Hi--

I've been looking for a place to vacation two months from now and have thought about several different parts of the world. I'm looking for a place an American won't get killed by the dismal dollar. I just stumbled across a really good airfare to Shanghai for the end of May. If we did this, we'd have a little over 2 weeks in China.

We are experienced, independent international travelers, but the only place we have ever been in Asia is Vietnam. There we did a trip that was very difficult physically and way off the beaten path. Our least favorite parts of the trip were the large cities. We really enjoyed the rural parts and the more active parts of the trip--we biked and hiked, including in minority villages. For this trip we hired private guides except for the Hanoi and Saigon portions.

Now China. How do prices compare to Vietnam? I've read enough to know I don't particularly think we'd like Shanghai itself, so we'd just use it as a gateway. We'd like to keep costs down so would probably minimize our internal flights, but we'd still like to maximize our time so wouldn't use extremely slow transportation options just to cut costs. Guilin area, Yunnan area, maybe? I've read about these areas. But, I think it may also be the rainy season, so I don't know if this would put a damper on our plans.

Ideally we'd like to visit some minority areas, do some active things like bike and hike, see rural and authentic China instead of big, noisy, neon cities. I am not looking at this as the typical highlights of China--Beijing, Xian etc. in 2 weeks--type of trip. We'd prefer to have more time in doing what interests us rather than running from big attraction to big attraction. We are not particularly demanding as far as lodging and would even be interested in rural homestays for part of the time. Smaller, more inexpensive local hotels rather than Western 4* are fine with us.

I'm just starting to research this trip idea more (haven't pushed the buy button for tickets yet) but thought I'd ask here for suggestions now. If you know China, what do you suggest for locales or interesting places to visit? What type of prices are we typically looking at? Can we do this by arranging some things ourselves and then using guides for parts of the trip we wouldn't feel ok doing on our own? We have no knowledge of the language at all.

I appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks.

Since you'll probably hear a lot from others about Yunnan, Guangxi and Sichuan, let me suggest something else.

I suggest part of the Silk Road. Fly out to Xian, and continue by train to Lanzhou, Jaiyuguan (the last major "pass" of the Great Wall), and of course Dunhuang for the grottoes. Then fly back to Shanghai from there, or go further into Xijiang, and fly from Urumqi.

Well, I was going to suggest Yunnan or Sichuan, lol, but rkkwan's suggestion is a good one. Although I'm not sure about opportunities for biking and hiking in Xinjiang province. If you do go that route, definitely try to make it to Kashgar for the market, to beautiful Tian Chi north of Urumchi (you could maybe hike there), and try to get to the southern, less visited, side of the Taklamaklan.

I just returned from Xinjiang about a week ago, and because of the recent terrorist scare within China, flying out of Urumqi was very difficult. There were severe restriction for carry-on baggage - our bags that met the international carry on standard (and were perfectly fine on the flight out from Beijing) were not allowed through the standard channels. Luckily a friend at the airport helped me get through the channel for flight crew, or i might have had to leave baggage there! Now I understand that they've cracked down even further.

Xinjiang is one of my favorite destinations in China though - there is so much to see and do there. Don't let my comments dissuade you - just be aware and prepared for a few hiccups along the way!

Thanks to all. I'm now doing some thinking. Frankly, there are now two things that are giving me pause. One is the current political situation with Tibet. The other is the fact that now that I've had time to do a bit of research, the weather looks terribly rainy at some of the places I was thinking about.

Xinjiang is a great suggestion.

The other areas would be Inner Mongolia or the People's Republic of Mongolia itself.

Another area that might be interesting would be "Manchuria" or the "Three NE Provinces". Harbin is a very Russianfied city and there are some great areas to go out into the mountains, especially close to Korea.

But Xinjiang would be my first choice.

I'd look at Yunnan area - its very diverse, the south around Jinhong has similarities to Laos and Thailand, the north more Tibtan influences.
I have been to Harbin & although only for the Ice Festival - it has got a lot of Russian influence - & thi scan be seen in many utilitarian concrete buildings, not too pretty - I would say Yunnan is much more interesting unless you are off to the ice festival, not when you are visiting.

The thing about China is, if there's unrest, the government will preemptively 'protect' you by not allowing travel to the affected region.

And, another plus for Xinjiang is that it certainly won't be rainy in May

Thanks again. I've been reading and researching your suggestions. First, let me clarify a couple things though. We are middle-aged people who enjoy the outdoors and authentic cultural activities, and not young backpackers. While we are interested in an active vacation, we are not primarily interested in an adventure sport type trip. We'd like places where we can intersperse some active time with seeing the sights. While we certainly don't need or want luxury, we are also past the point in our lives where we want to jump on the local 2nd class buses or trains just for the experience.

I've been reading about Xinjiang and have some questiions. Is this primarily an area of dry, steppe-like land with towns or outposts spread quite far apart? We know from driving through the western US states to the mountains that this type of terrain does not appeal to us. Also, we were in central Turkey last summer, and the vast nothingness does not appeal to us.

Sichaun sounds interesting, but it is quite close to the Tibetean area, and I wonder about unrest in the region. This might be my major qualm about the area.

Yunnan sounds pretty close to ideal in what we are looking for, but I think we'd be into the rainy season. I suspect this would put quite a crimp in our enjoyment of the area.

Thanks for your time.

"I've been reading about Xinjiang and have some questiions. Is this primarily an area of dry, steppe-like land with towns or outposts spread quite far apart?" Well, yes, somewhat. For pix from my trip see kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/293904

"Sichaun sounds interesting, but it is quite close to the Tibetean area, and I wonder about unrest in the region." Sichuan is quite big. I wouldn't expect that the area around Chengdu would be involved in any unrest. Chengdu itself does have a small Tibetan section, but it is just that, small.

I agree. If you don't like the scenery of Western US, then you may not like Xinjiang that much.

I think the unrest in Sichuan can affect travelers if they're going by road from Chengdu up to Huanglong/Jiuzhaigou. That highway leads to the Tibetian areas in North and NW Sichuan, where there are reports of unrests and protests, and the military has set up roadblocks.

But if you fly to Huanglong, then it should be okay. I have not read about unrest in Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou, even though those are also areas inhabited by Tibetians.

As for Yunnan, Zhongdian/Shangri-La is now off-limit to visitors and foreign media. Tiger Leaping Gorge probably as well.

rkkwan--Why are these places off limits? Is it the Tibetan situation?

I have to admit I am reconsidering the entire trip idea due to the current political situation regarding Tibet. It is not just that some places i would have considered visiting may now be closed due to the protests and reaction to them, I am also considering whether or not I want to spend my tourist dollar in a country that engages in obvious human rights violations. Still thinking about the whole idea.

Shangri-La/Zhongdian is a Tibetian area, inside a so-called "autonomous" prefecture, though there's nothing autonomous about it.

Lijiang is a Naxi area, and is not affected. Tiger Leaping Gorge is between the two.

Currently, Chinese authorities are turning away all visitors to the Tibetian area. A foreign reporter tried to board a flight to Zhongdian today in Kunming and was turned away.

May is perfect in Mongolia. All is calm there. I'm planning a return to Mongolia I liked it so much.

Do you think that it would be too hard to get a last minute tourist visa to China to go to Shanghai next week with the political situation?

No, I don't see why it should be a problem.

Well, unless you're telling them you're a journalist and are going to Tibet.