I had to rush a little to get packed and checked out, but the metro station was not far, the trains not too full – in fact line 10 was nearly empty – and so the journey to the airport was easy, and I was checked in and through security with enough time to go to Pizza Hut for a lasagne.
It was my second plane that was delayed taking off due to needing to remove some luggage. Apparently two passengers cancelled their flight (at the last minute!? Seems rather strange).
The view over Chengdu was wonderful, and it was quite amazing to go right past (or through, I am not sure) a huge cumulus nimbus. Above what I suppose would normally be cloud-cover I got what, I think, was my first really stark image of the pollution problem as it appeared the clouds were floating in a sea of grey, some of them like ice-bergs partly above and partly in the grey smog. (I wished I had had my camera at that point, but as far as I understand, electronic devices are not to be used during take-off and I don’t want to get into trouble!)
