I have so far flown 22 times to or from China and also 22 times inside the country. On the international flights I prefer to use foreign carriers (so far it have been the British Airways, Finnair, and Air France, lately I've been flying with Austrian Airlines), because it’s easier to communicate with the flight attendants, the entertainment is more to my taste (on my first ever flight to China I watched the same film about four times), and it kind of feels safer.

Although I cannot say anything is wrong with the safety. Chinese sky is full of planes and statistically speaking – with the number of flights - the number of accidents is low.
Actually, two most recent accidents that happened involved a foreign company.
There were four crashes during the last seven years, three happened in April or May 2001 and the last one in November 2004. (details here, here, here, and here)
Three were accidents (structural failure, pilot's mistake, and adverse weather conditions) the last one was scary and more, if it is possible to use the word here, more tragic - a man, apparently terminally ill with cancer, bought a number of life insurance packages (totalling about a million yuan, about 120 thousand USD) for himself, then boarded a plane with petrol inside a plastic bottle, started a fire when the plane was airborne, and all 111 people on board died in the resulting crash.
Because of this incident security checks have been increased - but more about that later.
It is very easy to book a flight, on most popular routes there are several flights a day and it is usually enough to show up at the airport a few hours early. I did that maybe five or six times, in Beijing (I was flying to Harbin and to Shanghai), Guangzhou (to Shanghai), and Zhengzhou (also to Shanghai).
The above does not apply to less popular routes, when the choice of flights is not that great, or during an increase in the number of passengers (like during the Chinese New Year).
Some Chinese would be useful when you book a flight, it’s enough to be able to communicate the details of the trip (destination, date, preferred time).
When you book a flight it is now necessary (since autumn 2003) to provide the passport number, citizenship, date of birth, telephone number - some travel agents don’t care too much, some seem more strict when it comes to this. These are required due to increased security in the post Sept. 11 reality.
Chinese passengers do not wait patiently for the plane to taxi to the gate - they unfasten their seat belts, get up, start taking their luggage from the overhead compartments, and switch on their mobile phones as soon as the plane touches the ground.
Also, lately the airport authorities have become more strict when it comes to the number, physical dimensions, and weight of carry-on luggage. Back in 2004 I was flying from Beijing to Shanghai, I had a tripod, a camera bag, and a small suitcase, took all that on board, no one even looked.
It seems this will now not be possible, the new rule has been described as 'being more compatible with international standards and regulations.'
Here are some stories.
On my last flight to Europe a few men were caught smoking in the toilet, despite repeated requests not to and warnings of fines issued by the flight attendants. One person was asked to use a disposable bag instead of just spitting away on the floor.
On a flight from Harbin to Beijing one man was still talking on the phone when the plane was already on the runway waiting for take-off clearance.
Later in the same flight (two hours long, with about an hour between the take off and landing procedures and restrictions that are imposed during these two periods) someone just had to use their laptop - to listen to music I may add.
(to my knowledge some airlines do not allow any use of laptop computers during flight)
My suitcase was checked twice for illegal items - I don’t really know why since it was checked-in luggage and I would have no access to it while on board - once for a Tibetan knife that I was taking to Poland as a souvenir, and once for a tourist mirror made of metal.
Security checks are a funny thing here too. Doesn’t matter if I have anything made of metal on me or not - the metal detector goes off anyway. Once in the summer I was wearing sneakers, shorts, and a short-sleeved shirt and the metal detector went off anyway.
The procedures that follow the detector going off vary from time to time. Once at the Dalian airport when metal in my shoes set the detector off I had to take them off and have them X-rayed and my person was then also checked twice - with a hand-held detector and with the hand as well.
On my most recent flight I forgot to take off my watch and empty the pockets - the alarm went off, I was searched in a very perfunctory manner, and didn’t have to take off my shoes or watch or anything.
Because of the accident that I described above most passengers now - if they carry plastic bottles with drinks - have the bottles checked, I once saw someone asked to open the bottle and then the security officer sniffed at it.
On a flight from Zhengzhou to Shanghai in November last year I had a bottle of water in my carry-on bag but no one took any notice of it, but one of my colleagues had to open his. He also had a vacuum flask full of hot water - but it attracted no attention.
On the same weekend another colleague tried to fly from Shanghai to Zhengzhou with only photocopies of his documents (passport and residence card), on Friday afternoon the authorities refused to let him on board, on Saturday morning he had no problems and arrived in Zhengzhou without any hassles.
On a flight to Shanghai three of my colleagues and I wanted to sit together so when checking in we gave the person behind the counter our tickets, the woman processed the tickets and gave us the boarding passes - without bothering to check our identities, hardly looking at us at all.
I should at this point say that I do not know if Chinese citizens would be treated in any different way in these situations.
The food on the plane is usually OK, on longer flights there is something warmer to eat - a Chinese dish with rice or noodles, on shorter ones passengers are given a few snacks like for instance peanuts, a cake, tea or coffee.
Once I received a pair of socks (I swear) as a souvenir of the flight - but I have to confess that I left them on the plane.
In-flight entertainment usually consists of a film, a number of comedy skits, or a taped news bulletin. All in Chinese.
A few times I happened to be the only non-Chinese person on board and I felt a little guilty when the flight attendants and the captain had to speak English only for my benefit - I don’t think they would have bothered otherwise.
On all occasions the flight attendants were nice enough to find an English-language newspaper for me, not necessarily the newest issue, but anyway I had something to kill time with.
to be continued with more stories, as they happen.
03.2006