Backpacking through South East Asia

Christophe, since you plan to return to your country via Singapore, then you must have a ticket from China to Singapore, right? This tickets can be regared as the return ticket. As for hotel reservations, if you can't provide them, you may need to get an invitation letter from China. I personally think that you can book some hotels and cancel the booking after you get the tourist entry permit.

Thank you for your most kind and prompt response. If I may explain further when one is backpacking they use all the ground/land transport routes available to go from one country to another. So once i arrive in India(which is where I start the tour) I will work my way over to Nepal using land/ground borders then up into China using ground transportation and crossing land borders. I will then exit China at Kunming into Vietnam and so on until i arrive in Singapore which is my final stop for about 10 days before I fly back to Trinidad. I just completed backpacking through Central America but of course no visas were required. Looking forward to your response!

Regards,
CR

Christophe, if you plan to enter from Nepal, then you need to apply one from Chinese embassy there. I understand that you will enter Tibet. According to current regulation, you can't go to Tibet alone. You need to join a group tour arranged by qualified tour agencies. And you need to apply for the Tibet Travel Permit. It will done by the tour agency.