Changchun is the capital of the Jilin province in northeastern China. The place name means "Eternal Spring". It has the biggest PRC car manufacture plant. It is also well known as the "China Hollywood" as the major film production facilities are located here. The city grew enormously in the 1930s after it was made the capital of the Japanese puppet state, Manchukuo, during the Japanese military occupation of the area (1930--1945).

The first impression when plane touched down, was terrible (i meant the airport facility). I don't think a 747 can ever land on the short run-way. Local government still utilizing the retired military airport for commercial airline. Good news is that they are already building a new airport which will be completed in the near future to cater the increasing crowd in upcoming 2008 Olympic.

The only hotel, which is recommended to stay, is Shangri-La. It is about 20-25 min ride from the airport to Hotel. It is rated 5 star but i really felt that it is a 4 star equivalent to hotel in Beijing or Shanghai. The facilities of other 4 star hotels (based on my colleagues who stay there) are quite bad, either the room is smelly, or they don't have wireless network or basic network connectivity in the room, and those hotels are quite aged.

Overall, Changchun is not a tourist hot spot, and it is very far away from other major cities as well. It is underdevelop. It have some tourist places where you can visit but i can count with half of my 5 fingers (including the famous imperial palace of China's last emperor - Puyi). The traffic is not as bad as those in Shanghai (due to less population).

We missed the opportunity to visit the China Hollywood Studio due to time constraint, however, those pretty babes in the exhibition hall kept us occupied most of the time :P

Hope you enjoy this travel article.

By Jonathan and PC, Sept 2005