Air travel in Hong Kong is the most reasonable and pleasant (or as pleasant as air travel can be) air travel I have been. Shenzhen airlines through Shenzhen, less than 100 km away, is a whole new story.
To begin, it flies to remote cities like Shijiazhuang (I was there for Chinese New Year, hence the need to return). The airport there is pretty ghetto for a city of over 4 million people. There were only 10 gates plus the bathroom is more foul than most restuarants I have been to. Un-befitting of an airport where people pay quite a bit of money to travel.
On the airplane, the shows were a combination of chinese and english shows, which made sense given the growing internationalization of the country and its people. However, Kunfu Panda was only 30 minutes in when the airplane tv shutted down... you would think they can time the shows properly for a 2 hour flight. However, the most exciting thing happened after the TV shutted down.
The flight attendants led the passangers on exercises of neck, shoulder, and various other joints to help the passengers relax and feel better about the long flight. Seriously! It was like the warm ups people did together in gym classes in high school. Except over 75% of the grown adults on the planes were following the flight attendants on the silly rituals!
After landing, it was fairly easy to locate the counter for buses to Hong Kong, a hot pink bus that carried the passengers to Kwoloon station. While very easy and straight forward, going through customs in Shenzhen to Hong Kong was a total nightmare. There were at least over 1000 people in line and took well over an hour. However, I was told by many it was not the norm and it was probably due to Chinese New Year. Still, I felt like I was literally going to drown in the sea of people as people sprinted toward customs through the metal gates. Over 50 police officers were present to keep the order.
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