propsed itinerary China Sep/Oct 08
 

HI All,
I am interested in getting your feedback on my proposed trip to China and Tibet later this year.
Day 1 Arrive Beijing at night
Day 2-5 Beijing including trip to Matianyu section of Great Wall.
Day 6 Fly Xian - visit wild Goose Pagoda and Shaanxi museum.
Day 7 Terra Cotta Warriors, City walls, Bell tower.
Day 8 Fly Lhasa - acclimitise
Day 9 Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple
Barkor St
Day 10 Norbulingka Park, Sera Monestry
Day 11-12 overnight trip out of Lahsa possibly to Nam-tso lake - and other suggestions welcome.
Day 13 Fly Chengdu
Day 14 Pandas and Wenshu temple
Day 15 Day trip to Leshan
Day 16 day trip to qingcheng Shan
Day 17 Fly Guilin
Day18-20 Yangshuo
Day 21 Fly Shanghai to stay with friends for 5 days then home.

Any feed back would be most welcome.
One area that I am not sure whether I will visit is Emi Shan. I can either travel on from Leshn to Emi Shan and spend the night there and not do Qingcheng Shan - ideas welcome!
Thanks
Em.

I think Emei Shan is more dramatic and is definitely more popular.

I'll suggest doing the Leshan/Emei two -day trip rather than the two seperate daytrips as originally planned.

How does Gulin/Yangshou compare to taking a cruise down the Yangtze - I have a similar itinerary but can't decide betwenn the two ideas

Norman, it looks to me that Yanshou and the LI river cruises are a much smaller scale than the Yangtze. On various travel forums I have been strongly advised NOT to do the angtze cruise but everyone raves about Yangshuo and the surrouding rural areas.

The scales are totally different and the scenery is also totally different.

Guilin to Yangshuo is about 40 miles, and you do it in half a day in fairly small boats. Water level is very low at times and not the whole stretch may be navigable parts of the year. The landscape is mostly flat, except for the numerous rocky hills that jut out from nowhere to create the unique scenery.

Chongqing to Yichang takes 3 days downstream and 4 days up, in large river cruises that have many dozens of cabins. You travel through miles and miles of river gorges.

It's not a either/or situation. You can do both, and can do neither. Totally different experiences.