DragonAir

DragonAir, a subsidiary of the leading Hong Kong-based airline, Cathay Pacific, offers a quick two-hour flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Our short trip consisted of punctual boarding, an unremarkable flight, and a quick deplaning. Insert a quickie lunch in a snackbox and a cup of hot oolong tea, and that's the entire flight up.

Okay, maybe not the entire flight. The lunch menu was definitely respectable; offering Smoked Pastrami on Carrot Julienne Salad, Fried Cod with Sweet & Sour Steamed Rice, or Chorizo on Linguine with Tomato Sauce, as well as a small cup of Häagen Dazs ice cream. The tea selection consisted of oolong, xian pian ("sweet peel") and ceylon.

But the most fun part of the trip was making our way up to the head of the plane to discover that we were disembarking onto the tarmac instead of walking directly into an airport terminal. Not that we're complaining...our time there was very brief, as passengers quickly boarded a bus that delivered us to the airport building. In fact, it would have been nice to spend little more time admiring a side of an airport that is rarely seen.