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A Trip to Beijing - Pete Ellington

Monday 13th Oct found me at Terminal 2 Manchester Airport waiting to board QR 046..A7-AEM 330.300 en route to Doha for an onward flight to Beijing. The half empty flight and plenty to drink and eat made the 7 hour light pass pretty quick, nothing exciting was noted at Manchester.

Arriving in a very warm Doha around midnight,As there are no air bridges at Doha you are bussed to the terminal with a half decent ramp tour noting down a decent few reg`s. The very modern air conditioned terminal offers very few views except one large window giving limited views of one ramp, so a trip to duty free was next on the agenda, At 2.00am we boarded QR898 A7-ADW 330.200 for the onward flight to Beijing.

Tuesday 14th Oct we finally arrived in Beijing at 2.45pm also very warm and sunny, it is alleged that the new terminal at Beijing is the biggest building on the world, you have to catch a train to the luggage reclaim! with not wanting to waste anytime we jumped strait into a taxi to get to the Sino Swiss hotel. The first lesson we learnt was get the Hotel address written in Chinese or you will never get there. After nearly an hour we arrived at the hotel, normally takes ten minutes. Room 810 was our base for the next four days with the SBS on and window open we got stuck in. Once it became dark at about 6.00pm we ventured back to the airport to see what we could find, with a few more added to the log including China postal 737 nothing exciting was added, we returned to the hotel for a few beers and bed. The second lesson was don't leave the window open as the mosquitoes love to come in.

Wed 15th was our first full day in Beijing up early waiting for the arrivals. The hotel is located between the two main runways, the left hand side runway aircraft could be read off very easily and with the help of the Sbs you got advanced notice of arrival. The right hand side was almost impossible to read off as they were to low down on passing the hotel. After lunch we decided to venture to the famous barracks at the far end of the airport this took about 20 mins once at the airport, the only downside was you are outside and open to the elements at no time in Beijing were we hassled and felt safe at all times. The barracks area gave views of all 3 runways plus the cross taxiway highlights were, Transmile 727, China Southern Md90`s,Two China Postal 737`s, Grand China Express Emb 190,Vladivostok Air 154,China Eastern Crj.

Thursday 16th Oct was spent in the hotel room with another good log completed, today's highlights included China Southern Emb145,Grand China Express Emb190,Another China Postal and a good few Biz Jets.

Friday 17th Oct was spent in the room as well until checking out to go to the airport at 11.00pm.Today the weather was poor with the smog/low cloud hanging about all day this made it very hard to read a lot of aircraft off, thank god for the Sbs. Today's highlights were, Air Union 154,and a few more Biz. To sum up Beijing I made 263 new aircraft mostly B regs and would highly recommend a visit to China and its quite cheap once you get here.

Saturday 18th at 2.00am found us waiting to board QR899 A7-AFM 330-200 back to Doha arriving there at 6.00am with another ramp tour and a few more added to the log, with only two hours to kill soon had us boarding are flight back to Manchester QR045 A7-AEF 330-300, with nothing much added at Manchester that was the trip over.

Thanks for reading Pete Ellington

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