@Hiddai: not sure, but a few years ago I got round trip tickets to Vietnam plus the travel agency acquiring my visa for like $630 for everything, that's very reasonable and way under what I was expecting to pay, that included most my trip from LAX to South Korea on Asiana then South Korea to Vietnam on (I forget what it was), and those Korean airliners are luxurious compared to American airliners, they feed you all the time and give you access to tons of media to distract you on your flight and they don't charge you up the ass for anything like bag checks or headphones or snacks and such, the Vietnamese airliner we jumped on after was pretty crap though felt bare bones we didn't so much as get peanuts or water... anyhow, I'm guessing if you plan it right that you can pull off tickets to China cheap even from a travel agency.

Just checking Korean Air's website you can book a trip to Beijing (they don't fly to CTU) for less than $900 roundtrip on their airliner (if you go late August), Asiana has trips to Chengdu under $700 around same time (I've flown with them, they're great). As for how long a visa takes, I've no idea. Quick searching appears there are rush visa options and slower ones that can take no more than a month. If you're shopping for good flight prices then I imagine you can get your visa before a perfectly sniped flight price departs.

You planning to take the train into Tibet? I bet that'd be cool, I'd probably want to start on the other side of the country just to see the most of it.

Well, to the Chinese, Tibet is in China, so just get to China. Just don't go around using language the challenges China's claim to the region or bad things could happen to you.

Edit: Just checked a how-to site and it's tricky to get. They say if you request Chinese visa from the consolate and mention going to Tibet they require that you have proof of a sanctioned tour group. However, problem is that tour groups require you have a Chinese visa first. They say people get around this by simply not mentioning plans to visit Tibet on Visa application (say you'll be in Beijing), then when you have your Visa use it to get a travel permit. Also, just hit up a reliable travel agency.

Good for your bro. I didn't enjoy it. Haven't played BF4 and Hardline. Tired of the series and military shooters in general.

COD campaigns have always been better than the ones in Battlefield games. In fact campaigns in BF games are bad except one decent one in Bad Company 2. That said, both franchises have become meh in recent years. Not worth the time.