As promised, more on China.
We flew 5 hours to Vancouver and then 11 hours to Beijing, with 4 hours at the Vancouver airport. The international lounge at YVR is the nicest airport terminal I’ve ever been to. It’s like a high-end shopping mall with airplanes parked outside: lots of shops, natural light, even a giant fish tank. One of the terminals at Heathrow has a similar “mall” feel, but isn’t nearly as nice. We heard PA announcements in four languages: English, French, Chinese, Japanese. Most of the flights that weren’t going to the USA were going to Asia, so that makes sense. I was surprised to learn you can get direct polar-route flights from Vancouver to Europe.
