Being known for my last minute trips, the imminent long weekend thanks to the dragon boat festival got my brain looking for a short regional getaway. However, prices for the popular destinations such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand never came down, and redemption seats were scarce. That left only one other option - China.

With bad weather from Shanghai southwards, the only reprieve I could get from a wet long weekend would be either Beijing or Chongqing. Chongqing was a bit of a surprise, since this place doesn't get good weather typically, and I last visited in 2014 for a day impressed with its civil engineering but never bothered to come back after.

Although China has opened up, flights to Chongqing are still elusive. Cathay doesn't even fly there everyday, leaving only Air China and Hong Kong Airlines with one daily flight each. As I started digging the fares, Hong Kong Airlines came up cheapest at $1900 roundtrip inclusive, but they're cheaper for a reason. It's a late evening departure from Hong Kong, arriving in Chongqing after their metro has closed, and then returning home at breakfast time. That schedule is not attractive for Hong Kongers at all. Air China was about 10% more expensive, with slightly better middle-of-the-day departures in both directions, still affordable, but not really a dazzling deal.

The night before departure, as I was about to book that Hong Kong Airlines flight grudgingly, a surprise came. The price fell to $1468. Now that's a good deal, despite no checked baggage allowance. The savings could go to an extra night's hotel and a taxi ride into town upon arrival.

Similar to my China Eastern flight earlier, a lower price has its consequences. Hong Kong Airlines is now a budget carrier, a longshot from its heydays when it flew multiple international long-haul routes, competing against Cathay Pacific with big plans to overshadow it. All that came to a crashing halt before the pandemic, when financial woes threatened to shut the airline down for good. I had not expected them to survive since they couldn't even pay their workers on time and had to shut off their personal entertainment systems before COVID even arrived. There was even an insurance company that refused to cover them in case they go under.

As I tried to check-in online with hand-carry only, I encountered some errors on their website, where I was forced to select a seat for a price - even the ones at the back, as the system can't understand I don't want to pay and have it allocate a seat for me. After a few tries, that charge disappeared and I got a left window at the rear of the plane and a mobile boarding pass.

Arriving at the airport around dinner time, the departure board had a much more respectable 3 pages of flights for the rest of the night.

Curious if I could get a print-out of my boarding pass from the machine to keep as a souvenir in case this airline tries to disappear again in a few years' time, I went through a frustrating and clunky experience just like on the website. All it could achieve is to print a bag tag, which I didn't need as I didn't buy checked bag allowance and I was hand-carry only, and I walked away without being able to print a paper boarding pass.

There was a small line at security and I emerged airside just as the sun dipped below the horizon but there was still a daytime glow far away. A curious change is the Qantas lounge is back!

More shops were coming back online as well.

A big change to the dining scene is a new McDonalds just beneath the departure level. It is huge and stretches the length of several gates with windows that offer wonderful plane spotting. They won't be alone here as another local fast food chain is building their own shop on the same level.

My flight would depart from the satellite terminal for narrowbodies tonight, so I would cross the new Sky Bridge once again. It's more exciting during the day and I still couldn't capture a plane crossing underneath.

In a previous but recent visit, I was amazed by the observation deck at the satellite terminal end of the bridge. The main terminal end now has a restaurant/bar.

My plane was parked and waiting for us already. With China's aviation sector still recovering, flight delays into and out of the mainland have magically disappeared.

There was quite a crowd lined up at the boarding gate and as staff came to do ID checks before we started boarding, one took me over to the counter to print out a paper boarding pass. I guess what the kiosk couldn't do would be possible using the good old fashioned manual counter.

Hong Kong Airlines used to be backed by the HNA group from mainland China, so it isn't really a local carrier. I got a reminder of that as I entered the plane, where the text beside the door was in simplified Chinese and English. As HNA collapsed, this airline tried to stave off insolvency as creditors came knocking. A debt restructuring deal was only approved in December 2022, and they brought in a new group of "mystery" investors in April.

I settled into my window seat and luckily the middle one was empty. This is a single-class A320 with tired interiors and no entertainment system at all. The welcoming announcement actually included an apology for the lack of entertainment. I know this is what I paid for so it's unfair to compare their hardware amidst lower prices. The crew were friendly and made announcements in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin.

We pushed back 8 minutes ahead of schedule for the 2 hour journey to Chongqing with a nearly full loading.

We took off towards the west and looped around Lantau, crossing the middle of it heading northeast. This is the first time I've gone through this routing as my prior flights to China would fly over the city a bit more before veering north. This presented some interesting views out the window.

Soon, the entire illuminated airport island came into view.

The suburbs of Tuen Mun and Tin Shui Wai looked quite unique from this angle as the arrival flight paths wouldn't come anywhere near these stretches.

The long bright line is the Shenzhen Bay Bridge with mainland China on the other side.

The skies were still clear as we crossed into Shenzhen right above the Futian business district.

Nanshan District has its own skyscraper cluster now.

The crew started their service with a bottle of water each. About half an hour after take-off, they started distributing a hot bun. I passed since I had already eaten an early dinner at home before setting off for the airport, and the bun didn't look appetizing. The weather started turning bad and the bumps got progressively more frequent and worse. I noticed a lot of flashing outside, which wasn't a particularly good sign and eventually the captain asked the crew to sit down and stop serving dinner.

The weather would only calm down well after the half-way mark and I hoped my left window would pay off with a grand view of the city on approach. I was not disappointed.

Chongqing's arrival flight path from the south passes right next to the downtown core, which was why I aimed for a left window to try my luck.

We landed at 11:12pm with a 12 minute taxi to the terminal. By now, the metro's last train has just left and the terminal was quiet with us being the only arrival. We first needed to present our health QR code, then it was a quick exit through the immigration kiosk. With no checked bags, I was out land-side fairly quickly within 20 minutes.

The lights were already dimmed and I headed to the adjacent transportation centre where there was no line for a yellow cab into town. The airport terminal looked different and much newer from my last visit in 2014.