Visit China

Question:

Just an interesting observation. Air China’s (i.e. from the PRC) advertisement on a Chinese newspaper (the San Francisco’s edition of Sing Tao newspaper on Jan. 30, 1999) features a picture of the Lockheed SR-71 (sorry if I misspelled). Now, I did not know that Air China has a fleet of these American-made spy planes. And if so, it must provide the fastest service between the U.S. and China. Though I doubt there are first class seats. Just a thought.

Response:

Air China definitely doesn’t have any SR-71’s, but that Ameco hanagr in Beijing is big enough to hide a lot of ‘em in… =D Air China’s fleet (from http://www.airchina.com.cn/): 8 B737-300 4 B747SP 2 B747-200 Combi 5 B747-400 Combi 5 B747-400 6 B767-200ER 4 B767-300 3 A340-300 2 B747-200F -Preston PS- Their service from SFO is pretty direct; they fly 744’s 3 times weekly (I think) to SHA, continuing to PEK. MU (China Eastern) also flies MD-11’s SFO-PEK and SFO-SHA nonstop. AFAIK, most of the other Chinese connections from SFO pass through NRT, SEL, HKG, TPE, KIX, etc. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > Just an interesting observation. Air China’s (i.e. from the PRC) advertisement > on a Chinese newspaper (the San Francisco’s edition of Sing Tao newspaper on > Jan. 30, 1999) features a picture of the Lockheed SR-71 (sorry if I > misspelled). Now, I did not know that Air China has a fleet of these > American-made spy planes. And if so, it must provide the fastest service > between the U.S. and China. Though I doubt there are first class seats. > Just a thought.

Response:

>PS- Their service from SFO is pretty direct; they fly 744’s 3 times >weekly (I think) to SHA, continuing to PEK. MU (China Eastern) also >flies MD-11’s SFO-PEK and SFO-SHA nonstop. AFAIK, most of the other >Chinese connections from SFO pass through NRT, SEL, HKG, TPE, KIX, etc.

Via TPE, you’re kidding, aren’t you?  Anyway, I have seen ads of Taiwan’s China Airlines (CI) in a US-published, Chinese-language newspaper telling China-bound passengers to fly CI via TPE *and* HKG because CI’s cabin crew speak Mandarin Chinese (or, Putonghua).  If I were to go to China from the US, CI would not even be on my list of consideration.  Their reputation is already bad enough, the conections would be horrendous, too.

Response:

> Just an interesting observation. Air China’s (i.e. from the PRC) advertisement > on a Chinese newspaper (the San Francisco’s edition of Sing Tao newspaper on > Jan. 30, 1999) features a picture of the Lockheed SR-71 (sorry if I > misspelled). Now, I did not know that Air China has a fleet of these > American-made spy planes. And if so, it must provide the fastest service > between the U.S. and China. Though I doubt there are first class seats. > Just a thought.

I was privately touring the Museum of Flight in Seattle with an executive from All Nippon.  The docent (who was also the bartender!) described the characteristics of the SR-71 they have there.  Something like NY to LA in 1 hr 45min.  The NH exec and I joked that it would be hard to make costs with only one passenger.  ;-) Steve

Response:

> SNIP > Via TPE, you’re kidding, aren’t you?  Anyway, I have seen ads of Taiwan’s > China Airlines (CI) in a US-published, Chinese-language newspaper telling > China-bound passengers to fly CI via TPE *and* HKG because CI’s cabin > crew speak Mandarin Chinese (or, Putonghua).  If I were to go to China > from the US, CI would not even be on my list of consideration.  Their > reputation is already bad enough, the conections would be horrendous, > too.

SFO-TPE-HKG is fairly direct, and HKG is technically China now. Heh heh heh… This routing on CI/Eva etc. has good connection times, too. I forgot about the lack of direct flights from TPE to the PRC, so you’ve got me there. =D I agree that connecting to mainland China (PRC) would be easier through one of the other places I mentioned in my earlier post, but I can’t comment on CI’s quality of service as I haven’t flown on them (yet). -Preston

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