Hello, everyone, welcome back and this time I'm continuing on a recent trip to China. It seems nicer to just instead report this rather than just completely make a long one to read
.Anyway we just returned from the amazing hospitality from Xi'an, Shaanxi and believe it or not ready to go home (I'm so homesick and longing to be home, but sad that I will leave the amazing city that never sleeps
)After the situations we dealt with at SZX and XIY just before, we decided to instead not fly domestically and take a 4 hour high speed train ride to the Shenzhen North Station. The ticket was roughly RMB235.9 which is about $35US or €30 which is pretty much less than half of the actual cost of flying there and plus, no delays since the tracks will only be occupied by us!
G2313 (High Speed) Nanning East Station to Shenzhen North Station
August 13th, 2017
View from the waiting area of Nanning East Station
Ticket check for our train
My seat on the train
Insanely nice legroom for a 4 hour ride
Power ports available
View outside in either Guangxi or Guangdong
Inside the carriage
Sorta fast for us (it hit 310 a couple times)
Right before 16:00 we arrived at Shenzhen North Station
Station signage
Afterwards we looked for the subway to get to the airport, which took 2 hours, correct 2 hours to get there. You can see how large the city is.
Afterwards we went into the airport to hopefully find our hotel ride, which took a bit but eventually we got there.
We stayed at the "Ling Hang" (not joking either) Hotel overnight and had some local dinner at the beside restaurant with a Cantonese taste.
Awesome fish tank with some exotic fish
August 14th
MF845
SZX-SEA
Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
B-2769
Depart: 12:55 (13:15)
Arrive: 10:25 (9:48)
Duration: 12:30 (11:33)
Seat: 45E
Once inside we had the same exact protocol at XIY following the Australian airport incident
We headed over to the check with a small queue going on and the plane not yet inbound from XMN.
Afterwards we quickly sped though Immigration and Security and out to our gate it was
Odd looking "pants" thingy pumping out air at SZX
Amazing looking airport
Birds inside the terminal (birbs for the meme-y people)
Our bird today parked at Gate 3: B-2769
Crew arriving for the flight
ZH (Shenzhen) 738 to NRT
SilkAir 738 to SIN
KE A333 inbound from ICN at Gate 1
At around 12:00 boarding sort of began with XMN transfer passengers going on in first. We stood in queue for about 15 minutes until it started moving during "official" boarding time. There was secondary screening but we weren't selected
)On board the usual, I was stuck to a middle seat once again
, but well I had two windows seats inbound to XIY and outbound.
Legroom was still pretty generous at 32 to 33 inches (78 to 81 cm) despite a 17 (43cm) inch wide seat for 11.5 hours
Seat pocket contents
The usual plus some socks and C'estbon bottled water
Menu, same as last time, the typos mainly omitted.
Meal choices on the left side, on the right the inbound from SEA
Drink List
IFE, active even on the ground with a USB port and remote and coat hook
At 12:56 we pushed back just only a minute behind schedule and awaited taxi for a short period of time before taking off at 13:15 only 20 minutes behind schedule
After 40 minutes into the air a drink and snack service began with mixed nuts and dried fruits, which my mixed nuts exploded while trying to open it, so it was a bit tough to eat
Snack and drink service
Afterwards the meal service began with a choice of Braised Pork with Rice, Extra thin noodles and Ginger Duck, or Fried Rice with Chicken Wings. I chose the latter with a delightful finish.
The meal was outstanding tasting very home cooked and filling, and the wings refreshing, tender and flavorful, also tasting like on the ground (likely thanks to the 787's lower altitude and humidity)
The meal was served with a shark fin jelly salad, taro salad, dragonfruit with grape tomatoes and bread
Afterwards I lounged out with the IFE and tried getting some rest, although unfortunately I couldn't fall asleep.
Crossing the International Date Line
At Midnight Beijing Time they announced they would serve dinner with much of the flight to go and the choices of: Stewed Noodles with Eggs, tomatoes and sausages or Xiamen style Braised Tilapia with rice. I again chose the latter.
The sides were a bitter melon salad, cantaloupe, chocolate cake and pretzel bread
The meal was very nice and filling with a nice tasty and flaky tilapia and nice steamed vegetables. The sides were also superb.
A few hours later a dried meat floss sandwich with cuttlefish sauce was served in an air filled bag, which was also tasty:
Towards the end of the flight the lights were turned back on and custom cards were passed out, and we had to ask for an English version as we were fluent (and for me native) speakers. We didn't know that since we were citizens we did not need to actually complete the form but instead we just needed to fill out the custom's machine's form
We then were on decent and at 9:48 we gently touched down in Seattle.
Quickly we were parked at Gate S6 and quickly we headed through Passport Control as citizens and then our bags took a while to find since we checked in rather early. Then at customs we made no declarations and handed the officers the slips from the machine and off we were to connect with our next flight in 8 hours to Boise, and do mandatory security to reenter the normal area.
We sat down at a local table and had some Asian Style Takeout:
Conclusion
XiamenAir provides an excellent economy product, hard and soft product as well. The crew however this time happened to not be as nice as the previous flight I took with them, but I do understand the measures of safety after the incident in Australia and once again they were attentive. The food was again above and beyond most airlines I've flown, despite I hoped that the SZX catering would be better than SEA's but was underwhelmed by some of the quality, so it met my expectations. The IFE which I didn't touch much in the report was again mediocre, although it again was buggy, and that I spent many hours in 45H which had a malfunctioning IFE, this time with some better options. Overall they were a cheap option ($600US round trip!) and definitely at a 5 star SKYTRAX level, despite the poor English skills and a very basic domestic experience. I would without a doubt fly them again and recommend them to others.
I hope you guys enjoyed the report, and if you need more to read I'll have it on me some more things:
June 2015- BOI-SEA-PVG-NNG: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1366129&p=19615947#p19615947
July 2015- NNG-PVG-LAX-BOI: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1372557&p=19785787#p19785787
July 2017- BOI-SEA-SZX-NNG: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1377991
August 2017- NNG-XIY Part 1: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1379515&p=19980033#p19980033
Part 2: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1381965&p=20045355#p20045355
XIY-NNG - viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1383769
SZX-SEA: Here
SEA-BOI: More to come soon!
-bg
