Get a really big, nice Chinese fan that comes with a mount .

Also I'm a fan of the Chinese umbrellas . I took some back after a visit to China 3 years ago and put an open umbrella over a plain lamp and it made for a really pretty decoration

Chinese characters on a nice paper for what each person means to you or inspires in you. Strength, Mom.. etc. It would be especially nice if you did them yourself. The chicks in your life would dig it

The little bottles that are painted from the inside. They are cheap, can get basically anything you wanted painted. And it's easy to have them add people's name as well.

The fat buddist god you refer to is called Budda. You may not be able to take wooden or bamboo made products back to your country, due to quarantine. Try buying some tang style shirts as these look good and jade is good as well

Chinese ceramics are good like ornate bowls, tea cups and tea pots...

You could also buy some beautifully hand-stitched Tibetan table cloths or wall hangings, but these will set you back quite a bit of dough.

Rugs and textiles from any minorities from the south are usually very nice.

A bottle of baijiu and Chinese cigarettes are fun presents for friends.

I sometimes buy exotic looking candy and snacks and put them in a tea tin and give it as gifts.

Oh, and the good old revolution memorabilia and kitch like posters, mao alarm clocks, the little red book, hats etc.

You can get a specially designed stamp for someone back home. They can carve the words for you in Chinese of your friends name. I think that's a good souvenir to get.
Also a nice fan!
Another thing is those stone carved decorations you can get...there are many such as Confucius, the Great Wall, they even have the last supper. 

I was sorry I never brought back the weird stuff I saw, like vacuum packed chicken feet or bugs. I think they'd make a great souvenir. 
 

When in Qingdao last month, I found a candy bar named "Guts," and a bag of dates with the subscription, "donky hide flavor." I had to send them with my usual Christmas gifts back to the family in the U.S. So, I am always on the lookout for strange translations or unusual connotations of wording.

The bamboo slat scrolls with Chinese characters make a great gift, and can be found usually (after some barganing) for around 300 yuan, also, Hunan emboridery is beautiful, and fairly inexpensive. A nice print of some artwork is good, and for the art lover, just stop into any bookstore and buy those poster sized books of traditional Chinese art, be it landscape or figure work.

I don't know what they are called, but the red tassel ornaments make great car mirror decorations, and then there is the various red woven ornaments that one puts on the wall. Heck, I've even given decorative boxes with a small gift inside, such as a stuffed animal of what ever the current year happens to be.

Get a married couple small figure set for anybody you know getting married.

You know the bride and groom dressed in red and all that...

For jokes a packet of jisbons and some packaged chicken feet from a shop are good.

On a smoking note, the little smoking set you can buy that filters the cigarette and helps your finger not turn yellow.