daniella82

Hi everyone,
I'm going to China with a friend in July and welcome any feedback or information-thoughts, input, must sees, etc. Also, wanted to note as background, that I was in China a while back, and my father travels there a lot for business so I have some familiarity, and some resources there (i.e. a driver in shanghai). Here's my itinerary:
Hong Kong-2 days
Beijing- 3 days (full, arriving evening before)
Xian- 1 day (with overnight)
Shangahi-3 full days, leaving midday on the 4th day.

My current plan is to do the main sights in and around Beijing, (ie forbidden city, great wall, summer palace), and I'd like to take one of my Shanghai days and take a train to a water village, Suzhou, or Hangzhou/west lake (or another place, I'm open, and would love recommendations on this day trip).

Another concern is the weather. I know July isn't an ideal time to go, but that's what works with both of our schedules. I keep reading hot, humid, rainy. How rainy does it usually get, are we talking torrential downpour? Any information on typical weather would be much appreciated.

Looking forward to your advice!!
Thanks,
Daniella

daniella82

Anyone? Don't seem to be getting any responses when I post about China....

JPDeM

Not a very busy forum here.
Yes it will be hot and humid and will probably rain. But you seem to already know this. It might be heavy rain or light rain or probably both. As you know, nobody can predict weather precisely.
You plan is somewhat rushed.

thursdaysd

You seem pretty well organized, not sure what feedback you're looking for. I assume you know about the likely issues with pollution (although friends of mine were in Beijing last month and had incredibly clear days!)

Any of the proposed day trips from Shanghai will be fine, I don't know that I would rank one above the others. If the weather is good I might nix the Shanghai day trip and add a day to Beijing, but difficult to do if you're booking transport ahead of time.

daniella82

Thanks JPDeM even though I'm aware of the weather, people keep reacting pretty strongly to it, and I'm wondering if it's bad enough that I should not go to China at all this trip, plan something else and go to China when there's ideal weather (although I have yet to see a good answer on when that is). Will it significantly impact my trip? I know a tour that went two years in a row at this time and had good weather in Beijing, I just wanted to understand the typical and what I should expect.

thursdaysd i'm organized as far as outline of my itinerary guess I just wanted feedback on day trip, and if there were any can't miss sights (outside of the typical main things like the great wall). Or any changes you would make to my overall plan.

Kathie

For weather info, I use www.weatherbase.com

Actually, I would expect the pollution to be a bigger problem than the weather.

CaliforniaLady

My sons and I went on the exact same trip as you (over two weeks, different order) in July one year, and we were fine. We were not uncomfortable at all, it did not feel too hot. We did hit some rain in Hong Kong, but China is not as humid as, say Japan. You can't avoid the rain. I don't let the pollution bother me, I figure it's part of the experience, and it's not going to affect my health long term.

I hired a driver to take us to Suzhou for the day, from our Shanghai base. I thought it was a nice day, but my sons that it was monotonous, as we went to about four gardens. Couldn't you get your driver to take you there, rather than going by train?

I would spend more time in Xi'An if I were you, and maybe less in Shanghai. There are so many sites there--it was the ancient capital.

daniella82

Thanks Kathie that website was helpful!

CaliforniaLady (if you see this) thanks that helped to know more about what your July experience was like. Did you get a chance to do a water village too?

Also, besides for the terra cotta warriors (my primary reason for going) and the city walls, what do you recommend seeing in Xi'an?

CaliforniaLady

Hi again deaniella82,

First, regarding Shanghai day trips, we were going to go to Hangzhou the day after we visited Suzhou, but my younger son staged a "boycott" and said he didn't want to drive four hours one way. BTW, Suzhou is two hours from Shanghai one way. You may like Suzhou, maybe guys don't like gardens, or you can find some other stuff to see there. The concierge at the Shanghai Marriott was actually born in a water village near Shanghai (45 minutes away), and he kept trying to persuade us to go there. In hindsight, we should have gone. So again, if you have a driver, then you should go to Suzhou and a water village.

In Xi'an, the highlight of our trip (actually the highlight of the whole trip), was hiking around Huashan. Basically, it's a mountain range, maybe an hour outside of Xi'an (we went for the day with a driver), and the area looks like those old paintings you see of China (misty, with beautiful curvy mountains). My older son's friend was born in Shanghai, and she suggested that we go. When we were ready to board the tram to the hiking area, we saw several booths selling life insurance, which scared me to death. Anyway, this same son befriended a young Chinese lady who was exactly his age, and we joined along with her and her father in their tour group. We hiked to five different mountain peaks. It was so much fun, and not really that strenuous.

The city of Xi'an itself has enough to keep you busy for a day, including a museum and a walled city. However, we had to skip all of that because we made a last minute decision to hike Huashan. On our only other day in the city, the same driver (bless his heart, what a nice guy) took us to the Terra Cotta Warriors, a Neolithic Village, a palace, and a tomb. It's the standard tour outside of the city, and it was a lovely day. The concierge at the Hyatt got the driver for us and set the agenda.

I wished I had allowed an extra day in Xi'an to see the city itself. The restaurants there are really interesting--there is a definite Muslim influence that makes for fascinating eating. I would like to go back there and begin a journey on the Silk Road.

I hope that helps.

thursdaysd

There's no need for a car for day trips out of Shanghai. the trains are fine, and will probably be faster. In Hangzhou you can take a taxi from the station to the lake and everything will be walkable, you can use taxis in Suzhou if you don't want to try the buses.

There is definitely plenty to see in Xi'an besides the warriors. The mosque is very interesting because it is so Chinese. There is a lovely Taoist temple, a couple of museums and the Big Wild Goose pagoda. And the city walls. The Muslim quarter was getting a bit Hanified the last time I was there, don't know what it's like now.

kja

FWIW, I think 3 days about half of what Beijing warranted for a first visit, and I think it would be easy to spend close to 3 days in Xi'an on a first visit -- but it all depends on what YOU want to see and experience. I trust you have consulted some good guidebooks and maybe looked at some of our trip reports?

Enjoy!

daniella82

Thanks thursdaysd (i'm planning on trains, and the Xi'an breakdown was helpful!)and kja for your advice. I know I'm limited with time, Beijing has to stay as is, and I have definitely consulted guidebooks etc, but I may add a day on to Xian, as I haven't finalized that flight yet.

shelemm

Doesn't sound like a good allocation of time to me. All cities, almost no time in the countryside, only one day for Xi'an? Too much time in Shanghai for such a short trip. Why are you going all that way to Xi'an for one day? Seems like you are going to spend half your trip getting to and from airports or train stations.

daniella82

I would love to do a lot in the countryside, but I'm limited with time. China is a very large country, and I definitely can't see everything I want to see in this one trip. I don't want to cut out any of these cities, and I only have the time noted above. Any ideas to maximize countryside time would be much appreciated! I don't really have 3 full days in Shanghai I realized, so I'll take a later flight and will basically have 2 full days in Shanghai, and approx a day and a half in Xi'an. My plan is to spend one full day in Shanghai and one day seeing what I can near Shanghai.

Hong Kong: 2 days
Beijing: 3 days
Xi'an: 1.5 days (from morning flight arrival to next evening)
Shanghai: 2 days (leaving on the the 3rd day)

CaliforniaLady

If you have not yet bought your plane tickets, I suggest leaving Beijing on an evening flight, thus giving you two nights in Xi'an.The Beijing airport is famous for delays, in fact our Beijing to Xi'an 7 PM flight was delayed FOUR hours, and I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't book a day flight that would cut into our sightseeing. Here's an article about the flight delays from The Wall Street Journal:

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2...st-for-delays/

So on that last day in Beijing, you would stay in the city, doing your most important sights first, and maybe leaving a leisurely afternoon for, let's say, the fun and interesting silk market or the zoo.

If you make that change, then you have a decent itinerary. Not spending enough time in Xi'an is one of my top ten travel regrets.

kja

CaliforniaLady offers an interesting option, IMO. As you know, you don't have enough time anywhere -- but some of these places, like Beijing, are MUCH easier for nonChinese to reach than Xi'an, so maximizing your time in Xi'an may make a great deal of sense, even if it means giving even less time to other worthy destinations than you are already doing.

daniella82

I haven't booked that leg yet, so it's definitely an option. KJA I was in Hong Kong (and Beijing for one day) years back, but it is my friend's first visit. I've traveled a lot over the years and I'm fairly good at maximizing my time in each place I visit, I know I can't see everything. It just means another trip to China in the future hopefully But, I'd love your thoughts (or anyone else who's reading!) on that day trip from Shanghai (water village, Suzhou etc), CaliforniaLady offered helpful info but any opinion? I'll be taking trains. Thanks!

Also, any thoughts from anyone on maximizing countryside? I would've LOVED to skip a city and do Guilin/Li river but that's not happening this trip.

kja

"'d love your thoughts (or anyone else who's reading!) on that day trip from Shanghai (water village, Suzhou etc)" -- I haven't been to that part of China yet, but would have thought that thursdaysd's comments, above, would have been very helpful.

daniella82

Thanks, thursdaysd comments were very helpful, but about the day trip the only note (besides for skipping it) was "Any of the proposed day trips from Shanghai will be fine", I wanted to know if anyone else had a more definite opinion

CaliforniaLady

Hi Daniella, I think you misunderstood what I said about Suzhou. I thought it was a beautiful city, and I would go again. However, I trusted my hotel concierge to plan out my route, and we ended up going to gardens all day. There are some interesting sites there that we missed. I have since become a much more proactive traveler. If I could do it over, I would have picked the top two gardens for the morning, then found a non-touristy spot for lunch, then I would have gone onto other sites, such as the temples, or wandering through the ancient streets.

Also, I think your itinerary is fine, and so is your pace. My son likes to traveler quickly as well, but it tires me out. I understand, you are introducing a friend to the "big four" cities in China, and you have limited time. It sounds like a wonderful trip.