im with kathie it seems that your just planning a regularer indapendent tour/trip...

the tour seems ok, but the first thing ai noticed it that it does NOT include the great wall....
-----
I gues you should tell us what your trying too get out of your trip.. what does adventure mean too you ?

I agree that perhaps you should define what you mean by adventure (to some traveling in China is an adventure in and of itself). And also whether you prefer to have a tour operator handle everything or would be willing to strike out on your own. If doing it on your own, I would not schedule things so tightly. One missed/delayed flight could to throw off your entire itinerary.

Thanks again to all who responded, comments really appreciated.

To be more specific about the trip:

A) We don't mind a jam-packed tour. We've done "worse" before and loved it. Our idea of a holiday is to get away and do as much as possible, rest when you get back! 8-)

A) Adventure means not mind roughing it, eg camping at Namtso Lake in Tibet without facilities in potentially sub-zerio pre-dawn temperatures.

If I may, a few questions following your very helpful comments:

Q) Does anyone know if there is a restriction on the duration of the Tibetan visa/permit? I understand from the agency we apply (ourselves) for Chinese visa, whereafter they apply for Tibetan visa/permit. But I seem to recall from conversations with a previous traveller that visits to Tibet are limited to 3 days? Is this right? If it makes a difference, 2 of us will be travelling on European (French) passports , one on a South African passport, and myself on either British or South African passport.

Q) Our attractions to Yantze river are: beautiful gorges, visiting the dam and being able to see it before last phasse in 2009 means it's lost to us forever. Also, was looking forward to a bit of a chilled (luxury) time towards the end of the trip. From previous comments it sounds like a) Yangtze isn't that highly regarded, b) isn't as luxurious as I imagined (eg, no pool / casino (?!) / entertainment on board?), and c) may take up too much time. So, questions are is it worth spending time on the Yangtze, but only for 1 or 2 days then (not sure this is possible tho?) or should we ditch it completely. I would appreciate feedback from anyone who's cruised it before).

Clearly, our biggest choise will be between more days in Tibet offset by less time on the Yantze. Anyone who's done both would hopefully be able to help us out on this one. Also, if you do recommend more time in Tibet, maybe you can point out what's worth doing in addition to our trip as showed higher up in this chain of replies.

Any feedback much appreciated, as ever!

Kind regards,
Scatterling

PS: Orgy7, our trip does actually include a trip to the great wall (day 2) - easy to miss (from the programme, not the actual wall, I mean!)

I've not heard of a 3 day limit on Tibet permits. Indeed, I think the limit is two or three weeks, so you can certainly add time to Tibet.

I haven't been on the Yangtze cruise, but did research them a bit. I'd suggest that you read the reviews on this board of the cruises (type Yangtze cruise into the search box). Generally the coments have ben that the cruise didn't allow people to see what they had hoped to see and that the quality of the cruise vessels was very poor.

A general comment about how much you are doing. My concern isn't about whether you'll have time to relax on this trip (the answer is clearly no), but whether you'll have a chance to experience what you went to Asia to experience. Asia lends itself best to slower travel. You need time to experience the places rather than just check off great wall, Forbidden city, terra cotta warriors.

I've never heard of a 3 day limit for Tibet either. I don't know if there even is any separate stay limit for Tibet. I know of people who have spent 2-3 weeks there. Of course, there's a limit to your total stay in China as indicated on your visa (usually tourist visas are issued for 30 day stays, though that's extendable). If I had to choose between more time in Tibet and the Yangtze cruise (keep in mind though that I've never been on a Yangtze cruise), I would choose Tibet. We were only in Lhasa and the surrounding area, but had we had more time, I would've liked to have done a loop through Gyantze and Shigatze. Do a search for Tibet on this board. I believe there's a trip report from someone who spent 2 weeks(?) there. You might get some ideas from that.

You can also search for Yangtze cruise on this board and you'll get a variety of mixed opinions. If you decide to include the cruise, it's my understanding that East Queen and East King are some of the nicest vessels, followed by vessels of Victoria cruises. I don't know if any of them have casinos or swimming pools. These are 100 passenger river vessels, not big cruise ships. I also don't believe there are 1 or 2 night cruises offered, only 3 or 4 night ones.

BTW I found the Bradt guide to Tibet to be very good (I like their guidebooks in general). I believe this is a UK publication.

one thing I remember when I stayed a couple of days in yangshou, was hearing people (who came in on tours from gullan) "I wish we wouold of stayed here"

guallin is a big industrial dump... while yanshou is a chilled out river village.. it has been hit hard by the backpacker comunity, lots of internet shops. fake cd outlets and a night club... but it's still a great place too stay and bike around..