Travel to China June/July

[matob]

Four of us are planning a trip - 2 week - to China in June/July. I would appreciate any suggestions. I'd like to see Beijin, Lhasa, Shanghai. Is that too much? Should we travel by air or train? What should not be missed? Any suggestions about hotels or places to stay?
Maria

 

[soy]

Few days for Beijing and the surrounds, train down to Xian to see terracotta warriors then onto Shanghai and surrounds for last few days. (Check out the travel department and slatterys for itinerarys/maps of similar tours that they run)
Forget Lhasa, it is thousands of miles away and I think there are still restrictions on travel due to the trouble last summer. You would need at least 3 weeks if you want to see Lhasa also. Remember that you will already lose 2 days of your 14 due to flights to/from China (approx 12hr flight)

Also try search function for this forum, there have been several previous posts on China.

 

[steelblue]

Hi

Def recommend train to Xian. It is overnight and you can get a sleeper for 4. I stayed in the Sofiatel (not sure if this is correct spelling). This is a fantastic hotel and very reasonable. Our room was like a one bed apt in size. I think it was 80 euro's per night in 2007. Xian is also walled and you can walk some of it, well you can walk all of it but its something like 14km. I got sole use of a tour guide and a minibus for 35 euro aday. They will bring you to some type of factory during the day no matter what you say. Just go along with it. The Warriors were one of the hightlights of the whole trip.
For internal flight , i used the air china local website. this involve translating details on another website. It is well worth it . For example, 3 flights from Guilin to Shanghai was approx 90 euro, but on yahoo travel they were 90 euro each. It took patients to book and you must reconfirm,this can be done straight after you book.

Personally i wouldnt bother with Shanghai as it is the same as any large city. I stayed in The Regent and it was an excellent hotel. They have an infinity pool on the 36th floor. Great views while swimming. There is also a maglev train from downtown to the airport which hits 400kmph.

In Beijing , i stayed in The Peninsula. Fantastic hotel but expect european prices. A meal for 3 in the restaurant cost 100 euro. Accross the road , the local restaurant charge me 16 euro and we couldnt eat all the food. We got doggy bags and gave it to people outside who were delighted with it. Again i hired a guide for Beijing and he was excellent. Note they will always try to sell or bring you somewhere. At the end of the day you are paying so make sure you decide what you want to do.

Taxis are dirt cheap. Just make sure you have the hotel address with you in chinese. Most hotels have cards with the local attractions in chinese.

If you want more info then pm me.

 

[matob]

This is tremenduously helpful, thank you! Any other suggestions also appreciated, especially about traveling by train. How did you hirt the guide? Did the hotel do it? Howe long did you stay in Guilin?
Did any of you take the gorge river cruise? If so, for how long?

 

[dieter1]

This is tremenduously helpful, thank you! Any other suggestions also appreciated, especially about traveling by train. How did you hirt the guide? Did the hotel do it? Howe long did you stay in Guilin?
Did any of you take the gorge river cruise? If so, for how long?

All the days trips; cruises, visits with guides to Xian, forbidden city etc... can be organised the day before (or even on the day) at your hotel. China is remarkably well organised and easy for tourists (and i was there in 2005).

In Yangshuo (near Guilin and nicer), I organised a bike trip that involved cycling around the back ways and small villages & farms around yangshuo in the morning, getting onto a little barge and floating around for the afternoon. It took a whole day and was fantastic. The guide organised lunch in a tiny village right in the middle of the karsts far away from the crowds, it was one of my favourite trips (I was in china for 11 weeks)

The trains are pretty good, they are not the fastest. The overnight services do get you from one place to another. You might have to book these a little in advance (a day at most), but we were there in july/august and never had a problem getting the trains that we wanted. Watch out for chinese holidays though. The Z trains are the quickest and most comfortable but sort of defeat the point (as they are fairly sterile).

Anyways, dont worry too much about prebooking anything in China. You can very easily manage the trains when you get there (through your hotels), the day trips aswell, the accomodation (well there is plenty of it, so if looking to keep your trip fairly open, you can book the day before). Its a remarkably easy country to naviagate and there is always someone (at any hotel) that will look after you......

 

[davidoco]

traveling by train ................
Did any of you take the gorge river cruise? If so, for how long?

busy busy busy, some stations won't even let you in to the concourse without a ticket but it's a great way to meet the locals.

Did a 3 day Yangtze trip downriver from Chunqing (the only way). Great scenery. Warning our dam visit at the end was a bit of nightmare as we had to wait for the boat to come through the locks which can take hours.

In Yangshuo (near Guilin and nicer), I organised a bike trip that involved cycling around the back ways and small villages & farms around yangshuo in the morning, ,............... The guide organised lunch in a tiny village right in the middle of the karsts far away from the crowds, it was one of my favourite trips

Also one of the best days of my trip. One guide, two people (I think €10 in 2005). Yangshuo is worth a week with trips out to the river, cycling, markets, drinking, tai chi lessons, cooking lessons, markets - it's all there is this small town.

I met Intepid Travel guide in Hong Kong http://www.intrepidtravel.com/ Five of us on trip with one guide. It was worth the money as trying to communicate out there is a real difficulty.