Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu

via JAL and Korean First Class

October 2017

The Four Seasons concierge was kind enough to check us all in and print out our boarding passes, so we had plenty of time arriving at the airport at 1pm.

I remembered from our last visit to just follow the red carpet to First Class and VIP security.

Seems that there are multiple lounges and we headed for V2 which was the first lounge in the main concourse.

The lounge was quite nice and much better than the China Eastern Lounge we used three years ago. It was clearly a different lounge so not sure whether it was in a different concourse or new construction.

Great Wall Cab? I sampled for the team. Yuck, pretty much on the same level as AA's domestic offerings.

At around T-45, we headed out for the gate.

Biejing PEK to Xian XIY

China Eastern MU2112

A325

3:05pm-4:40pm (sked)

3:15pm-5:55pm (actual)

October 16th, 2017

Seats 8AC

On board, First Class featured 3 rows of 2-2 seats which were quite comfortable, unlike the new slimline "First Class" seats in the US.

A peek back to Economy before settling in.

Good legroom with pillows and blankets at each seat.

Pre-departure hot towels and beverages.

Seat back IFE with a reasonable selection of on demand movies and videos.

Once in the air, our cabin crew quickly started what turned out to be excellent and friendly inflight service.

And full meal service on the 90 minute flight. It was advertised as beef, but I'm not so sure. LOL. And the garlic bread was very good, with loads of garlic butter unlike the single dap that United tries to pass off as garlic bread on 10 hour international flights.

With a nearly 45 minute ground hold, there is no way that we were going to arrive on time and the flight map indeed estimated a 5:47pm arrival. Nevertheless, our FA insisted that were on time, would land at 5:15pm and prepared the cabin for landing at 4:45pm... more than an hour before computer predicted landing. When I showed her the screen and time, that said that was incorrect and the captain had told her that we were on time. My first thought was that apparently Chinese FAs lie as much as American FAs. But I think she was just confused and/or perhaps the captain had indeed told her "on time".

Not sure what gate we arrived at, but it featured one on the longest and steepest uphill jet bridges I have ever seen or walked.

Then a long, long walk to the exit.

And another long, long walk from the terminal to the car park and our driver.

People's Grand Hotel Xi'an

Our home for the next three nights in Xi'an is the Sofitel Legend People's Grand Hotel. This used to be the State Guesthouse and has been beautifully restored into a stunnigly beautiful hotel.

The lovely Lobby Bar 1953, with complimentary drinks and hors d'ouvres each evening between 5:30pm and 7:30pm. Bartender Eddie was wonderful.

The 5th floor hallway.

Simply gorgeous decor, artwork and fixtures.

Our Suite 1511.

After we settled in, we headed down for dinner at La Dolce Vita.

Breakfast was served in La Dolce Vita and was an impressive spread.

The top floor Louis XIII bar, which we didn't have time to stop by for a drink during evening hours.

The Terracotta Warriors

At the advice of our guide, we headed out early at around 7:30am to avoid the crowds at the Terracotta Army Museum, about an hour drive from our hotel. We arrived at 8:30am just as the gates opened and well ahead of the usually massive crowds.

Our first stop was Pit 1.

Wow.

And worker bees continuing the restoration work of more warriors.

And Pit 3.

Where for all of 20 yuan, we can get up close and personal. LOL.

Meanwhile outside, it's still not that crowded.

OK, that's where the crowds are...

At the Bronze Chariot Exhibition Room...

Oh yeah, we made the right call to come early.

On the way out, yes there's a Starbucks pretty much everywhere.

Lots of other shops and vendors on the walk back to our van.

Meanwhile, an hour later back in Xian...

... we headed for the shops in the Muslim Quarter.

... and the Great Mosque.

Time for lunch. Can't remember the name of the place but it seemed popular with the locals.

And the food just kept coming and coming...

After lunch, back to the hotel where we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Then back down to La Dolce Vita for a "light" dinner.

After dinner, SFO777Jr and I headed out to explore the city at night.

The Bell Tower of Xi'an. Gorgeous at night.

Pretty funny McDonald's billboard...

About 30 minutes later we finally found Defu Lane aka Defu Bar Street, the club and bar strip. Thank you iPhone Maps.

Most of the bars on the street offered some form of live music. We picked one and stopped for a beer, or two.

Another 30 minutes later at around midnight, we finally found our way back to our hotel.

Hot Pot and Biking around the Wall

This morning, we're off to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

Pretty ingenious cell tower disguised as a pine tree.

And yes, even Papa John's is in Xian.

Our next stop was the Shaanxi History Museum...

From the museum, we headed for lunch. No not KFC. LOL.

But at a huge multilevel shopping mall in Xian.

There are dozens of restaurants at this mall including a branch of the wildly popular Haidilao Hot Pot Cheng. This place is huge with generally long wait times, such that they have manicure stations while you wait.

Menus are on ipads with pictures so it was really easy to select and order.

Service and food were amazing. What a fun place.

Tossing tofu noodles, which were delicious!

Our wonderful server.

After lunch, we headed to one of the gates of the Xian city wall, which completely surrounds the old city.

Where we decided to try the 8.5 mile ride on the wall around the city.

8.5 miles is a long, long way. But we hung in with just a few stops and managed to make it around in an hour and 20 minutes.

What a long day with a major workout on the bike at the end. Still pretty full from lunch, we had drinks and hors d'ouvres in the 1953 Bar and called it a night.

Sichuan Airlines to Chengdu

Getaway day, and one last breakfast at wonderful La Dolce Vita at the People's Grand Hotel.

First order of business after breakfast was a stop at a nearby eye glasses shop to repair Mrs. SFO777's sun glasses. LOL on the Helen Keller brand of glasses.

We bid adieu to the wonderful staff and headed out around 11:30am.

Yes, another beautiful day in paradise. Ha.

First stop was Hanyang Tomb.

And then to Xian International Airport.

Where China Southern handled check-in for Sichaun Airlines. So far, so good.

Security was interesting and completely different from Beijing. Today, all of our aerosols were confiscated as fire hazards. Yo guys, there are in carry-ons, not checked bags. Jeez.

With nearly 90 minutes to departure, we headed for the China Southern Lounge. This place was so crowded and uninspiring that we decided to just head to and wait at the gate.

So far so good, although I would soon learn that this was far from the truth.

OK, there's the first sign of trouble. Our 3:05pm flight is now showing Delayed.

Time to head to the gate, where absolutely no one spoke English. LOL. Hilarity ensured as I attempted to communicate with a friendly agent. Via mostly sign language, I got the message that our plane had just left... Xian. It was flying to Chengdu, then it will return to pick us up... about 4 hours later. Improvised signage at the gate...

With nearly 4 hours to wait, we decided that the China Southern Lounge didn't look too bad after all, especially now that there was some seating available.

Another translation challenged attempt. Yes, by all means, let's call our program the Simple Business Club. LOL.

When we arrived, we were in between meal time and the food pickings were very slim.

Meanwhile, on a Starbucks run, I saw an outpost of one of Mrs. SFO777's favorite Paris stores. Not surprisingly, she and Mrs. SFO777Jr high tailed it over to check it out.

With the help of EF and flightaware, I figured out where the inbound flight was and we headed to the still designated Gate H53. When a Sichaun Airlines plane pulled in to Gate H51, I wandered over to discover that indeed this would be our plane, as the H51 gate monitor confirmed.

... as did the more traditional "monitor". LOL.

Gate lice, Xian style.

Xian XIY to Chengdu CTU

Sichuan 3U 8552

737-800

3:05p-4:40p (sked)

7:45p-9:00p (actual)

October 19, 2017

We were able to bypass most of the crowd when I moved to the right of the podium and shouted the universal language "First Class". On board, a pleasant domestic three row First Class cabin.

Although not much of a bulkhead divider between First and Economy.

As bad as the ground service was, on board it was completely different. Outstanding service from a wonderful cabin crew and in particular our cute FA. Pre Departure beverage and peanuts.

Nice slippers and pillow.

Our delightful FA...

The Sichuan Airlines route map.

Three of us ordered beer and this is what I got. Apparently, there was only one can on board and our FA split it three ways. LOL.

I wasn't very hungry but took the meal for the photo opp.

Better late than never... four hours later we're in Chengdu.

The Temple House Chengdu

After the wonderful Four Seasons and People's Grand Hotel in Beijing and Xian, it was hard to imagine how The Temple House could top it. But incredibly, this was probably our favorite hotel of the trip. A beautiful blend of old and new world, with a historic entrance and lobby to state of the art modern suites in a wonderful location and one of our favorite restaurants of the trip.

Our suite...

Since we arrived much later than we had anticipiate, we had a couple of drinks and pupus in the wonderful outdoor bar and then to bed. In the morning, breakfast at The Temple Café, a French Bistro style resto.

Meanwhile, back in our room before heading out for our first day of touring.

Panda Day 1

And we're off to see the pandas today and tomorrow, one of the highlights of the entire trip. Today's stop is the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, a lovely park with numerous panda viewing areas.

The walk into the park, with lots of flags and pandas.

Pandas basically eat, poop and sleep, and this guy has perfected the art.

Probably the most exercise he gets all day, stretching for more bamboo.

Oh yeah, this is much more comfortable.

Man, eating breakfast took a lot out of me. Off to nap.

And the oh so cute baby pandas...

Pretty clear that Chengdu is the center of Panda-mania.

After our panda morning, we headed to Qingyamg Temple in the heart of the city.

Then back to the hotel for a bite to eat and nap before our 5 hour Chengdu Food Tour. OMG.

Our wonderful salad at The Temple House Café.

5 Hour Foodie Tour of Chengdu

While doing some pre-trip research, I stumbled across Chengdu Food Tour, a tour company run by an ex-pat Canadian who married a local gal and who now lives in Chengdu. Jordan met us at our hotel around 4:30pm for the start of our 5+ hour food orgy. We headed up the street to grab the Chinese equivalent of Uber. No not ours, just a car dealer at the corner, while we waited.

Twenty minutes later, we were at our first drop off point.

Oops. Considering the traffic, I'm surprised we didn't see more of this.

And we're off...

Jordan ordering for the table...

After our first meal, we're off in search of more food.

Appliance store, Chengdu style.

And Round 2...

Oh yeah, nice and spicy.

Next stop was the local outdoor market. Really cool!

And some Chinese moonshine. LOL.

And our final stop where we had dinner. All that stuff before was just starters. Ha.

OMG, the carmelized egg plant was to die for.

OMG, we were totally stuffed. What an amazing foodie tour of Chengdu. We bid Jordan adieu and crammed ourselves in a taxi and headed back to The Temple House.

Meanwhile, back in our room. OK, this city is simply panda crazy.

More Pandas and Sichuanese Opera

Today is the big day, when the girls get to sit with a baby panda. We're off to the Dujiangyan Panda Research Center.

Where you can pay $100 or so for the privilege of scooping up panda poop and cleaning the panda enclosures. What a great racket. They actually make money on labor. LOL.

And then there's a group of us that will pay close to $300 for 20 seconds with a 2 year old panda. Man, this is an even better racket. Mrs. SFO777 at the head of the line.

And we're off for our 20 seconds with the baby panda.

Over in a flash is an understatement. But it was pretty cool nonetheless. Adjacent to the Panda Research Center is the Quincheng mountainside with a stunning park which eventually leads to the Quinyang Taoist Temple.

The Temple is located at the top of the mountain which can be accessed by cable car... but not until you walk up a long, long series of stairs. Personal porters are a big business here. Our guide Alex.

After initially resisting, Mrs. SFO777 decided to accept a ride.

OK, now we're much happier.

We're not even close yet. The cable car station is across the lake. You can walk around, or take the ferry.

At the top, more stairs...

With the actual temple another 30 minute (uphill) walk away, we all decided we'd seen enough and headed back down this beautiful spot.

An hour later we were back at the hotel and all pretty hungry. So we headed for The Temple Café for a late lunch. A simple "Bonjour, comment ça va?" toward Chef Jerome and we were BFFs, as he came to our table and prepared a wonderful spread.

And desserts.

OMG, what a fabulous lunch with two bottles of Chablis. After a nap, we headed out for our final night and the Sichuanese Opera.

Where visitors can dress up in period costume including full make-up. SFO777Jr and the future Mrs. SFO777Jr were great sports as they went for the glory.

Jr. has already decided that this was not a good idea. LOL.

Wow. What a great finished result.

We all fell for the ear cleaning scam. Seriously?

And the show, which was pretty hokey and touristy.

After the show, back to the hotel to pack and try to get some sleep before our 4:30am wake-up call, and the start of the long trek home.

Air China Business Class to Incheon

We gave ourselves lots of time this morning and left the hotel at 5:30am which was really too early. At that hour, there was very little traffic and we arrived at the airport in 20 minutes.

We were so early that the Air China counters hadn't even opened. The counters opened promptly at 6am and since we were the first in the First/Business line, we were processed promptly at just after 6am.

After customs and security, we were in a pretty deserted international concourse. Indeed, we were so early that even Starbucks hadn't opened.

Lounge signage leaves a bit to be desired here at there is no indication which lounges are for which airlines. We tried the first First Class Lounge, which actually looked very nice but we turned away as it was not for Air China passengers. Further down the concourse was the Air China lounge which paled in comparison.

Small and rather butt ugly.

With a weak selection of food, which was even worse than it looked since it turned out to have been from last night.

A nice empty wine bottle.

Apparently, they don't really expect passensgers to be here this early and the cleaning crew decided now would be a good time.

Jr and I did a Starbucks run so we at least had something.

After the cleaners were done, then the staff replenished the food offerings, which was pretty much more of the same.

And now we have wine.

Yes, that's exactly what I think of when I go to the loo.

One of the two small rooms off the main lounge seating area.

Chengdu to Incheon

Air China CA 401

A320

8:15am-12:40pm

October 22, 2017

Seats 2AC

Boarding began just after 7:45am and we were able to jump the queue by using the priority lane.

Nothing lie flat on this flight. But the cabin was very nice and the seats quite comfortable for a 3 hour regional flight. Even better that we had the cabin to ourselves today.