We are a family of 2 adults and 2 kids aged 14 and 8.
We have about 7-8 days/nights on ground (except flights) and are going to spend 3-4 nights in Beijing, 2 in Xian and the last one again in Beijing before leaving back home.
I am wondering whether to consider an overnight train from Beijing to Xian or flying, ore one way by train and return flying.
Is it correct that buying air tickets upon arrival in China is much cheaper than buying them in advance from abroad ? And what about the one-way fares ? Are they just the half of the return fare or more expensive than the half of a full fare ?

thanks a lot !!

There were six of us on our trip last summer. We bought three sets of one way air tickets: Beijing-Shanghai, Shanghai-Xian and Xian-Beijing. Each time we bought them two days before the flight for about $100 US (including tax) per person. Our first hotel owner refused to buy us tickets five days in advance - he said we would be paying too much.

> Is it correct that buying air tickets upon arrival in China is much cheaper than buying them in advance from abroad ?

Yes, although some on-line Chinese ticket agencies offer under certain circumstances prices similar to those you can obtain for yourself once in China.

>And what about the one-way fares ? Are they just the half of the return fare or more expensive than the half of a full fare ?

Return fares are twice the one-way price.

Peter N-H

Try elong.com for good prices from US --and you can use a credit card (although they have several followup documents for you to send them for verification). We bought tickets online to fly nonstop from Hangzhou to Xian for about $100, and a really great price of less than $40 from Xian to Beijing (although only some flights were that inexpensive). Our travel is in less than 2 weeks, so relatively soon, but we didn't want to spend any of our sightseeing time in China dealing with air tickets.

thank you all !!

pat12 We are flying from EU in the first week of this september and we just need a domestic fare. I will now check this elong.com

thanks again
fabio

The on-line sites cannot now tell you anything about what the ticket prices will be in September, although some will pretend they can, and there's a fair bit of bait-and-switch going on (not to mention intermittent problems with using foreign credit cards, and with refunds). You will not get a real price (which in many cases you will be able to beat in China itself) until probably less than a month before you fly, and in reality much nearer. Even then, don't believe in a price seen on-screen until you actually book. Sometimes it isn't actually there.

Peter N-H

thanks Peter

actually elong.com gives a one way fare between Y800 and Y1050 + Y50 taxes from Beijing to Xian in September, this means between US$ 117 and US$ 154. It is not that bad but as you all said I can find better later on or in Beijing !!

We paid $188usd for 2 tickets from Xi'an to Beijing including the airport taxes on Hainan airline in May. I booked them at ticket.9588.com 3 weeks prior.

By the way, Xi'an is a very nice city. Spend at least 2 full days, preferably 3 here. Don't miss riding bikes on the city walls!

Thanks Images2

2 full days up to 3 was also our intention, although rain charts show that Xian has double figures than Beijing in september !

I agree with Images2 about the bike ride. We had a great time doing that, well except for my SIL falling and breaking her camera. I swear the bikes we rented were built in the 1400's.

We were planning on purchasing our airline tickets for Xian-Guilin once we arrive in Xian. So...we would be purchasing tickets for the next morning. I heard that you can purchase from agencies on the street for about 65c booking fee.....something called CAACA? I may have my letters wrong. Anywone see a problem with purchasing the day before....5 of us. Thanks!

If you are flying into XiAn there is an airport bus for about RMB 20 (cost in 2008) which stops opposite the Drum Tower on Xi Da Jie in front of some very good choice of hotels.

If you have time, and you are interested in more history other than the warriors, then there are also lots of interesting ruins outside the city walls, for good pocket size maps see www.trax2.com

thanks a lot to all of you.

We just concentrate our 8 days only between these two cities to have more time to explore these areas !