Guangzhou Airport

If you're stopping over on the way to somewhere else the international part is the worst. Be warned you'll pay $10AUD for a coffee at the first coffee place you see as you walk out of the transfer gates. Airport wifi requires a local SIM but aforementioned cafe has (terribly slow) wifi for customers. Toilets are awful. The rest of my experience with China Southern airlines was great but the stopover at the Guangzhou is a deal breaker. Take a laptop with movies on it find a comfy spot and stay there. Nothing else to see here.

Beautiful modern looking airport but that's about it. For our transit visa we were directed to the wrong area. Bathroom reeked. Shops and restaurants are extremely expensive saw a bar of kit-kat for about $5 USD. Wanted to try the pizza place but saw a customer walking out saying to herself "just had the world's worst pizza."

On arrival CAN was not a pleasant place: In spite of having visas for which we had to submit our tickets hotel bookings and passports all data again had to be filled in in triplicate. Then arriving from Dubai we had to go through a "health check" (Ebola fears) with our heavy hand baggage a detour by bus and crowded stairs up and down which took an extra hour. Finally arrived we wanted some cash from an ATM: No ATM in the Arrivals area only at Departures. None of the ATMs worked: None of our Cards (Debit) VISA MASTERCARD worked. So we had to use one of the "Chauffeur Drive" services instead of a by far cheaper metered taxi - though their service was excellent. Of course there are plenty of ATMs in the City (sometimes named "Selfserving Bank") which work nicely.

Two very expensive but nasty places to eat and you are locked in for 7 hours. They won't let you leave your terminal. Not a very comfortable place to be stuck! The check in opens one hour before the flight so you will likely be late for your flight if its early. Then you get to see the staff act completely inappropriate making fun of other people including you to your face because they think you don't understand them. That's what happens when you hire so many children to man the gates.

Free wifi is for local mobile account holders. Free charging service is provided by a hub and are frequent around the airport but in demand and people are watching movies while charging etc so have a wander and find one that isn't too busy there are about 8 points to use at each charging station. If you are departing again for international flights the gate A01-A06 are downstairs it's a bit cramped shabby and dark down there worth not piling down until the last minute. Especially if you are anti-smoking as these gates are exposed to the smell of people coming and going to the smoking area located down there too. There is an improved drinking water supply now that provides hot warm and cold water free and fairly easy to access. I bought a plastic thermos with me on the flight and some sachets of cappuccino and hot chocolate which circumvented having to buy a drink at the restaurants or vending machines. With such expanses of glass it can get very cold so I borrowedâa blanket from the first flight and had that with me during transit. I've not seen any rats and I've been here all night. The 3 different loos I have used (to give a fair review) were all clean with standard maintenance. These are not like the new public toilets at London Gatwick. Many cubicles were in fault but the paper towels driers were all functioning and the surfaces were being cleaned frequently and well. The staff in the Duty Free were just about courteous though not helpful. Wanted to charge me for a plastic bag standard in high street shops but in international duty free this seems both inconvenient and rude. The cleaning staff and information team are polite not engaging in English but offering a nod smile or animated directions where they could. On my return back through this airport I arrived around 0500 but nothing was open before about 0700 so grab something from your flight if you think you will get peckish.

Check-in service was fast. However it was a long wait for the clearing of immigration and security. Quite a number of gifts shops were still in operation at 11 pm. Toilets can be easily found but quite dirty.

Relatively large and mostly clean with several duty free shops but nothing is cheap - not even the usual Chinese packet foods you can buy for coppers in non airport stores. Take Chinese Yuan currency with you to buy a drink or snack because foreign cards/currency are not accepted at this airport. There's an exchange booth but the rates and fees are shocking. You're better off taking your own drink/snack with you from home/other country because a coffee equates to £5 and food starts around £7 for a hot meal. None of the food options are that great and don't expect service with a smile here. There's no where to sleep in terms of long seats around the international transfers terminal. There are premium airport lounges if you're a member so worth looking into those in advance if you have long stops multiple times. The wifi in the airport is for Chinese mainland SIM cards only because a text with code must be sent to a Chinese mobile to initiate the wifi. You're best to take entertainment with you e.g. a book film on laptop etc.

Very dirty smelly toilets. Everyone you meet here is rude: check in immigration security restaurant staff. The restaurants are appalling - horrible stale food and ridiculous prices: $10 for a cup of hot water with a tea bag in it. There is no free internet unless you have a Chinese phone number. The aircon never seems to be working. One of the worst airports I have experienced.

Went to Guangzhou last week on our return trip we got to the airport just over 3 hours prior to departure. We tried to log in to the Wifi only to realise that the password can only be sent to local phone numbers! It's an international airport full of foreigners yet the wifi can only be accessed by locals. After we checked in and went to the departure hall it was to my dismay that there was only one water fountain for tourists. The airport is a total disappointment. We were actually planning to take a rest at Plaza Premium Lounge but it was closed for construction of some sort I had been checking it out for months before we went to China and the construction was never ending. It's not a very tourist-friendly airport unfortunately. The check in process was lengthy too. We purchased Airasia tickets and were 4th in the queue yet it still took us more than 30 minutes before we got to our turn.

Seemingly grand spacious airport. However lacking facilities like in HK or SIN. Pretty comfortable though. All shops had extremely expensive stuff.