July 4th, 2013, I took the 11:40 flight from China Eastern from Beijing to Xi'an. Boarding of this flight started normally at about 11:20. At about 12:00 lunch was served on the plane and we didn't even move one meter. An indefinite delay was announced! The plane started taxiing at 13:30! All passengers had been sitting in the plane for about 2 hours, no explanation for the delay was given, except the usual excuses. "Traffic to dense, first all the planes in the air have to land", "Weather conditions not good".
I had a good view on one of the runways and there were not many planes landing at that time, maybe every 10 min. The weather was clear sky, about 32 degrees C and little wind.
Maybe it was just a case to mask the delays. This delay will not have appeared on the monitors at departure in Beijing. I didn't see any delay on the monitors when I was boarding.
Very negative experience, sitting 4 hrs in a plane for a flight of 2 hrs!