Just returned from LAX-PEK-BKK round trip on Air China, both my girlfriend and I are *Gold. We had no problem using the first class lounge in Beijing on both sides of our trip. Simply showed our boarding passes and my US Airways status card showing the *G logo and we were welcomed with smiles.
We enjoyed the open-air lounge very much. There are large leather chairs, sofas, multiple seating areas, and available showers and sleeping rooms. We found the food selection at both breakfast and lunch (we had an 8+ hour layover that started very early in the morning) to be adequate, if not above so, especially in comparison to domestic clubs.
One note - you have to scan your passport to get a wifi access code in the People's Republic (they're not so secretive about the fact that they're watching everything you do online!), and we found access to Facebook to be spotty at best.