Originally Posted by
Luftdancer
Nothing you can control, but just beware that in the 10 flights out of PVG I do annually, about 75% of them involve sitting on the plane, doors closed and being held up to start engines because if Chinese traffic flow restrictions. Extremely annoying because you have to factor it in to connection times at the destination.
Summer is a very bad time to fly in China because weather is almost always bad somewhere (BJ, SH, or PRD), but flights to the US tend to be relatively immune to these problems.
Insofar as domestic travels are concerned, I tend to use trains for destinations that are well served be trains (e.g. anywhere on the JingHu line, and Zhejiang).
But, in order to go south, flying is the only option, as of now. The experience is simply miserable, but there a few steps I take to lessen the pain:
1) wear shorts... not so appropriate for flying in class, but you will appreciate the comfort during your 3 hour ground hold in Shanghai
2) try to book flights that don't use remote stands
3) load up on food that you like... Element Fresh works well in a pinch
4) use SHA (Hongqiao) if possible. It has less remote stands than PVG and is closer to town
5) the morning flights are less likely to be delayed