Hi,

A friend and I are going to China for 4 weeks in May. We plan on going to Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Guilin (Langshoo) and Shaghai. I know we are not going to see even half of what there is to see in 4 weeks but are we leaving anything major out? We thought we might go to Heavenly Lake too, but is that worth the trip? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks, Laura

There is no one answer to your question. It depends on how in depth you want to see a place. Take Xi'an for example. Some people just fly in, visit the Terracota Warriors, fly out, and they're totally satisfied. Or you can spend 3-4 days there, and you may not have covered most of its important spots.

Or take Shanghai. There are lots of places surrounding it that you can visit as daytrips, or overnight trips -including many watertowns as well as Suzhou. So, you can spend 3 days looking at modern highrises and feel totally bored, or you can spend a week in the greater Shanghai area, and still have lots to see.

Same with Chengdu. Not far from it is the Ermei mountains, which will take 2 days to visit. Or the great buddha statue at Loshan. Are you planning to see those?

And no one can tell you if you're leaving anything major out. Some think the Silk Road is definitely going. Some say Tibet. Some say the Three Gorges of the Yangzhi. Some say Huangshan. Way too many places. But in my opinion, you can definitely add an area or two if you have 4 weeks total. You can see a lot of places in 4 weeks.

There are at least 2 "major" Heavenly Lakes I know of, and there are probably many others. Which one are you talking about? One of the two I am thinking about is in Xinjiang Province in the northwest; the other in the northeast, bordering North Korea.

Hi Laura:

My word - 4 weeks in China! Now that's fantastic assuming that you will fly between all the cities you mentioned.

There is virtually little or nothing to do in Chengdu unless you want to fly to Lhasa & back which I strongly recommend.
OR
you could totally drop off Chengdu and visit Ulan Bator in Mongolia instead (fly from Beijing).

You will achieve a lot in 4 weeks provided you do your reading and focus on the prime spots that you wish to visit.

This is an intruigingly amazing country. A must see atleast once in a lifetime !

Rickshawdriver

Thanks for the great replies. The Heavenly Lake that we are talking about is near North Korea. Mongolia sounds great too.

I know we still have a lot more reading to do, but just wondered if there wasn't anything that hadn't already jumped out at us.

Many thanks, Laura

My parents have been to the Heavenly Lake near North Korea, during their trip to the "East Three Provinces" (aka Manchuria). I believe the lake is a dead volcano and the scenery is quite unique. But having said that, I don't think the Northeast is worth going, on a first trip to China. There are more interesting places elsewhere.

So what would the "experts" recommend for a first time 4 week trip to China for someone who has traveled in Europe extensively but never been to Asia?

This is what my dad recommends: [He's been to almost all the provinces of China - many places multiple times]. And this is <b>NOT</b> an itinerary, but is based on importance. Figure out which places you want to go, and then plan the itinerary that suits it.

7-8 days Beijing and Chengde (4 hours by train from Beijing - worth about 2 days)
7 days in the Shanghai/Hangzhou/Suzhou triangle
2-3 days Guilin
2-3 days Xi'an

So, that's three weeks already. Then you have several choices how to spend the other week:

Silk Road (from Lanzhou to Urumqi)
Yangtze Cruise (about 4 days from Chongqing to Wuhan)
Tibet (4-5 days; fly from Chengdu)

Add a few days for transitting or resting, we think that's your &quot;basic&quot; 4-week trip to China.

4 weeks--lucky you! With that much time you should definitely go to Lhasa and maybe more places in Tibet. That was one of the primary highights of our trip.You may find my travelogue and photos interesting and informative as you plan--certainly it will increase you anticipation. Lots on Tibet. Hope it helps you and that you enjoy it. Go to wwww.janeandken.com and then it will be super easy to navigate to the China section.

Laura, I'm inclined to agree with rkkwan about that area of NE China. We didn't get to Heavenly Lake but did spend a weekend at Bingyu Valley (about 4 hrs from Dalian), returning sadder but wiser. The scenery was great and our fellow guests (all Chinese tour groups) good fun, but customer service at Bingyu's 'resort hotel' was of the unreconstructed kind. The hotel had no record of our booking, and despite many vacancies that weekend we'd have had zero chance of being given rooms had two of our party not been able to use some Mandarin on the uncooperative commissarette at the front desk. Actually, we'd never have got that far without them, since CIT Dalian had sent us to the wrong bus station. Mandarin skills also came in handy when we fell foul of a local rule that shuts off the hotel's hot water at 8 a.m. daily. I think that parts of the tourist industry in that region probably would prefer to avoid the complications involved in catering for foreign tourists.

Incidentally, Shanghai has more than skyscrapers. We spent a few days just hoofing it around the city, visiting the National Museum, shopping and eating around the French Concession and the Old Town, not to mention visiting smaller but interesting attractions like (if you're interested in modern Chinese history) the museum at the site of the first national congress of the CCP, and the former residence of Zhou Enlai.

Hi

My wife and I went to China in March 2003. We visited Beijing, Xi'an and Hong Kong on our trip and I have posted a trip report with lots of pictures on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com. Maybe you can find some useful information there

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway