I have 3-4 weeks available to travel in November/ December, I have never been to China, but I am interested to go there and have read that travel by train is worth doing, I will be travelling on my own.
I am mostly interested in exploring Chinese regional cuisines and Markets, although if there are significant historical sites that shouldnt be missed I would readily include them in my plans too.
I am quite happy to travel by train to a destination stop for a few days and then move on to somewhere else; if travelling overnight I would prefer to go by routes that have "Soft sleeper" or if by day on trains that have "Soft seat" class.

My question is can anyone suggest an itinerary that is realistic, unfortunately aming the people I know who have been to China most have only been to Beiging and Hong Kong and usually only for business reasons.
I have found that Guide books are really not much use in deciding if somewhere is worth visiting and prefer to get recomendations from people who have actually been there, among the places that I want to visit are Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou and probably Beijing.

Thanks for any helpful replies, if it was neccesary I could extend my trip up to 6 weeks,

Regards,

Leigh