The hotels and their rooms we will stay at in China will have Internet access.  If you have a laptop, you can sign up and download for free onto it Skype (www.skype.com) which will allow you to call from China any LAND LINE (not cell phone) in the US for a whopping 2 cents per minute.  If the person you are calling is also a Skype member, you can call him/her for free.  I don’t think that each person on the trip needs to bring their own laptop (perhaps 2 to 4 people can share one; it’s up to you — TRAVEL AND PACK LIGHT!!).  I used this in March to check in with my family from China and it worked great.   Be sure to test it out on your laptop before you leave on the trip.  Two cents a minute from China.  What a deal.