It is an interesting pastime to plan flights that one might like to undertake even if it is only a vicarious pleasure. Online sites allow one to be one’s own travel agent, planning flight to various travel destinations in detail.

A person living in a South African town like Port Elizabeth may wish to explore how he might return to one of his favourite cities. He can go online at no material cost and explore. He can also imagine how it would be if he did have the funds and the time to travel.

For example, a traveller may wish to fly from his home town in South Africa, Port Elizabeth, to Beijing. First he would have to book a local carrier to take him to Johannesburg. Four would be available at prices ranging from 1655 to 1836 rands. Since they would all get him to Johannesburg in time for his connecting flight he could save R181 without much effort.

Airports across the world reveal the ever growing chasms between rich and poor. So too, looking down from the air above port Elizabeth one sees black plastic shelters huddled beneath the flight path and near them expensive bungalows beside straight roads and amenities. The plane swings out over the Indian Ocean before turning north for Johannesburg and flying far above the grazing and grain fields of the interior of South Africa.

At least eight carriers offer flights from Johannesburg to Beijing. Prices range from R6878 to R12083, but before jumping at the cheapest flights one needs to examine details that are provided on the website.

The lowest price from Johannesburg to Beijing is with a Middle Eastern carrier, but it stops over in Addis Ababa before going on to Beijing. Another Middle Eastern carrier goes first to Doha before linking swiftly with another flight for Beijing. This entails the most wondrous flight over the Himalaya mountain range. If it is daylight one can gaze down upon the snowy tops of the highest mountains, and this is a most exciting experience, worth a higher fare.

The flight into China is fascinating. The countryside below seems bloodless and one is reminded of Mao’s injunction to people to kill all flies, insects and rats, and the damage that such an environmentally stupid policy was. Then one notices the benefits of the later tree-planting policies and the intensive farming that is part of the economic miracle taking place below the plane.

The wonders of Beijing await, with the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall snaking its way across the land below. China is an inexhaustibly interesting, ancient and modern nation. The Internet is also wonderful because the same site accessed from a city in South Africa allows one to book flights to other parts of the distant country. If it is January the traveller may wish to select one of the five different carriers available to take him from Beijing, north to Harbin where he may enjoy the annual ice festival in temperatures well below zero.

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