Beijing Airport

[BaoMiHua]

Just to comment about the wireless in the new terminal..

I was at the new terminal about week ago trying to get the Free Wireless Network to work, but it doesn't seem to be operational yet, tried with phone and laptop, laptop shows it wanting to connect in ad-hoc mode instead of the normal network mode so maybe they are still tuning it up..

Didn't have time to find any spots where i could borrow any lounge or other open networks, if anyone knows good spots in T3, i'd be happy to hear about them..

[roddy]

I never had trouble using the self-service check-in with a foreign passport. Probably roddy just got blacklisted or something

I think I figured out why I had trouble. It asks you to select 'id card' or 'passport' and then enter the number. I was selecting passport, and the number was then not recognized. However, this time I tried entering my passport number as an 'id card' and it pulled up the flight no problem - so basically the info is in there, I just wasn't getting to it.

Flew in and then out of T3 this week - very impressive, no or quick moving queues at every point and the nice long views are fun. I also like the way you can see the trains come in between the two arms the gates are on.

Credit also to Air China (or China Air, or whatever) for being pretty efficient - was meant to be flying out to Dalian at 8.30pm, but Dalian's weather wasn't looking good and the gate staff were saying 'nothing official but generally if you can't take off now, you're not going to take off at all.' I opted to switch to a flight the next day rather than hang around on the off-chance of taking off and maybe have to turn up on someone's doorstep at midnight or something, and they did that at no charge, despite the flight not being officially canceled yet. The flight the next day was queued up by the runway for about an hour, but hey, airports are airports.

If you're departing from T3, you'll definitely need to allow yourself more time to get to your gate.

The electric cart things they use for disabled passengers can be hired for 10Y a head.

Didn't find any wireless I could connect to - this is a bit disappointing as it's not like it would cost that much in the context of the whole new terminal, Hong Kong has airport-wide free wireless, and it's one of the things that people (well, people like me at least) notice and appreciate.

Oh, and I heart Burger King.