Welcome to my Trip Report inside my Trip Report (This is NOT Midsummer Night's Dream, although this did take place in the summer)
This past summer I spent 5 weeks inside China and this time around (my 6th time
) it was very memorable, because I got to taste more foods and my Mandarin proficiency improved by a lot, and I could "live" a lot better there and also even read Chinese Lit.In the past few years, I've been to only Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and we just flew in from Shenzhen meaning I officially made the official big 4 in China (Bei-Shang-Guang-Shen is what they call it
). Nanning, where we were staying, is a cute (giant) city down south from Guilin, Guangxi Province where it gets steamy and very wet every time we go there. Surprisingly I never really caught a cold ever down there but somehow I did and I had a crazy flaming throat probably from a cold virus. I got all sorts of treatments my grandmother and mother down there and it was quite a pain since one of them included slapping me on the back 
, I heard that some of our friends from Boise were going to Xi'an and hoped to see them there, but unfortunately my illness delayed us from going there, as they left when I just recovered. When looking at airfare prices I stumbled on GX Airlines, a new airline that was brought up by a banking company in the province, and they operated Ex-Air Asia (AK) A320's densely configured with 180 seats. We had trouble booking the airline with my mom's bank account in China and so we had someone else book it for us and then there was only 1 seat left on the return flight and so we had to switch carriers. I didn't know about that until we even got to the airport 
Anyway, sorry for the big block, I AT LEAST took a lot a lot of pictures, and probably need to space it out between 2 or 3 reports.
August 7th, 2017
NNG-XIY
CZ3275
Seat: 35K
Boeing 737-800
B-5769
Depart 8:00 (8:10)
Arrive 10:15 (10:18)
Duration: 2:15 (2:08)
We got up at 5:00 just to make sure we got the airport on time, and since the airport is quite a ways away, then the extra time would be appreciated. We walked over to the Nanning Train Station to get on the Airport Shuttle and somehow didn't make the 6:00am bus, and the bus wasn't completely full, and the workers there were a bit out of hand, and so we had to deal with a taxi sitting four people in the back seat for a quick 20 minutes.
Once we got there I realized I forgot my SD card at home and had to resourcefully use my phone
, it would suck since the CAAC hadn't reversed the law that cell phones during the flight, but I found a little trick to fix that problem.We are now at NNG and that's when I realize we're not flying on GX and I got a bit upset. There, however, was a sweet side you'll learn later.
Inside NNG
CZ Check-In
After we got our BP's and check-in all handled, we sat down and had breakfast of simple Babao congee (and we were wolfing it down since security was next
)After passing security, all was well off we were to Gate 6.
Morning lineup of ZH and FM
Our flight on the Departure Board
Our bird today, B-5769 on the way to Gate 6
Again, B-5769 through a dirty window at Gate 6
Gate 6 is in a special corridor at NNG for it can be an International Gate as Gate 5 next door happens to be:
Gate 5 unclosed
ZH B738 to TPE next door
Non-generic Boarding Pass Finally!(Chinese airports have a tendency to offer generic boarding passes and in 2013 they finally gave CZ their own due to their presence here)
Activity at Gate 6
At around 7:26 boarding was called while I was using the restroom, and then my Mom had to make a bunch of phone calls and made us one of the last ones to board the plane, although almost everyone boarded in less than 10 minutes. Some young ladies ahead of me just made it to the Gate and then jokingly said, "What hurry are we in?". It's weird having boarding this early as many flights often begin boarding late.
Shucks! One row away from Y+ at seat 35K, but very good legroom BTW
737NG Lighting just like on my last ZH flight
Chinese Lit, safety card, clean bag
Annoying Curtain separating Y and Y+(W) in front of us
We pushed back at around 8:00 right on time and off we were to a long taxi as the first ones in line
Takeoff Video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7kjoR5TtRl710KsB3
On airborne over (probably) AEB (Bose or Baise, sorry French speakers, that's the actual name of that city, went there the last time we went to China)
High above the clouds
A few moments later, I tried going to the Lav but decided to go back since the meal service began, we were given the choice of pork with rice or noodles. I chose the latter. The noodles itself didn't look so appetizing, but it was still really good (better than the western carriers, so take notes!
)
They also came with bread and pickled vegetables
Not good looking but still good and tasty
Man, I was hungry!
After my meal I took a trip to the Lav:
Tiny but not cramped like the middle ones on MF's 787
IFE, Chinese dubbed documentaries
After about another 1.5hrs we began descending into a rainy Xi'an, and gently touching down at 10:18
Landing Video:https://photos.app.goo.gl/sg7A6N39QeU2NmZH3
Airside at XIY and parked next to MU A320 at gate H46
Heading toward arrivals at XIY
Afterwards, we got tickets to our bus (with a few scammers come up to us and offer us rides) and got the tickets, off we went to the Westin where our hotel was close to.
It was raining really hard and so we stopped in to enjoy some pulled noodles:
Salty but refreshing
Afterwards we headed over to our hotel through some confusing roads, realizing that our hotel was around the block.
Since I took SO MANY photos this has to be done in 3 parts, and the next part we'll focus on what we did in the area and to the big highlight, The Terra Cotta Warriors
So for now, so long!
-bgboiflyer