countdown to China and Tibet

I decided that a blog made more sense for this trip than the group emails. Yah, more stuff to read online!
The general structure of this trip is starting to come together. Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, and Lets Go sit on my desk. I will be in China for 6 weeks and Tibet for 2 weeks. I fly into Hong Kong on May 3 (thats in the southeast side). I will work my way north for the next few weeks seeing a lot of the gotta-see stuff along the way (Three Gorges damn, Terracotta Warriors, Shanghai, blah blah). When I arrive in Beijing, I will join a tour that is doing the Silk Road. I chose to take a tour because a lot of that area is hard to get to on your own, and I think tours, like television, are enjoyable in moderation. If you're curious:
http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/CSR
The tour sounds fantastic. The only small problem is it leaves you in Kashgar (aka bumf*ck China), on the far west side. I want to go to Tibet next, but even though they are both in western China, there is no easy way to get from one to the other. I might have to fly all the way back to the east first. As for getting into Tibet, I am hearing different things. LP says you have to be on a tour, RG (as well as thorntree) says thats nonsense. It sounds like as long as they sufficiently rip you off along the way (an invisible permit and what not), you can do what you want. Whatever, I still have time to figure that part out.
My first exciting interactions with the Chinese authorities are already underway. The standard tourist visa is 30days. To be granted a 60 or 90 day visa seems to depend more on the policies of that week and what the visa lady had for breakfast that morning. When I got to the window, the lady asked why I wanted to go for more than 30days (afterall, why would a tourist need more than 30days to see the third largest country in the world?). I just said it was because my trip is 60days, and she said if I bring her the email confirmation of my plane tickets she'll give me the 60 day visa. So I go back on Monday.
As you can guess, there are plenty of other last minute things to do and LOTS more reading, but I find myself sporadically jumping around the room, so I think thats a good sign.
~Dan