Chengdu Panda Reserve
Our day started with a delicious breakfast at the St. Regis. There was an ample spread with a wide variety of Western and Chinese options.

After breakfast we took a DiDi to the panda reserve which was about a 30 minute drive away. When we got close there were a ton of people hawking panda march.

There was a fairly long but quick moving line to get in. Again for reference this is a school day at 8am so not exactly a peak time.

The map somewhat captures the scale of the reserve, we walked about 4 miles and made it about half way through. There is a shuttle that runs between areas too.

First pandas of the day!

In the morning due to the heat only half the pandas were outside, as the day went on more and more went inside until there were none left outside.

The nice thing about when we arrived was it was breakfast time so there was lots of activity.

Half way point of the reserve, pretty much everything in the picture is a part of the reserve.

We enjoyed the moon section of the reserve where each panda had it’s own indoor enclosure but there were a lot less crowds. We basically spent 3 hours watching different pandas eat which is as cute as anticipated and significantly more exciting than it sounds. Unfortunately best we could tell in Chengdu there were not interaction packages available anymore.

Back in Chengdu we stopped at a highly rated place for Mapo tofu. It was delicious and spicy.

The rest of our spread ft lunch beers. Thankfully most beer is only about 3% so perfectly appropriate for lunch.

Another specialty was the original version of Kung Pao chicken.

This was a really good and unique sweet rice cake dish.

Since we had a leftover credit via Amex FHR we booked the St Regis airport transfer for free. The car was nice and had WiFi that randomly had unencumbered internet access.

Nice touch of free waters, which is pretty common in higher end DiDi’s too.

We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half before departure.

The airport was significantly less crowded than the train stations were.

For *G and Business class passengers the check-in desk is more lounge like with couches and one-on-one check in.

We only had to wait 2 minutes until it was our turn. A last minute aircraft swap from an A350 to an A330 (boooooo) meant that we lost our row of seats together and instead had a window aisle and then an aisle a few rows back. While the A350 is a superior plane a 2-4-2 is a lot better than a 3-4-3.

At the lounge entrance we were greeted by another panda.

The lounge was a less clean version of a United club.


As we were leaving, they brought out a buffet spread of hot food but I did not have time to sample any of it.

Quick caffeine hit.

We headed to our gate arriving 10 minutes before the printed boarding time. The gate area was suspiciously empty, but it turned out that was because they had already mostly completed boarding…. unannounced aircraft swaps and boardings our Air China experience was off to a good start.

CA 4117
CTU-PEK
35L
A330-200
2hr11min (wheels up to wheels down, blocked at 3hr)
I had been debating paying to upgrade to try out CA’s long haul business class but the aircraft swap made me glad I didn’t. Business class looked unremarkable with a 2-2-2 configuration.

Awaiting us at our seats were a surprisingly comfortable pillow.

Limited leg room but perfectly fine for a short flight.

CTU lineup as we pushed back.

Annoyingly enough the FAs made me put my Bose away for take-off so I spent the 20 min taxi and first 10 minutes looking out the window and at the air show.

Due to some turbulence the drink service commenced about 40 min after take off with a choice of a glass of water, tea, coffee, or soda. Worth noting the flight was about 30% full so service was quick.

We were offered a choice of chili beef with rice or fish with rice. I went with the beef which was served in a panda themed box.

The food was fine, not a substantial meal but edible.

More panda content. For people who slept through the service, FAs put a sticker on their monitor saying ring the call bell for service.

After another hour it was time to prep the cabin for descent and I again had to put my headphones away. We landed in Beijing about 45 min early and parked at a remote stand by an Emirates A380.

At PEK, remote stands on domestic flights are good as you are bused to the main terminal instead of having to take the train. 15ish min after landing we were in the car headed back to Beijing.


To be continued with some Beijing food/sights, more Air China, and some United Premium Plus. Thanks for reading!