2025-11-30 Chengdu

 Arriving in China at Chendgu!

We had a long flight with Sichuan Airlines, the airline owned by the province of Sichuan, and arrived at the brand new international airport also owned by the province.

The flight was in a brand new A350 plane.  The food provided was OK, not quite up to the standard of Emirates or Singapore, as there was mini packets of snacks rather than a salad, and the drink selection was water or sugary drinks or very brightly coloured fruit drinks, though I did get a red wine on one round of the drinks trolley.  The service of the flight attendants was exemplary, full marks from me - very attentive to crying babies, old people trying to get to the toilets, and manouvering themselves and trolleys around people in the aisles, and constantly going back and forth with water and juice.

The airport is huge, but as it was dark when we arrived (0530) only saw a bit of it as we were bussed from the plane to the terminal (about 20 min). Processing was quickish, might have been faster for us if we had managed to get in the queue ahead of other planes arriving, but we struggled to fill in the arrival forms, mainly as we started using the QR system, which we could have filled out in Australia easily, but after a long flight with few hours sleep it was a bit much digging through our paperwork to find out departing flight numbers etc.  Once I abandoned the QR system and used the paper arrival cards it was easier.  The person I dealt with at the immigration booth was quick, and wished me a pleasant stay after stamping my passport.

The metro (the station is in the centre of the airport terminal) into the city was quick, clean, and initially quite empty; they come every 3 minutes, and it cost about $2 each (Isaac is free) for an hour trip into the centte of town (about 70 km in a direct line from the airport).  We arrived at our hotel about 0930, and were lucky enough to be able to check-in and get rid of our bags before heading out to a tofu pudding restaurant, then across the centre of town to a park for the afternoon.  We took a Didi - kind of like Uber, but costing about $2 to $4 a trip for all of us.  

We paid everything by Alipay - everyone uses it, including street vendors, the Didi app, the metro - all linked by using your phone and a QR code that a vendor will scan - once you work it out, it is very convenient - but don't lose your phone!

The park was lovely, quite popular on a Sunday, and with all sorts of things going on - fitness groups, dancing, a public sing-a-long, a market, a mariage market thing.  We wandered about, and took it all in, including a kung-fu tea ceremony at a tea-house on the lake, and having a wander through an air-raid shelter (still ready for use!), before heading back to the hotel for a rest - then heading out for tea, this time at a nearby vegetarian/buddist restaurant.








































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