About the Pudong Airport Staff

Please read this complain on my PVGBBS.

Dear Mr. Wang,

I am very disappointed to see that the staff working in Pudong Airport speak poor English, They either can not understand questions asked in English, or can not answer quetions fluently and effectively.Furthermore, they don’t even use ‘May I help you’ or ‘Have a nice day’such neccessary greetings to English-speaking guests. It really shames me,shames Chinese people, shames the airport as well as Shanghai.

Furthermore, it seems the domestic flight ticketing counter does not accept foreign credit card and the machine for accessing credit card is quite old.

The last thing I would like to say is that the airport staff have not been well groomed. they are supposed to iron their shirts, comb their hair well and pay more attention to their motions and gestures.

I sincerely wish these problems I mentioned above would be corrected and improved in very near future.

Source: PVGBBS

I completely agree with Grace on the service quality of PVG. It is true that the service is very bad. Grace is very careful to note the small differences between the service of PVG and other airport – these details make big difference in general.

I need to explain that it is very interesting atmosphere in China that private companies provide much better quality of service to customers – by private companies, I mean the companies owned by business owners. On the contary, the state-owned enterprises still use the old way to treat their customers – rude and hash…

Pudong airport is still the state owned property. There is not any incentive for the staff, even the managers of PVG to improve the quality – the better their service is, the more effort they need to pay, but there is no any change on their income or bonous. It is the same case as in the famous Pearl Tower in Shanghai. You can try the service – still bad.

6 thoughts on “About the Pudong Airport Staff

  1. Hi,

    it is really a shame that humans are like this – it is the same anywhere in the world: as soon as they really have to serve others and are not payed for beeing friendly and helpingly, they will not at all do so. Only in regions, where few strangers appear, the people are friendly or if they are very poor! Like Siberia ore other remote areas. Or is it so, that unfriendly examples of our race are attracted by such jobs – unlogic but possible.

    And all children should learn English (Oxford-English)- even the US and e.g. Birmingham ones -from Kindergarten on! For us it is easy to understand Prince Charles but difficult to understand such subclassers as G.W. Bush!

    Till Wollheim, Germany

  2. Hello,

    I read your message under the caption of “About Pudong Airport Staff” with mixed feeling.

    I have passed the Pudong Airport six times in the last two years, the staff are young and are eager to learn, many occasion they are willing to perform task outside of their job descriptions. The warmth and enthusiasm I received was overwhelming.

    I don’t think any body should judge the quality of the Pudong Airport as inferior for inability to communicate with the travelers with English.

    Pudong Airport is inside China, a country where English is not considered as their native language, any body who wish to use English to obtain the service they desire should anticipate obstacles. If one is travelling through European Airport and you try to use English to communicate, I am sure you’ll be treated with indifference attitude.

    At any rate, I think Pudong is a excellent Airport and is taking care people all over the world, most important, the Airport has aggressive staff to make it happen. Perhaps in the very near future, it’ll become one of the best Airport in the world.

    Stephen – Canada

  3. Hello,

    I deplore the tone made by Grace, it cannot consider a “shame” for inability to speak English to meet the language requirement of the foreigners.

    Perhaps when China controls half of wealth of the world and people rushed to learn Chinese in order to do business with her, then, one can consider it is a “shame” for unable to speak Chinese both in China and aboard.

    Stephen – Canada

  4. Dear Mr Wang,

    I plan to visit China on September 30th 2004 with my family. We travel alone. I find out information provided by your web give me much help to understand Shanghai.

    Thanks.

  5. Dear Mr Wang,

    My family plan to make a trip to China, as I had told you in my previous letter. We will arrive at Pudong Airport at 11.00Pm, so it’s almost midnight. We planned to continue our journey to Wuxi by train the next morning.

    I saw a photo of sign ‘Hourly Reception Hotel Counter’. Is the hotel available after I pass the imigration gate ( Arrival Exit ). Sound foolish, but I just wanna make sure about it cause I travel with a baby.

    Any information regarding on the hotel will be a great help to us.

    Thanks for your help

  6. Warm greetings!

    I am from australia and I am traveling to shanghai in 24th March and will be staying for a week. I’m uncertain as to where to stay, though I would like to stay around the city area and where its convenient to nice restaurants, cafes and shopping. I adore the night life and site seeing. Both my partner and I are in our 40’s (I am an architect) and love tasting new cuisines. If this was your holiday, where would you stay/go and what would you do on your trip? If you could reccommend or help me with planning this trip it would be highly appreciated.

    kind regards. lyn

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