So let me see if I got this straight.

If I'm interested in going to China next May on a tourist visa with my family, I should apply for it not less than 3 months before the trip, right?

Here's a question. If I apply for the visa at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., can I just drop it off there and they will mail it to my home in Hawaii? Or do I have to go back and pick it up? The reason for this is that there will be six or eight of us going and those travel agency fees really add up. Or is there no way getting around paying a few hundred $ in fees along with the visa fee itself?