The US President Is Coming to Beijing. The Trip Costs $7,266 a Minute | QDaily Data

Not counting the cost of the motorcade, or the effect of the road closures.

At some point tomorrow afternoon, two Boeing 747s in identical blue-and-white livery will land at Beijing Capital International Airport. US President Donald Trump will step off one of them — his first visit to China since taking office.

China is the third stop on Trump's five-country Asia tour, his first trip to the region as president, running from November 3 to 14. The first two stops were Japan and South Korea. He arrives in Beijing on November 8 and stays in China two days, through the 10th.

Before Air Force One touches down, though, a gray US Air Force C-17 heavy transport will already have landed. A motorcade of two Cadillacs and ten Chevrolets will roll out of its hold.

Those 12 vehicles, along with dozens of other American and Chinese cars, will carry the Trumps and their entourage into central Beijing.

That evening, Trump attends a dinner at the Forbidden City. It is about 31 kilometers from Terminal 1 of Capital Airport to the Forbidden City. On an ordinary day, stuck in traffic, the drive can easily take two hours.

But from the afternoon into the evening of the 8th, on many Beijing roads you will not see a single vehicle other than People's Armed Police cars. His motorcade could cover 31 kilometers in any big city in under 20 minutes.

After dinner, Trump checks in at the St. Regis. The luxury hotel, run in Beijing by Starwood, has gone three days without an ordinary guest.

Every US president travels with this kind of show of force. Guarding him in the air alone costs $7,266 a minute.

A US President's Asia Trip Takes at Least 3 Large Aircraft and 5 Helicopters

One piece of standard presidential equipment, "Air Force One," is familiar to everyone. Every trip abroad yields the same close-up: the president coming down the stairs of the blue-and-silver plane.

Press reports list these as the main vehicles for Trump's Asia trip.

Two VC-25 presidential aircraft

Converted from Boeing 747-200s, these two planes are the president's first choice for long-distance travel. The moment he boards one of them, its radio call sign changes to the famous "Air Force One." The two fly together partly for security: it becomes impossible to know which plane the president is actually on.

On a long, far-flung foreign trip like this one, the VC-25 serves another purpose — carrying the president's bodyguards, the agents of the Secret Service.

The Secret Service is a government agency under the Department of Homeland Security. When it was founded in 1865, its job was to secretly investigate counterfeiting of US banknotes and government bonds and other financial crimes, and it sat under the Treasury Department. After President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, the Secret Service took on the job of protecting the president, the vice president and their families.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, it moved to the newly created Department of Homeland Security, with its duties unchanged.

In news photos and video, the "men in black" beside the president in suits, sunglasses and earpieces, the agents in black who drive for the president, the vice president and their families, and the plainclothes agents you cannot pick out of a crowd — all of them are Secret Service.

We have no way of knowing how many agents Trump brought to Asia. But from what has been made public, we know he brought 12 dedicated vehicles, every one of them Secret Service.

Two stretch limousines nicknamed "Cadillac One"

General Motors built this stretch limousine for the president on a truck chassis, armored to shield him from automatic weapons, roadside bombs and chemical or biological attack.

For short trips on the ground — airport to hotel, say — "Cadillac One" is the first choice. A presidential motorcade usually carries two of them, again to confuse anyone who might come after him. The president and the vice president normally ride in them separately.

Then there are the ten Secret Service vehicles built on the Chevrolet Suburban, the large SUV. Films and television have made them familiar: huge off-roaders driven by men in black. In fact, each of these vehicles does a different job.

Ahead of the president's car runs at least one Secret Service electronic countermeasures vehicle (USSS ECM). Its radar antennas are visible from outside; it can spot an incoming rocket or missile, lay smoke that blocks infrared, or jam a missile's guidance system into uselessness.

At least one car serves as a control center, carrying the president's doctor and his military aides; in an emergency it pulls out alongside "Cadillac One."

At least one close-protection car (called Halfback) is driven by the agents responsible for the president's own safety that day. Its rear hatch stays open the entire drive so they can keep watch. Once the president steps out, the agents in this car guard him at close range.

At least one Counter Assault Team (CAT) car. It is the same model as the president's escort vehicle, and its rear hatch also stays open throughout the drive. But the men inside are not agents in suits and ties; they are a fully armed Secret Service tactical team in dark combat fatigues and gear, carrying automatic rifles.

At least one Intelligence Division car (ID Car) handles the Secret Service's internal communications. And there is a White House communications vehicle, usually bristling with antennas, that keeps the president in touch with the entire US government — a nuclear launch order can be issued from the road.

All 12 of these vehicles flew with Trump from the United States to Japan, to South Korea and now to China, aboard another plane in the presidential party: a US Air Force C-17 transport.

The motorcade is not only these 12 cars, of course. Before they move, local security vehicles are already posted along the route — police in the United States, the army in war zones such as Afghanistan. In Beijing, People's Armed Police vehicles handle it.

Judging by the photos the Secret Service posted on Twitter, all 12 motorcade vehicles, the two "Cadillac Ones" included, load into the belly of a single C-17 in one go. Barring surprises, that C-17 will reach Beijing ahead of "Air Force One," unload the cars and have everything ready for the president to move.

According to press reports, the "Marine One" helicopter Trump used in Japan and South Korea also arrived by C-17.

The "Marine One" now in service, the VH-3D, is the newer model introduced in 1987, converted from Sikorsky's SH-3 "Sea King." It is used for longer trips over land: if the president is going from downtown to the outskirts, "Marine One" is the first choice.

The VH-3D's rotor blades fold, so the whole aircraft fits into a C-17's belly and travels with the president. In September 2016, when President Obama went to Hangzhou for the G20 summit, "Marine One" was flown ahead of him into Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport by C-17.

Forget the Costs on the Ground. Just Getting Here Runs $7,266 a Minute

By sticker price alone, these are very expensive pieces of military hardware.

The two VC-25s in service today, SAM-28000 and SAM-29000, started flying in 1990. The Air Force converted them from Boeing 747-200B airliners at a cost of $325 million at the time — about $640 million in 2017 dollars once inflation is counted, roughly twice the price of a commercial Boeing 747-8.

The VC-25 has been heavily rebuilt. Beyond the comforts — a presidential suite, a dining room, a conference room — the plane can survive the radiation and shockwave of a nuclear blast, and it carries jam-resistant radar, countermeasures against surface-to-air missiles and more. If necessary it can refuel in the air and keep the president flying indefinitely.

The VC-25 has a standing crew of 26, all serving Air Force enlisted personnel and officers, the cabin staff included. It can carry 70 passengers in comfort — though only the president gets a suite to sleep in.

By the US government's published figures, one flight hour on the VC-25 officially costs $206,000, covering fuel, personnel, maintenance and the rest.

So counting only Trump's flight from South Korea to China, two VC-25s making the two-hour trip from Seoul to Beijing cost $824,000.

Add one C-17 at $48,000 an hour — there may in fact be two — and it works out to $7,266 a minute.

The equipment on the ground costs just as much.

The two modified Cadillacs in use now — identical in shape, in function, even in license plate — entered service in 2009, built on GM's GMC TopKick truck platform. Oddly, the car has no call sign of its own like "Air Force One," which is why the president's limousine is known simply as "Cadillac One" or "the Beast"; its internal code name is "Stagecoach."

Public sources put "Cadillac One" at 6.8 to 9 tons, with bulletproof glass more than 10 centimeters thick. The whole body is sealed to protect the president against chemical weapons, rockets, grenades and similar attacks. It also carries night-vision gear, tear gas and shotguns, along with bottled oxygen and 946 milliliters of blood plasma matching the president's type. The model costs $1 million to $1.5 million to build. This year the White House gave GM $15.8 million to develop a new one.

By public accounts, the Secret Service motorcade — "Cadillac One" and the other cars together — costs $180,000 a day to run, covering use of the equipment and the agents' pay.

Which means that with President Trump in Beijing for two days, the motorcade runs $360,000 a day.

Besides "Air Force One" and the Motorcade, There May Be a "Marine One" This Time

"Marine One" is the call sign of the US president's helicopter. Before 1976 it was "Army One."

Like Air Force One, "Army One" was a call sign for a presidential means of transport, normally a military helicopter used for short hops inside the United States. The US Army carried out the job from 1957 to 1976, hence the name.

Army One flew its first mission in 1957. President Dwight Eisenhower wanted a fast way to get from the White House to his summer house in Pennsylvania, and Air Force One could take off and land at neither place, so he had his staff arrange an Army H-34 helicopter to fly the whole route.

After 1976 the Army and the Marine Corps shared the duty, and the helicopter picked up a second call sign, "Marine One." Which name it used depended on which service was flying the president. The South Lawn of the White House became a landing zone.

In 1962, the Marine Corps squadron responsible for presidential flights put the VH-3A — a version of the SH-3 Sea King — into service as the president's helicopter. Whenever the president boards any VH-3 belonging to that squadron, it takes the Marine One call sign.

The helicopter assigned to Trump's China visit is the VH-3D, which replaced the VH-3A in 1978. Department of Defense figures put the VH-3D's flying cost in fiscal 2017 at $24,000 an hour, or $400 a minute.

Next to "Air Force One" that is not much. But "Marine One" never flies alone.

Depending on need, it usually flies in a formation of two to five identical helicopters. Because a helicopter needs open ground to lift off, outsiders can easily see which one the president boards. So in the air the helicopters keep swapping places, like cards being shuffled.

From what has been announced so far, Trump will stay at the St. Regis in Beijing, and his schedule takes in the Great Hall of the People and the Palace Museum, both a few kilometers away and neither of them requiring a helicopter. But other events may come up.

In Japan, Trump took "Marine One" to a golf course and played a round with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Whether he will be invited out to some spot in Beijing's suburbs to kick a football around, no one knows. If "Marine One" is used, it can cost as much as $2,000 a minute — not counting the cost of shipping the helicopter to China in the first place.

Graphics by Feng Xiuxia

Cover image/Travel + Leisure