Suggestions for my first solo China trip

Hi everyone,

I am going to China for my first long solo trip, between 5th of April and 8th of May. I have been reading a lot of information from other people's posts, but I still have some doubts and I was wandering if anyone could give me some suggestions.

My itinerary currently looks like this:

• April 6th - arrival in Hong Kong
• 3 days in HK + one day in Macao as a day trip
• 3 days in Guangxi province (Yangshuo/Xingping, Guilin, Longji rice terraces hike)
• 7/8 days in Yunnan province (Kunming, Dali, Lijiang)
• 8/9 days in Sichuan province (Chengdu, Leshan/Emeishan, Chongqing)
• 8 days in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces (Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing)
• May 8th - Flight back home from Nanjing

I am very flexible and I do not intend to plan everything super specifically (I like to adjust my plans while traveling), and I don't want to squeeze too much stuff into my itinerary: I still want to enjoy my trip and not spend half of my time in a train or a bus, and I want to keep some spare days just to chill or maybe add extra stuff that I feel like going to last minute.

I have the following questions:

1. Do you guys recommend Shangri-La and Xishuangbanna in Yunnan? I am interested in Tibetan and southern Yunnan cultures, but I keep reading contrasting opinions on those places and I would not like to go there just to find out they are cheap replicas of actual authentic places (for the same reason I think I will look for lesser known towns besides Dali and Lijiang)
2. As you can see, the last leg of the trip would be during the May 1st holyday, which seems to be absurdly crowded, especially in the cities I was planning to visit near Shanghai. Do you have any suggestions about some places that may be better in terms of tourists? I was thinking maybe second/third tier cities, but I am open for any recommendation
3. As for Internet, I was thinking to buy an eSIM from Trip.com, they seem to have a VPN and I read that many were satisfied with them. Do you have alternatives?

Thank you in advance to everyone :)