Have any of you Fodorites ever arranged a pleasure trip to China? I am quite accustomed to planning trips on my own without a travel agent and I often use miles and points for airfare and hotel stays. Has anyone recent experience with similar arrangements for independent travel to mainland China? I've been to Hong Kong five times in the past 9 years but that is a simple matter. I appreciate any and all assistance.

Hi, chocobon. There's been quite a bit of discussion in past threads on the pros and cons of independent travel in China - if you use the 'search' box above you'll be able to dig it out.

We used a local (Canberra) travel agent for our flights and some hotel bookings, mainly because part of our trip unavoidably coincided with the October National Day holiday week, but I booked our Beijing hotel on line. We spent part of the time travelling with our China-resident daughters, so didn't have to worry about language or other run-of-the-mill problems during that time. We were on our own for a week in Beijing and 5 days in Shanghai, though, and any difficulties we encountered were minor. Once we realised how easy it was to get around Beijing and do what we wanted to do we were very pleased that we hadn't signed up for a tour.

I recommend buying a good guide book and, as always, doing plenty of pre-trip research, including learning a few common Mandarin words and phrases. This is more for the sake of politeness than in expectation of any serious communication, of course.

Here's the link to a description of our independent trip:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34682619

Marija, your posting is truly AWESOME! I thank you for the extremely useful info and succinct depictions of your China trip. My husband will appreciate it as well!

Chocobon, I just returned from beijing and shanghai and it was very easy, much preferred over tours since you travel at your own pace, lingering longer at those locations you really enjoy in lieu of getting a quick taste then rushing off to the next site before you can catch your breath. I don't think it's too much more difficult than traveling in europe, just allow a little more time in getting from one place to another, and perhaps reading menus in the more local-type restaurants may be a challenge if they don't have english menus. I used Asiarooms.com (peninsula hotel/beijing) the-silk-road.com (lu song yuan hotel/beijing) and sinohotel.com (pacific hotel/shanghai) all without problem except for a misunderstanding that I was a no-show at the pacific hotel after already checking in (apparently under a new reservation) which was quickly cleared up by sinohotel which has a 24 hr help line--I was notified of my no show status by email from sinohotel and had my powerbook to receive my emails). I booked my overnight Z train roundtrip beijing to shanghai through the concierge at the peninsula hotel and I received the tickets at the hotel the same day I booked it. When my friend didn't want to return to beijing via overnight train, we extended our hotel in shanghai an additional night, booked a return flight to beijing by the travel agent at the pacific hotel, and got a refund at the shanghai train station for the tickedt not used (but they charge 20% penalty)--all without problem. the shanghai train station has a special english speaking ticket window who directed me to the refund window. very easy. I used taxis to the mutianyu great wall 600Y roundtrip including wait time of 2 hours, took a taxi to the summer palace/beijing. taxi between beijing airport and peninsula hotel around 100Y ea. way during non rush hours. very convenient. taxi from pacific hotel to shanghai's honqiao airport was less than 100Y. It would be useful to learn your numbers in mandarin though and most importantly, bring a pocket book travel phrase book/dictionary. Also, If you have the time, get a Pinsleur Instant Conversation Mandarin CD set from Barnes and Nobles which I found also very useful, though not necessary. Anyway, traveling on your own is by far better than a tour and you can normally have your hotel book your excursions if you want bus type tours or they can tell you the approximate the cost for a metered cab or recommend other alternatives. You just need to know what you want to see. Always make sure your cab turns on the meter, don't get into a cab that fixes the rate unless it is a negotiated half day or full day excursion via taxi out of the city.

I just returned from an independent trip to China on Tues, April 4. I'm so glad we did it this way! I got some really good advice on this forum so I'll be posting a bit more advice myself.

Go for it! You've already recieved good advice to do a lot of research before you go, be careful of the taxi's, and learn some helpful phrases before you go.

I really enjoyed being in China on my own; I did a lot of reading before I went and I'm glad I did, as nothing can truly prepare you for the reality...but it sure does help to have that background! The oriental-list emails were enormously helpful, as were the posts here and on thorntree/lonelyplanet.

My trip report, if you'd like to read it, is here: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34656568

Have a great trip!

Amy: What are the "enormously helpflu" oriental-list emails and how do you get them? Thanks.

The Oriental-List is a moderated list that contains many informative messages from an assortment of travel writers, tourists, travel coordinators, and so forth; it's for China only and is delivered to your email inbox if you subscribe through [email protected] <[email protected]> (At least I hope that address will get you there!)

Thnaks Amy. Lots of interesting postings there. I also found you can subscirbe at www.datasinica.com

No doubt, go for independant trip. Buy a Mandarin Phrasebook (LPs are quite good) and do some search o the internet before, just to get an idea of the places you would be interested in. One of the great pleasure you'll get is all those encouters you'll make, that only independant travel will allow.
I just came back from there and gave a lot of infos on CHina : www.jeremierita.canalblog.com