Buying a Mac in China

Those sold in China likely have a Chinese keyboard and would not be particularly useful in the US nor to a non-Chinese literate person.

I don't think that is correct. Important Chinese input methods use the standard QWERTY keyboard, so they should always have those letters on them, though they might also have other characters for other IM's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Chinese

Apple Store prices are the same except for exchange rate differences, import duties, and local VAT. Those sold in China likely have a Chinese keyboard and would not be particularly useful in the US nor to a non-Chinese literate person. It would likely be cheaper to buy the computer in the US and simply take it with you to China. But your best information would likely come at the Shanghai Apple Store.

Would the price be less than purchasing in the USA?

There are very few places in the world where it's cheaper to buy any Apple product than in the USA.

The Taiwan Apple store offers the MacBook at a slightly higher price for the base Alu model (~$1385, so about the same as USA when you factor in state tax. I've no idea if the TW price includes tax) so if China is close to that you're better off getting a USA one just for the knowledge that it will be everything you expect.

Hong Kong definitely sells QWERTY keyboards too.
DO bear in mind that some countries may offer you tax rebates.
Like a family friend living in Hong Kong found a 7cent air fare to Singapore, bought a MacBook Pro for a similar price to that in US, however in Singapore you can claim back most of your GST if you're a traveler over 16 🙂

That's a good point 🙂

But, also bear in mind that most countries will charge you customs duty taxes on returning to your home country, so those may well offset any benefit 🙂

I've no idea what the US charges, but here in the UK for example it's pretty steep.