Help planning first trip to China
 

My husband and I and another couple are planning a trip to China next April. We are flying into Beijing and leaving from Hong Kong. We will be on ground in China for 14 days. We are unsure how to set up our itinerary. How much time should we spend in various places and what places should we visit? Which places should we get guides? Suggestions for moderately priced hotels?? Any other suggestions would really be appreciated.
Many thanks, Karen

Click on "View by country above" and select China. Any thread with an orange box beside it is a trip report - you'll find lots of info by reading them. You can also click on Destinations at the top of the page. Any good guidebook will have suggested itineraries.

You haven't told us what your interests are or why you've decided to visit China, nor your definition of "moderately priced", so your questions are currently unanswerable.

thursdaysd gave you the best advice, this forum is mostly for do-it-yourselves travelers, so you need to do a lot of reading and thinking before posing your questions.

Maybe they can read some guide books and make their own decisions. Wuzhen and Sanya on an equal basis with Beijing and Shanghai? And no mention of Xi'an or Suzhou or Chengdu? Not that I'm advocating visiting the "popular" places, but that's an eccentric list.

And ignore the advice about contacting the website this guy's pushing. Unless you're traveling over a holiday, and except for your first city, you don't need advance reservations, and you'll get better rates just showing up. And the hotel would not be my first choice for "detailed information about the local destination".

Check out where popular tours go for a start on an itinerary, but beware that China is a huge country and 14 days is not very long. You can pick a highlight tour if you don't expect to go back, or chose a section of China to explore, leaving another section for later.

Your itinerary should be largely based, in my opinion, upon your interests and whether you think you may return to China. Assuming the latter, I suggest either primarily a northern-central or southern-central itinerary. Do you prefer historic sites, museums, scenic countryside or all of these?