Where are you flying in and out of? How long are you in country? Alone, with family?

Flying into Xiamen through Beijing going and Shanghai leaving. Just have layovers in those cities though. Staying for a week in China. Travelling alone.

remember to check the air quality (and buy masks filtering out PM 2.5)

https://airnow.gov/...ssies-and-consulates

Assuming you're arriving in PEK 15 November, then straight to XMN on the 15th or 16th and have a day to get acquainted with Xiamen. Given that and avoiding circling back to Beijing (beautiful city at the right time of year, but you don't have that much time in country), I'd go with something like:

XMN --> HGH 19 November
Spend a day with an easy bike ride around Xi Hu and check out Leifeng pagoda and Lingyin temple and go to the Romance of Songcheng show. Next day spend time walking around and taking China in. It can be a bit of a culture shock but you'd be hard pressed to find a country more willing to show itself to you. High speed train (38 minutes) to Shanghai and spend the night there. Key is to find a hotel that you trust to hold your bike for your trip to:

Shanghai Train Station --> Suzhou
Suzhou is often called the venice of China and, while it sits on a number of canals, the gems are the gardens. Suzhou Museum was designed by IM Pei and might be my favorite work of his (guy that did the Louvre pyramid, bank of China tower in HK, etc). A night here is probably sufficient.

Shanghai itself would take 3 days at minimum to "have seen" but in many ways is similar to other large international cities.

Shanghai 21 November to 25 November, --> fly back
Any list of "things to do in Shanghai" will compile an itinerary for longer than you'll be here.

--Most people under 40 have at least a grade-school background in English. Asking for help will get you far and children are especially keen on practicing English with you.
--Cash remains the easiest currency as a foreigner (WeChat Pay, AliPay are growing)
--Download the app Pleco before you go. The app itself is free but there's a optical character recognizer for $10 that will make your life easier for things like menus
--Before the race I'd stick towards more "Western" restaurants to ensure you don't have stomach issues. Traveler's diarrhea is not uncommon but it'd be a real damper to racing. A prescription for Xifaxan would do you wonders depending on the integrity of your stomach.
--Downloading the offline Google Maps to your phone will also make your life easier
--Most hotels have written business cards that you can hand to a taxi driver to get you back to wherever you're staying. Same is true for hostels.
--Have a VPN on your phone

If you're feeling less adventurous, flying from Xiamen to Shanghai and letting a travel agency or hostel trip-booking desk would make your life a bit easier logistically. The typical "10 day tourist trip" is a combination of Beijing, Xi'an for the terracota warriors, Shanghai, and sometimes Hong Kong. Depending on your visa the Hong Kong jaunt could be confusing but is a cool city nonetheless. Xi'an can be done over two days including travel. The advantage of this method is you get to leave your bike box at the hotel/hostel and don't have to move it around with you.

In short, make a list of what you want to see and you can probably find a way to do at least 2-3 of those things. The train system is among the best in the world but you're better off flying given your short time in the country. Hostels and eating like a local are super cheap.

Don't take your real devices with you. Laptop phone... Leave them back home. Take a burner device with NO personal data on it and no cloud accounts set up on it. Set it up when you get to China. Use it. Then wipe it and abandon in there.

Then I guess getting any business done as a practical matter must be difficult, at best...

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DFL > DNF > DNS