From The UK and Europe

Flights available from London and most major European Cities, Oasis the new HK carrier has very cheap flights one way from London to Hong Hong, well worth investigating as there are very good connecting flights from Hong Kong to most cities in mainland China.

From North America

Flights to Beijing and Shanghai from most major US and Canada airports however watch routing as some carriers will centralise from only a few airports in the USA. Take a look at routings via Bangkok or Hong Kong, cheaper and more variety with good cheap connections into China from both HK and Bangkok. Oasis are now running direct budget flights from Vancouver to HK

From Australia and New Zealand

Same story as US and Canada however from this part of the world Bangkok or Hong Kong make even better sense especially if you are planning to visit some of the smaller Cities in China. Tiger Direct runs budget air travel between some Australian Cities to Macau, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Haikou.

Bargain Gateways

With a burgeoning number of low-cost airlines springing up in Asia, flying directly to China may not always be the most practical or cost-effective way. Below I have highlighted some alternative gateways. Flight prices from Bangkok to China can be grabbed for as little as 40 GBP other routes on the budget carriers below are also in some cases less than 50% the cost of traditional airlines.

From Hong Kong (HK)

Hong Kong offers great connections to most Chinese cities and also hosts low budget carriers such as Oasis, Cebu Pacific and others.

From Bangkok

Bangkok is the major air gateway in South East Asia, many flights especially from Australia and New Zealand will stop here on there way to the USA and Europe. For those of you coming to China via Bangkok, Air Asia has just launched the service from Bangkok to Shenzhen, they also run Bangkok to Xiamen route and many other cross south east Asian routes.

From Singapore, Philippines and Malaysia

You can fly Singapore to Haikou, Shenzhen or Guangzhou direct with the Australian budget carrier Tiger Direct  also  Air Asia runs between Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok, you can connect in Bangkok and fly to Shenzhen.