As I’ve still got lots of the China story to tell, I guess I’d best get on with it!
The journey from Faku to Zhengzhou started at a fairly respectable hour. For some reason our drive back to Shenyang, from where we’d fly that afternoon, took us down a lovely wide dual carriageway – quite a long way removed from the petrifying journey we’d experienced on the way to Faku on less than ideal roads.
We flew with China Southern Airlines on this occasion, and it was a beautiful, if slightly bumpy, ride for almost the whole flight. It was only on final approach where the skies started to look rather more menacing.
The moment we stepped outside the terminal building in Zhengzhou, the heavens opened. Fortunately there was a bus waiting for us, and the journey to the Shangjie district, in the north-west suburbs of Zhengzhou, took us about 90 minutes.
We’d be staying at the Hongjia International Hotel for two nights, then travelling to Beijing for a few days, before coming back to Zhengzhou and the Hongjia for the remainder of the trip. The rooms were very nice, though the food was not as good as at Faku.
The fountain outside our Zhengzhou hotel (phone pic).
The next morning dawned rather hazy, but it soon cleared into a beautiful day. The aircraft, and the lorry that had transported them the 1,300 or so kilometres (straight line distance!) from Faku in around 30 hours, were already there. The unloading process went well, and we soon had the jigs out of the containers with only one minor difficulty encountered along the way.
The lorry carrying the two aircraft is repositioned at Zhengzhou.
We the first of the airshow participants to arrive, but the airfield had a few nice residents like this license-built Antonov An-2.
There were some lighter types too.
By 4pm we’d got both aircraft reassembled, all of the minor snags that had built up in Faku ironed out and each of the aircraft ground run. All told, a very satisfying day!
Pete ground runs “JINX” and sends some dust flying in the process.
We headed out into the streets near our hotels looking for some shorts for Pete and some new shoes for me, as what I was wearing had started to come apart as a result of the exertions of the previous ten or so days. As it transpired, we actually found a cobbler on the street who repaired them for a whopping 5 Yuan (50p)! Cashback!
The cobbler hard at work on my shoes! (phone pic)
We decided to try some of the amazing smelling street food that was on offer too. It was absolutely delicious, even if the chicken did leave my mouth feeling like it was on fire for several hours afterwards!
After a few beers at a place on the street (it would be wrong to describe it as being either a restaurant or a bar!), it was time to retire for the night ahead of the start of the next leg of our adventure.
