Just to add my thoughts to this:
Do remember that the Olympics are taking place ,so it may be cheaper to go after that
Very true, I should be there immediately afterwards, but I'll not be in Beijing anyway.
You will not understand a word anyone says to you in chinese for the whole of your stay apart from "laowi"(round eye), "gau bei tse" (big nose), and "you buy Lolex"(you buy Rolex).
99.999% or more of people in a Chinese major city speak absolutely no english. The remainder speak it very very badly. In the sticks, its likely to be absolutly no english. and they will stare at your big nose and round eyes as if you are an escaped animal from the zoo.
Also true, though hostels and hotels are good places to ask if you need directions, or at least those aimed at foreign visitors. My hostel in Shanghai was a lifesaver when I first landed, I explained that I wanted to get a train to Qingdao and they wrote out what I needed on a little piece of paper, which I just had to hand over at the ticket office. Finding the right ticket office/window at it is another nightmare in itself, but hey, part of the fun.
Incidentally, lao wai literally means "Old foreigner", though you will hear it everywhere. Didn't get too much about my nose though
People under 25 or so were better for speaking english in my experience, had several approach me to practise, and a few intellectually fromm before the cultural revolution too.
You do need permission to enter the country (an invite from a resident and documented place to stay. And you probably need permission to travel between cities. This may have changed but I'd check.
It has
You do need a residence there for the sake of your visa application, I used the address of my girlfriend's school, though once there I didn't even register at the hotel I was staying in. Just crashed with her for a month, came in and out through the back door, no hassles leaving the country (unlike Vietnam, where me being "missing" for a night was cause to be taken off and interviewed...)
Travel between cities is fine too, you can head wherever you want with no problem, as long as you can actually get yourself a ticket and navigate the transport system!
If you stick to Shanghai, Beijing (great wall and forbidden city) and XiAn (terracota warriors) you'll probably be ok and manage - remember, always have your address where you are staying written out in full chinese to help get you home. Carry cash it's very rare to find credit card use. these places are 2-3 hours away from each other by jet - I'd take internal flights as opposed to train.
Good advice on having your home address, waving it at taxi drivers (especially after a night out) is far more reliable than attempting to get them to understand stabs at Chinese - though feel free to try. Cashpoints in cities aren't massively hard to find, but yeah, it's unusual to find a shop that'll accept them.
As for internal flights, depends on your budget and faith in Chinese airlines
I quite enjoyed the train journies I took, admittedly Shanghai > Qingdao was 18 hours (and that's only halfway to Beijing), but the sleeper bunks are comfy enough and you can wander about. Be prepared for people trying to talk to you, being noisy in your compartment when you want to sleep, or generally sitting and staring at you, however...I was fine however, always up on the top bunk. If you can't get a sleeper ticket for a long journey, forget it
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