I've been to Japan (7 years ago), but my husband hasn't and I'd love to see at least Tokyo and surroundings with him. We had already been thinking of Beijing and Hong Kong next year. He's never been to this part of the world, and I've never been to China (we've taken 3 trips to Europe the past 6 years). I've seen tours for Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore or Bangkok, but seldom see anything that includes Tokyo.

We are budget travelers, have never taken a tour, but are willing to do it either way. I don't think we could afford the airfare straight up without a tour. Any suggestions?
Joyce

Sure, it is practical, depending on how long you will be travelling. You could definitely visit two of the cities for the cost of visiting one (e.g. get a roundtrip to HKG and make a stopover in Tokyo). Another option is to use an airpass.

Travel distances and times:
Tokyo - Hong Kong is about 1800 miles (4.5 hours).
Tokyo - Beijing about 1300 miles (3.5 hours)
Beijing - H.K. about 1200 miles (3.5 hours).

Here is info on Catha Pacific's All Asia Pass:
http://www.cathay-usa.com/offers/aap/subdefault.asp

Suggestion:

Check to see how your trip would be routed (where your plane would make stops). If you are routed thru Tokyo{NRT}, ask for a "delay in route" [stop-over]. There is usually a charge for the change.

I did this in 2001 with United on a tour. Cost was $100 for the change.
[Beijing-Tokyo-Seattle, with stop-over in Tokyo for 7 days]

Ship and rail.

There are economical ferry services from Kobe to Tianjin. The schedule is here:

http://www.celkobe.co.jp/pax/index.html

The prices are here:

http://www.celkobe.co.jp/pax/index.html

Tianjin is a short train ride from Beijing.

From Beijing to Hong Kong there is a comfortable direct overnight train, taking about 27 hours. For schedule (trains run every other day) and ticket prices see:

http://www.kcrc.com/eng/services/ser...ts_shedule.asp

Certainly in mainland China everything will be cheaper if you are not on a tour.

Peter N-H
http://members.shaw.ca/pnhpublic/China.html

And you can get an open jaw ticket. Get a round trip ticket flying TO Beijing with a stopover in Tokyo and returning FROM Hong Kong. Go between PEK and HKG via the train that Peter mentioned.

We're doing a similar trip and are leaving this week actually!

We're flying into Tokyo, by train on a seven day rail pass around Japan, from Osaka to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Beijing, then back to Hong Kong (where we have a full day layover), before we go to Australia.

One World Alliance offers a circle pacific fair which, when we priced it, was pretty reasonable. You can read about it at http://www.oneworld.com. You can price a ticket by calling any one world partner (we called American). Just make sure you tell them to price out the One World Circle Pacific fare (not the regular American fare with open jaw flights) because it comes out much cheaper and the people who answer the phone usually don't know too much about it.

Good luck!

Thanks to all for the quick and very informative responses! I did see the Cathay Pacific All-Asia pass, and they also offer a 55 Plus fare that looks interesting. The layover tactic sounds promising, with the overnight train Beijing-Hong Kong. Now I just have to do my homework. Thanks to all.
Joyce

Went to Hong Kong mid-June on United and they allowed a free stopover in Tokyo. You can fly to Beijing very reasonably by taking turbojet from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and then flying from Shenzhen to Beijing.