Yes, you can, and no, it won't be binding. Everything goes in order of familial position - parents then wife then kids, then other family members. You can will your house to your wife but if you're parents are still alive, they can lay claim to it (or 50/50). Messy, messy, messy unless you're dirt-poor or have all your holdings overseas and a perforce will in place there.

does you embassy have any information on how to write a legally binding will that can be enforced ?

My will in the US is quite clear as to my desires.

As to China, I have made it clear that my mom and fiance get 50% each of my take (which in China is not all that much)

As to my body/cadaver/remains, I have made it very clear that once I am dead, I dont care what happens to my carcass. What I dont want is my family spending money to transport my remains to the US. If I were to die in China, then let it be cremated or buried here.

I understand that the Chinese wont cremate my body without a letter from the US Embassy, and that the Embassy does not provide that letter. Well, so be it. What I dont want is my family and friends spending a thousand dollars or more just to take my remains in the US.

Honestly, the local government can keep it, or give it to the BBQ guy in the corner, or send it to the medical school, etc.

If it were up to me, I would donate my body to Science Fiction ( as said by Rodney Dangerfield).

@ Guilin,,,Leave me your body. I'll sell the parts and then get you a job teaching English. You just sit and I'll play the tapes.

Yes, but you must pay the government some money. There is no such thing as a "free will" in China...