You are so right about China being, well - China.
In Xiamen China, a seperate company handles all check-in procedures - not the individual airlines that fly the route.
I am in Hong Kong right now so I think I'll pay Dragonair a visit here and see if they can straighten it out.
Funny you mentioned weird things that go on in China Tango. I just flew into Shenzhen on Xiamen Airlines. My seat was 1B. In most parts of the world this would mean priority baggage right! Not here, Xiamen airlines placed a bag tag on my checkin luggage reading "last Bag". Now does this mean on or off? Being that chinglish is the norm I should be glad iyt didn't read "lost bag".