In early April, my wife and I will start a trip around the world . I initially thought of staying one week in Beijing, but as I studied and learned about Beijing, the time allocated to China slowly buit up to 3 weeks.

Tickets are already purchased. We will arrive Beijing on the 7th August and leave from the same airport on the 28th We are in our early/mid 60s and enjoy slow travelling.

My present plans anticipate 14 days in Beijing and 7 days in Xi'an. Would seven days in Xi'an be too much? Anything else to do in terms of day trips around Xi'an? Maybe stay a few more days in Beijing?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Three cheers for someone for once not in a tearing rush. I expect there are very many who will say that 14 days in Beijing and 7 in Xi'an is far too much, but of course both cities have a great deal more to see beyond the handful of most-famous sites on the usual tourist conga-lines, and there's time here to take pleasure in simply wandering the streets.

Don't forget to allow for a day travelling in each direction, and you can lop that off the Xi'an time if you wish. You might want to consider taking an overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an--multiple late-afternoon departures, all comfortable, but flying back so simply to connect with your outbound flight, with a possible change of terminal (free shuttle bus provided, red caps with marked fee to help you with bags if you wish).

There are four day-trip routes out of Xi'an, although most visitors only take the first, which includes the Terracotta Warriors. The second, to Tang dynasty tombs and temples is worth doing, whereas the Terracotta Warriors are in fact best reached by direct bus from near the station, giving you as much time as you want there. The other sites on that route include the Banpo Neolithic Village, essentially a series of mud pits viewed from a gallery with signs that attempt to interpret these are a proto-Communist arrangement; and the Huaqing Hotspring, a slightly tawdry over-renovated series of hillside halls around hotspring pools, with very high tourist traffic. Time is better spend taking in the warriors more slowly, and avoiding the rapacious souvenir stalls and restaurants at the site.

All these day tours are sold by hotel receptions. While in general it's not recommended to take such tours, in the case of the Tang tombs it's the most convenient way.

Most half-decent guide books will tell you more about the several pleasures closer to the city, and about the Tang tombs and temples.

Another pleasant side trip is the hillside temple called Xingjiao Si, connected with the expeditionary translator-monk Xuanzang, and reached by two public buses. It's a long time since I've actually done that trip, so you'd be best to make enquiries there, unless any more recent guide books are now covering it.

Googling the name brings up some images:

http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.e.../pgs/xing.html

as well as a number of pages offering private tours. These should be avoided.

Peter N-H

Always follow rule #1; 1 week is enough to learn to love a city, 2 weeks enough to hate it. Bj is a 1 week city max., and yes, Xi'an deserves maybe 3 days - unless you find some local things to do in the area. Be sure to go to Guilin and then Yangshou and consider something in Yunnan instead of those too-long periods in Bj and X.

Thanks a lot for your time and effort, specially to PeterN_H. It is amazing the amount of energy you spend in trying to help people. Thank you again.

I will start my studies re Xi'an with your inputs. I am pretty sure I will benefit from further help later on for more specific questions.

I sort of figured that one week for Xi'an would be too much. On the other hand, you are absolutely right as regards "... time here to take pleasure in simply wandering the streets."

It is not unusual for me to use the strategy of going to a place by either bus or train and returning by plane. I wonder if this would be a nice strategy regarding this part of our trip.

Is the trip from Beijing to Xi'an interesting enough to be made during the day, assuming there is an early train leaving from Beijing to Xi'an?

In this case, one of those days would be eaten up already just in the travelling process. I understand there is about 1.2 thousand kilometers between locations.

Would there be any interesting enough city in between Beijing and Xi'an that merited a stop over?

Thank you once more for your help.

Briefly again.

Bear in mind that people here who argue who think Xi'an won't support a week (I'm not one of them--I've spent two weeks there on one occasion) are very likely to be people who have never tried to do so, and so who check off a tiny number of places that rushed tourism lists as the key sights, then leave, and have no idea what else there is, or the pleasures of simply wandering the streets. I was merely pointing out that time will be needed to travel, and that might be taken out of the Xi'an time. But if you feel inclined to add further destinations of course you have a chance to do so.

There aren't any services Beijing to Xi'an that are not overnight. You can leave mid-afternoon to increase the hours in daylight, but you'll spend three hours more on the train and arrive at 6.03am.

The obvious break en route to Xi'an is Pingyao. Direct rail services there are also overnight, and take nearly as long as the Xi'an expresses. There are several much faster trains in daytime that will take you to Taiyuan in just over three hours, where you can change to a bus to Pingyao (about 1.5 hours, if I remember correctly). This might be the kind of fuss that you were hoping to avoid, but it will get you there in daylight. You can continue to Xi'an from there by bus or train. There's one daytime train departure at 10.22 that takes nine hours. No guarantee you'll get tickets, of course.

A side-trip from Beijing you might want to consider, with easy daytime train services winding through hilly countryside past bits of Great Wall, is to Chengde.

I would endorse PeterN_H's recommendation of Pingyao, we found it an intriguing place. We travelled Beijing to Pingyao and Pingyao to Xi'an on overnight trains.

Thanks Peter and wasleys for the Pingyao recommendation. This is a completely new alternative of which I had no idea and had not thought of. I have gone through quite a number of photos of Pingyao and... just loved it. Wonderful recommendation. It looks like a trip to the past...

We will definitely go to Pingyao.

How nice is the region that the fast day trains travel through between Beijing and Taiyuan? Are the areas pretty or interesting enough so as to make the day trip in the faster train a plus to the overall trip? Inspite of the additional fuss?

In another alternative, are there flights from Beijing to Pingyao, or would I need to fly to Xi'an and then by bus/train to Pingyao and return to Xi'an for the Beijing flight?

I actually enjoy travelling during the day by bus or train. But, quite honestly, I had an awful experience with night train going from Cairo to Luxor. Therefore, I try to run away from a night train ride like I would run away from the devil, unless a private sleeping car would cost less than the air trip, even in this case.... hmmm...

Can I gently suggest a little reading? Any guide book can tell you about Pingyao and show its position between Beijing and Xi'an, as well as tell you about transport options, other nearby sights, etc. And you would also learn that (as with the train connection) Taiyuan is the nearest airport. But allowing for travelling times out to the airport, check-in time, and everything in reverse at Taiyuan, the train will be quicker, town centre to town centre Beijing to Taiyuan.

The north of Shanxi is reasonably mountainous, but also impoverished and industrial, known for its mines and steel mills. In short, not particularly nice, but most of it not particularly horrid, either; or at least not more than other parts of this undeveloped country.

I'd take the train without a second thought.

To avoid the overnight train to Xi'an you can look into direct bus options, or return to Taiyuan to catch a flight to Xi'an, or there's one very slow daytime train from Taiyuan, taking 11 hours, but this stops at Pingyao anyway. There'll be many more tickets available at Taiyuan, however. You can always buy tickets at the station on arrival in Taiyuan from Beijing, but board the train in Pingyao.

I suspect there is little in common between your train ride in Egypt and soft sleeper in China, which has become quite luxurious. Take a look at http://seat61.com/China.htm for details and photos.

It's a couple of years since we did Beijing/Pingyao/Xi'an and the trains may have changed. However then the stock was not the state-of-the-art stuff but a bit more traditional. We had reserved all four berths to get a compartment to ourselves. It was not luxurious but it was adequate and a perfectly acceptable way to spend a night.

Thanks a million everybody. As I mentioned, we will definitely go to Pingyao. Not only that, I am actually thinking of the possibility of maybe forfeiting one or two nights at the Beijing hotel, which have already been paid up, and maybe doing going to Pingyao via Datong.

I was reading a post by PeterN_H which discusses this alternative route, including Wutai Shan.

We have already been commited to the incoming and outgoing flights to-from China and also to the hotel in Beijing. I think everything else now will be left to be negotiated upon arrival.

Thanks once more. Will be happy to read any other inputs.

@ thursdaysd,

You're absolutely right. The photos do really look an awful lot different than the Ramses station in Cairo. The trains are also obviously far more comfortable. So train it will be.

I am just not yet sure, in the event we skip Datong, whether we do the overnight train or the bullet train during the day to Taiyuan. I am a little more inclined toward the latter alternative. When we come back from Xian to Beijing we may use the night soft sleeper, or fly back straight to Beijing PEK airport.

Now that I think of it, considering we will board the plane leaving PEK to SFO at 16:00 what will be more reliable: a night train on the eve of our departure from China, or flying in the morning from Xian to PEK?

I usually like to sleep in the city I am flying out from the next day, but... in this case we would gain one more day outside of Beijing.

> Now that I think of it, considering we will board the plane leaving PEK to SFO at 16:00 what will be more reliable: a night train on the eve of our departure from China, or flying in the morning from Xian to PEK?

The obvious benefit of taking a morning flight is that you will be delivered straight to the airport from which you plan to depart. If you take the train you will then have take a taxi (or other public transport) out to the airport. Four of the overnight trains arrive around 7.30am so if you jump in a taxi straight away the roads will still be not at their worst, but you're probably looking at about ¥100-¥120 including toll and about an hour or so. That leaves you a lot of time at the airport. Alternatively you could, for instance, make your way to somewhere where you can deposit your luggage (any railway or long distance bus station) and spend the morning in Beijing, having lunch before continuing to the airport. If you deposit your luggage at Beijing West (where you arrive) you could proceed a little north to view the Capital Museum, the World Art Museum, and the (slightly chilling) Military Museum, all close together; or just south to the Malian Dao street of hundreds of tea sellers. But in a rumpled state from an overnight train might not be the best way to start a trans-Pacific flight, and the domestic flight is certainly the easier option, logistically.

I spent a couple of nights in Datong - definitely off the tourist trail, definitely lots of pollution (coal dust), but I thought it was worthwhile, both for the town (can't resist a nine dragon screen!) and the sights nearby.

@thursdayd

I understand the grotoes are to the west and the hanging monastery to the southeast. Would it be possible to do both sites in one day? Any idea what a car would cost for that?

Thanks in advance for any input.

I did both plus lunch in a bit less than a day. My car and driver were part of a larger package so I can't help with the cost.