Last year i went to China and visited the cities of Beijing, Xian and Shanghai by train. My travel agency bought the train tickets for me and my husband. They called it soft sleeping berth. The condition of the train is fine, but you can not see any countryside views outside since they were all night trains. My trip went very well in these three cities, so i suggest you make a train trip just like this. Then adding a side trip to Suzhou, Hangzhou, the nearby areas of Shanghai. That is very different. Someone would like to make a train journey to Tibet, it sounds fabulous, but the tickets are very hard to purchase.