Flight Log of Delta Airways Flight 129 from Seattle to Beijing Capital, and Diversion to Anchorage on November 5th, 2016

This post follows on the previous ones about flight DL129 from Los Angeles to Seattle.

Since the previous flight from Los Angeles departed pretty much on time, we arrived at Seattle half an hour early, which meant plenty of time to go just from one terminal to another by tram.

Hainan Airlines A333 (B-8118) At the Gate

Hainan Airlines A333 (B-8118) At the Gate

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Flight Log of Delta Airways Flight 129 from Los Angeles to Seattle on November 5th, 2016

Time to head back (so that I don’t miss too many lectures).
Comparing the different options, I thought a Lyft ride was the best way to get to the airport from downtown (Yes, I’ve got the free ride credits for new users). And thank God, the traffic was smooth all the way to the airport.

LAX Airport Driveway

LAX Airport Driveway


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Flight Log of Delta Airways Flight 4940 from Seattle to San Francisco on October 27th, 2016

This post follows on the previous one of flight DL128 from Beijing to Seattle.

Learning the experience last time of flight AA186 to Chicago, this time I wasted no time after getting off the plane, race-walked my way to the customs.
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Flight Log of Delta Airways Flight 128 from Beijing Capital to Seattle on October 27th, 2016

I wasn’t expecting to go back to the States so soon.
No, I wasn’t, but somehow I messed a crucial part of the application process, and only way I could remedy that mess was to make a visit to the States during the school session.

Thankfully, the class schedules for senior-year undergraduates were usually pretty empty. Also, since it’s not peak times, the airlines were offering jaw-dropping rates across the pacific.
Yes, I thought a return trip to the west coast from Beijing at 3485 CNY with Delta Airlines was pretty much bottom, until I searched for flexible days at found the Hainan+Alaska combination offering 29XX CNY options. Well, I found consolation that the 29XX CNY rates came with overnight transfer at Seattle on the return trip.

Also, since the US Embassy bought into Cornell’s month-long “conference” and issued me a B-type visa, it saved me the burden of paperwork and presumably lies on the visa part.

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Picnic in Stewart Park, Ithaca on August 4th, 2016, and Night Views in Cornell

I’m not sure, but somehow it seemed that the organizers of the month-long workshop at Cornell thought there should be some unique activities each week. So for the last week, the organized a picnic at Stewart Park, a local recreational park on Lake Cayuga.

There was food (sadly I guessed this unproportionally summarized the picnic for quite a number of us), ball games offered by the wonderful professors at Cornell, and breathtaking views of Lake Cayuga under a setting sun. There wasn’t much to talk about for the picnic, so this post would largely be a photo display of sunset at Stewart Park, together with the birds that dwelt in it.

As with Chinese convention, the two of us from Tsinghua joined the procession of SJTU students, and laughed our way for 2.8 kilometers to Stewart Park.

Lake Street

Lake Street

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Flight Log of China Eastern Airlines Flight 2602 from Lanzhou to Beijing Capital on October 18th, 2016

My previous flight GS7648 was pretty much on time, so I got nearly four hours of connection time to kill in Lanzhou(兰州) Airport.

Flight GS7648 parked in the old terminal of Lanzhou Airport, and I passed along a transit counter after I got off the plane. Since Tianjin Airlines has some strict rules banning luggage bags as carry-on items, so I checked that bag on the previous leg. But it’s common truth to any intellectual being that checked bags don’t get to belts in Beijing Capital Airport at speed, specially it’s domestic flight into Terminal 2 at night (Yes it’s China Eastern on a flight from Shanghai Hongqiao that taught me this), so I decided to bring that luggage bag onboard on the flight to Beijing. Since I need to collect that bag first, I didn’t pay any attention to that transit counter.

Lanzhou(兰州) Airport Interior

Lanzhou(兰州) Airport Interior

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Flight Log of Tianjin Airlines Flight 7648 from Zhangye to Lanzhou on October 18th, 2016

Time to head back to Beijing.
Since I didn’t want to miss to many lectures for this trip to Xinjiang, I chose to fly back on Tuesday so that I won’t miss the lecture on Wednesday.
During planning, one major reason, apart from the scenery and appropriate distance (by train) from Urumqi, that I chose to spend two days at Zhangye(张掖) (rather than Dunhuang(敦煌)) before heading back was the cheap flight from Zhangye to Lanzhou(兰州) at 120CNY, which would be the cheapest air ticket I’ve ever purchased.

We arrived in Zhangye relatively early from the half-day trip to Ma-Ti Temple, so after lunch I had got plenty of time to make my way to the airport for the 1635 departure. By the tour guide to Ma-Ti Temple, Zhangye Airport had cancelled it’s passenger shuttle bus, which left a three-times daily “employee” shuttle bus that didn’t fit my schedule. So under her advice I spent 22CNY for a shared ride on the Didi app to Airport.
By the way, compared with Datong(大同) Airport that I’ve been to earlier this year, with (I guess) similar passenger volume, Datong Airport was able to provide passenger shuttle bus based on arrival and departure times of its flights. (But if one consider Datong as a city, Zhangye was a county in every aspect but name, so no surprise.)

Zhangye Airport Avenue

Zhangye Airport AvenueTraffic was sparse on this airport avenue, with golden leaves lining its side.


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Flight Log of Air China Flight 1275 from Beijing Capital to Urumqi on October 14th, 2016

On a weekend on October, 2016, I visited Urumqi to take the TOEFL exam. For the outbound flight I chose Air China Flight CA1275.

Beijing Airport Terminal 3

Beijing Airport Terminal 3There was heavy air pollution on that day.


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Weekend Trip to New York City, Day 2 on July 24th, 2016

Second day at New York.

Since we arrived at our Airbnb host very late last night this morning, we also got up very late. We left our host at 1045, for which, my friend comforted me as “standard college student time”.

Brooklyn Neighborhood

Brooklyn Neighborhood


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Weekend Trip to New York City, Day 1 on July 23rd, 2016

As expected, CS department of Cornell University basically left all the weekends in the summer program to our own discretion (expect for the first weekend’s field trip to Niagara Falls, which was nice since normally one don’t easily get from Ithaca to Niagara Falls without a car). Since Ithaca’s so rurally located, the only city that attracted us was the Big Apple.

Bus Layover at Binghamton Bus Terminal

Bus Layover at Binghamton Bus Terminal

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