[Owen5819]

I have posted this message in the General forum as well. If this violates local rules, please accept my apologies. It seemed more courteous than posting a message in one forum asking people to go look at the other.

I'm a freelance writer working on an article for Professional Pilot. Given the growth of business aviation to China, the editor would like to tell his readers about flying into the mainland. What's it like? How is it changing? I'm hoping folks here can tell me about anything that may seem strange to a pilot going there for the first time.

Fair warning: I will probably need a little hand-holding. Most of my writing is about the business end of corporate aviation, general news, etc. I was last PIC nearly 20 years ago and have never flown anything bigger than a Warrior.

I understand that going into Hong Kong is pretty seamless for anyone with international experience. (If not, I need to know!) So I'm taking that as a standard for comparison: Hong Kong, familiar; Beijing, perhaps just a little different; Back of beyond, ???

I'm interested in anything you find worth mentioning--whatever you would tell a friend about to make his first flight into China. But what are the most important issues for you?

As examples, the editor offered specific questions for a trip with stops at Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Canton, Nanking, and Xi'an: Do they speak English at those places? Does the Chinese air traffic control speak English? Do they have airports where I can land at those places? How long are their runways? What kind of approaches do they have? ILS? VOR? NDB? GPS? Is there a source book on this stuff?

Am I legal to land at these places? Can I obtain Jet A? How primitive are their FBOs? Can I obtain Bombardier Global Express [or whatever] parts if I need them? Does anybody there know how to fix a Bombardier Global Express [or whatever?] Are my altitudes in meters or feet? Is my forward visibility in meters or feet? Can I receive a weather briefing in English? Will the air traffic controllers speak English with me? Is the national airspace of China set up the same as in the States with Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D airspace divisions? What if I see a Chinese MiG on my wing? Do they follow ICAO rules in China? Will my same avionics work in China? Can I make ILS approaches? Can I make GPS approaches such as WASS with LPV?

Are there some decent hotels out there in China? Will I be mugged or robbed? Can I accept the Chinese catering and not get the executives and flightcrew members sick? Might I be arrested and imprisoned? How do I stay out of trouble? Will they take my credit cards? Do I need a lot of Chinese currency?

If you have been flying into China for a few years, have things changed over time? Do you see any trends that might make flying there easier in the future?

If you happen to know anything about flight training in China, I'm curious about that as well. It sounds like Harbin is the model and that they are trying to make training there as close as possible to what you'd find in the U.S. But that leaves a lot of specifics to be filled in. How soon will developments in Chinese flight training affect the market there for non-Chinese pilots?

Like most journalists, I'm on a ridiculously tight deadline, so quick replies would help a lot. I will look here for replies, but you can reach me directly at owen5819@comcast.net.

Many thanks for your help.

Owen