I appreciate all the insights here about flying into China. I do mean that - my own experience is limited to HKG and Macau. I am quite stunned by what you describe - obviously I am naive about it (I'm being sincere about that) and yep, how does an airline (full service or LCC) deal with it? Australia should basically give them the flick but, oh, we cannot do that......
It would seem that carrying alternate fuel for Japan, Taiwan or Korea would be the best answer!
