The new Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport opened on schedule on August 5, and both passengers and visitors were impressed with the atmosphere of the massive facility. But the Nanfang City News reports that under that splendid surface lurk a number of serious service flaws.

From the first day of operations, staff at the information desk of the departure hall have never stopped answering the same question: where are the other check-in counters? The China Southern Airlines counters -- C, D and M -- are easy to locate, but the staff must provide directions over and over to all others.

Financial services are also a problem. One passenger says she searched for the Guangdong Development Bank outlet for more than ten minutes because the signs were incorrect. The full names of the banks are not given on the posted signs, and even the generic ones indicating the location of banking facilities point in the wrong direction. Worse, while the Guangdong Development Bank will eventually have two outlets on the first and third floors, right now it has only one. The China Agricultural Bank has an ATM machine near the international departure gates, but only Renminbi withdrawals may be made.

Nor are there enough pay phones or chargers for mobile phone of different types.

Even washrooms are few and far between. Sometimes lines of up to two dozen people stretch into the departure hall. In the first week after the airport opened, two of the automatic hand dryers stopped functioning, and apparently no one was assigned to replenish the toilet tissue.

On the other hand, one thing that is in plentiful supply is the air conditioning. While people usually appreciate a reprieve from the sweltering summer days, entering the Baiyun Airport is closer to stepping into a deep freeze. Many passengers can be heard complaining about fears of catching a cold from the frigid air.

Outdoors as well, the situation is far from perfect. The New Baiyun Airport has become something of a sightseeing spot for residents in Guangzhou: half of the people in the airport are visitors who have simply come for a look at the facility. Many of them are bringing picnics along on their outings, and they are not bothering to dispose properly of the remnants.

Only four days after the airport opened for business, the green belt outside was filled with trash: snack food wrappers, fruit rinds, used napkins, plastic bags and newspapers. Some of the garbage began to rot because of the hot weather and there was enough of it to create an unpleasant odor in the airport area.

Parts of the lawn are wilting from being trampled upon, and people seeking souvenirs of their visit to the airport have picked nearly all the flowers.

The plants inside the terminal building haven't fared much better. Expensive palm trees, bamboo and flowers are wilting or suffering broken branches.

Before it can truly be called a leading international airport, Baiyun's problems must be solved.

(China.org.cn by Wang Ruyue and Wu Nanlan, August 12, 2004)