Okay, wife's 'getting ready' so I still (lots) have time
We received her PR today from Beijing (we also live in Beijing) ~80 days after submitting her passport. By the sounds of it, no one received anything during July-August. Considering that the embassy staff get both Chinese and Canadian holidays, as well as their 3-6 weeks personal holidays/sick time, I think it's safe to say nothing was happening in the embassy for 2 months. I can't imagine that it will continue to take so long to process, especially when - in our case - it is post IAD-ADR appeal, and CIC's own legal counsel has advised them to proceed with processing the PR.
Anyway, here's a summary of our nightmare scenario that has finally come to a conclusion. Those of you getting impatient can have a look and be thankful you didn't run into our IO (in fact, she was a designated immigration officer - DIO. There's a difference) or the China Post staff that didn't bother to call and notify us that we had a package from the embassy waiting.
Initial application sent to Immigration Canada: November 2010 (yes, that's not a typo: 2010)
Interview Date: March 15, 2011 (Declined - various reasons, mostly the DIO didn't ask any questions about our relationship and then claimed "details of the relationship were vague")
Decision Appealed: April 2011
IAD Hearing: November 3, 2011
Appeal Allowed: November 3, 2011
Immigration Documents Received by CIC: December 15, 2011
Post-appeal notification documents lost by China Post: Jan/Feb 2012
Updated background/medical/criminal records delivered: July 3, 2012
PR Received: Sept. 22, 2012
From our 2 year experience, not surprisingly, I have lots of opinions on how the whole the system operates, but I will save those for I have a bit more time. Hope everyone else's experience is a bit more smooth. Will still be checking.
