I have 7 nights 8 days to spend in China. I have to fly in and out of Beijing. The destination and time are not negotiable. I will be in China at the end of October. Should I stay in Beijing the entire time or should I use my precious little time to try to see places other than Beijing?

8 days is enough to do a side trip to somewhere. The choices are numerous, as you can fly non-stop from PEK to almost anywhere in China, and there are a couple of dozens of overnight sleeper trains to many major cities as well.

But if you want to keep the distance to a minimum, there are two particularly interesting cities about 4-5 hours by road from Beijing:

- Chengde to the NE has a huge summer palace complex along with many significant Tibetian temples, all built in the Qing dynasty about 300 years ago.

- If you want to see something older, Datong to the west has the world class Yungang grotto plus other temples/monasteries near by.

You can have a tour like:
D01) Beijing
D02) Beijing
D03) Beijing
D04) Beijing/Xi'an
D05) Xi'an
D06) Xi'an/Shanghai
D07) Shanghai
D08) Shanghai/Beijing

Pls feel free to make contacts for any further requests.

Wish you be happy in China!

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I think fjcyts' itinerary is very good. You should go out of Beijing, but if the itinerary is too demanding, then pick one place, either Xian for the Terra Cotta statues, or Shanghai for breathtaking architecture.

Thank so much for taking the time to reply. I think we will go to Xi'an for 2 nights. Now I am having trouble booking flights in and out of Beijing. Any advice?

You mean you have trouble for tickets between the US and Beijing? What kind of difficulties are you talking about?

Thanks rkwan, I'm having trouble pricing airline tickets from Beijing to Xi'an and back. I went to Air China's website and I got through the first page or two but then it was all written in Chinese.

Try Expedia. Round trip is $286.

Sorry for late reply. Was out of town of the long weekend.

Just wait until you're in Beijing to get the tickets to Xi'an. A lot cheaper and easy to get from any local travel agent. Plenty of flights a day.