Originally Posted by
moondog
On international itins, stops of less than 24 hours do not constitute "stopoevers", so you should be in good shape.
Good point; I'd forgotten that. A quick check of fares shows a ~17-20 hour stop in each has no cost impact if I route back through PEK (out could be either way, although I'd do PVG to get more miles) and adds about $250 if I route back through PVG (may just be the individual days, thought.)
In SH, you can check out Expo (sounds pretty awful to me, but as long as you're there...), and BJ is just plain cool.
Both on my list of places to see, and if I can get a day without a visa in each direction, it's definitely too good to say "no" to (even having spotted on some days a "saner" routing ORD-NRT-HKG with the last on a codeshare instead of a non-mile-earning KA/CX flight for the last leg.)
Since AA's PEK schedules are dreadful at the moment (maybe not an issue if you're flying a few months out), you'd probably want to save BJ for your return (i.e. arrive in afternoon and leave really early the next day).
This would be in November/Dec, either the week of Thanksgiving or the week immediately after.
Thanks again for the advice!