Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Confusion; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Altitude Undershoot; Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation - Speed All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Human Factors; Procedure
I was the Relief First Officer sitting in the right aft seat with a very limited view of the PFD;s and MFD;s of the aircraft. Shanghai Approach Control issued us a different arrival than what the company had filed and what we already had planned. The communications were ambiguous at best and we all agreed to get a clarification on which arrival was being issued. There were four arrivals that had the suffix '81A'.  The pronunciation was tough to understand.  It took some clarification but we all confirmed the new arrival as the 'DUM 81A' arrival. At some point after DUMET there was a transmission from Shanghai Approach to 'comply with all restrictions' At the same time the PF was slowing down and trying to get down with deploying the speed brakes to meet the restrictions of PD230.  Shanghai approach made the same transmission again. I unbuckled my seat belt to stand up see what the displays were showing and wanted to confirm the altitude in the alt window was correct. It was set correctly to 6;980 feet which was equivalent to 2;100 meters issued to us. The aircraft showed a little high on the path but was correcting and it showed very close to the speed restriction of 230 kts.  I sat back down and verified the restrictions on my tablet. There was a lot of foreign language chatter on the radio. Upon crossing the fix; Shanghai issued a clearance direct to MPI which was the IAF for the approach to [Runway] 16L.  It wasn't until after we landed that the PF and PM were talking about being high over the PD230 fix however they agreed they were on speed.Understanding which arrival they were trying to issue took more time than necessary.  The pronunciation of the arrival was very hard to understand. This complicated things more than usual and it cost time. The frequency congestion in a foreign language complicated things when trying to get them to repeat the clearance.  On a side note this was the first time I've ever heard an approach clearance to a runway with a Left designator as 'Cleared for 16 Lima' ...the PM was corrected to say 16 Lima after she responded with 16 Left.  it didn't make sense.  When passed on to the Tower Controller; they correctly said 16 Left.My only suggestion is if you look high on a path; Flight Level Change works pretty good to hustle down to the altitude.  I can't say for sure if this descent was done in PATH or FLC.  The language barrier is what it is and probably won't change much.
I was the pilot monitoring. On 123.8; China approach cleared us for Dum81A;  Comply with restrictions. FO crossed PD230 on speed at 230 KT.  And high. I could not ask for altitude relief due to frequency congestion. We were filed for Dum92A. There was confusion among the crew about the assigned arrival. We queried Approach again.  The verification of the clearance and the CDU; contributed to our delayed descent.Ask China control (previous frequency) which arrival is planned. So we definitely would know earlier.
Air carrier Flight Crew reported difficulty understanding an arrival clearance and non-standard phraseology used by ZSHA ATC during arrival at ZSPD foreign airport.