Hey Yemily! Welcome to the forums
I did a historical figure as my DS last year, from my personal experience historical figures are a lot easier to do as you only need to research about their biography and the socio-political features of the period. Of course, it depends on the figure. I did 容闳, who only had one major accomplishment in his lifetime - thus it would be a lot easier than doing someone like 孙中山。I would recommend, if you choose to do a historical figure, to only focus on one major event in his/her life. For example, my DS topic was ‘容闳与他的留美幼童计划’, which is a lot more focused than just the person.
I can’t speak from personal experiences for other types of topics, but I’ve heard that famous landmarks and cuisines are also quite straightforward. In 2017 the person who got 50 raw researched a famous landmark, for example. On the other hand, some ambiguous aspects of Chinese culture may be a lot harder (for example, a lot of people at the Chinese school I wen to researched 中国人的面子习惯, which was incredibly arbitrary - hence people didn’t score high).
Just my two cents! If you want a sample script just shoot me a PM
(97/100 oral score). Good luck with your Chinese studies