Visa application for attending an academic conference in China; can I apply directly to embassy?

1. You have to entrust an appointed travel agency by the embassy to submit your application.
2. If it is your first time visit, you should provide round-trip air tickets and hotel booking in PRC
3. Financial statement is also required (recent six months bank statement)
4. a guarantee letter from the company or organization you work for.
5. The invitation letter of duly authorized entity or confirmed letter of invitation issued by relevant Chinese entities (orgina version)
6. The invitation letter from the professor must contain the following contents:
1). The applicant's personal info: name, sex and date of birth
2). info related to visiting PRC: purpose of visit, dates of arrival and departure, places to visit, relationship with the inviting company or person and financial sources for expenditure
3). The inviter's information: name of the company or the inviting person, telphone number, address, official stamp and the signature of the inviting person or the legal representative of the company.

Thanks for your reply. However, I did travel to to PRC for a similar purpose in September 2011 and at that time the only documents I was required to submit were
1- Passport
2- Alien Card (Japanese foreigner residence card)
3- Application form
4- Invitation letter from Chinese Professor

I was not asked to submit air-ticket, hotel reservation, bank statement, guarantee letter, etc.

So I,m wondering if there is any change in policy? Because I could not find any such information on embassy website requiring me to submit air-ticket, hotel reservation, or bank statement, etc.

Actually, air tickets and hotel bookings is not required if you can provide an invitation letter. This was suggestion by Linda if you have these documents prepared.