In the last two weeks, I've had two internal flights in China on domestic Chinese airlines. We flew SHA to Huang Shan (Tunxi) on China Eastern and PVG to Harbin on Shanghai Airlines.

All four flights were on beautiful, immaculately-maintained aircraft (Airbus 320, B767 and B737-800). The lavs were spotless (and this is saying a lot in China). The upholstery was clean and unworn, and every seat had an antimacassar, just as we used to in the US. Seat pitch was on the tight side. Aside from that, the flights were textbook perfect and very, very pleasant. Each flight was around 2 to 2-1/2 hours. There was a pre-meal beverage service (everything free, though alcohol was limited to beer), a meal service which consisted of a choice of good, hot entrees accompanied by 5 or 6 (!) different snacks (I liked the squid slices -- probably an acquired taste, as it's somewhat like fishy-tasting chewing gum. The English on the package said "Squidslice" which, I suppose, can be read, "squid slice" or "squids lice," but I could probably have a comfortable career correcting English translations in China.). There was a post-meal beverage service. Additional beverages were available on request, and I had no trouble accumulating a small pile of Tiger Beer cans on my tray.

All flights were on time or early (one flight pushed backed 20 minutes before departure!). FAs helped everyone stow their carryons (of which there were many). Before the safety demonstration, the FA making the announcement welcomed everyone on board in Mandarin and English and the FAs gave us a slight bow! I had a slight problem with the passenger behind me, who kept drumming on the back of my seat. The FA promptly and politely dealt with the problem at my request. The FAs, of which there were many --proabably double the usual US complement -- were all young and pleasant and, primarily, attractive females, though there were also a couple of young men working the flights as well (I have nothing against mature US flight attendants -- I value experience -- it's the "pleasant" that I'm focused on).

The pilots were a little more aggressive than their US counterparts, but flew smoothly and with assurance. We taxied at about twice the speed I'm used to on US domestic, and our takeoff reminded me a bit of the SNA noise-abatement elevator. All landings were smooth and gentle as a kiss. Unlike the US, there were no pilot announcements of any kind -- pilots communicated with the FAs with the seat belt light dinger -- one ding meant we were ready for takeoff, two dings meant the FAs could get up and begin service. The head FA did introduce the pilot, as well as the other FAs, in her welcome announcement. When we deplaned, the front-of-plane FAs lined up to say goodbye (in Mandarin, though in English for me) and thank us for flying.

I come to China often and, though I wouldn't say I've flown domestic China service a lot, I've done it often enough to say this was fairly typical of my experience (cancellations and gate changes are another story, though).

I really, really, really like China, and I've enjoyed my domestic Chinese flights. They remind me of the state of the US commercial aviation -- as it was 20 or 30 years ago!