Ventures Dialogue

The public has spoken and 8.6 million passengers have ranked South Korea’s Incheon airport in Seoul as the world’s best airport.  The survey, taken upon by Skytrax, a research advisory firm for the air transport industry, was marked by the tightest race in the award’s 10-year history.  At one point it was looking like there would be a three way tie for first place.  Rounding off the top five airports include Hong Kong’s International Airport, Singapore’s Changi, Zurich, and Munich.  Passengers were asked questions based on 39 service and product criteria ranging from check-in, to transfers to departures. 

Incheon jumps up two spots from last year’s third place ranking surpassing the previous first and second place holders, Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively.  It is a relatively new airport having just opening its doors in 2007 after replacing Gimpo, South Korea’s former main international airport.   Gimpo is now used mainly for domestic flights, although it does have shuttle flights to Tokyo, Shanghai, and Osaka. 

Asia as a whole did quite well in this survey as of the over 190 airports in the ranking, six of the top 10 were in Asia. For this survey, the research firm also ranked airports by region, and on a category basis. 

Skytrax has been around since 1989 and its website has reviews for over 680 airports.   It is also known for it’s other surveys.  Readers will remember that back in April, Skytrax released other survey results where Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific won the top prize as the world’s best airline.   

Photo from Wikipedia.org

Ever had a craving for Fotiaoqiang (Buddha jumps over a wall), oolong tea from WuYi Mountain, lychees, or Longans?  If so, Fujian province should come to mind. 

Nestled between China’s most economically developed areas with the Yangtze River Delta to the north and the Pearl River Delta to the south, is Fujian province.  Fujian has an area of 121,400 square kilometers (46,355 square miles) and a population of more than 35 million people.  It is situated in southeast China, opposite Taiwan across the 180 kilomete-wide Taiwan Strait.  Zhejiang province lies to the North, Jiangxi to the west and Guangdong lies to the south (see map).  The capital city is Fuzhou, as well as its largest city.

Fujian is governed by both China (People’s Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China).  China administers all but the archipelagos of Kinmen and Matsu, which are under Taiwan’s domain. 

Most of the province is mountainous with the Wuyi Mountains creating the border with Jiangxi province.  Huanggang Peak is the highest point in this mountain range with an altitude of 2157 meters (7077 feet).  It has a subtropical climate, with January averaging seven to 10 degrees Celsius.  Summers have high temperatures and typhoons are common, usually occurring from July to September.  Sitting on several small fault lines, Fujian is also prone to minor earthquakes. Annual precipitation ranges from 1.4 to 1.2 meters (3.94 to 4.59 feet), on average. Continue reading ‘Fujian Province – Optional Trip at 9th Hong Kong Forum’