can i get a visa in the airport?

i am a romanian citizen living in the usa with a green card (not yet a usa citizen). I am planning on visiting china in like september and pretty much everybody tells me that since i'm only gonna stay for 10 days i can just get one in the airport. However, i've seen on several web sites that said NO, you cannot!
i really wanna go visit, but if they ask me to go to NY, or San Francisco to apply i'll give up. On another web site i've read that you can send somebody with the paperwork at the embassy, but you cannot mail them. im not finding helpful info about this and i hope i can get it from here. thank you for your time!