Back from China, had a great time and thanks for all the tips. The lonely planet guide book I took with me was frankly rubbish.
I can see why people said Shanghai is terrible, there isn't that much to see and there certainly isn't much left. The entire city looks like it was built just 10 years ago. Have to say I loved it though, the Bund was interesting but I preferred looking at the crazy modern skyscrapers on the other side of the river. Shanghai impressed me a lot more for it's architecture than Chicago did.
Beijing, was brilliant. Si Ma Ta was unfortunately closed, apparently they are worryingly going to build a theme park there, based upon that section of the Great wall. We ended up going to Mu Tian Yu instead (which also smelt a little bit of pee) but was amazing. Henry the taxi driver was ace, even if he scared a tiny bit of poo out of me when he charged a bus head on.
Whisper it, but the Forbidden city was a bit meh. It all ended up looking the same and having already wandered around the Temple of Heaven park I was a bit templed out. The Lama temple, with the 18metre high tree was, on the hand, brilliant, good tip.
Did the climb up the hill to the Pagoda to look at the Forbidden city from above and also wandered around the black lakes/ houhai park for a few drinks in the evening....although 1 place charged me 100 Chinese squibblies for 2 small beers.....guess I paid my stupid tourist tax there.
Went to Da Dong for duck which was great, if the most costly meal of the trip and I look like a dumpling I ate so damned many of them.
Xian was quite a bit different from Beijing and Shanghai. Thought the Terracotta warriors were a bit of a let down, might have to go back in 25 years when they have finished doing some more excavation.
Taxi's turned out to be impossible to get, so ended up on the metro a lot. Getting a seat on the underground is like finding the goose that laid the golden egg. Also I wasn't quite prepared for the distances, usually I end up walking a lot on holiday, from 1 site to the next but not in China, everything is bloody huge. That damned forbidden city and Tienanmen square takes about a 3 hours to walk around.
Took a lot of overnight trains and apart from the bloke I nearly killed because of his snoring and the funny fat Chinese fella who chatted to me for over an hour in Chinese

, it was pretty fun. Although I am a little worried about the Chinese student I was chatting to on the way back from Xian. He was pretty scathing of the way the Government runs the media and of Chairmen Mau for going cuckoo as he got older, I kept wondering if a police squad was about to burst in to the train compartment and cart him away for corrective therapy.
One of my favourite places of the entire trip was the Chinese Poster Propaganda museum in Shanghai, fascinating look at how art has been used over the last 50 years as a weapon of propaganda in China. The owner was telling me he is in the process of being booked up by the Victoria and Albert in London for next year, worth a visit if you get the chance.
Had a great time and the Chinese were a lot friendly than I imagined.
EDIT: didn't get out to Hangzuo or to the Expo (too lazy)
The Summer Palace was also a highlight, apart from the irritating American tour guide who kept banging on about the destruction of the old Summer Palace without making any effort to put it into a historical context. - tw@t
EDIT 2: Also I got a lot of photo's taken of me...was a tad weird. Is it that unusual to see a westerner in China? It happened an awful lot, sometimes discreetly and sometimes I had to stand there and pose whilst the whole family had photos taken standing next to me. Some Chinese men like to hold hands when having their photo taken, or was that just with me?