SeeYouThere

Hi All,

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and for any comments or advice you can offer.

We are a married couple late 20's early 30's. Although we have done a variety of travelling before, the only Asian country we have been to is Thailand. We have never been to China. We are not museum people - although we will of course visit sites such as the great wall and the terracotta warriors! Our enjoyment mostly comes from experiencing the culture - the people, the food, the scenery (urban and rural - good and bad). We like experiencing places which some might find a bit weird such as Beijing's abandoned Wonderland, or Najiecun. We like a good mix of big city and rural country. We travel at a fast pace. We don't like lazying around. We will be travelling by bus and train only - no flying within the country, and staying mostly in hostels, or hotels in the cheaper areas.

Since booking our flight to China last May we have planned, replanned, and replanned again and again! The trouble with the internet is the overwhelming amount of information - its easy to get bogged down especially when some of the information is conflicting. But we have found the Fodor's forum's invaluable and thankyou to those contributors who have written long and detailed accounts of their travels which have really been so informative.

So as we leave in 9 days time we have finally settled on the following schedule. Any comments would be really welcome. And before anyone says it (!) we have thought long and hard about our desision to bypass Pingyao but we feel that after 5 days in and around Beijing and the fact that the next stop is Xian that we will probably have seen enough walls to keep us going. By missing it out we get more time in other places such as around Guilin.

Below is a summary of our itinerary.

Sunday 2/9/12: Arrive Shanghai Pudong Airport 15:30hrs. Evening in Shanghai
Monday 3/9/12: Shanghai - Full day
Tuesday 4/9/12: Shanghai- Full day
Wednesday 5/9/12: Shanghai to Beijing - Arrive Beijing13:48hrs.
Thursday 6/9/12: Beijing
Friday 7/9/12: Beijing
Saturday 8/9/12: Beijing
Sunday 9/9/12: Beijing & overnight train to Xian
Monday 10/9/12: Arrive Xian 08:12hrs. Day & Night Xian.
Tuesday 11/9/12: Xian - Full Day
Wednesday 12/9/12: Fast train Xian to arrive Zhengzhou 11:15hrs. Bus to Najiecun Thursday 13/9/12: Najiecun to Zhengzhou & overnight train to Guilin
Friday 14/9/12: Arrive Guillin 14.21hrs. Bus to Yangshuo (1hr). Evening in Yangshuo
Saturday 15/9/12: Yangshuo - Full Day
Sunday 16/9/12: Yangshuo - Full Day
Monday 17/9/12: Yangshuo to Longsheng (dragons backbone rice terrace)
Tuesday 18/9/12: Day around Longsheng etc
Wednesday 19/9/12: Morning in Longsheng. Overnight train from Guilin to Guangzhou Thursday 20/9/12: Arrive Guangzhou 08.42hrs. Travel to Hong Kong.
Friday 21/9/12: Hong Kong. Visit Macau in evening.
Saturday 22/9/12: Hong Kong: Depart Hong Kong Int Airport Ter 1 @ 00:35hrs 23/9/12

In regards to where to see the Great Wall we have largely decided on Huangya Guan but are open to reasons why we'd be better going elsewhere! We have chosen Huangya Guan because it is not so touristy but yet not to far from Beijing. We would prefer to go by public transport as much as possible as we prefer not to hire private drivers or go on tours.

Again thank you for any comments. We will also be keeping a video diary/blog on Travellerspoint, the link which I will share on here before we leave and which we will try and update somewhat as we travel, and will of course complete when we return so that others can learn from our trip.

Alden & Eimear
(SeeYouThere)

rkkwan

K950/951 continues from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, arriving SZ 10:35a. No need or reason to get off in Guangzhou.

You have very little time in HK. Not worth the time to go to Macau for just one evening. But if you really want to see Macau, then stay the night of Sept 21 there, and then just take the ferry from Macau directly to HKG before your flight on the night of Sept 22.

OR, sacrifice HK$100 for an Airport Express ticket and go ahead to check-in for your departing flight on the morning of Sept 22. Then go to Macau, spend the day there, and then take ferry directly from Macau to HKG.

JPDeM

You plan looks fine to me. You are pretty much doing a classic tour for first timers. However you are spending quite a bit more time in Longsheng that I would recommend.
Not sure you can get to that part of the Great Wall via public transportation. Did you figure that one out?

Shanghainese

With all the other places you have included, I agree missing Pingyao is not the end of the world. Go to a watertown near Shanghai, you only need 1/2 day to Zhujiajiao and there is no entrance fee (yet).

Better find a hostel near transportation in a nicer area, hotels in the cheaper areas may take you more time getting around.

SeeYouThere

rkkwan - great advice about Hong Kong and Macau. Thank you very much. We have just added Macau as a last minute idea so we might or might now visit depending on time.

JPDeM - Agree with you re Longsheng and we only added in the extra day recently. Somewhat a spare day, if we think we might need it as a 'recovery' day we will just stay there and chill out, and if not we can try plan an extra day in Hong Kong (depending on train bookings of course). According to Lonely Planet it is possible to do that part of great wall by public transport - involves couple of bus changes though so we will need to look into it more. Thanks for the comments.

Shanghainese - we had thought about the water towns but felt we would not have enough time. However given your suggestion we think we will reconsider this now and try and fit it in. What do you suggest is the best way to get there. We are staying at the Blue Mountain hostel in the Bund area. Near to East Nanjing Road station. Thankyou

kja

> In regards to where to see the Great Wall we have largely decided on Huangya Guan

That's an impressive stretch of the wall, or at least it was when I visited it a few years ago. But like JPDeM, I think it is difficult to reach by public transportation. From what you say about the bus changes, you might need to plan on a full day to get there, see it, and return to Beijing. Given that your time in Beijing is limited, you might want to consider that (if you haven't already).

Enjoy!

Shanghainese

There is a bus at the People's Square that goes directly there, ask your hostel how to get to the bus station, not a far walk. Make sure you take the express, again ask the hostel to write down "express", the ride is about an hour, you will enjoy the visit.

JPDeM

If you have not found transportation to the Wall, maybe you can find the answer here: http://www.greatwallforum.com/

kmkrnn

Have you gotten your visa yet? Even using an agency the chinese are being very picky..ie addresses of hotels (inc provdence they are in), all names on hotel reservations, not just a 2 person reservation. We have been back and forth several times now, and still waiting. Independent travel does not please them I guess.

JPDeM

Kmkmn - this may be an issue with where you get your visa. Every embassy or consulate applies the rules differently. Several people have reported online recently about how smooth it was.

SeeYouThere

Hi Kmkrnn - yes we got our visa's with no problems but it does seem to differ between embassy's as JPDeM said. Thanks again to everyone for their helpful comments. We are still busy planning - departure day seems to be coming around very quickly!!

john48

In Beijing to stay Marriott City Wall Hotel is the best. It's great Beijing accommodations with downtown location and five-minute drive to Forbidden City, Pearl Market and Silk Market. Realy luxurious place.