Review of Hainan Airlines flight from Guilin City to Shanghai in Economy

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone
The 24th July my parents celebrated 20 years of marriage and they decided to make a family trip for this special occasion
About 2 months before leaving we started to evaluate all the possibilites and in a week we made a sort of round-the-world journey: USA, Caribbean, Fjords' cruise and so on…
After all this we finally decide the destination: CHINA
We booked an organized group tour with one of the best Italian tour operator with departure date 12nd August.
The tour comprised 4 cities: Beijing, Xi'An, Guilin and Shanghai for a total of 12 days
Personally I was very happy because of the many different airlines and planes we would have tried. And obviously also because I've never been to China and it had always fascinated me.
Here is the itinerary:

12nd August Roma Fiumicino - Beijing Capital with Air China Boeing 787-9
16th August Beijing Capital - Xi'An with China Eastern Airlines Airbus A321
18th August Xi'An - Guilin with OKAirways Boeing 737-900ER
20th August Guilin - Shanghai Pudong with Suparna Airlines Boeing 737-800 (YOU ARE HERE)
22nd August Shanghai Hongqiao - Beijing Capital with Air China Boeing 747-400
22nd August Beijing Capital - Roma Fiumicino with Air China Boeing 787-9

AT THE AIRPORT

After spending 2 days in Guilin, enjoying its natural heritage, it's time to leave to Shanghai, IMO the most thrilling part of the travel.
We were driven to the airport in late morning

Differently from Xi'An there was no baggage control at the terminal entrance
The check-in hall looked like a big and dark warehouse
Moreover the A/C seemed to be insufficient for a so big hall and it was a bit hot inside

The local guide left us in front of Group Check-in desk and in about 10 minutes we obtained our BPs

My boarding pass
The flight would be operated by Suparna Airlines (IATA: Y8, ICAO: YZR), partially owned by Hainan Airlines

The queue for the security checkpoint was huge, about 30 minutes waiting according to the check-in lady

Our flight reported to be on time

38 minutes after check-in we were airside
The document control was really slow because the agent checked Western names letter by letter and the control itself was meticolous as always
The boarding had already started, but fortunately the airport was very small

Our gate

The plane for today's flight: B-1577, delivered in August 2016 (1,1 years old) and previously belonged to GOL Transportes Aéreos and Aircastle

Going down the jetway

Nice nose!

Air Changan Boeing 737

THE FLIGHT

Fuselage shot

Even this Boeing 737 is equipped with SkyInterior

My seat was in the 3rd last row
The pitch was right for a 2 hours flight

The view from my seat

China Souther Boeing 737 pulling into the gate

Cabin during boarding with blue mood-lighting

Winglet with Hainan Airlines logo

Guilin

Since we were among the last to board the pushback started immediately after we took our seats

Shandong Airlines

Goodbye Guilin

China Eastenrn Boeing 737

Taxiing to the unique RWY at Guilin

And off we go!

Fortunately the weather wasn't cloudy as previous days and we were able to see wonderful landscapes around Guilin
This was also because Guilin is definitely smaller than Beijing or Xi'An so there's less pollution

About 35 minutes into the flight lunch service started
Mood-lighting passed from blue to orange

There was a choice between two meals

Chicken with noodle or beef with rice

I chose chicken and it was really tasty
Definitely a good lunch to be on a plane

Being close to Shanghai we started flying over a white layer of clouds

After lunch the crew passed with duty free cart and I bought a nice Boeing 787-9 model in Suparna Airlines livery
Maybe I'm the only one in Italy to have it XD
Very nice box too

About 30 minutes before scheduled landing "strange things" started to happen
We began the descent but about 5 minutes after the plane rose again
After flying a little bit more it started again to descent

Amazing coastal landscapes

Landing announcement was done in Chinese and in a very poor English and the only understandable words were "Landing" and "Shanghai"

The plane continued his descent over swamp areas

And than the city suburbs

The smog and humidity level is perceivable

Condos

Factories and warehouses

Last moments on air

And finally welcome to….HANGZHOU!

STOPOVER IN HANGZHOU

My big passion for aviation also includes a big fashion for airports and their architecture
While we left the runway I immediately saw the Terminal and I didn't recognize it
I had clear in my mind the images of Pudong Airport Terminal 1 and 2 and seeing another terminal was quite strange
We were parked on a remote area quite far from the Terminal but full of other planes
Our guide came and told us that due to bad weather in Shanghai our flight was diverted to Hangzhou (IATA: HGH , ICAO: ZSHC)
It wasn't still unclear if we would have wait there or be desembarked to be transferred to Shanghai by bus or train
She also told us that this was said during the announcement but it wasn't so clear in English
What really impressed me was the total absence of reaction from Chinese people. Maybe if something like this happens in Italy or Europe in general people will start to loudly complain.

But now it's time to continue the report…
The international terminal

KLM 787 parked at the terminal

All Nippon Airways 767 and Asiana 777

China United Airlines 737 landing behind us

LuckyAir 737 (it's just an impression or the tail looks like British Airways' one?)

Air China A321 at the remotes

SF Airlines 757F at the apron where we were parked too

Shanghai Airlines A330

The view from our parking area

The only announcements made by crew reminded us to relax and not to smoke on the plane
Actually really useful
Most of the people stood and walked around the plane and the crew distributed some drinks
I spend most of the time chatting with my group mates and playing Sudoku
About 1 hour and half after a Malaysia Airlines A330 parked next to us
Really amazing plane and livery

About 3 hours after landing in HGH some planes parked in the nearby started to move to the RWY…a good sign
The guide, translating us from Chinese announcement, told us that PVG was opened again and we would have departed soon

Shanghai Airlines A330 pushing back and leaving

Loong Air A320, a really nice livery

Meanwhile Shanghai Airlines A330 took off

After 2 hours and 50 minutes we left our stand

XiamenAir 737 in SkyTeam livery

Taxiing to the RWY

China Southern A321

The apron where we waited
SF Airlines 757Fs, China United Airlines 737, Spring Airlines A320 and Malaysia Airlines A330

Malaysia Airlines A330

Who would have imagined we would "visit" a fifth city (or his airport)

FLIGHT TO SHANGHAI

3 hours and 20 minutes after landing we took off again to Shanghai-PVG

Hangzhou from air

Enormous road interchange

Outside the weather became more gloomy as we approach Shanghai

Costa Crociere's ship

The flight lasted about 40 minutes
I don't think we reached a high cruise altitude because we started to descent immediately after climb

Shanghai Port

Approaching Pudong area

Racing with Turkish Airlines 777 landing from IST maybe

Last moments in air

Lined up to land on RWY 16L/34R

Pudond Airport Terminal 2

Without any doubt now…Welcome to Shanghai

Crossing RWY 16R/34L

Delta Airlines 747-400

Cathay Dragon A320

We were parked on a remote stand in front of the new terminal under construction

The cabin during desembark

Fuselage shot

Bye bye

SHANGHAI AIRPORT AND MAGLEV

The bus ride to the terminal took 27 minutes! We spent about half of this time in the middle of the apron waiting for who-know-what
Unfortunately the windows were steamy and I wasn't able to take pics of beutiful aircrafts outside like a Qantas A330 passing close to us :/

Shanghai Pudong Terminal 2 is very big and has a very nice architecture

Our baggages were already on the belt fortunately

At the exit the local guide was waiting for us to take the bus
We kindly asked her to meet directly at the hotel, located on Nanjing Road, because we wanted to experience the MagLev
MagLev station is located between Terminal 1 and 2

The ticket costs ¥40 (instead of ¥50, if you show your BP) that is about 5 euros. I heard it was very expensive but because Subway ticket costs ¥4
Baggages were checked at the entrance

Train model in the waiting hall

Time to board the train

Train rear before departing

The train left at the precise moment shown on the timetable

Rapidly we reached cruise speed of 300km/h
Usually the speed is 420km/h but in the evening is a bit "slower"

Inside the coach is larger than normal trains

In 8 minutes we made the 30,5 km ride to Longyang Road station
Front of the train

The station has an interchange with Shanghai Subway Line 2 which brought us to the hotel

The day after we changed a little bit the program to visit the city in less time
I was very excited because Shanghai had always fascinated me
TO BE CONTINUED…