Results tagged “airports”

Those who stayed in the city for the May holiday, did it feel more crowded to you? According to Xinhua, it was - since more than 2.45 million tourists decided to make Shanghai their holiday destination. That's about 20,000 more tourists than last year. Despite the crappy weather, these intrepid travelers trekked out to downtown Puxi, the Pearl Tower and Century Park in droves. Other fun statistics: On May 1, the Shanghai railways handled over 1.27 million passengers, over 2,700 people left from Pudong International Airport on between 7 and 8:30am, and at least 50 people missed their flights because of traffic jams due to road construction.

By Cindy Nawilis

We wonder if the HKIA employee who took this video and uploaded it faced any disciplinary actions.

• Top officials are now considering a bailout plan worth RMB800 billion ($116 billion USD) to buy up top Chinese stocks if the Shanghai index falls below 1,500 points. The index closed at 1,859 points yesterday, but has been falling steadily since the beginning of 2008. Diligence China gives us a look at what the country's economy could look like in 18 months.
• Following yesterday's announcement that Beijing will get a boatload of new money to develop its traffic infrastructure, Chinese officials unveiled a new plan to spend RMB5 trillion over the next two years on new roads, rail and airports. Nearly half this money (RMB2.37 trillion) will be spent in Guangdong province.
• Will democracy work in China? Students at the Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong give it a try in their student president elections. Ironically, three of the four candidates are Communist Party members.

At the side of the Maglev station, between the two terminals, three new restaurants are opening at Pudong Airport on August 10 (Sunday). There is a new KFC (for those who can't walk 5 meters to the existing branch), a Pizza Hut, and a Chinese fast-food joint. Also opening soon is a branch of the noodle chain that features Bruce Lee wearing the "Game Of Death" yellow tracksuit as their logo (Note to self: find out name of that restaurant!).

Frustration at mysterious delays and abrupt diversions and cancellations have at times boiled over into violence at Chinese airports, with passengers trying to storm grounded aircraft and police having to be brought in to keep the peace. Deputy head of the civil aviation regulator, Yang Guoqing said authorities will punish airlines whose passengers refuse to disembark or misbehave in protest over problems like delayed flights. "We will severely punish airlines which experience aircraft occupations and other incidents as a result of service reasons which originate with the airline," Yang told a news conference. "These measures include cancelling slots at corresponding busy airports."Customers must also be kept better informed about delays, especially those caused by bad weather, a big issue in China.

Chris Horton of GoKunming informs us of another abnormal incident involving a bus in Kunming Monday evening. No reports of any bomb or explosive device were made, but eyewitnesses say they heard a "loud explosion-like sound", as rumours of another explosion spread like wildfire via text message. Meanwhile, in a separate incident at the Kunming airport, several irate passengers "clashed with airport police, smashing computers, desks and other items".

This just in from a reader tip. Via the easternmiles.com newsletter:

"Nearly 150 Indian medical students are stranded in airports and other places in China after discovering that the air tickets they bought were fake. A group of students are stuck at the Pudong airport in Shanghai. The alleged fraud came to light after two air carriers -- Emirates and Malaysia Airlines -- refused to accept the e-tickets issued to the students when they went to board the flights between June 29 and July 11. The affected students belong to various universities like Nanjing, Suzhou and Chong Qing, which are hundreds of kilometres away from each other." [Source]

Frequent travellers such as grade B Shanghainese men should be painfully aware that airports the world over (LAX, we're looking at you) love to gouge their guests with prices inflated above those in the city.

From yesterday until April 29th, this is the list of airlines which will use the new Terminal 2 at Pudong:

 

Like we told you, the new Terminal at Pudong Airport opened smoothly* yesterday morning, bringing relief to crowded Terminal 1 and a whole stack of new shopping and eating options to those flying from the new building.

Photo from gruntzooki

From Shanghai Daily:

SHANGHAI issued an orange alert for heavy fog this morning. It was the first orange fog warning since winter began early this month.

Continue reading "Orange fog alert and lousy airport/airline services"