First I want to give credit for this page to china-adoption-online.com They have gathered so much valuable information. You should check them out. I copied most of this info from their site.
1) Select your adoption agency.
2) Begin your homestudy and start collecting all your dossier documents.During this time, you will want to begin notarizing, state certifying, andand authenticating your dossier.
3)Apply for I800A approval. Make sure to finish up authenticating your dossier!
4) Certify and authenticate your USCIS approval, then send your dossier to your agency. You are now DTC (Dossier to China!) If you work quickly, you can compile your dossier and send it to China in 3-4 months.
5) A few weeks after your dossier arrives in China, it will be logged into the CCAA. The day your paperwork is logged into the system is known as your LID.
6) Depending on what path you are taking things change now. We will be waiting to be matched by our agency off the shared list at this time. When you and your agency have identified the child you wish to adopt, you will submit a LOI (Letter of Intent) to the CCAA stating your intention to adopt this child.
7) Once China has reviewed your LOI, they will issue you a Pre-Approval (PA) to adopt that particular child within 1-4 weeks.
8) You will then begin waiting for your LOA (Letter of Acceptance). This can take anywhere from 1-5 months. Once your agency receives this document, you will sign it, copy it, and return it to your agency.
9) You must now file Form I-800 with USCIS (different than the I-800A you filed earlier). It will take approximately 3 weeks to receive I-800 approval.
10) Once you have I-800 approval, your officer will forward your approval to the NVC (National Visa Center). NVC will upload your approval into their system and cable (send) your approval the US consulate. Then the NVC will issue a letter stating they have done this. It takes about one week to be cabled, and another week to receive the letter.
11) Once you receive the NVC letter, send it to your agency immediately! They will deliver this letter to the US consulate in China.
12) Once the consulate has your NVC letter, they will issue your Article 5 in 2-3 weeks. The Article 5 is the consulate pre-approving your child for an immigrant visa. Your agency will have a courier pick up the Article 5 and take it to the CCAA.
13) Once the CCAA receives the Article 5, they will contact your child's orphanage to make sure the child is still available for adoption (usually just a formality!) Once the orphanage gets back to the CCAA, the Travel Approval will then be issued. This takes around 3-4 weeks. At this point, your agency will make travel arrangement for you to go to China and adopt your child!
Times vary month to month and depend on many different government agencies working quickly.