Which companies offer cheap packages (air and hotel-possibly tours) for basic China trips?

I don`t thick any of them are that cheap, but about the best for low cost is friendly planet,and Smart tours, which are the same company anyway. They do add lots of optional tours, but they aren`t that expensive either. Or you can tour on your own.

I actually was looking at both FP and Smartours. The problem is that smartours dates don't work and Friendly Planet has released dates for this season. Any idea of when they would release dates for the fall?

China Focus has fairly cheap tours, with no optional tours. Your days leave no time for optional tours. www.chinafocustravel.com

Have also heard good things about budget tours with China Focus. I used Gate 1 Travel in March with my mom who is 80 and felt it was finally time to try the tour bus route. They specialize in low cost tours, but we had a knowledgeable, very pleasant, experienced tour director, a great driver, and good to excellent local guides- so it worked out well. If you are adventurous or younger, I would look at Intrepid Travel or GAP. Hope you find something affordable.

What is a common flight time to Beijing (from JFK or from LAX)?

The recent (Mar/Apr) HCS China Focus Tour (www.chinafocustravel.com) was a stunning bargain.
M (TA SMdA, Gto.)

Also try Intrepid(www.intrepidtravel.com)

I took one of their India trips six months ago and it was fantastic.

revisit the webpages for FP and ST - they've changed their trips considerably. It appears that the FP trip is NOT part of the ST trip anymore - the itenary and international airline is different. so are the hotels.

SmartTours already has dates for 2006/2007. Friendly planet does not have dates listed yet for most tours. Any idea as to when they normally list the dates?