China Holiday Schedule

I am planning a trip to Beijing on end of January 2013. I'm currently contemplating on what is the best time to apply for the visa since I also have an out of the country trip next week (end of December to New Year).

If I apply on early January, will i still be able to make it? I was looking at China's holidays and some sites say January 2, 3, 4, and 7 are also holidays, is this true?

Also, one last thing - I have used bank certs for application before, but never a bank statement and receipt. Are they different from one another? Will using just a bank cert suffice?

Thanks!