I found a great site that walks through setting up a Chinese Aion account as well as a tested (by me) site for adding time to that account. Each account is given a couple hours of initial playtime. The play time site also has a link and instructions for the english patch (tested by me).
Choose the first area when installing the game - Central China - because that is the one I'm on. :-)
I know some people might want to test a few toons to see what they might want to play when it gets released in the US. I hope this helps.
WalkthroughPlay Time