bluesphee

Hello, my wife and I are looking at going to China from October 6th through October 19th. I have a few questions.

1) I know you are supposed to completely avoid National Day which is October 1st. Will we have problems travelling if we arrive in China on October 6th?

2) What do people think of this itinerary?

Days 1-2
Hong Kong
Days 3-5
Yangshuo
Days 6-7
Shanghai
Days 8-10
Xi'an
Days 11-14
Beijing

3) Will the earthquake affected any of those places?

4) This tour is through Intrepid Travel and here are the details:
http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/CSA
Anyone have an experience to share w/ Intrepid China trips?

Thanks so much for any help in advance!

thursdaysd

1 - that's the next Monday, I would things would be back to normal by then, but if you're traveling with a tour group you don't really have to worry.

2 - It's pretty standard

3 - No

4 - Yes - my trip reports with Intrepid are at www.wilhelmswords.com/asia2001 and 2002.

rkkwan

And you don't even arrive China on 10/6. While people in HK gets 10/1 off, it's not a major holiday there and locals hardly care. And the number of mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong during the "golden week" holiday has subsided as well in recent years.

bluesphee

Excellent! Thanks for the responses thursdaysd and rkkwan. I didn't realize Hong Kong also didn't celebrate it to the same extent as China so that's very good to know. I mistyped about arriving in China instead of Hong Kong. I feel comfortable going there during the times we specified now.

One additonal question. Should we take advantage of the weekend and get to Hong Kong on Saturday the 4th? What is a good length of time to spend in Hong Kong? I wonder if we will we be too intimidated getting there a day or two before our tour group meets? After doing an hour of two or research it looks like we definitely would want the time there since there is so much to see and do. What would you say are the top 5 must see's? I would like to sail on the Duk Ling!

rkkwan

You should definitely go to Hong Kong a few days early. You won't be intimidated at all, and the extra days give you time to recover from the long flights getting there.

There aren't that many "must sees" in Hong Kong. Other than riding the Star Ferry and the Peak Tram, it's mostly just walk around the vibrant city, go to its markets, etc. If you have a little more time, then go see the Big Buddha at Po Lin Monastery. If even more time (like 4 days), then take a day trip or overnight trip to Macau.

Only thing is that hotels in Hong Kong is not cheap, so you need to budget for that.

lisa_NIHAOCHINA

If your arrival day is 6th OCtober and then stay 2 days in Hongkong, I dont't think that your will have problems travelling. And if you don't travel with group, what I suggest you is to do the train and air tickets reservation in advance. There are also some similar tours in Nihaochinatours,so you can do some compare with the tour agency that you have mentionned.

john35

Your tour time is during the best season in China and there are many beautiful photos in the following tour website and you can have a look: http://www.sino-impression.com