I'm going to Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai for 12 days by trains. I'm bringing my laptop to do work during the long plane ride from the US and back. I don't really need it for the rest of the trip and don't mind carry with me throughout the trip.

My main concern is theft. The lockers at Beijing Airport can hold your stuff for no more than 7 days. I would rather place my bookbag/laptop in a locker. Are there any lockers available in Beijing train stations that will allow me to house it there for more than 7 days and will it fit a laptop bookbag?

Or should I be okay with leaving it at the hotel since I will be returning there? Of course, I would lock up the bag but is that safe enough? I'm staying at the Peace Oriental Hotel.

Or the best option is to take it with me?

Definitely don't leave it at a hotel. Things are not secured there and are often moved around when space is needed.

And am I hearing that you don't even need the laptop for work during your whole trip? You just want to work on the plane? Is those few hours of work each way really that important for the hassle?

Like, if you're in business or first class, you should be able to sleep some and have some good food. How much time do you really have to work? And if you're in coach, forget working on a laptop!

I also agree that taking a PC just for the flight is not a good idea. In the first place, a lot of airlines don’t have in-seat chargers even in first and business class, and Very few have them in economy class. This means you will have maybe 4 hours max battery time, not a whole lot of time on such a long flight. I would check with your airline to make sure that there are in-seat chargers on the aircraft you will be flying. If not, this is just not worth it, IMO.

If you need to do work, try the old fashioned way of printing things out on pieces of paper and writing notes, making corrections, etc on the paper. Amazing how well this works....
Printing out using 2-sided printing will reduce the amount of paper you have to carry by half.

I'm not expert but these says wouln't a small I-Pod be sufficient? I stopped carrying my laptop some years back, more hassle than it was worth, manage to find Internet everywhere so for email it's easy, some good hotels have PCs in the room these days or in lounges on Executive floors. I would look into an I-Pod and leave the laptop at home.

I think JamesA is talking about an iPAQ from Compaq/HP, not an iPod the music player. iPAQ is just one brand of so-called "Pocket PCs" that runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. There are other brands.

Yup that must be it, like I said I'm no expert but I have seen people using them.