My interest in the landscape of China pre-dates my interest in flight simulation. My godmother, a member of the China Inland Mission, taught in the Lushan area after World War II (more on that at my blogspot – see the link below). I keep trying new flightsims in China over areas I have seen photographs of previously. Try, for example, a flight from Chongqing’s Jiangbei airport west to Xichang Qingshan airport, preferably in early morning light.

What I know about Chinese aviation falls into two periods; that prior to the establishment of the People’s Democratic Republic and its modern civil aviation. There are now virtual airlines for China and Hong Kong (including Virtual Air China and Virtual China Southern) that fly to a lot of cities domestically as well as international destinations.

In the early history, of course, there are the marvelous stories of the ‘Flying Tigers’, the volunteer air force in 1941-2; the India to China airlift in World War II we call ‘Flying The Hump’ and stories about flights into the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. If you haven’t flown Dave Gunlach’s adventure over the Himalayas (hump10.zip in the library) I recommend it to you.

What is missing, of course, are stories of aviation in the ‘closed’ period of Communist China rule. I haven’t read yet James Fallow’s China Airborne or Lennart’s now rare and very expensive A History of Chinese Aviation - Encyclopedia of Aircraft and Aviation in China Until 1949 but suspect they concentrate more on aircraft and aviation industry evolution than the stories for simulation that I like.

Hopefully some of these – I am sure they must exist – will be placed on the internet someday; if you know of any, let me know!

Allan

allanj12@gmail.com

http://moonscourse.blogspot.ca