Originally Posted by Taiwaned

So what do you guys do???? If you have a meeting to go to in another city, do you plan to arrive a day early just to ensure you make it to the meeting? How much padding is enough? I thought 5 hours should be plenty but I am finding this is not necessarily enough.

Originally Posted by mosburger

Between Shanghai and Beijing, this is probably the reason why many Chinese CEO-level frends still prefer the night train to flying. Not good to let that party secretary to keep waiting...

And also for other reasons, airports being far out in the sticks (like in Xi'an), unreliable taxi drivers and heavy traffic etc. it's really much preferable to arrive the previous day.