Peggy we are doing a land trip to China in September (Yunnan provence & Tibet) - leaving here on August 28th. From what I've read it shouldn't take too long to get Chinese visas even if you don't request expediting - maybe a max of 2 weeks for the whole process?

I sent our passport and visa requests to CIBT last Friday - (www.cibt.com) - they have an online status check so you can see where you are in the process. Right now ours are at the consulate for processing. It is a nice feature to be able to "see" where you are in the process and I think the status check will show us a tracking number when they send back via fedex.