Have flown into HKG a lot and have circled a fair bit but recently I was flying Shanghai - Hong Kong on Cathay. We circled about 20 mins into the flight for about half an hour (was getting a bit nervous as I have had three alert calls, one of which happened after circling shortly into the flight), then about 40 mins from HKG we started to circle for about an hour then we moved over the sea and I thought we would start our descent (at this stage we had dropped to about 24,000 ft) but instead turned south over the sea and headed south. After about 20 mins the Captain said "10 mins to landing" and we went straight in.

It transpires the crew had been told to prepare earlier in the flight to divert to mainland China but were then told by ATC to continue. They did so but then entered a major hold pattern and ultimately the Captain declared a fuel issue and we landed.

The Captain came on and was complaining about Chinese ATC and how they always cause problems, etc. He said fuel burn was a major issue.

It was not an unusual weather day. I know on BA we have been diverted at the last minute to different runways landing at PEK, etc. but in talking to both BA and CX crew they say there are often fuel issues with ATC in China.

Just wondered how common or true this might be?