Fuzhou Changle International Airport is an international airport located in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, China. It’s a single terminal airport, serving over 1.2 million passengers per month. China’s National Development and Reform Commission has approved a $3 billion expansion project that involves the construction of a second terminal, targeting an overall throughput of 36 million passengers per year by 2030.
If you have an overnight layover at Fuzhou Airport, there are several things to consider.
Facilities
Fuzhou Airport has standard facilities one can expect from an international airport such as bathrooms, drinking fountains, ATMs, restaurants, currency exchange, duty free shopping outlets and a 7-Eleven store. At night, however, these outlets and stores close, so if you have a long overnight layover in your itinerary, it’s useful to pack some snacks. If you don’t have a chance to do so, there are vending machines available.
Seating
When you have an overnight layover, you’ll want to make sure you have good seating so you can stay comfortable for the duration of your wait. This is where things aren’t ideal. On the upper floor of Fuzhou Airport, where the check-in counters are located, there’s quite a bit of seating. However just like shopping outlets and stores, the upper floor closes at night. At night, one has to make their way to the ground floor, where seating is surprisingly limited.
Those who are familiar with the airport make their way to the ‘SOFO: Enjoy Future Comfortably’ store, where there are a number of massage chairs. Passengers choose a comfortable looking seat and stay there until their morning flight. Others rush to whatever limited seating there is around the building. The rest, however, are found sleeping on the floor; not an ideal scenario for an international airport. If you’d like to avoid this, it’s worth booking an overnight stay at a nearby hotel.
Airport Wifi
An overnight layover can be made more tolerable if you have a stable internet connection, giving you the the opportunity to watch videos, listen to music and read articles. While there are various hotspots one should be able to connect to at the airport, things might not work as expected, especially with a non-Chinese number.
The McDonald’s wifi, for example, shows various security warnings when attempting to connect, and the connection often fails even if these warnings are bypassed.
Fuzhou Changle International Airport has airport wifi. However, if you have a non-Chinese SIM card, connecting to the wifi may be a problem. First, throughout various airports in China, there are self-service machines in which you enter your flight details and you can generate a wifi code to connect to the internet. There are no self-service machines in Fuzhou Airport. Second, a wifi code can be sent to you via SMS, but only if it’s a Chinese number.
One might assume foreign numbers can work given there’s an option to enter an international phone number with the relevant country code. However upon checking with an attendant at an information desk, it appears only Chinese numbers work for the time being.
Conclusion
If you have an overnight layover scheduled at Fuzhou Changle International Airport, it’s worth considering nearby accommodation options. Alternatively, staying inside the airport, even with limited seating, can be made more pleasant if you have some snacks and offline entertainment. You’ll be able to connect to the airport wifi if you have a Chinese SIM card. And as advised in our article China Travel Tips: Things To Know Before Visiting, it’s helpful to download a translation app that works offline. While overnight layover facilities at Fuzhou Airport can be improved, this is likely to happen as part of the expansion project that includes the construction of a T2 terminal and the upgrading of the T1 terminal.
