China Eastern Airlines is a major Chinese airline that is based in Shanghai. It flies to 217 destinations, within China and internationally. Its main hubs are at Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport,^[ with secondary hubs at Beijing Capital International Airport, Kunming Changshui International Airport and Xi’an Xianyang International Airport.

China Eastern has 3-4 daily flights between Singapore and Shanghai. We took the last flight of the day to Shanghai, before getting on our connecting flight to Okinawa. There was a layover of six hours.

FLIGHT	MU 566 – China Eastern	16/3/2019
DEPARTURE:	Singapore, SG (Changi Intl.)	16/3/2019 23:00
ARRIVAL:	Shanghai, CN (Pudong)	17/3/2019 04:10

The flight was full, with a mixture of Singaporeans going for holidays and Chinese flying home. Since the flight was late, we were prepared not to eat the meal on board as we had already brushed our teeth.

The plane used was the A332 plane, with a configuration of 2-4-2 in economy. Boarding of rows 60-72 was called first and we were one of the first few to go up the plane. The plane looks modern and there was individual in-flight entertainment. A pillow and blanket were provided, but there was no toiletries set.

The seat that we had was the second last row from the back, so it offered easy access to the toilets, but the setback is that we would be one of the last few to be served the inflight meal.

The plane took off on time after a short cruising on the runway. There were not many other planes taking off at this timing, with most flights heading to Europe in order to arrive in the early hours of the morning the next day.

In-flight meal was served one hour after takeoff, by then most people were sleeping already as it was a red-eye flight.

My review on the inflight meal? It was not the best. The steward announced in Chinese to me about chicken noodles or pork rice, so I chose the former as I did not want to be eating rice at such a late hour. The ‘chicken noodles’ turned out to be pasta and I felt kind of cheated. The meat was so little and there were more carbohydrates instead. I took a few mouthfuls and could not finish the rest because it was like carb loading the food was not great.

We landed at Shanghai Pudong airport around 3.40am. However, taxiing to the aerobridge took quite a long time so by the time we disembarked, it was already 4am. We proceeded to immigration as it was the only flight that landed at that time. Immigration was slow because there were only 2 counters open.

We had planned to go out of the airport to explore Shanghai airport, but unfortunately there was no public transport at this timing and the first train only starts around 6.30am. In the end, we just loafed around the airport before heading back inside to wait for our connecting flight to Okinawa.

FLIGHT:	MU 2085 – China Eastern	17/3/2019
DEPARTURE:	Shanghai, CN (Pudong)	17/3/2019 10:20
ARRIVAL:	Okinawa, JP (Naha Field)	17/3/2019 14:00

On the ticket, it showed that the flight time is 2h 40min, but in fact the actual flying time was 1h 50min from Shanghai to Okinawa.

Boarding for MU2085 to Okinawa was smooth, they allowed the elderly and families with kids to board first. In the end due to the remote terminal, we had to take a shuttle bus to our plane.

MU2085 was on a A320 aircraft, with 3-3 configuration. The plane did not have IFE so we had to stare out of the window during the 2h flight.

Despite being a short-haul flight, a full meal was served. There was a choice between beef or pork rice. I chose the braised pork rice. As you can see, the rice was a huge portion but the meat was so little. With so little sauce and meat, it was hard for me to finish the rice. The salad was a kind of Japanese style salad with the sesame dressing.

The crew collected the food soon and within half an hour, we began our descent into Naha airport in Okinawa. The turquoise blue seas show up in the surrounding islands and I am so excited to explore this remote territory of Japan, which is closer to Taiwan geographically than to mainland Japan.

We landed at Naha Terminal 1. As you can see, Peach airlines is preparing for take-off. This budget airline has direct Bangkok-Okinawa flights which I had not tried yet, buting reading about the chaotic mess at the budget terminal in Okinawa, I decided not to try Peach Air on this trip. Moreover, they were not significantly cheaper than China Eastern.

I would recommend flying China Eastern if you are price sensitive. Okinawa is a beautiful island paradise not to be missed, especially since most people have passed through Tokyo. Okinawa offers the visitor a different side of Japan. China Eastern offer affordable tickets when flying around Northern Asia and sometimes there are also promotional tickets to Japan. The service of the staff was alright but the Shanghai airport could make do with an upgrading or provide more facilities for resting.