![\"Beijing](\"http:\/\/imgur.com\/VVLi1kM.jpg\")
<\/a><\/br>Beijing Airport Terminal 3<\/br>There was heavy air pollution on that day.<\/span><\/p><\/div> I won\u2019t go in length why I needed to travel half a nation to Urumqi to take a TOEFL exam. In short, I don\u2019t like to reserve a TOEFL slot to early (fixing it down means too much pressure for me), and those slots were hot in China. So when it\u2019s time for me to pick in late September, I was picking between Changchun, Urumqi and Hong Kong. I\u2019ve been to Changchun and Hong Kong, so picked Urumqi.<\/p>\n Usually, the default way for me to get to and from Beijing Airport is Metro Line 4\/10 and Metro Airport Express. But given that this time I would arrive in Beijing at midnight, and the only way besides taxi to get back in town by then would be Airport Bus to Friendship Hotel(\u53cb\u8c0a\u5bbe\u9986), and there\u2019s no easy way from there to get back to dormitory. So this time I transferred my bike to the campus of Renmin University of China in advance, so after getting off that Airport Bus I could ride my bike back. But that meant I didn\u2019t have my bike to ride to the metro station on my trip to the airport. So I went online and found that there\u2019s bus from National Exhibition Center of Metro Line 15 to Beijing Airport, and Metro lines 4 and 15 were of similar distance from my dormitory, so why not try something new Then about prices, 840 CNY for a single trip from Beijing to a city farther than Hong Kong is by no means expensive, (As a comparison, Hong Kong Airlines was offering Beijing-Hong Kong return at 11XX CNY with unfavorable slots, which was very very cheap. But since I had never been to Urumqi, why not try it?)<\/span>\uff0cespecially concerning this was a pretty good slot. Albeit 840CNY was the most expensive domestic flight ticket that\u2019s purchased on my own expense.<\/p>\n I lost a toothpaste in the late-arrival security lines (I planned to check that bag. But since I arrived at the airport late, and the lines at Air China baggage counters were quite formidable, I killed that thought.) Gate C20 was the farthest in Terminal 3C, but since the plane arrived late, I got time to have a drink, regroup myself before boarding time. <\/br>Boarding at Beijing Airport Terminal 3<\/br>There\u2019s still a long walk and back from Gate C20 to the airplane.<\/span><\/p><\/div> <\/br>Boarding My Flight to Urumqi<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Shandong Airlines B738 Arriving<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Beijing Airport Terminal 3<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Korean Air B77W Taxiing in Beijing Airport<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Xiamen Air B787 (B-2760) Taxiing in Beijing Airport<\/br>Off to Fuzhou(\u798f\u5dde).<\/span><\/p><\/div> <\/br>Take-off Shot of Beijing Airport Terminal 2<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Mountain Ranges West of Beijing<\/br>Covered in mists.<\/span><\/p><\/div> <\/br>Mountain Ranges West of Beijing<\/br>Covered in mists.<\/span><\/p><\/div> <\/br>Farmland and Rivers South-West of Baotou(\u5305\u5934)<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Meal Services<\/br>One thing ridiculous about this \u201cBeef and Rice\u201d was that, the carrot and celery in that little dish were exactly the same as the ones they put along the rice, except unheated. So are these the only two vegetables with Islamic certificate that Air China could lay their hands on? <\/span><\/p><\/div> <\/br>Desert in Inner Mongolia<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ranges of Tianshan Above Clouds<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ranges of Tianshan Above Clouds<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ranges of Tianshan Above Clouds<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Ranges of Tianshan Above Clouds<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Water Droplets on the Window<\/p><\/div> <\/br>North-East Urumqi Suburb<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Mount Mantou in Rural Urumqi<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Power Plant in Urumqi Suburb<\/p><\/div> <\/br>BRT7 Station of Urumqi<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Hua-Ling(\u534e\u51cc) Parcel Hub<\/p><\/div> <\/br>Urumqi Suburb<\/br>Pretty colorful buildings in the foreground.<\/span><\/p><\/div> <\/br>Twelfth Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps<\/p><\/div>
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\nThe images in this post are hosted on Imgur. Email me should there be any display problems.<\/span><\/p>\nand nearly miss my flight<\/del>?
\nThe scheduled departure time of flight CA1275 is 1125. That morning I was delayed by my roommate a little bit, so it was already 0835 by the time I left the dormitory, and 0905 when I reached the metro station of Line 15, (details omitted), and ran like hell in Terminal 3 to reach the self-check-in machine by 1038 and printed out my boarding pass, which was 2 minutes before the check-in deadline set of Air China. (I had already check-in online, so I didn\u2019t know whether I could print my boarding pass or not after the check-in deadline. Anyway, this was pretty much a close call. <\/del>)
\nP.S. In fact I could print my own boarding pass after checking-in online. But I didn\u2019t bother yesterday, plus the PDF file generated by Air china was miserably misaligned (like something from the last century)<\/del>. Had I already printed my own boarding pass, I didn\u2019t need to hurry at all since the previous flight arrived late.
\nP.P.S.S. I wasn\u2019t sure whether Chinese airport securities accept the bar on a cell-phone screen (since this plus ID card was all that they ever cared about), it yes then again I didn\u2019t need to hurry.
\nP.S.P.S. A more seasoned classmate of mine couldn\u2019t believe my experience of nearly missing my flight as we talked about it. In his opinion the fastest way to get to Beijing Airport from our dormitory was with Metro Line 15.<\/p>\n
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\nSo after waiting at the end of runway 36R for 10 minutes (in which time there were only two landings) we were finally able to leave behind the air pollution of Beijing. As usual, all the photos in the air were processed for contrast.<\/span>GPS Tracking on Wikiloc<\/a>
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\nMore than 10 years of service of that Boeing 738 plane meant the window shade on my left was particularly stubborn. That plus the sun was shining all the way onto the my side of the plane meant I kept the window shade down for the majority of the flight, and took few photos.
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\nWhen checking-in line and choosing between \u201cright-side with no view\u201d and \u201cleft-side with Tianshan(\u5929\u5c71) Ranges but direct sunshine\u201d, I picked the latter. Unfortunately, it was very much cloudy in Urumqi, and the clouds went as high as 400 meters. So Bogda Peak was all that\u2019s left of the Tianshan Ranges.
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