Departures
Pictured: Opposite page: the China Pavilion at the World Expo, held earlier this year in Shanghai; Below: Beijing’s Temple of Heaven; Bottom: Chongqing’s Renmin Square
Paris CDG, flying three times a week, or China Southern’s convenient code-share flights from Paris or Amsterdam. Emirates flies to Guangzhou daily from Dubai, and Qatar Airways flies four times a week from Doha.
Beijing Increasingly known for its innovative entrepreneurs and high-growth start-ups, the Chinese capital is the driving force behind one of the most remarkable economic success stories of the recent past. In Northern China, it is a major transportation hub and political, educational and cultural centre of the People’s Republic. Its modern infrastructure, developed to accommodate the city’s hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games, contrasts with palaces, temples, stone walls and gateways. Over 750 financial organisations and numerous corporate regional headquarters call the city home, and the industries include electronics, computer-related businesses, IT, steel and pharmaceuticals research. British Airways and Air China both fly daily
from London Heathrow to the Chinese capital. The same frequency is offered by Finnair from Helsinki, Lufthansa out of Frankfurt, and KLM from Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Air France operates 14 times a week from Paris Charles de Gaulle, and China Southern has frequent departures from both the French and Netherlands capitals. Flights from the Gulf States comprise Etihad’s five services a week from Abu Dhabi, Qatar Airways’ four a week out of Doha, and Emirates’ twice-daily schedule from Dubai.
Chongqing Remotely located in south west China, Chongqing has an ever-growing number of river bridges and a hyper-dense skyline, leading to its nickname, ‘Chicago on the Yangtze’. Too far inland to be a major exporter, it has concentrated instead on the domestic market, with factories producing consumer goods, chemicals, textiles and electronics. The city is the country’s third-largest centre for motor vehicle manufacturing and the biggest for motorcycles, and has significant iron, steel, aluminium, natural gas and minerals industries. There are no flights from the UK to Chongqing. A convenient alternative is to fly to Hong Kong and onward aboard one of Cathay Pacific’s frequent services.
Guangzhou On the Pearl River, the capital of Guangdong province is China’s third-largest city. A key transportation hub and trading port, it is both the commercial axis and main manufacturing centre of the Pearl River Delta. Its industrial zones are involved in automobile assembly, biotechnology and heavy industry, while the free trade zone handles computer software. With no direct services from the UK, European flights are with Air France from
Hong Kong Despite the transfer of its sovereignty from the UK to Communist China in 1997, Hong Kong remains what the late economist Milton Friedman described as “the world’s greatest experiment in laissez-faire capitalism”. Situated on China’s south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, the former British colony has experienced little interference from Beijing, allowing it to rely for its continuing prosperity on market forces, the private sector, and re-exports. Hong Kong is an important centre for international financial services and trade, and has one of the greatest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the region. From Heathrow, British Airways has a double-daily service to Hong Kong, Virgin and Qantas both fly daily, and Cathay Pacific departs four times a week. Services from the continent include daily flights with Finnair and KLM, from Helsinki and Amsterdam respectively, while Air France operates 14 times a week out of Paris CDG. Qatar Airways offers daily departures from Doha, and Emirates two a day from Dubai.
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