wendywwg

if you buy the tour package with the travel agency, usually they have the hotel stay included, depends on how many days of "tours" you're going for.  Hence, you could have another stop over in another Asian country e.g. japan, Korea or Taiwan, which I think it's a pretty good deal.  Imagine if you purchase all separately. Ticket $1000 (approx.), hotel stay for 3 to 5 days could be $400 - $700, it's already $1500.  
it could be lesser if you purchase the tour from a travel agency I guess.  
I agree that you should check out a Chinese travel agency instead of the local one.