Guangzhou chronicles 2

After five full days spying out the land, I quickly realized the day-to-day differences between the Philippines and China. For starters, since I rarely travel abroad, I never heard or knew much about China Southern Airlines, but many Pinoy OFWs have.

- CITO BELTRAN

More than being a good airline, they have modern fleets, are quite popular with Tsinoy visitors to China and as well as manning agencies flying OFWs to Europe, because their prices are more affordable.

I especially appreciated that the seats were comfortably spaced apart, unlike other airlines that can fracture your kneecap because they squeeze in as many seats as possible! With the entry of such airlines into the Philippines, competition will surely force local airlines to recalibrate pricing and passenger comfort.

That is the first difference between state-run versus profit driven private sector airline. On the minus side, English speaking crew and locals are rare, so best to have at least two translator apps on your phone to get by.

Speaking of phones, there were good days and bad days in terms of internet connectivity, even with Globe roaming, unlike in Japan and other countries.

Needless to say, the airports and train stations in and around Guangzhou are massive and modern. Even “provincial” destinations and routes were serviced by high speed trains. One traveler shared that it is possible to reach majority of places in China by high speed train.

When you go on foot around the city, you will notice that the traffic is average to minimal, the noise and air pollution levels are low, that is because Guangzhou has eight, yes eight, subway systems.