Well after planning extensively to meet our daughter in China in June, our plans may now be changed to meeting her in February! I hope some of you with China experience could answer my questions:

1. Could the weather hinder us from visiting any of the major attractions in and around Beijing, Shanghai and Xian?

2. Is rail travel to and from these cities affected by the winter weather?

I find myself starting my planning all over again but the lower rates are definitley a plus!

Thank you for any suggestions!
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It's going to be cold, particularly in Beijing. But heavy snowstorm is rare.

What you need to look out is Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 7 for 2008. Half the country is going home, and trying to travel around that time is very very difficult.

Thank you rkkwan for your post. I am now concerned since Feb. 7 eve was to be our train from Xian to Shanghai..but maybe everyone will already be home by then?

Our itinerary is:
Jan 28 - Feb. 5 Beijing
Feb. 6 Xian
Feb. 7 train to Shanghai
Feb. 8,9,10 Shanghai
Feb. 11,12,13 Hangzhou
Feb. 14 lv. from Shanghai

Do you think I should change up any travel dates due to the New Year?

Thank you rkkwan!
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Forget about the train from Xian to Shanghai, and buy a plane ticket soon instead.

You will have a lot of problem getting tickets for the sleepers, and even if you have tickets, the last place on earth you'll want to be on CNY eve is at a major Chinese train station.

Check here for some air pricing and tickets

http://elong.net/

Aloha!

Thanks rkkwan & HT!

here is another site we used to check air prices and availability

http://english.ctrip.com/

Aloha!

Perhaps we are making a big mistake but after trying to juggle the dates of our itinerary, we decided to forego Xian and get to Shanghai 2 days earlier (to avoid travel on eve and day of new year) and will then add a day to visit Suzhou.

I just hope train travel on Feb. 5 will be do-able.

Xian will be another reason to go back to China

Marksfour, I posted on the other Chinese New Year in China thread about my opinions about train travel during Chinese new year (*avoid!*)

Flying really is the way to go, even two days before the new year the trains will be packed.