Thanks for all the info. I phoned mychinesevisa.com and they said I'd be ok. PLUS my visa says "enter before" so I am comfortable, but nonetheless I'm trying to bump my trip up to 9/1 - 9/10 instead of later.
I am trying to get there on miles. Late last night I found pretty much what I needed on ua, connecting through sfo (my home port is mco) for 65k miles, but today it's gone and the return is now 2 stops with a total travel time of 23+ hours. I'd really like to avoid that kind of travel time.
Thanks for the replies everyone.
Nick