Order of travel help please!
 

Starting and ending in Beijing, in what order would you fit in Xi'an, Pingyao and Datong for a 11 day trip , 4 nights Beijing, 2 Xi'an, 2 Datong and 2 Pingyao? I was thinking of overnight trains between cities but am willing to fly.
Thanks!

It's all a bit of a rush, reflecting that distances are long in China, time must be taken to get between A and B, and things will not always go as smoothly as you might wish.

Beijing to Xi'an is an overnight train, which conserves time.

There are three choices of slow overnight train back to Pingyao, so that's fine. Otherwise it's most of a day on a bus. Unless you want to fly Xi'an to Taiyuan and double back a bit by road.

Pingyao to Datong there are very slow overnight trains, that get you there 4.30am or 5.15am, and you'd be better with a daytime train of seven hours. But there's a day gone.

Datong back to Beijing there are plenty of choices of bus and train, but the overnights are the sort that leave at 11pm and arrive at 5am. It's about 5.5 hours in daylight by train.

Just set out with the rough plan of the route you have and see how far you get and how you feel about the destinations. If you spend more time in Beijing, Xi'an, or Pingyao, there are very swift direct connections by very frequent luxury express bus (from Taiyuan) or rapid train (ditto) to get you back to Beijing.

If you do four nights in Beijing, take the fifth overnight to Xi'an, spend the sixth in Xi'an, and then go overnight to Pingyao on the seventh, you can pause and take stock. If you spend the eighth night in Pingyao, part of the next day en route to Datong, the ninth and tenth nights in Datong, and then back I think it will all be a bit of a rush, especially as you'd be looking at stumbling off overnight trains to cram in what you want to see in a full day's rushing around on two occasions.

But that's all a matter of taste.

Peter N-H

Thanks AGAIN Peter N-H for taking your valuable time to help a fellow traveler out!

Peter, would I be better off substituting Chengde for Pingyao? It seems Datong and Chengde are more easily reachable from Beijing

Both Pingyao and Chengde are worth visiting, but they are of different nature. The "Eight Outer Temples" in Chengde are really fascinating, especially if you are interested in Tibetan buddhism.

What would be the most efficient way to link Beijing, Xi'an , Datong and Chengde? To go back and forth to Beijing sounds like a time drag.

Chengde has to be done from Beijing.

There's no direct flight from Datong to Xian. You have to go back to Beijing to fly or down to Taiyuan. About same distance from Datong.

If anything this is messier than choosing Pingyao, which is at least en route between Xi'an and Datong.

There are very slow trains between Xi'an and Datong, taking about 18 hours. If anything it's perhaps Datong that should be omitted, giving more time in Xi'an (which it deserves).

Chengde can be visited as a side-trip from Beijing, reaching it either by bus (faster) or train (a pleasant daytime journey). If rushing it you can spend one afternoon, one night, and one morning, coming back on the afternoon train.

With Xi'an involved, Pingyao is easier than Datong to include, since returning to Beijing from Taiyuan is easy.

Peter N-H

Driving myself crazy, I think now I might do Beijing to Xi'an by overnight train,spend 2 days then fly to Dunhuang spend 2 days there and fly to Beijing and do Chengde if there is time.Hopefully Dunhuang isn't too bad in early November.
Thanks!

I've been in Dunhuang in both November and December and survived. The days are bright and there's a much longer daytime period that's good for photography. Can be well below zero at night, maybe 7 to 10 in the day, only slightly worse than Xi'an at that time. See www.weatherbase.com for more detail.

Beijing - Xi'an - Dunhuang - Beijing is certainly doable in 11 days with flying, and this sounds like an interesting and varied trip. Allow two nights in Dunhuang and spend most of the time at the Mogao Caves, would be my advice. There are good street markets in the town at night.

Peter N-H