[飛行報告] KA 946 Hong Kong - Xian

Rumours of Dragonair's imminent resumption of their Xian service circulated in aviation forums for a while back in March, while the press release noted likely resumption to be in Q2. After fiddling around the Asia Miles redemption engine online, I found availability on the unannounced route but could not confirm the seats. After a long wait on the phone to get through to the Marco Polo call centre, I was able to secure a redemption seat at 20,000 miles before the official announcement came.

Having done online check-in, I wasn't so keen to get to the airport so early despite warnings of the Easter travel rush. It was the first day of the extended holiday, and I arrived an hour before departure to find the lines at the Dragonair bag drop to be not bad at all. In fact, Dragonair's Marco Polo check-in line was not doing any better.



Expansion at HKG is happening at full speed. Soon, there will be more cranes once the 3rd runway proposal gets implemented.











Today's flight would be operated by a small A320 jet. Luckily, I checked in early online and secured my window seat at the front of the plane.



We departed on-time, and had a long taxi towards the western end of the runway. Along the way, a decommissioned Air Canada jet sat on the tarmac.









We took off towards the east under cloudy skies.









Flight deck announced due to air corridor restrictions, today's flight time would be longer at 3 hours. Meal service soon followed. It was quite tasty, which made the bad news seem a little better.

















The plane was not equipped with any inflight entertainment whatsoever, so I looked out the window to pass the time. Too bad the window was dirty though. Soon, the mountains near Xian came into view.







Xian was enjoying a period of sunny skies before my arrival. It seems visibility was also fairly decent that day. I had originally worried about spring sandstorms.







Without televisions on board, I had no idea where we were or which part of the city this is. We made a number of turns to align with the approach.

































The landing was smooth, and the terminal soon came into view. There weren't any large jets at all, and perhaps because the airport itself is huge, it also looked fairly empty.





We parked at the edge of the terminal, which meant a long walk to immigration. The facility looked new, but right upon disembarkation, signs of poor maintenance were everywhere. An ugly, worn-out red carpet covered the airbridge, and inside the terminal, the wall corners were already showing bad wearing. Once out of customs, there were no signs indicating the taxi stand although there was a sign for the bus.

Full report on my website : http://www.globalphotos.org/ka946.htm

The rest of Xian was great though.













Dates are a local specialty, and there are many kinds despite looking the same.



"Mo" is a local delicacy. This dry version consists of meat wrapped around bread. Looking at how raw the meat looks, I presume buyers still need to cook it when they get home.











This is actually part of the city's mosque.





Today, the Bell Tower sits at a central location - in the heart of a massive traffic circle where the north-south and east-west axes intersect. Like most of Xian's big attractions, it costs a lot of money to go in. 50 yuan later, I had a ticket for this and also the nearby Drum Tower.





The Terra-Cotta Warriors is a large site consisting of 3 pits and a large museum. The museum displays examples of the various statues that have been unearthed in the pits so far.







See my Xian gallery at : http://www.globalphotos.org/xian.htm

不錯的西安飛行報告
現在西安的大樓已比以前好了，當年只係用一座小小的樓作海關，一出門係全無指示的
(當年係坐中國西北的A310去的)
去西安，當然要食羊肉泡鏌同羊肉串啦！
夠18的要買些稠酒飲飲
同埋你有無去碑林同華清池呀？

[ 本帖最後由 yuenpo 於 2012-6-11 23:25 編輯 ]

原帖由 yuenpo 於 2012-6-12 15:24 發表
不錯的西安飛行報告
現在西安的大樓已比以前好了，當年只係用一座小小的樓作海關，一出門係全無指示的
(當年係坐中國西北的A310去的)
去西安，當然要食羊肉泡鏌同羊肉串啦！
夠18的要買些稠酒飲飲
同埋你有無去碑林同華清池 ...

I did go to 華清池, which charged a very steep admission. I didn't visit 碑林 though.









[ 本帖最後由 hkskyline 於 2012-6-12 20:44 編輯 ]