We are a family of two adults and two children (ages 6 and 8) planning a trip to China for mid-October to early November this year. We have visited Asia before (Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, Hong Kong), but this will be our first trip to mainland China. I would appreciate advice on the following tentative itinerary:

Arrive Beijing airport
Beijing: 5 days, overnight train to Pingyao departing final evening
Pingyao: 2 days, overnight train to Xi’an departing final evening
Xi’an: 3 days, followed by morning flight to Guilin and then on to Yangshuo
Yangshuo: 4 days
Longji Rice Terraces: 2 days, followed by morning flight to Hangzhou
Hangzhou: 2 days
Suzhou: 2 days
Depart Shanghai airport

I've already obtained some advice on this itinerary on the Lonely Planet forum, but I'm posting here as well since I have some different questions, and am interested in the different perspective of members of this forum. We're aware that it may be necessary to travel to Taiyuan for the train to Xi'an due to the difficulty of obtaining seats from Pingyao, and are considering advice to change the number of days allocated to some parts of the itinerary (e.g. move a day from Xi'an to Pingyao, one day fewer in the Guilin area). Any advice on the itinerary is welcome, but I do have some specific questions:
* Ending the trip in the Shanghai area is convenient as a departure point for the flight back home, but I'm having difficulty determining whether Hangzhou and Suzhou are worth seeing; in particular, some reports seem to indicate that the past glories have been almost completely destroyed by construction in the past few decades. Can anyone suggest more interesting (but practical) alternatives (either for the end of the itinerary, or insertion between some of the existing destinations)?
* If there aren't any better alternatives to the Suzhou/Hangzhou area, which of the two cities would be a more interesting choice of we decide to only stay in one of them?
* My impression is that the scenery at the Longji Rice Terraces depends strongly on the time of year. Can anyone comment on what they're like (particularly for the purposes of photography) near the end of October?

> We're aware that it may be necessary to travel to Taiyuan

If you stop in Taiyuan, you might want to consider visiting Jin Ci - I thought it one of the most beautiful temples I visited in my 4 week trip through northern China. And I thought the Taiyuan Museum had some extraordinarily fine pieces.

> Pingyao: 2 days

I thought a day sufficient for Pingyao itself. If you plan to visit one of the courtyard houses outside of Pingyao, or if you hope to visit Shàolín Sì, you'll probably need at least 1.5 or 2 days.

My travels covered only some of your intended destinations;t if you haven't already seen it, my trip report might hold some helpful info:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...na-amazing.cfm

Hope that helps!

I visited both Hangzhou and Suzhou at the most crowded time of year, and still thought they were worthwhile destinations. The cities themselves are just typical big Chinese cities, but the lake and temple in Hangzhou and the gardens in Suzhou more than make up for it. If you want a less-visited-by-foreigners place near Shanghai, there is the sacred island of Putuoshan. See http://wilhelmswords.com/rtw2004/ - China on Holiday for my TR.

Thanks or the comments (and the pointer to the very detailed trip report). We're considering adding in Datong, making the initial part of the itinerary Beijing-Datong-Pingyao-Xi'an. Any advice on the best way to travel from Datong to Pingyao? Are train tickets on that route as difficult to obtain as on the Pingyao to Xi'an route?

We flew into Datong in order to see the Hanging Temple and Yungang Caves. Both were totally worth it! We stayed in Datong itself for the night--didn't really like the town itself but then we really didn't spend any time exploring it. We caught the morning train to Pingyao--tickets were booked by our B&B Hostess while we were in Beijing. We booked them 5 days in advance as we were told they were hard to get. It is a 7 hour ride and they came around with a boxed hot lunch for sale. We were told the train was the only way to get from Datong to Pingyao.

Pingyao is unique and is worth one full day but no more. We wandered the streets, checked out shops and museums and walked the city wall, all in the 2 half days we were there.

Another detailed trip report to check (IMO the best way to get great information for the planning stages):
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...led-report.cfm

2 days at the rice terraces is a lot usually but especially in late-October as it is most probably after harvest and all you have are bare fields.