Beijing/Nanyuan – Saturday 29th October 2016 (Grant Robinson)

Hi all,

So we had a taster of what Beijing/Capital airport has to offer, but today was about going around Beijing to see other things, starting with Nanyuan. Now I need to thank John Tomlinson here as he mentioned in a previous report from his 2015 visit that John Yellowcar was the best taxi driver in Beijing. I know why Mr Tomlinson said that now as Mr Yellowcar told us himself, many, many times!

I had contacted John Yellowcar from the UK and agreed an itinerary and price with him and so we were set for trouble free travel around Beijing. Today we were to do Nanyaun, Tiananmen Square, Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution, Beijing Air and Space Museum and the China Civil Aviation Museum. For Sunday, we were to visit The Great Wall of China at Mutianyu and the biggie that I was looking forward to immensely – China Aviation Museum/Xiaotangshan. It’s not possible to do it all in one day……

Now several people had warned us to be careful around Nanyuan because although it is the home of China United Airlines, there is also a big military presence there. Having been warned, I was also aware that people have gotten decent logs from here in the past, so it was just a question of being aware and doing our best to limit the chances of being pulled. We targeted three areas of interest here, two being outside the airfield and one in close proximity to the terminal.

Having checked FR24, I knew that China United departures started from 07:00 and we could expect to see up to 17 overnighting aircraft on the ground if we hit the place nice and early. Having persuaded John Yellowcar to start at a silly time, he duly collected us from Langham Place at 05:00.

With no traffic around, we got to Nanyuan in good time and in fact we needed to wait for proper daylight to arrive and also the low level mist/fog to clear. We started off at the South end of the airfield underneath the runway 36 approach which can be found at coordinates Latitude 39°45’49.39″N, Longitude 116°23’14.75″E. It is from here most of the Chinese Air Force stuff can be read off. As the light improved, very distant parked China United 737s could also be read with Ben’s super pole.

We freely walked up and down the road to improve the angles and get the numbers and no attention was paid to us. It is a busy main road with the local population and care needs to be taken by anybody on foot. Road safety is not high on the agenda here.

By now some departures had happened and we moved around to the West side of the airfield to see if we could find another vantage point there. We failed and be warned that this built up area seemed to be quite rough and maybe not the kind of place you would like to leave your car on it’s own or get out and walk about. One dead end in an alleyway we tried, turned out to be an open air local toilet.

Next up was the terminal location and as it was the most likely place to be pulled if we were seen walking around and getting optics or cameras out, so had already decided in advance to stay in the car. As it turned out John Yellowcar agreed and did not want us to get out of the car in that area. He was cool about being at the end of the runway but not here. This area can be found at coordinates Latitude 39°47’38.20″N, Longitude 116°23’34.02″E.

The approach road in will give you limited views of China United aircraft on the ramp to your right and Chinese Air Force aircraft on the ramp to your left. At the end of the approach road and close to the terminal is the collection of aircraft stored or on display, I’m not sure. We found in this area two An-2, one An-12, three An-24, five CJ-6s, one MiG-17 and one Tu-154 – very nice.

Lastly for this place, I was aware of another collection of aircraft which seemed to be on display within the military part of the base. These can be seen on Google Earth at Latitude 39°47’12.50″N, Longitude 116°24’26.96″E. One Chengdu JJ-5, one Harnin Y-5, one Mil Mi-8, two Nanchang CJ-6s, one Shenyang JJ-6, one Shenyang J-8 and one rather massive Xian H-6.

We tried to have a look from outside the base on the public side, but the perimeter wall is solid stone and rather tall so nothing was seen despite our best attempts to find height to enable a look over.

Still we were happy with our morning work so far!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62861611@N08/albums/72157676608629515/

Around the airfield:
B-4052, Boeing 737-3Q8, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (24701)
B-4053, Boeing 737-3Q8, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (24702)
B-4065, Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-702ER, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (10336)
B-4066, Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-702ER, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (10337)
B-4067, Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-702ER, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (10339)
B-4068, Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-702ER, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (10341)
B-4001, Tupolev Tu-154M, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (85A-711)
B-4014, Tupolev Tu-154M, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (90A-847)
B-4016, Tupolev Tu-154M/D, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (91A-872)
B-4017, Tupolev Tu-154M/D, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (91A-873)
B-4022, Tupolev Tu-154M, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (87A-765)
B-4023, Tupolev Tu-154M, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (88A-770)
B-4024, Tupolev Tu-154M/D, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (88A-789)
B-4027, Tupolev Tu-154M/D, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (92A-943)
B-4028, Tupolev Tu-154M/D, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (93A-967)
B-4029, Tupolev Tu-154M, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (93A-950)
B-4050, Tupolev Tu-154M/D, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (86A-730)
B-4051, Tupolev Tu-154M, 34th Transport Division/102nd Air Regiment, Chinese Air Force (86A-741)
B-1523, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (39742)
B-1750, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (61308)
B-1751, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (61309)
B-1752, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (61310)
B-1753, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (61311)
B-1989, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (39734)
B-1990, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (39736)
B-2681, Boeing 737-79P, China United Airlines (33037)
B-5208, Boeing 737-79P, China United Airlines (33041)
B-5209, Boeing 737-79P, China United Airlines (33042)
B-5223, Boeing 737-79P, China United Airlines (33044)
B-5470, Boeing 737-86D, China United Airlines (35774)
B-5547, Boeing 737-86N, China United Airlines (36806)
B-7372, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (61315)
B-7562, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (61682)
B-7563, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (61683)
B-7987, Boeing 737-89P, China United Airlines (61694)

On display:
1058, Antonov An-12BP Cub, On Display, Chinese (unknown)
CUA-50959, Antonov An-24B, On Display, China United Airlines (97305209)
B-4064, Antonov An-24RV, On Display, China United Airlines (37309106)
B-4066, Antonov An-24RV Coke, On Display, Chinese (47309602)
(31397), Harbin Y-5 Colt (An-2), On Display, Chinese (unknown)
(61147), Nanchang CJ-6 (Yak-18), On Display, Chinese (unknown)
61344/34, Nanchang CJ-6A (Yak-18), On Display, Chinese (unknown)
61349/39, Nanchang CJ-6A (Yak-18), On Display, Chinese (unknown)
62647/67, Nanchang CJ-6A (Yak-18), On Display, Chinese (unknown)
62742/72, Nanchang CJ-6A (Yak-18), On Display, Chinese (unknown)
63067, Shenyang JJ-5 Fresco (MiG-17), On Display, Chinese (unknown)
6142, Shijiazhuang Y-5 (An-2), On Display, Chinese (unknown)
B-4004, Tupolev Tu-154M, On Display, Chinese (85A-714)

On airways:
B-2067, Boeing 777-2J6, Air China (29746)
EP-MMH, Airbus A340-642, Mahan Air (0391)
OH-LWD, Airbus A350-941, Finnair (022)