Flying to secondary cities in China: your non-stop options explained

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are all major destinations for Australian business travellers, yet there’s growing demand for journeys further afield with eight airlines now flying or soon to fly directly between our shores and 11 other cities across mainland China.

Among them, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Xi’an, served by both big-name airlines in Air China, China Eastern, China Southern and Jetstar, along with those lesser-known to Aussies including Beijing Capital Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and XiamenAir.

So forget transiting via those ‘big three’ hubs to reach your final destination: here are the other Chinese cities you can jet to directly from Australia, what they offer to visitors and the airlines that can take you there.

Changsha: capital of China’s Hunan province

Centre to China’s aluminium industry, Changsha is home to much machinery manufacturing, but also to large cement, ceramic, rubber and papermaking plants. It too serves as a major port for oil, livestock, rice, tea, tobacco and coal, and as China’s entertainment industry hub.

Hainan Airlines will fly non-stop from Sydney to Changsha twice per week from September 17 2016 using an Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Chengdu: capital of China’s Sichuan province

Firmly footed in the finance industry, Chengdu stands home to branches of over 260 of the globe’s Fortune 500 companies including major technology brands Intel, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft and Motorola, with an urban population in excess of 10 million people.

Star Alliance member Air China plans to fly three times each week between Sydney and Chengdu as of October 30 2016, while Sichuan Airlines currently links Melbourne and the provincial capital three times a week, both routes using Airbus A330 jets.

The colourful Sichuan Airlines crew can brighten even the foggiest Sydney day

Chongqing: municipality in Southwest China

Travellers working in the automotive industry will recognise Chongqing as China’s largest manufacturer of motorbikes and third largest of other motors including those destined for Ford, while flyers in the military will be aware of the city’s weapons research and development bases.

Sichuan Airlines jets between Sydney and Chongqing twice per week, again using the Airbus A330.

Fuzhou: capital of China’s Fujian province

A hive for both industrial chemicals and food processing – fortunately not together – Fuzhou enjoys a seaport on the Min River, strong commercial ties with Taiwan and an ‘Economic & Technological Development Zone’ to attract further manufacturing, warehousing and production.

Using the advanced Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, SkyTeam’s XiamenAir offers Sydneysiders both business class and first class (pictured) en route to Fuzhou three times each week.

Nanjing: capital of China’s Jiangsu province

Relying less on mass manufacturing than other parts of China, roughly 60% of Nanjing’s GDP comes from service disciplines like tourism and financial services, with IT, energy saving, research and intelligent equipment production all key focus areas.

SkyTeam alliance airline China Eastern zips between Sydney and Nanjing three-times-weekly with the popular Airbus A330-200, and although Qantas codeshares with China Eastern to some destinations, journeys purely between these two cities aren’t covered by that deal.

(China Eastern remains a Qantas Frequent Flyer partner, so you can still earn Qantas Points, although not status credits, on travel to Nanjing.)

Qingdao: city in eastern Shandong province

Also Romanised as ‘Tsingtao’, Qingdao is best-known in Australia for its popular Tsingtao beer – but it’s not only alcohol that’s made here. Haier, Hisense and a number of other white good and electronics brands hold headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Qingdao, too.

HNA Group’s Beijing Capital Airlines will fly non-stop between Melbourne and Qingdao from September 30 2016, and as continues the trend, the airline will offer three flights a week aboard an Airbus A330.

Shenyang: capital of China’s Liaoning province

Heavy industry, software, automotive, petroleum and banking are all big business in Shenyang, with the broader Liaoning province majoring in electronics, machinery, petrochemicals and metallurgy.

While not entirely non-stop for Victorians, Beijing Capital Airlines' Melbourne-Qingdao flights will continue onwards to Shenyang under the same flight number when the routes launch in September.

Shenzhen: city in Guangdong province

Just across the border from Hong Kong and connected by rail, Shenzhen benefits from having its own ‘Special Economic Zone’ with tax incentives for foreign investors, while also playing home to local majors like Huawei and China Merchants Bank.

China Southern can take you there from Sydney three times a week aboard an A330-300 offering first class and business class, while Air China has its sights on Melbourne with a new four-times-weekly service from October 31 using the smaller Airbus A330-200, topping out at business class.

AusBT review: Air China Airbus A330 business class

Wuhan: capital of Central China’s Hubei province

At the forefront of Chinese learning with 35 higher education institutions within its boundaries, Wuhan enjoys strong pharmaceutical, optic-electronic, car manufacturing, biology and renewable energy industries in addition to the more traditional iron and steel sectors.

An unlikely airline candidate, Jetstar (Australia) darts to Wuhan twice each week from Queensland’s Gold Coast – about an hour south of Brisbane – using its latest Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, on which Qantas frequent flyers can earn points and status credits on eligible fares.

Jetstar may be a low-cost airline, but it still offers a business class of sorts...

AusBT review: Jetstar Boeing 787 business class

Xiamen: sub-provincial city in Fujian province

A magnet for business flyers in the financial sectors, Xiamen counts the offices of over 600 financial institutions among its repertoire to rival China’s better-known business hotspot of Shanghai.

That being the case, it makes sense that XiamenAir provides both business class and first class service between Australia and Xiamen, with flights departing both Sydney and Melbourne twice per week using the SkyTeam member’s Boeing 787-8 aircraft.

Xi’an: capital of China’s Shaanxi province

Specialising in service outsourcing, manufacturing and computer consulting, major brands such as Coca-Cola, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Panasonic and Toshiba all have business interests in Xi’an, while Boeing even contracts manufacturing tasks for some of its 737 aircraft parts to a local company.

Xi’an’s sights and tourism industry also attract over 50 million visitors each year – so even if you’re stopping by for business on Hainan Airlines, flying from Sydney twice-weekly from September 15, make time to see the world famous Terracotta Army, Famen Temple and the City Wall.

There’s even more to China than just the cities named above, so also consider flying with Cathay Pacific from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide or Cairns to Hong Kong, from where you can connect to almost 20 mainland Chinese destinations with the airline.

Its sister carrier Dragonair also features its own network of 22 destinations within mainland China, and as both airlines fall under the Oneworld alliance banner, Qantas Frequent Flyer members can of course earn points and status credits on eligible fares.

Also read:

• China Eastern to launch daily Brisbane-Shanghai flights
• The easiest pre-paid SIM card for China
• New Hilton Wuhan Riverside hotel opens in China
• Five common travel scams in China, and how to avoid them
• Conrad Shenzhen hotel to open in 2019
• Nanjing, Hangzhou to offer six-day visa-free stopovers
• 8 secrets to doing business in China
• Marriott eyes 100+ new hotels in China by 2021

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Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.