Monday 8 April 2013

The silver fox gets the silver!

Ni hao! Huanying wo de blog (This means welcome to my blog, except I don't know the Chinese word for blog)
If you've been playing along at home, and following my Chinese adventure via my blog/facebook/twitter rants, you will realise that I have now been living in China for 10 months!  And this month, due to all my travel within China, I notched up my 40,000th kilometre with Air China.  You know what that means? The silver fox is now a silver frequent flyer! Woohoo!
This has inspired me to write my latest blog entry.  After all the flights to the many cities I work, I thought I would share with you what air travel is like in China.  Seriously, I am hoping that someone in the Ministry for On Time Departures (I am sure there is such a place in China) will read this.  
For those who have come in late, let me recap the story so far:
1.  I am from Australia, and live in Beijing
2.  I travel alot inside mainland China.
3.  I work in radio, teaching local Chinese how to do world class, format radio
3.  Apparently, according to my Chinese teacher, I now know between 700 and 1000 chinese words (this has no relevance to the story.  I just wanted to brag!)
4.  I like reading, eating out, and long walks on the beach (just in case there are any single girls interested)

The Airport
I think I have now been through about 12 airports in China.  They are generally big, scary places and are generally pretty busy.  Hey, with 1.3 billion people, everywhere is busy!  In some of the airports queues are non existent when checking in.  It's every man for himself.  I learned very quickly the benefits of a strategically placed elbow.  Don't get me wrong, not all Chinese push in, but you need to be aware of your surroundings.  If your attention wanders, 1000 Chinese will jump the queue in front of you.
I recently went to Beihai (south China, near Vietnam), for some R&R, and took this photo of the check in area.  Probably the quietest I will ever see an airport during my time here.

Security, as you can imagine, is very strict at all airports.  You have to show your boarding pass and passport at security, then your bags get scanned, and of course you get patted down.  And EVERYONE gets the pat down.  Usually it's just a brush over your clothes with the scanner, and some light patting.  However, in Xi'an, it's a little more thorough.  Let's just say that normally when I get that sort of attention, I have to buy the girl dinner first.




The Inevitable Delay
The first flight I took in China, which from memory I think was to Changchun in the northeast, we boarded the plane on time, then sat there for an hour before the plane took off.  The reason? "Due to air traffic congestion".  This has now become my least favourite saying in China, because pretty much 90% of the flights I have taken have been delayed due to air traffic congestion.  It's also a very sneaky tactic by the airlines.  If they make you wait inside the terminal, then they have to provide you with food, drinks etc.  
Coming back from Beihai yesterday, the incoming plane was delayed, so of course the flight back to Beijing was delayed.  Watching the clock and waiting.  I think I spend too much time doing that at airports.
Of course, one of the many benefits of spending alot of time waiting in airports is you get to do a lot of people watching.  Waiting yesterday at Beihai airport, this guy sat opposite me.  No, his pants were not too short, he just decided he would hitch them up.  More comfortable obviously.




Carry On Luggage
Most airlines around the world, especially Australia, are fairly strict when it comes to the size of your carry on luggage.  Not in China.  There seems to be no limit to how many carry on pieces you can bring.  And sometimes, they don't even fit into the over head locker.  I learned very quickly that if you want to get some space in the overhead locker, you need to get on the plane early.  If you're the last one on, it's very hard to find some space.  Yesterday, I watched a guy try and squeeze a rather large box into the overhead locker (in addition to the bag he had already thrown in there).  Just as I took this photo, it squeezed in.  Obviously didn't contain any priceless Ming vases.

The food
I have a confession to make. I don't mind airline food.  Yep, there, I said it.  Of course I wouldn't eat it everyday, but most airline food is bearable and I have never had any problems with it.  The problem with flying Air China is their lack of imagination, or maybe it's the customers lack of imagination.  As I said, I have now racked up 40,000km's on Air China, so I am drawing on a pretty good sample size.  It comes down to this, there is a choice A) Beef with rice, B) Chicken with rice, C) Pork with Rice, or Beef, Chicken or Pork with noodles.  There is usually only 2 choices per flight, and it's normally with rice.  OK, I know I am living in China and rice is the main food, but surely every now and then they can surprise the customers.  Yesterday coming back from Beihai - pork with rice, or chicken with rice.  And by time they got to me, chicken was gone. And after trying the pork, I know why.
A few other interesting pieces from my travels:
- Everytime the plane hits a bump, however small, the flight attendant will come on and say "we are experience some turbulence.  Please remain seated."  On one 2 hour flight, I counted them saying it 8 times
- God help me if they allow people to use mobile phones on planes.  Let's just say that being without a phone for a period of time, some Chinese have withdrawal symptoms.
- If planes allowed people to go out on the wing and smoke, however dangerous, some Chinese men would take the risk.

As interesting and as quirky as I find travelling in another country, the bottom line is I do feel safe.  With the amount of security (they have a very conspicuous air marshall that is on every plane) and regulations from the government, plus the number of planes actually flying all over China, it's probably one of the safest places to fly.

And what benefits do I get from being a Silver flyer? I'm still waiting to find out, but I am pretty sure I will still  only get a choice of beef or chicken...with rice.

  



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