​​​​​Answering some of my own questions, I wouldn't recommend taking the flight between NLH and KMG. Our return flight from NLH to SHA via KMG was canceled (and it wasn't even due to weather) with only a few days notice. We had to scramble to secure new flight and hotel reservations (and modify some existing ones) with a very short notice (and at significantly higher cost) because apparently flights on many other dates between the two airports were also canceled.