China Experts please help!
 

I'm planning our 2nd trip to China. Our first was with Ritz tours and though we saw many sites and learned a great deal, we prefer to travel this time on our own.

We'd like to visit Yangshuo, Kunming, and Lijiang. I have read many wonderful threads on this site and though I'm amassing lots of great info, I still have the following questions please:

- What is the best city to start/end in China coming from Los Angeles for this itinerary?

- When is the best time to visit these areas?

- We like EVA due to their Elite class and its safety record. However, route-wise, is this a good airline to take?

- Do you know of any good China-based agents who can arrange in-country flights for us?

- Any other areas near Kunming and Lijiang we should visit? We're planning 2-3 weeks for this trip.

Thank you so much for all your help!

EVA is a Taiwanese airline. They don't fly to mainland China. And there's no regularly scheduled flight between China and Taiwan, so you need to transit again in Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea or some place else.

If you haven't been to Hong Kong, that's a probable place to fly to from LA. Cathay Pacific has 3 daily non-stop LAX-HKG, and UA has one. However, flights from Hong Kong to Guilin or Kunming cost more than regular internal Chinese flights, and not as frequent. One possibility is to go to Shenzhen (just across from Hong Kong) and fly from there.

Or fly LAX to Beijing or Shanghai and transit there. Though Shanghai has two airports, one mainly international (Pudong PVG), the other mainly domestic (Hongqiao SHA), so that may require a transfer as well.

Weather is mild in Yunnan and Guangxi province year round. October, November, March, April, May are all good times to travel, though avoid the "Golden weeks", which are the first weeks of October and May, though the Chinese government is trying to get people to take other days off. Plane tickets to/from Hong Kong as well as lodging is also expensive for 2nd half of April and 2nd half of October due to the Canton Fair trade show.

And of course, 2008 has the Beijing Olympics, which will make travel to/from China in the summer months expensive and difficult.

Yunnan is an interesting province with varied landscapes and culture. It's more than just Lijiang and Kunming. One interesting area is the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in far southwestern part of the province.

For internal flights, just use ctrip.com, elong.net, or one of the larger Chinese online agents. They have functioning English language websites.

Thank you so much for the great info rkkwan! It's exactly what I was looking for. We've never been to Hong Kong and would love to visit for a few days. I have some other questions please:

- I understand that to get to Lijiang, I have to fly from Kunming. Is this correct? If not, is Kunming worth visiting and how many days should we stay there? I was looking for a quaint, charming hotel there and had a harder time than Lijiang or Yangshuo.

- Is Dali worth visiting? Should I fly or take the train from Kunming?

- How many days should we allocate for Yangshuo, Kunming, Dali, and Lijiang? Based on what I've read, I love Yangshuo and Lijiang and am already thinking 3-4 days for each of them.

- One very important issue for us. We've never had any medical problems in all our travels previously, but my husband got sick a couple of times in VN in 12/07. The 1st time, his blood pressure was 100/60. The 2nd time, it was 160/96. We were able to find doctors who gave him the medication he needed. We were very scared to say the least and almost flew home early. Fortunately, he stabilized and we were able to enjoy the rest of the trip. How are medical facilities in the above cities?

Thank you so much for all your help!

Re flying to Lijiang: Although Kunming has the most flights to Lijiang, there are a few flights to Lijiang from other Chinese cities, including Shenzhen. It is relatively easy to reach Shenzhen airport from Hong Kong (ferry is easiest, but there are other methods as well).

If you have time to go to Chengdu, I would highly recommend it. Further more if you have the inclination and of course time, you can plan to spend a couple of days in JiuZhaiGou. Here are some links to info and photos from these areas on my blog:

http://site.chinafinds.com/blog/2007...wenshu-temple/

http://site.chinafinds.com/blog/2006...lace-in-china/

Also about getting from Hong Kong airport to Shenzhen here is a suggested way:
http://site.chinafinds.com/blog/2007...e-the-options/

Thank you rizzuto and guenovnd!

Try Ctrip.com. They generally have the cheapest flight offers and you can book hotels and tours with them also. You can buy your tickets on their website and pay using your foreign credit cards. They also have a 24 hour call service (in English) where you can book over the phone. I have used them quite often and have no major complaints.