My husband is going to Bejing for 2 weeks for school in July. I'm planning on going one week after him, touring around Bejing with him and on my own when he's in class. I'd like to then go somewhere else for a few days. We'll probably be citied-out and want something more rural. I'm thinking maybe Tibet? Any other suggestions to look into? I'm really just beginning my research and would appreciate any leads. TIA!

PS--We're both into bike riding and the idea of seeing wildlife.

Hi,

You'd have to be super fit to ride a bike in Tibet!! Most people take a while to acclimatise to the altitude. And I doubt you'd see much wildlife.

You could consider going to Yangshao (train to Guilin). I hired a bike there and had a wonderful day peddling through the rice fields. The landscape is stunning and it's a very tourist-friendly area.

Cheers.

Thanks! I'll check that out. FYI, we're not married to the idea of riding bikes. (We're not super fit!) Any other suggestions to look into?

Not that involve small places. My independent trip (1997) was pretty much a city hopper by train or bus - the usual suspects. Xian (for the warriors - though I remember the Grand Mosque and just wandering far more vividly); a boat trip thru the 3 gorges; Yangshao as already mentioned; then a bus trip from there with a couple of stops up to Xiamen, and ferry to Hong Kong.

Before I got to Beijing I was with a group and we did visit Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. I remember a splendid museum and then we went to the countryside. I suspect you might be able to find a tour to take you there from Beijing that might perhaps include horse riding.

That would be an excellent thing to do but I can't provide details - just a thought for you to research.

Cheers.

Last April my wife and I did a 2 week trip to China. Check out my web page about the trip. Maybe it will give you some ideas. Here's the URL:

http://www.travel.stv77.com/china/china.htm

If you want rural the place to look is the southwest, specially Yunnan province. Think Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge, or the little touristed-area south of Kunming (my trip report on that is at www.wilhelmswords.com/rtw2004), or the minorities region - Xishuangbanna.

Hello! Well, you will love Bejing, there's so much to see and do there. We spent about 2 weeks in Bejing and flew to Xian for another 4 days.
When there, we hired a guide, Raphael Wang. He is superb! After the end of the first day, he asked us to join him and his family for a meal that his beautiful wife cooked for us. I wanted to see the real China, areas that tourists don't get to see. His face lit up and the next day we journeyed into the countryside to visit his family that still live in caves. Since our time with him, he now does this routinely for tourists.
He has a website with an email address.
Do contact him, he is just great and so informed about his country. He is also very pleasant with fantastic English language skills.
http://www.xiandaytour.com/index.htm
and his email address is: [email protected]

You will not regret Xian nor Raphael. The Terracotta Warrior site in incredible as is the trip to his family.
Cheers!

SSSteve,
I read your report early in my research for an upcoming trip to China (April 1-23) and found it very interesting and entertaining. Yours was one of the reports that encouraged me to plan this trip independently.

In re-reading the report just now I wondered how you found your guides? I have some lined up (Beijing and Yangshuo and am still considering some others, but would be interested to know how to contact the ones you used.

Thanks!

Linda

There are really plenty of places to visit in China. Your only limitation is time. I am sure you have been getting lots of advice from many people - but if this is your first time to China, may be you can just plan to spend a longer time in Beijing. Plenty to see there as well as in the surrounding areas.
I have been keeping a blog at http://travel.chinafinds.com

In that blog you can find information on Beijing, near by areas / interesting sites as well as Chengdu, JiuZhaiGoi, Chengde, Xian, etc.

I would highly recommend JiuZhaiGou for it natural beauty.
Chengdu is a nice place as well...
As I said too many interesting places.

For Wiselindag:

The guides I used were the ones China-connection lined up for us. Most were good to excellent and I am still in touch with one of them via email. However, during the planning, I also checked out several guides independently and still have their emails and in some cases recommendations about them. I was in touch with several and received encouraging answers. If you are interested, email me via the address on my web page and I will be glad to provide you with more info.