Trip Highlights

China’s home-built mainline airliner, in the earliest days of commercial service. While I waited at my gate at Baiyun, it taxied up on its own — three ground crew stood on the apron watching it pass overhead. A witness shot.

One of the last four-engine stretches still in service anywhere, flying to only a handful of destinations like Guangzhou. Days of schedule research, on site on time — beaten by distance and a parking stand. The best-prepared and most-regretted catch of the trip.

Only a handful of passenger 747-400s still fly in China. Spotted inbound on FR24, I cancelled my morning plans and staked out; a runway change cost me the landing, but the stakeout paid off with its departure for Beijing — shot from my airport-hotel room window.

The oneworld alliance livery — captured through a fence from Hong Kong Airport’s parking lot, after security turned me away at the Regal’s elevators. Half this photo’s value is the livery; the other half is the fallback plan behind it.

A 747-400F from a cargo operator with a single-digit fleet — running into one at Baiyun is pure bonus. The classic four-engine silhouette is on its way out; every shutter click is a countdown.