It started in the morning of July 27 when two cars headed towards Pudong Airport were involved in a traffic collision. Five people in one of the vehicles were hurt, and another four were ejected from the car. One of those has sustained life-threatening injuries.

It just so happened that at the same time, some Air France staff were driving by the scene and got out of their vehicle.  The French airline staff provided medical aid and directed traffic with safety vests on.

The report emphasizes the airline personnel were not directly involved in the accident, but were simply passing by when they decided to get involved.

Related:

• Foreigner dives into river to rescue woman in Guangzhou
• Another laowai Good Samaritan injured while trying to break up dispute in Shenzhen
• Brazilian man beaten in Dongguan, passers-by watch
• Meizhou firefighters help an American tourist out of a tight squeeze
• China Has One Fewer Good Samaritan After Shenzhen Man Ends Up In Jail

Photos: iFeng, Guangzhou Daily

From a previous incident that occurred in 2013.

When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.

That was the case for one toddler on board a Beijing to Detroit Delta Airlines flight. The kid urgently had to go to the bathroom — so urgently, in fact, there was no time to go to the lavatory on board. So the kid’s father laid a newspaper down in the isle and the child squat and pinched.

Other passengers requested the child’s parents to take the child to the bathroom. However, the child’s grandfather, who was also on the flight, persisted in having the child make full use of the newspaper. Airline staff were unable to stop the airborne bodily evacuation from happening.

Fellow passenger Mr Wang from Oregon said the family made all Chinese people lose face, reports the World Journal.

[h/t @niubi]

Photo: 163

Asia Today reports the following twelve airports will experience delayed flights from July 20 until August 15: Shanghai Hongqiao, Shanghai Pudong, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hefei, Jinan, Wuxi, Ningbo, Qingdao, Lianyun Harbor, Zhengzhou, and Wuhan.

In fact, civil authorities are asking airlines to reduce their total number of flights by 25% during this time period.

The military will apparently be conducting air drills, or “high frequency exercises”, during that period. All the same, the reasons behind the air space shutdown remain secretive. Internet users Ma from Beijing and Pei from Hainan were both arrested and charged for spreading rumors online, having said “said military exercises is just a decoy”. Thirty-seven other people were warned about spreading rumors, but not arrested.

Rumors aside, the number of delayed and canceled flights is not inconsequential. The Civil Aviation Administration of China said that 101 flights had been canceled at Shanghai Pudong International Airport by mid-day July 14, and 103 were delayed by more than two hours. Across the city over at Hongqiao Airport, 98 flights were canceled.

If there is a solution to this mysterious process that will inconvenience air passengers, it would be the readily-given suggestion to bypass the use of planes and use China’s high-speed railway system instead.

Photo: Shenzhen Police 

Yunnan’s aptly-named “Lucky Air” has decided to go all-in by dressing up flight attendants in the national colors of Team Brazil, which makes sense since China didn’t qualify for the tournament (at least not this year).

Cathay Pacific flight attendants in Hong Kong complained earlier this year that their uniforms are too sexy and draw unwanted attention from male passengers. One wonders how Lucky’s flight attendants feel.

Photos: RocketNews24

It was 9pm on June 20, and the departure of Hong Kong Airlines Flight HX234 from Hong Kong Airport to Shanghai was in jeopardy. The air traffic control at Pudong reported bad weather and ordered the plane to delay take-off.

So the plane waited for permission to depart while still idling at its original position next to the passenger terminal. For hours. At 2am, passengers began to request to leave the plane, but it wasn’t until 3am when the captain announced the flight would be cancelled, a full six hours after the original departure time of 9pm.

At this time, Hong Kong Airlines offered its 276 passengers HK$200 in compensation, dinner and breakfast vouchers, along with a flight to Shanghai later. Around 130 of the already boarded passengers accepted this offer, and disembarked the plane. However, about 70 passengers rejected the terms, and refused to leave.

Here’s where this story takes wildly different turns depending on which side of the Hong Kong-Mainland boundary you’re on.

The People’s Daily reported that the passengers had nothing to eat or drink for the entire 16 hours, during which the air conditioning was reported to have been turned off. The paper said the airline staff also left the plane during the passengers’ protest.

This report refers to the passengers as being “detained; while the passengers were not allowed to leave the flight before it was cancelled at 3am, the passengers refused to leave the plane after 3am once the flight was cancelled.

On the other hand, the airline states that water was provided to passengers throughout the incident, during which time the air conditioning was on, reports the Hong Kong Standard.

But it gets uglier. Passenger Mr Hua said the protesters were not seeking compensation, but rather wanted to complain about how they were being treated. But airline staff have a different story.

Stewardess Candy Tong made a post on Instagram in which she affirmed that airline staff gave food and drink to the passengers. Furthermore, Tong stated that during the delay, airline staff had lent passengers their own personal cell phone chargers. Passengers used their recharged batteries to take pictures of the flight attendants.

The following photograph was posted to Facebook with the text, “#1320 Thanks for telling me there is no food and drinks in HX 234.”

The whole standoff finally came to an end at 3pm on the 21st — after passengers had stayed on the flight for a full 18 hours — when Hong Kong Airlines decided to increase compensation to HK$800 per passenger.

Hong Kong Airlines has experienced similar protests by mainland passengers before. Two months ago, 31 passengers refused to leave a flight leaving Bali. Back in 2011, 21 passengers refused to leave a Hong Kong Airlines flight after a nine-hour delay in Singapore. Seventeen passengers refused to leave a flight departing from Shanghai in 2012 after an 18-hour weather delay.

A “language strike” by Hong Kong Airlines flight attendants is now planned for July 1 in which staff will refrain from speaking Putonghua. July 1 is also the annual day of protest in Hong Kong, which also coincides with its handover of sovereignty back to Mainland China.

Photos: People’s Daily, Facebook

UPDATE: A video of this incident is now posted at the end of this post.

***

A series of photos on Weibo reportedly show Soho CEO Pan Shiyi striking a Shenzhen Airlines worker during an altercation despite Pan’s claims to the contrary.

The incident occurred yesterday afternoon (June 12) at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport and was first reported by Weibo user 我是西蒙周. That’s the authenticated account belonging to Zhou Gang, the chief editor of the Hong Kong Business Report.

The photos show a man standing next to a counter speaking to an airline worker when she suddenly grabs her face with a shocked expression. Zhou emphasizes that the strike was completely accidental.

READ: Air Rage Reaching All New Levels in China as
Gate Agent Beaten in Guangzhou

In his Weibo post at 4:57pm, Zhou states that Pan was flying aboard flight ZH1314 when it suffered a malfunction and landed prematurely in Shenzhen. At the airport, Pan wanted to change to flight ZH9821, so had an assistant make the arrangements and didn’t personally go to the security checkpoint. Since Pan’s boarding pass did not have a security stamp, he wasn’t be allowed on board the flight.

Zhou says an altercation took place between Pan and the airline worker because he was denied boarding. When Pan tried to take a picture of the woman, he accidentally hit her when taking out his camera. The post ends by saying Zhou hit the woman’s mouth with such force she began bleeding.

READ: Airport Meltdown: Woman Insults Locals Says
She Can Shut Down the Internet

Pan also posted to his Weibo earilier in the day to corroborate many of these details, including the fact that he was not allowed to board a flight. However, Pan said last night in a Weibo post that he never hit the woman.

The most recent development to this story is that while Shenzhen Airlines first confirmed the incident took place, it recently issued a statement to the Legal Brief Evening Report saying no dispute took place between Pan and the Shenzhen Airline worker. At the same time, Shenzhen Airlines confirms that Pan did not have a security stamp on his ticket, and therefore was not allowed to board the plane.

UPDATE 7:12pm June 13: Here is a video of the incident from Sina:

Related:

• Shenzhen Airport Fined RMB 200,000, Ordered to Halt Expansion Project
• Naked Guy Gets Loose on Airport Runway, Forcing Flights to Be Halted
• Watch: Comically Incompetent Cargo Handler At Guangzhou Airport

Photo: Morning News Report.

h/t @MissXQ

Never underestimate the extent a pet owner will go to shield his beloved pet from Guangzhou’s air pollution.

On June 6, Guangzhou Baiyuan Airport security guards discovered a very creative way of smuggling by finding two live birds in a pair of jeans.

A foreigner was at the security check before boarding a plane to Singapore when security guards noticed the cuffs of his trouser legs were suspiciously bloated. A search revealed two hidden birds wrapped in white cloth, Yangcheng Evening News reported.

When asked the motive behind the smuggling operation, the foreigner said he was planning to take his birds to Singapore due to Guangzhou’s bad air quality. Unfortunately, the airline he chose does not allow live animals on board, and the poor guy now has to get one of his friends to send the birds to Singapore for him, hopefully with less hassle.

For now, his two little birds have to endure more of Guangzhou’s bad air.

UPDATE: 6:38pm June 6: The foreigner suspected of smuggling in this story has been identified as 43 year-old Naum Pokrovsky, reports the Moscow Times.

Home page and content page image: Yangcheng Evening News 

Yangcheng Evening News on April 10 reported that the Guangdong government has issued a directive banning any department-level (usually mid-ranking) government officials from flying business class or first class on official trips.

In addition to downgrading their plane classes to coach, officials were also ordered to dial back their daily expenses on transportation, accommodation and meals. Provincial officials are only allowed RMB 800 (about $130) a night for accommodation, and department-level officials were allocated RMB 490 (about $79) a night. Other attachés can only spend RMB 340 (about $55) a day, the report said.

Their expenses on food and local transportation also have a fixed limit of RMB 100 ($16.1) and RMB 80 ($13) respectively, for provincial and department-level officials, it added.

To help officials make “economic and convenient choices,” the government introduced a benchmark of some sort saying that the selection should not affect one’s usual work or jeopardize one’s safety, according to the directive.

This comes just a day after Guangdong officials were ordered to disclose their budgets for weddings and funerals, and give a 10-day notice to the government when planning the events.

President Xi Jinping has introduced a series of austerity rules to clamp down government extravagance including expensive liquors like Maotai, fancy mooncakes and number of overseas trips.

But will this lead to any tangible results to eradicate bureaucracy and build a more accountable government, or will it be another directive thrown under a pile of archives? Let’s wait and check the first-class cancellation figures from airline companies on Monday.

Home page photo from China News

Here’s our round-up of some Guangdong and specifically Shenzhen rain-related stories from the past couple of days:

The number of deaths caused by the storm throughout Guangdong has risen to 14 as of this morning with 3 victims still missing, reports SZ News. The government states that a total of 3,902 people have been evacuated, and the economy is estimated to have suffered a loss of RMB 199 million.

The storm is the cause for the sinking of three fishing boats, leading to the death of one person and the disappearance of another.

Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport reports that there are currently no more delays and that all of its flights are back on schedule. This is after the airport had issued its first ever red alert for delays, leading to the cancelling of over 200 flights and the rerouting of over 100.

What’s On Shenzhen reported that the 250 passengers of a Dragonair flight re-routed to Shenzhen from Hong Kong were forced to remain in the parked plane overnight. One passenger had said, “We were on the tarmac from 10 p.m. last night to 7 a.m. this morning. Passengers were told to leave the plane and find their own way to Hong Kong without any stipends for travel.”

Additionally, a Shenzhen airport spokesperson emphasized that the leaking at the airport is not as serious as reported on Weibo. The spokesperson stated that those pictures only show the parking garage, whereas there are only a total of over 20 leaks that have been counted in the roof of the new airport terminal.

Shenzhen has received an average of 125 mm of precipitation since the start of the storm, while the heaviest has been 318 mm. The most has been at Hongshulin Station, in which 115 mm of rain were collected within one hour.

Weather reports are saying that the rain, hail and wind will continue for the next few days. Stay dry, people.

Photo credit: Sznews.com

The Wuhan-Beijing section of China’s high-speed railway network is expected to open before the end of 2012, linking up with the Wuhan-Guangzhou and Guangzhou-Shenzhen sections.  When the full line goes into operation, the 2,372-kilometer journey will involve stops at Guangzhou, Changsha, Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Shijiazhuang and take only 8 hours, according to China Daily.

The high-speed rail is expected to be a threat to airlines, as an economy-class ticket between Beijing and Shenzhen can cost RMB1,750 according to the Shenzhen Daily. But questions have been raised as to whether the high-speed rail will be able to offer significantly lower prices.

The current price for high-speed railway tickets from Shenzhen to Wuhan is RMB840 for a first-class ticket and RMB540 for second class, according to China Daily, and the distance between Beijing and Shenzhen is double the distance between Wuhan and Shenzhen.

A journey on the slow-as-molasses-train currently costs between RMB257 and RMB720, so maybe the longer journey is more than an acceptable concession for a cheaper fare.

Meanwhile, the safety of the high-speed rail is an even more controversial than the price. There was much public anger last year after a botched government response to the Wenzhou high-speed rail disaster which claimed 39 lives, leading to accusations of cover-ups.

The aftermath of the Wenzhou Rail Disaster