These are the things I brought with me...
For women:
Chocolates, tshirts with some kind of American saying (for me, I went right after July 4, so I had a bunch of July 4 tshirts), face cream (went over great!).
For men:
American cigarettes (non menthol!), $2 bill, basketball jersey (basketball is the most popular American sport in China, from my conversations). Lisa's brother loved this.
I got various candy items for the children. M&Ms are available in China, but the kids really liked them of all the different stuff I took with me.
Basically, I knew things that Lisa would like from talking to her. I just asked her what good gifts would be. When she told me not to worry about it and don't spend any money (I think I've said before how I love the frugality of Chinese women!), I just started talking to her about the people I was going to meet.. I got ideas from that. Just steer the conversation in the direction of what these people do, what they like, etc.