I think I've responded to all the comments to date except for this one. Actually, the opposite is the case. The foreigners I encountered during my travels tended to be much more saavy than the Chinese (though you will never see me use "saavy" and "hard seat" in the same sentence).

I suspect this is because: 1) they are better at doing their homework; 2) there is much more info on and off line in English than Chinese; and 3) Chinese like to let their travel agents handle the details.

By the way, thanks (to everyone) for the compliments. I wasn't ignoring your praises during the course of my trip; I just felt obligated to finish my reporting before responding.

Now, I will try to figure out how to post the pictures (unfortunately, I won't get the Gansu set for another week or so because my friend with the camera is still at large in Sichuan).