I must thank all of you who are generous with your postings on China--especially Peter and rkwan. Most of you are most eloquent and have reported on sights to see and places to eat. I'm an accountant, not a writer, but here is my report.
I first started out researching tours, then progressed to planning independent travel. It worked! Except as noted, we never had a reservation for hotel, airline or cruise ship.
I bought 4 books--Lonely Planet, Frommers, Fodors and Lets Go and studied all of them, but this forum was far and away the best sourse of information.
I joined the "clubs" of all the hotels I thought we might stay in.
I printed out schedules on flychina.com for all flights I thought we might take. We never missed getting our first choice flight.
I wrote down 3 acceptable Yantze river cruise ships, and 3 hotels for everywhere except Macau (which we hadn't planned on visiting.) We got our first choice cruise ship and first choise hotels with one exception.
We flew to HK, took train to Kowloon and shuttle to Hyatt and booked a room (good location, good hotel).
We used CITS office near Hyatt to book ferry to Macau, hotel Ritz (bad hotel, bad location) in Macau, ferry to Shenzhen, and flight to Chengdu.
At Chengdu, we took a taxi to Sheraton and booked a room (good location, great hotel). We booked a one-way flight to Lhasa at Traffic Hotel as recommended in LP.
At Lhasa airport, we took the bus to city. At bus station we took a taxi to Kyichu Hotel (good location, o.k. hotel). We took taxi, then bus back to airport and booked a flight to Chengdu.
At Chengdu, we took a taxi to Sheraton Hotel and caught the afternoon bus from the Chengdu Sheraton to the Chongqing Marriott (5 hours, GREAT scenery) and booked a room (great location, great hotel). The next day we saw that the East Queen was in port and we had hotel make a reservation for us for that evening.
We disembarked at Yichang, took a taxi to airport and booked a flight to Shanghai.
In Shanghai, we took a taxi to Sofitel Hyland and booked a room (great location, good hotel). We took taxi to airport and booked a flight to Xian.
In Xian, we took a taxi to Hyatt. The people were rude and annoyed that we had no reservation, although they had rooms. So..we left and took a taxi to the Shangri La (poor location, GREAT hotel) and booked a room. We took taxi to airport and booked a flight to Beijing.
In Beijing, we took a taxi to Crown Plaza (great location, great hotel) which we had booked on hotel web site the night before.
We did take several day tours, mostly for transporation. I refuse to take a taxi outside the main cities--after unpleasantness on Maylasia trip last year.
We were in China for 24 days and then took the Transmongolian train to UB and Irkutsk, Russia....but that's another story!

I am staying at the Kyichu Hotel in Lhasa in August. I've not been able to find out much about the hotel. How was it? I'd love to hear more about it. Also, how did you like Lhasa? Other than the typical sights, what did you enjoy?

I hated Lhasa--had a splitting headache from the time I arrived until I returned down to airport to leave. I sucked on oxygen bottles with almost no relief the entire time we was there-- which was only one day. This is one great advantage of "booking as you go"--you can just leave when you want to.
The people at the hotel were wonderful, however, and the town was colorful. We managed to take a pedicab around the town. Also, the hotel was VERY cheap--about $24US, I think. Try to stay on bottom floor.

JaneB: How inspiring. Sounds like a great trip. You did your homework! I am the same type of planner you seem to be. And I have bought the books for our Japan trip next spring, but none of them are as good w/the real practical advice (like, don't just describe the quaint little village, tell me how to get there!) and of course the firsthand been there, done that, stayed there type of advice. I am wondering how to fit all the info that I have in the posts I have printed out into some personal electronic format to take with me, so I don't have to haul the files (yes, I have all the posts I could find on the area of Japan we are traveling to in files for each subject and city and event, etc.) This Asia forum is amazing. I hope to be able to contribute more after this upcoming trip. For now, I have to settle on asking questions that hopefully someone else needs the answer to also.
I like your style and guts just going and not having reservations beforehand. I don't think I can do that for Japan, as I am traveling at a high travel time in spring at start of cherry blossom season, and some hotels are already booked up! And you ended up w.only one bummer hotel I think. KUDOS to you!

That's excellent... It really showed that China can be toured independently if one decides to do some homework.

Sorry to hear about Ritz Hotel in Macau. I actually stayed there a few years ago. It's location is very tricky - definitely not for a 1st time visitor, though it has its advantage. The rooms are okay, in my opinion, which is basically decent 3-star hotel. [Those star ratings you get from travel agents in HK are highly inflated. The only real 5-star ones are the Mandarin Oriental and the Westin; and perhaps the Pousada del Santiago and the Hyatt.] But I doubt any travel agent would charge you too much for the Ritz.

I'm headed to Lhasa in 2 weeks and now you have me worried! I live at sea level and will also be flying from Chengdu so there's really no way around the abrupt altitude change. Did you feel like you could have acclimatized given more time or was it so bad you felt that you had to leave? We were in Ecuador last month and didn't have any problems but I don't think we ever got past 10,000 feet, another 2,000 feet I imagine makes quite a difference. Did you take any medication or try any herbal remedies? I read about a tea that's sold locally, similar to coca used in the Andes.

Patty:
Diamox is the prescription talked about on the Peru forum. I plan to start taking this before going to Peru (which is higher) in September. I talked with some people (in a tour group) in the Lhasa airport and they all had been told to take it. None of them had a problem. I guess that's one advantage of being on a tour! I think you need to start taking it several days before reaching the high altitude. Good luck!

My parents have been to Lhasa. My dad didn't have any headache, but my mom did. She used oxygen at night, but still didn't sleep well throughout the stay.

One does get somewhat accliminated to the altitude after a day or so. The key is to be really slow and careful for the first day or two. Don't walk fast, climbing stairs, etc; and no alcohol.

Tibet is a bigger problem than Peru. For one, it's higher. Lhasa is at 3,800m or (close to 12,000 ft); Machu Picchu is only 2,400m. Second, one doesn't really stay up in the altitudes in Peru continuously unless you're an achaeologists staying in camps up there.

Thanks for the replies. I'm a little hesitant to take Diamox due to the side affects and the fact that it doesn't prevent altitude sickness but rather "masks" the symptoms. We plan to take it easy on arrival and wait and see. I don't sleep well anyway due to jet lag. Takes me about 5 days to switch over to the time zone.

I was wrong in my previous statement about Diamox masking symptoms, apparently this is a common misconception. It still has side effects though. I did some more research and found a very informative site that may be helpful to others:

www.basecampmd.com

It's the website for the Everest base camp medical clinic and has lots of information on high altitude.

When we were in mountains beyond Quito my husband had problems from the altitude. We had done everything wrong....did far too much (horseback riding and hiking into even higher mountains the first day), drank wine, slept in lodge with smokey fireplace. No problems in Peru, not quite as high and we had learned our lesson. Took it very easy, no drinking, no fireplaces, no hiking for the first several days. We had no problems in Cusco when others needed to use oxygen. I'm still hesitant to go to Tibet but if we go to the mountains of India or Nepal first and go after acclimation we may be ok.