Hohhot airport was quite nice but far from the town centre so good job I asked the hostel to drop me instead of trying to get a taxi. Security in China airports is a nuisance. I only have hand luggage and they keep fussing about my liquids so now I take the small bag out of my backpack so they can see the items. That is still not enough for them and they pick a different random item each time to stop it.

In Kashgar during my August trip they threw out my shaving cream even though it took three internal flights to get to Kashgar. Now they had stopped my mouthwash even though it had taken two flights again to get here and travelled with me all during the august flights no problem.

I bought the mouthwash in canada, it had english and french writing, and was half used. I was getting fed up and didnt want a perfectly good bottle with a resealable cap thrown out for no good reason. I showed my old boardings cards and said that I had already travelled with it to come here and that I didnt buy it in China. After checking with her colleague she said ok.

It was a quick flight from Hohhot to Beijing arriving 1am. This time we landed in the older terminal one. I had to walk thru the walkways to get to Terminal two for my morning flight. This was not the nice Terminal Three I had slept in during august and didnt have benches.

People were stretched out across the chairs and I managed to find a set of three empty. I was able to lie under the armrests on each and get some sleep. After 5am a large group of elderly women arrived and were chatting loudly. By this time there were letting people go into the inside area where the check in desks were so I went in.

The boards said the Busan flight was counters D1-D5 so I waited in that area for the counters to open. After 6am when the staff arrived I went up to the counter. The lady just shrugged me off and said Busan is counter D6. I was angry that the boards said D1-D5 and asked her to just check me in since this was what the board said and I had been standing from 5am. She kept saying D6 and signalled me away. I had been standing at D2 which had been displaying Busan from 5am.

This shows again how badly organized Beijing Airport is, changing things on a whim and no concern for people queuing up for early morning flights. By this time queues had already formed by D6 and I didnt want to go and stand in line again. The person at D6 was taking so long and the counter beside was open. I asked the lady there if she could check me in?

Surprisingly she did and I was able to get my boarding card. Not before she starts questioning my korean visa in my passport which had expired. Korean immigration does not give you a new visa but updates it in their system. I did not need any grief from a beijing check in counter staff saying I dont have a visa for korea. Besides, I have a work visa. Canadians do not need an entry tourist visa and I could still enter without one.

At the security gates I took out my liquids bag and this time they decided to stop my hand cream. Why now when it had travelled all over Xinjiang in August no problem and made it to Hohhot thru Beijing Airport and back again? Its completely random and not even consistent which items they are stopping.

Again this was getting ridiculous and I had my old boarding cards ready to argue. Another tip is people were taking empty water bottles and using the water dispensers on the other side to fill up again. Restaurants and vendings machines were only in Beijing Airport and I found other airports only have water dispensers once you go thru security.

The paranoia continued on the flight. I wanted to take a picture of the stewardess standing in the doorway as I entered the plane but she moved inside out of range. During take off I tried to take pictures of the stewardesses again as I was near the front. She came over and started yelling in chinese and made me delete the picture from my camera. Luckily I had a few so I just showed her deleting the last one.

The flight to Busan flew right over Daegu. I had a very clear view of chilgok and daegu city and somewhat dissapointed that I had to fly to Busan waste time coming back since there is no daegu flight on wednesdays. At busan airport its a completely refreshing atmosphere.

They now have a counter for the daegu bus to buy tickets. People are friendly, happy, smile at you, and say thank you. The same with the tourist info booth beside. What a change from Beijing Airport! At Daegu I just took a cab all the way home as I was tired and hadnt really slept for the last two nites. Cab drivers in Daegu are honest and trustworthy.

China is really nice outside of beijing. Beijing isnt bad either, mostly the airport where all the issues are. I would love to go again if getting the visa wasnt such a hassle, and I had direct flights and didnt have to transit thru Beijing.

My three visits to China in the last two years are definately an eye opener. China is home to 57 recognized nationalities and other minorities. When you see 'chinatowns' in other countries its mostly representative of the Han Chinese, not the other nationalities such as Uyghars or Mongols that I visited. I think the provinces outside The Great Wall are more interesting as they are not 'chinese' so have their own cultures and traditions that we aren't familiar with.

There is so much more to China than just Beijing and the Great Wall, which is probably what most people know and visit first. Its a shame airfares are so high to get to china for people overseas. They also need to open up more domestic routes to international and regional flights rather than channel all flights thru Beijing/Shanghai.

If thats the way they want to handle all flights then Beijing Airport has to study other airports, look at its customer service, organization and operation, ground transportation and connections from the airport, and bring in major improvements.