The first show day proper at Faku’s Caihu Airport for the 3rd Shenyang Faku International Flight Convention and 2014 Shenyang Airshow was also sunny and hot.
We had a surprise visitor in the hangar during the morning when a man brought his monkey to see us, as you do!
Pete and Guy were only required to fly a single daytime show, so Pete, Kirsty and I went for a wander around the show ground once that had taken place. Considering it was a week day, it was pretty busy with people. In many ways it was a lot like shows here in the UK; a mix of aviation and non-aviation stalls, though you probably wouldn’t normally find quite so many high-end cars on display. Amusingly, as we wandered through one covered area, Pete ended up getting shaved! The man then, unsurprisingly, tried to sell him the razor, but Pete was having none of it!
Cheeky monkey.
Being shaven in public, obviously!
Another lovely day followed, and our visitors the next morning were the four-piece female pop group from Taiwan that we’d been to see perform in Faku a couple of nights previous. Lots of pictures were taken on, in and around various aircraft, and Pete and Bikki even got to learn the “Faku Girl” (the girls’ song which was played relentlessly during the show) dance – or at least that was the theory!
The Taiwanese female pop group pose with the Twister.
Pete & Bikki learn to dance!
Once the afternoon airshow started, Kirsty and I decide to head out into the crowd to get some pictures of the locals watching the Twisters perform in the sky. To be honest, I’m not sure what the crowd was most interested in, the Twisters or us! In addition to the surreptitiously (yet not especially subtly!) taken camera-phone pictures and videos in which we ended up starring, we were also asked to pose for pictures with so many people – all of whom were incredibly friendly and happy to see us. I think it would be fair to assume that Western faces are not all that common in Faku!
The Chinese fascination with the Westerner.
The locals loved the Twisters.
All eyes were pointing skyward.
We had a canine companion in the hangar the next day – and for subsequent ones. She was owned by the man responsible for ‘guarding’ the hangar. Initially we thought she was a puppy, but we later learnt that that was essentially as big as she was going to get!
Look at her little face!
The crowds weren’t as strong in the latter days of the event, and on the morning of the concluding day of the show, we decided to do a little sight-seeing. Unfortunately the minibus driver did not know how to get us to the temples on the far side of the lake, so we had to make do with wandering around the small market area that had sprung up as a result of the show – you could ride a camel or a pony, or choose from a number of different food stalls.
Camel ride, anyone?
Fortune Lake.
We even went for a little wander around the lake, where lots of locals were fishing.
Fishing is a very popular pursuit in China.
Rocky even managed to catch one with his hands!
Back at the airport, the show concluded in a rather bizarre manner with four couples getting married! For all I know, it could have all been for some television programme or other, but it certainly seemed strange to us!
One of four couples to get married on the last day of the show.
Monday, 1 September was Pete’s and my last full day in Faku (Guy and Kirsty started the journey back to the UK at 0500 that morning), and we spent the morning putting the aircraft, which we’d already dismantled and positioned back onto their jigs the previous day, into their container for their onward journey to Zhengzhou and our second airshow venue.
Everything went smoothly, and, after a ‘cook-your-own’ barbecue lunch, we headed back to Fortune Lake, determined to see the temples up close. On this occasion, our driver knew exactly where to go, and we soon pulled up in the car park.
Chinese lantern.
One of the many huge statues present.
According to the entrance ticket (which cost 20 Yuan = £2), we were at the “China Shenyang Caigong – The temple of the area of tourism”. Whilst it was a very nice looking place with some spectacular, bright, colourful statues of lots of different gods, and, without trying to sound too judgemental, the basic gist seemed to be that it was somewhere for people to come and give money (and pray) “to the gods” in the hope that they would get something in return.
Our time in Faku was done and we would spend most of the next day travelling to Zhengzhou, where we’d reassemble the aircraft before heading off to Beijing for a few days of ‘tourism’; more of that next time.
Thanks for looking.
Karl
