Having a Chinese mobile number is more than useful: you definitely need it.
And while the bank may or may not want a lodging registration slip, they will want a Chinese address, so take a card from the hotel.
Be prepared to provide your home country address and tax ID number.
Remember that if you lose your ATM card or need other help, you'll usually have to head back to the same city maybe even the same branch.
Don't complicate this with overseas transfers. Just get RMB cash and deposit it. (Again, making further cash deposits out of the area where you opened the account may be awkward.)
Finally, since opening an account is discretionary, if your Chinese is not up to par bring a Chinese speaker along. You don't want the staff to think that dealing with you will be a hassle.
1. I lost my ATM card last year, and the bank branch initially told me to go to the branch in which I opened my account; they eventually relented, but this added a solid 20 minutes to my bank visit
2. I agree that making this process easy for the bank people is likely to improve odds of getting an account
3. I have never had any issues making cash deposits at the CDM machines, but withdrawing money from my US accounts in order to make the deposits can be a little challenging at times. For example, CCB in Shenzhen is usually a waste of time, and when I'm in Nanning, I completely write off the local banks. That having been said, I've not been rejected by an ICBC ATM/CDM anywhere