Originally Posted by
UA_Flyer
I can share a few war stories of long delays of traveling within China and between PEK/PVG and HKG, especially during the summer months. The weather conditions in the summer, for some reasons, have been filled with rains high wind, and storms, and the air space is subject to PLA control.
There was an an article published by AmCham about three years ago. In that article it talks about the split of air space between mililtaty/commerce is about 20/80 in the US. In China, it is the opposite: 80 for military and 20 for commercial.
Oh, I've got my own flying to southern China (HKG/SZX/HAK) from PVG. I think flight delays were more the norm than on time departures. You're also right about the English speaking ability of the staff on the Domestic side. I once missed a delayed flight because I had my back to the gate and heard no announcement.
As for the bags, the process in China is no different than the process in the US. Your bags may have been checked all the way through to MEL but you still have to pick them up and recheck them at your first port of entry just like you do in the US.
The Chinese also tend to be real sticklers on boarding passes so that's why you wouldn't have been issued an onward boarding pass to MEL at PEK. I had a trip that was PVG-KMG-RGN and I had to run at KMG to get boarding passes for RGN as I wasn't told that the one issued in PVG was "no good" until I got to the Immigration counter.