China Eastern gives way too much head

Like many people, Shanghaiist ducked out of the country for a few days over the October 1 holiday. We didn’t go far: just across the water to Seoul.

The South Korean capital is an impressive city. In fact, we’d argue that it’s highly underrated as a holiday destination. It was so enjoyable that we weren’t quite ready to leave -- even the clean, cosmopolitan Incheon International Airport, laden with Burger King and the like (hint, hint, Pudong), was difficult to drag ourselves away from.

But before we knew it we were back on a China Eastern plane and back firmly in the reality of our Shanghai life. Ahhh, that all-too-familiar smell of the “rice or noodle” lunch which is offered on every China Eastern flight, the chewy roll of bread in the plastic packet which always swells because of the change in air pressure, and -- most notably -- the stewardesses’ complete lack of knowledge of how to serve a beer.

So inept was the pour, in fact, that the cup went completely white with froth. By the time Shanghaiist had retrieved our camera from the overhead locker, sat back down and lined up the shot, a bit of flat lager had appeared under the eight centimetres of pure head. But it was another 15 minutes before the thing was even remotely drinkable.

One badly poured beer isn’t the end of the world of course. And these aren't trained bar people after all. It just seemed -- at the time -- to serve as some kind of boozy analogy as we headed back from state-of-the-art Seoul to almost-but-not-quite-there Shanghai.

And for the sake of adding a smidgin of a newsworthiness to this post, we wonder if South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun receives an equally frothy beverage when he comes across to China next week to speak with Hu Jintao, in the wake of the nuclear test threat from North Korea.