Fun fact: three of the stories we’ve posted in the past two days have been from Shenzhen. It’s where Alicia and I happened to be this weekend (for Ultimate Frisbee), and on Sunday we attempted to fly back. Attempted and succeeded — but barely. A separate Shenzhen-to-Beijing airline ended up being delayed until 2 am, while our flight was only set back two hours, to 11 pm. (To the best of my knowledge, it was ...

It’s 8:40 pm on a Friday. We’re lined up at the China Eastern Airlines counter a full ninety minutes before takeoff, and I have everything I need for a great, just-quit-work weekend: passport, check; cleats, check; Frisbee, check; baijiu-Fanta mix, check. But just then, China decides to remind me where I am. Ahead of us in line, an argument begins to stew, froth, and bubble. The verbal combatants are an eld ...

These are the worst type of stories. The. Worst. What we have is a foreigner (laowai) and Chinese person arguing at Sanya Airport in Hainan province. (What is it with Sanya? We saw another foreigner and Chinese person tussle earlier.) The foreigner, wearing a fannypack, accuses the Chinese of cursing and "beating" him. The Chinese guy, presumably the one filming, posts this nationalistic tripe on Youku (a v ...

Ever wondered how safe your valuables are when you’re onboard an international flight? There might be reason to be careful, especially if you’re traveling in southeast Asia – gangs from mainland China are supposedly targeting unsuspecting airline passengers. What first brought this to our attention was a story reposted by Lost Laowai. The original, which was circulating on Facebook last month, claims to be ...

China's air travel bubble is bringing out its fair share of violent characters, many with the burning desire to take out their frustration on airport personnel. January saw riots at Kunming's new Changshui Airport, and a month later, CPPCC delegate Yan Linkun lost his cool. So what's new in airport violence? See: Guangzhou gate agent in the fetal position. ...

We know the ship sailed on this one before the weekend, but here's a second look at CPPCC official Yan Linkun's epic meltdown at Kunming Changshu International Airport. This video carries sound and is brought to us via the always interesting blog Language Log. This is the discussion they had with the above as a prompt: ...

Huh. A man tried to check in a bag containing a real human leg, Guangzhou Daily reported on Tuesday. Unfortunately for him, the leg was spotted in the X-ray scan, and was seized by airport security. "There are restrictions for transporting human organs by air," reads the second part of the GZ Daily headline. ...

Flying drunk isn't as fun as it seems. For one, the altitude is liable to give you a massive hangover, combining the sort of jackhammer headaches with swirling, Terrence-Malick-roving-cloud-type nausea that make you swear off drinking forever. And two, you might make a complete ass of yourself, like two recent passengers of an Air France flight. ...

The CPPCC official who went ballistic after missing his flight in Kunming has been suspended from the mining company that employs him, according to People's Daily. The better penalty may have already been levied though, in the form of shame: Yan Linkun, the deputy chairman of Yunnan Mining Corp, is now the face of airport meltdowns the world over. ...

We all know the stress of traveling, but how many of us, after missing a flight, would start banging on doors and kicking tables like this guy? How many of us have the power to do so? This man is a CPPCC committee member of Shizong county in Yunnan province, say netizens, identified as Yan Linkun. ...

Kids do the darndest things. From everybody's Sina Weibo accounts, this: Well that escalated. Lookee from subway to plane cabin. That's the opening line to the post introducing the image, featuring a kid squatting in the aisle of an airplane and dropping a deuce. Most commenters seem unhappy that the parents would allow such a thing to happen, but hardly surprised. ...

A near-riot broke out at Changshui International Airport in Kunming last Thursday, as wont to happen in Chinese airports now and then. Pictures surfaced of passengers screaming at airline staff, beating up ground crew, climbing over check-in counters, commandeering the airport's broadcast system and generally taking their anger out on any computers or ticket machines they could get their hands on. A sudden ...

As any healthy male knows, the desire to masturbate on an airplane can be OVERWHELMING. Yet who among us is willing to take matters into his own hands? I'll tell you: Cathay Pacific business travelers, that's who. On September 17, Next Media Animation in Taiwan got a tip that passengers on Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific flights were, if not exactly encouraged to, allowed to join their own one-man Mile High ...

We want you to note that this particular 52-year-old Chinese passenger on a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Bali had to be restrained, as AFP puts it in a short five-paragraph story published yesterday: The door failed to open and crew stepped in to physically restrain the man, who was identified only by his surname Peng. “When the police questioned him after landing, he said he thought it was the toilet doo ...

Last week, a "violent fight" between two Chinese passengers on a 200-person flight from Zurich to Beijing caused the pilot (or an equally harebrained decision-maker) to turn the plane around after more than six hours in the air. (I can't imagine what possible reason a pilot could give for doing this, or the passengers' resultant anger.) Sadly, no one on the flight took a video, but we imagine it would have ...

Three days. AP was first on the story on Friday: The passengers were supposed to leave on Wednesday for Newark, N.J. The airline says the Boeing 777 had a mechanical problem so the flight was canceled. The plane was not fixed in time to fly them out on Thursday. United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said the plane was fixed by Friday, but a boarding issue delayed the flight. That meant that the crew did not have ...