Have done some more trip research.

http://www.statravel.com has some wonderful student fares - $790 or so from Newark to Beijing, then back from HK - but you have to have a valid student ID card, and by the time I have enough money for plane fare, I will no longer be a student. And even if I were, the site seems to indicate that 'student' means 'full time', not 'taking night classes' - so it wouldn't be worth signing up at CCM for another semester. (Well, no. I might go for a class at CCM anyway. They have introductory Mandarin - but still.)

http://www.djoserusa.com has a nice package for people who want to see exotic bits of China and Tibet - something like 22 days for $2400. Problem 1: not the parts of China I'm most interested in right now. Problem 2: $2400. Tibet is lovely, exotic, rare, etc., but frankly I would rather see stuff in Beijing and maybe Xi'an, plus my penpals.

http://www.ritztours.com will happily let you combine individual city packages, which are something like 3 days for $320, but EACH package has a single supplement of $120 and they don't do Wuhan anyway. Plus you have to pay for domestic air fare/train. I am NOT taking any trip that requires me to cough up $120+ just because I don't have anyone with me.

I've looked at some other spots. They have lovely, gorgeous, exotic locales available all over the place, but they keep coming back to points that aren't important to me - points like 'five star hotels' and 'fine restaurants' and so on. I don't want luxury. You know what a five star hotel is, to me? One where you get Toon Disney and Animal Planet on the cable tv, where Outback Steakhouse delivers to the front desk, and where there's a weight room or swimming pool. I'll get some itineraries from the tour companies, but I'm not going with 'em if I can avoid it. Hostels, train fare, and a separate plane ticket all the way, thanks very much.

Adding a stop to the trip

Went through my copy of Frommer's China: The 50 Most Memorable Trips today. Mostly planned on looking up Guangzhou information, but the book indicates that Guangzhou is in the same category as Shanghai - people who want to shop or do business will be happier there than people like me. Oh, well, perhaps there would be other cities along the HK-Beijing train route? Hmm, not in the book... well... where else would I like to go?

Xi'an sprang immediately to mind. Xi'an is the site of one of the ancient capitals of the Middle Kingdom. It's the place where they found Absolutely Assloads of Guys Made From Clay in the 1970's. Got a lot of other historical buildings, too, including what I'm told is a very interesting mosque. Mostly I'm interested in the Assload of Soldiers. No hostels in the Focus on China listing of Hostelling International, but they've got two hotels for about $40 US a night in the Frommer's book, one of which I found on a listing of hotels at a travel agency web site. Train service exists from Beijing to Xi'an, possibly from Xi'an to Wuhan as well, but it's apparently an awfully long ride (17 hours, I think?). There are domestic flights about 90 minutes long but I have no price data on them.

I've got a while to decide yet, so if anyone's got any suggestions...