Please Help with First Trip to China Itinerary
 

Thanks in advance for reviewing this. And thanks for all the help I already received reading the posts here.

We are retired, 60ish, independent travelers. We have travelled mostly in Europe, but also in South America, Southeast Asia and Japan. Our style is slow travel with plenty of time to explore.

Ok, here goes. We are looking at a 4-week trip:

Beijing – 6 nights at a hutong hotel like Double Happiness Courtyard Hotel, visit all the top spots: Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Lama Temple etc. Also, take a day trip to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, a walking tour with China Culture Center, tour the hutongs, and shop at the Panjiayuan market.

Cuandixia – 1 or 2 nights (leave bags at Beijing hotel), stay in a guesthouse and take a cab to Lingshui and maybe other ancient towns (any suggestions?)

Beijing – 2 or 3 nights (see list above)

Fly to X’ian -- 3 nights at Ibis X’ian, see Terracotta Warriors, Big Goose Pagoda, and Hanyangling

Fly to Guilin – 4 nights in Yangshuo probably at The Giggling Tree, see Farmer’s Trading market, Fuli, Shitoucheng, Impression Sanjei Liu. Take Li River boat ride, go to cooking school and take a tai chi lesson.

Guilin – 2 nights at Jingguan Ming, see Jiangtiuzhou and Dragon’s Backbone Terraces

Note: We plan to hire a guide for several of the days in Yangshuo and Guilin.

Fly to Hangzhou – 3 nights probably at Crystal Orange, see temples, lake etc. Take a day trip to Xitang.

Train to Shanghai – 5 nights at Old House Inn, see Jinmao Tower, Yu Yuan Garden, Bund, French Concession, Shanghai Circus World. Take river tour and do day trip to either Suzhou or Tongli.

Thanks for your help!

You could get by with fewer days for Beijing - cut the second visit.

I'd recommend the night train to Xi'an rather than flying - soft sleeper class in Chinese trains is really very comfortable - see seat61.com/China.htm for info on Chinese trains.

I'd cut back on Guilin and Yangshou - tourist and backpacker central.

You should be able to do two day trips from Shanghai. Don't miss the museum there.

I'd look at taking time saved from Beijing and Yangshou and going to, for example, Chengdu (pandas, Leshan's Buddha, possibly Emei Shan), or one of the sacred mountains/islands in the east.

I like the Guilin and Yangshuo area very much, very scenic. You should note that the "Dragon’s Backbone Terraces" is in Longsheng not Guilin and that it is at least a couple of hours of driving time from Guilin. You might find my trip report from the area useful - http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-longsheng.cfm

I can only comment on the Beijing portion.

There are many sights that are not among the "top spots" that are nonetheless very enjoyable. I'd put Fragrant Hills and its Temple of Azure Clouds (with hundreds of Arhat statues), and the Dongyue Taoist temple (with its tableaux such as "department for thwarting schemes") up there.

I've not yet visited them myself, but the Eastern and Western Qing tombs are highly regarded (not to be confused with the Ming tombs).

For a trip outside Beijing, I highly recommend Chengde (though I've not been to Cuandixia so cannot compare with that). It has a summer palace and several magnificent temples of various styles: Xumifushou, Putuozongchen, and Puning are outstanding. Pule is also good (a bit like Tientan in Beijing) and you can ride a cable car from near there up to "Hammer Rock" (the real name is apparently more suggestive), which provides excellent views (go in the morning). You should plan at least two nights in Chengde.

Thanks so much for all the advice.

Thursdaysd -- I am taking another look at Chengdu (I know many on this forum also recommend it). I wanted to keep our domestic flights to a minimum, but if we do the sleeper to X'ian, we could then fly in and out of Chengdu. Originally, I wanted to do the train, but my husband was leery of sharing a 4-berth compartment (maybe we need to revisit that subject). I also want to look into Putuoshan as another possible addition.

Hanuman -- your trip report was excellent! So many good ideas that I have added to my plans: the Four Lakes and Two Rivers night cruise, the electric motorbikes, and I love the bamboo raft. Very helpful.

Someotherguy -- great additional ideas for Beijing. I definitely want to add Dongyue Temple and it looks like I could include Fragrant Hills Parks with our visit to the Summer Palace. Chengde looks quite wonderful, and I would love to fit it in. I was leaning toward Cuandixia because it is such a small town.

Again, thank you all for your help. You have given me a lot to think about!

For my China TR incl. Chengdu and Putuoshan see http://www.wilhelmswords.com/rtw2004/index.html and for my (still unedited!) pix of Putuoshan see http://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/R...e-World-2004-5 password putuoshan.

There is one train with two-passenger deluxe compartments on the Beijing-Xi'an route, although I enjoyed sharing with locals. See http://www.seat61.com/China.htm for detailed info.

Thursdaysd -- this is great stuff! Thanks so much for the links. (And, what a trip around the world you had -- wow!)

Pingyao is another small town on the way to Xi'an. Read my trip report from last year.

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...n-in-china.cfm

I personally could have used more time in Beijing there is so much to see and do. Enjoy!

Nywoman -- thanks so much for your trip report, very impressive and extremely helpful. I appreciate your comment about Beijing because every time I try to shave off a day, I come up with more things to see and do. (I did scale back Cuandixia to a day trip.)

Now, I am thinking that I may want to decrease my time in Shanghai (rather than decreasing Beijing). Pingyao looks intriguing too. As always, there is more to see than time allows. I want to add one more destination; am thinking I will choose Pingyao, Chengde, Chengdu or Putuoshan.

I would certainly vote for cutting back on Shanghai rather than Beijing. Both are big, but Shanghai feels bigger, and is more into neon and glitz. At least it was - I haven't seen Beijing since the Olympics transformation....

I think you should reduce the Beijing time, not the Shanghai time. We were just in both and liked Shanghai more. We spent six days in beijing and felt that was enough. You might cut down on the front end Beijing time, keep the middle time and stay at two different hotels. The different parts of the city deserve direct attention.

And I didn't care for Shanghai very much. Different strokes etc. etc

Thanks to everybody for all the help. Here is my revised schedule:

Beijing – 8 nights at Double Happiness Courtyard Hotel, visit all the top spots: Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Fragrant Hills Park, White Cloud Temple, Lama Temple etc. Also, take a day trip to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, and possibly a second day trip to Cuandixia, a walking tour with China Culture Center, tour the hutongs, and shop at the Panjiayuan market.

Train to Pingyao -- 3 nights probably at Yide Guesthouse, possible visits to Qiao Family Courtyard, Yi Yuan vineyard, Zhangbi Underground Castle and/or Wang Family Courtyard. (I am especially looking forward to this addition to the trip.)

Fly to X’ian -- 3 nights at Ibis X’ian, see Terracotta Warriors, Big Goose Pagoda, and Hanyangling

Fly to Guilin – 4 nights in Yangshuo at The Giggling Tree, see Farmer’s Trading market, Fuli, Impression Sanjei Liu. Take Li River bamboo raft ride, go to cooking school and take a tai chi lesson.

Guilin – 2 nights at Jingguan Ming Hotel, see Jiangtiuzhou and Dragon’s Backbone Terraces

Fly to Hangzhou – 3 nights at Zhongshan Hotel, see temples, lake etc. Take a day trip to Xitang.

Train to Shanghai – 5 nights at Astor House, see Jinmao Tower, Yu Yuan Garden, Bund, French Concession, Shanghai Circus World. Take river tour and do day trip to Suzhou.

If you are going to be in Shanghai between May 1st, 2010 and Oct. 31st, 2010, you could visit the World Expo.

I went to the World Expo at Aichi (Japan) in 2005. It was the single worst day of my life.

With all the time that you have in Beijing, I'd like to recommend what was really one of my favorite spots: the Milu Deer Park. Perhaps it was a favorite partly because I was one of very few people there! :) Regardless, it was a nice change of pace and a fascinating place:
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...s-in-china.cfm