Although I would never again choose to fly from Shenzhen rather than Hong Kong airport, once we had actually reached the airport everything went very smoothly (apart from the frustratingly slow security check.)

One important thing to know about internal Chinese flights is that you must keep hold of your luggage check-in ticket, as you need to show this to the security guard in order to leave with your suitcase.  I was really impressed by this - sometimes the way things are done in China is more sensible than here!

Unfortunately the other thing to know about internal Chinese flights is that they are often delayed!  This was the only flight on our trip that wasn’t delayed, and it was probably the best all round.

It was very comfortable with cushion, blanket and snacks provided, even though the flight was only 1 hour 5 minutes, and easily better than most short European flights.

One other wonderful thing about internal Chinese flights is that most of the airlines offer exceptional cancellation refunds.  I booked through Ctrip, and the tickets were issued electronically (after a bit of a runaround with getting the credit card payment through - see China Spa Princess/The Rest for more information on using credit cards in China.) 

We heard a lot of different advice from people about booking our internal flights - often that you should wait until right before you go, or buy your tickets at the airport - maybe this works if you have a flexible schedule, but as we were trying to fit so much in we decided to book.  In fact we could have got our flights to and from Shanghai substantially cheaper if we had booked earlier - and, as the cancellation policies are much more forgiving than European airlines, next time I would book the flights earlier - maybe 6-8 weeks in advance.