Chengdu - Day 1

OK, I'm not really in China yet. I have a one day layover in Hong Kong before we head off to Chengdu. I'm staying at a hotel on Hong Kong Island for about $120; they upgraded me to a suite, too bad it's only one day. The flight sucked since it was so long (14.5 hours) and my ecomony seat (Boeing 747) seems more cramped vs. Singapore Airlines (Boeing 777). It's also the longest direct flight I've been on. I can't imagine being on the plane 4 more hours to fly directly from LAX to Singapore.


They're renovating the business class lounges at LAX so we were shuttled to a temp facility. No, I didn't fly business class; Leon has lots of miles so he got me in.


Inside the temp lounge. Not too bad but nothing compared to Singapore Airline's lounge at Changi or Cathay Pacific's at Hong Kong (Noodle Bar!).

The new Hong Kong airport is huge. They let us off at gate 67 which is a 20 minute walk to the main terminal. We actually took a subway to get from one end of the airport to the other.


Arrival hall at Hong Kong airport. There are 13 luggage carousels and our luggage was waiting for us when we cleared customs. I usually have to wait forever for luggage at LAX or even short-flights at SNA.

The shuttle bus from the airport to my hotel was HK$140 and took about 45 minutes since I was the first stop. It was a huge tourist bus but only had about 10 passengers. Metropark Hotel is right next to a MTR station (Tin Hau) but I was too lazy to navigate the subway with my luggage.


Even though I requested a non-smoking room, the room smells anyway. You can't get away from cigarette smoke in Hong Kong.


View of Hong Kong from hotel room