Best route Melbourne - Beijing or Shanghai?

Best route Melbourne - Beijing or Shanghai? calling all experienced China travellers for your views!

I've tried a few options in the last 3 years - none ideal.

I'm making 3 trips per year to mainland China, mostly Shanghai, Beijing and then inland.

Priorities for me are lie flat beds, good lounges with showers, good service. QF status is nice to have but not vital. I have QF Platinum.

Cost doesn't matter. Trying to avoid internal China flights due to constant delayed departures - sick of boarding then sitting at the gate for an hour!

Trips are normally 6 nights, with 2 in the air, so I need to sleep well.

Always business class, would consider first if it was available.

Singapore Airlines - sometimes luck out on Sing-Melb leg in an old plane without true lie flat beds. This is a deal breaker for me on an overnight flight, despite everything else on Sing being outstanding

China Eastern - terrible lounges and showers but direct Pudong/Melb has appeal

Cathay via HK - all good, except getting refused lounge access at 7am in HK when I'm desperate for a shower and decent food because my onward flight is ticketed China Air is also a deal breaker (it was code share Cathay). Not Happy. One World Emerald still left me stranded.

QF via Hong Kong - great but doesn't always work due to day flight departure and seems lie flat seats not always available.

any thoughts greatly appreciated!

The main airline you seem to be missing from your list is Air China, which flies non-stop from Melbourne to Shanghai now and will also fly non-stop to Beijing from next month.

No Qantas points/status credits, but as a Star Alliance member you could credit to KrisFlyer, United etc.

Pics and notes here in our review: Air China A330 business class: Melbourne-Shanghai-Beijing

If it's Shanghai a possibility is direct Mel to Guangzhou then connect to Shanghai (not pudong) with China a southern, they also have first on some flights.

I think the service is slightly better with China Southern than China Eastern or Air China

You could always go direct to Shanghai with Qantas via Sydney

cx for me with dragon connection

allows lounge access 

hk cx lounges are superior to any shanghai or beijing lounge by a country mile

i assume dragon doesnt fly to your mainland destination otherwise you would of done this

Out of curiosity, why not fly CX all the way.  Did a simple search and there are connections via CX Codeshare with Dragon Air and Air China.   Since you say you are flying Business class anyways, you would get lounge access, regardless of codeshare/one world agreements.

SQ but check out the onwards from Singapore Aircraft Types.You might score a A330 or a 773ER.I am not sure from Melbourne what is used depending on which flight you get whether it's the Mid Morning,The Afternoon or The Redeyes.

You can also get on QF Mel-Syd-Pvg

Where specifically inland? And if you're flying Business, why couldn't you use the China Airlines lounge?

If in Budiness, it seems CX with KA or CA connections seems most reasonable.

Does the CA lounge not have showers?

By the way you can always exit and use the CX arrivals lounge if you cannot gain lounge access on account of your forward connecting flight.

Am I missing something here? 

thanks everyone for your input

cheers