, which meant that I was unlikely to have new e-mails since my departure from my hotel room.

The roof had water leak problems not only landside

But airside too. Travelers had dutifully not used this pail as a dustbin.

The unavoidable hot and cold water fountain, to the left of the access to the toilets

The weather was not improving outside

This was the best I captured of a Loong Air A320 after pushback

And as very often in Mainland China when there is a heavy rain

… the penalty comes : flight delayed 25 minutes. It could have been worse

Boarding was orderly : we boarded nearly on time, but that did not mean that we would take off on time.

Going through an airbridge with windows

The bad weather precluded any picture opportunity

A second BP check at the door of the aircraft (the Chinese BPs have two detachable stubs)

Chinese media next to the plane

The J cabin : two rows in 2=2 layout

And the Y cabin

My seat in the last row

The plane was gradually filling

There was a pile of spare blankets on the aisle seat that a FA removed (there was one on my seat too).

A decent seat pitch, as is customary on Chinese domestic flights

The carpeting was clean

The safety card, both sides

Boarding was completed, but nothing was happening

There was no third party advertising on the anti-macassars

The local newspapers stand on the rear bulkhead

I was not fascinated by the " Hangzhou News"

The armrest with the audio channels selection

This was where the headphones (quite good for Economy) were plugged in

I listen to a Western pop music channel ; all others were Chinese only

The armrest also had a functional ashtray

This armrest has been the focus of an amusing scene : my neighbors were a rather old couple. The man wanted to listen to music with the headphones which had been provided, but insisted in turning the seat reclining button to turn on the volume.

It did not help to show him the up/down volume keys…

… there was no way to make him accept the notion that it did not work this way. The passenger on the aisle seat on the other side had to intervene and raise the volume the correct way.

The weather was not improving outside

Safety demonstration on the IFE screens, but there was no rush

There was so little rush that we finally had a FA announcement : "Since the wait before takeoff will be even longer than expected, we are going to serve you lunch immediately”. This was a good initiative because all the passengers had of course got up very early.

It was not this time "Chicken rice or Beef noodles ?", but "Western or Chinese ?”. I chose the Chinese option for this breakfast, which gave me a rare opportunity to have aviation noodles, because I usually choose the rice option.

The same, after unwrapping

My neighbor chose the Western option which I found visually unappealing.

That was incredible, but I managed to open this yogurt. The Chinese are used to drinking yogurt with a straw, and it is often strictly impossible to open a yogurt this way.

An Air China, therefore mediocre, coffee (aviation coffee is worst in Taiwan,).

The full set of plasticware, including the straw for the yogurt

Note the cute double heart on the coffee stirrer

The fork and spoons are equally cute : 博爱 means "universal love", or "fraternity" in a non undergraduate university context.

The weather made no sign of improving outside

Push back at long last : the FAs check the seat belts

HGH under the rain

Better not mention plane spotting in these conditions

The IFE screens displayed the airshow for a while

But is did not last, and I had only the time of my pictures to help me localize my pictures.

Air to air picture of a plane which was flying much too low compared to us (in the center of the picture)

An interchange in construction

The meanders of a river 20’ away from CTU

I wondered what this infrastructure spotted 19’ from CTU could be : a logistics center ?

On the other hand, this was obviously an air base, 6’ from CTU

Flying above the urban area of Chengdu

An amusement park about 4’ away from CTU

Another interchange – note the walkways for pedestrians on both sides of the main bridge.

A wide expense of land has been razed, probably for building housing buildings like in the background.

No interchange here

Touchdown at 12:22

A CZ A330 seen during taxiing

An an HO A320 HO (Juneyao Airlines, on which I flew my unforgettable LCX – SHA flight out of a semi-secret airport)

A shart taxi and arrival at the terminal at 12 :25 next to this MU 332. That meant the flight was 1h45’ late and that we would not be reach our meeting on time.

The empty Y cabin at deplaning

And going through the two rows of J before leaving the plane.
This is the end of the flight report, and the beginning of a rather heterogeneous bonus, because I had not been there for tourism purposes. I had made the Shanghai –Hangzhou trip in this conventional train:

There was not a single high train in Mainland China twenty years ago, but today they are on par with those of other countries, with a total length which shames their rivals. The comfort of Chinese conventional trains also made considerable progress in the same period, but there are remains of Chinese railway travel of yore, with these staff checking tickets at each train door.

And these peddlers who keep passing in the train during the two hour trip, here with sweets

There, a passenger was eating the noodles in hot soup that he had just bought (the smell is missing in this bonus)

There, these were household detergents (I was mystified that you could buy that in a train ; I had seen it before)

This one had fruit, and this young traveler (who had a Hello Kitty bag) seemed interested.

Two hours later, I was in the oversized central station of Hangzhou

This train only went to Chongqing, which was not far by Chinese train standards.

The weather had been awful in Hangzhou, and not only on the day of my flight to Chengdu. This was no day for renting a bicycle. I see such bicycle rentals in a growing number of major Chinese cities, but only residents can use them.

A walk alongside the river, then ? It was not all that much fun under an umbrella

The Qiantang river which flows through Hangzhou has funnel shaped estuary, hence a local phenomenon which is reminded by this sign

High amplitude tides result in the generation of a the most powerful tidal bores in the world, which can be deadly if you venture on the banks at the wrong time on the wrong days. This was not the day for the Silver Dragon (the name the the Chinese gave it), though.

Better return after this lunch break to the building where my meeting were held. Since I was no resident of Hangzhou, I had no bicycle …

… and I would not have a chance to disrespect this picturesque parking lot entrance sign

This was not the best day for tourism in Hangzhou, but I only needed a one yuan bill to show you the place which Hangzhou is famous for in China (but not much outside China). No, there is no link with Mao who is on all Chinese bills from one yuan up,

Hangzhou’s West Lake, which is now listed in Unesco’s World Heritage List, appears on the other side of the bill. How many of my readers (including those who went to Mainland China) knew it?

Thanks for reading me all the way to here !