Tourist advice Shanghai & Beijing

[Danmairen]

I'm going to China for the first time this summer, and it's going to be the Lonely Planet 101 tour, as I've never been there before. So I would like a little advice from people who know the cities.

1. Is there any were one could go and learn something about the Chinese auto-industry, museums or maybe just a neighborhood were the car-shops/manufactures are?

2. What neighborhood is "inn" at moment for Chinese students, I would really like to meet some people, and try and use the mandarin I've learned so far

3. Any advice on a "more rural" town/city I could stay in on my way from Shanghai to Beijing.

4. Is there a good place to buy study-materials, such as flash-cards, books abut characters and radicals and so on

Hope to get some comments that can save me some time:D

Regards

Rune