Hmm, I'd only consider a short layover of an hour if I had specific information/research that the airport ran efficiently, did not have to change terminal, and I did not have any checked-in luggage to deal with, and missing the connection would not significantly affect the rest of my trip. Even if the airport was a good one, I would still be nervous about a short layover at a major airport as from my experience of Heathrow and Gatwick in the UK, queues at security can sometimes take 20 to 30 minutes, as can passport control (though with a connection you might not pass through that), and gates can be a full 10 to 15 minute walk from departures area due to size of airport, even if the two flights are within the same terminal.
A friend of mine flew with Air China about 5 years ago and said the flight wasn't great because all the in-flight entertainment was on a central screen (no screens on backs of seats), along the lines of "History of Mao Tse-tung" parts 1 to 3, in Chinese with Chinese subtitles... He also said that the airport in China (don't recall if it was Beijing but probably) had multiple internal passport checkpoints within the same parts of the airport. Now things might be different of course...