Visa run, Part I - CTU

Many who enter China on a tourist visa and want to stay longer need to do the Hong Kong visa run - train or fly to Shenzhen, and then walk through Lowu customs and take the train to the visa office in Hong Kong. To check airfares and book tickets, elong.com is the way to go. Other online travel booking websites are not in English or crash during the booking steps, and a couple others I phoned didn't have better deals.

There is a ten kuai shuttle from downtown to the airport, or a taxi would be fifty. (Note to self - next time, learn the word for 'airport' before you go on a plane trip so you don't have to call it 飞机的地方(fēijī de dìfang, airplane place) everwhere.) This is my first encounter with the local airport, and I really like it - clean, well laid out, announcements in English and Mandarin even for domestic flights, and electronic check in kiosks that work.

Air Ch*na is famous for two things: young and lovely flight attendants and terrible, terrible food. Perhaps the former is supposed to compensate for the latter.