TRIP REPORT (Continued):
Day 5 : Tuesday, May 12th: XIAN :
We had an 11:40am flight from Pudong airport for Xian today. Woke up later than usual at 7am, and after a hearty breakfast, checked out of the hotel by 9am.

We had decided on taking the Maglev train back to the airport, instead of a taxi, as it saved time, money and was a lot of fun. The West Nanjing Road metro station was only a minute away from our hotel, but the difficult part was going down to the metro station with the heavy luggage, as there were only stairs to go down (no escalator). At both the staircases, someone emerged to offer assistance to DW with her suitcase, which was very nice to see. The rest was a breeze, and we were at Pudong in no time. Always remember to show your "same day air tickets" to get a 20% discount on the Maglev fare.

The departure terminal of Pudong Airport was even more impressive than the Arrival halls, and one of the most modern that I have ever seen. We were at our boarding gate at 11am, when we were told that there would be a delay due to some mechanical trouble with the aircraft. The delay kept getting longer and longer, and they could not predict when exactly things would be OK (understandable in the case of aircraft trouble). But all local passengers were extremely irate, and were giving the airline staff a hard time. We had no option but to wait patiently. We were told by fellow passengers that this was extremely rare in China. Just our bad luck !

Finally, after almost a 3 hour delay, the flight took off at 2:30pm, to reach Xian at 4:45pm. Surprisingly, veg food option was available on the flight (although we had forgotten to mention it at the time of booking our tickets). At Xian airport, baggage retrieval was swift (as always in China), and we boarded the Airport Shuttle Bus # 1, which takes you to Melody Hotel near the Bell Tower. Very good bus, goes non-stop, only 25 Rmb per person, a steal compared to 150-200 Rmb by taxi. Leaves every 20-30 minutes or so.

Our hotel, the Citadines Aparthotel, was about a 2 minute walk from Melody Hotel. By 6:15pm we were in our room, or should I say, our apartment. We had booked a studio apartment, which was quite spacious and comfortable. No complaints about the hotel here or at Shanghai. Both had been comfortable and very well located. And very reasonable.

By 6:45pm we were out of the hotel, on the streets. Xian had a wonderful and different feel to it - the real real China. Very quaint, majestic and lovely. Had a compact feel about it, as almost everything is within walking distance. The weather was excellent, cool and cloudy, and we loved it after the harsh sun of Shanghai.

We went to the Drum Tower, then the Bell Tower (where a free musical performance was in progress), and walked all over the wonderful Bell Tower Square. All very nice and impressive. We had no listing of any veg restaurant in Xian. Had heard a lot about a great dumpling place, called "De Fa Chang Dumpling Restaurant" which is supposed to be an institution at Xian. To our disappointment, they informed us that they have no vegetarian dumplings (a pity, since they make over a hundred varieties of dumplings). Tried a few other restaurants on Bell Tower Square, but everyone claimed to not have any veg items on their menu. This turned out to be the only day in our entire trip, where we encountered a food problem. Finally, we had to make do with onion rings and french fries and sundae ice-creams at the McDonalds ! What a shame.

After "dinner", we went strolling into the Muslim Quarters, which was packed with people. Lots of street food available. Had some kind of a spicy bread, which the guy promised was vegetarian. Tasted yummy. Roamed around all the shops, and saw what was on offer. Promised to return the next night. Had been told that this was the best place to buy souvenir Terracotta Warriors.

We then walked slowly towards the South Gate of the walled city, on Nan Dajie, which had a lot of glitzy malls, discos and bars. Popped into a large grocery store and bought some fruits, bread, butter etc. Just before the South Gate, we turned into an alley called "Defu Xiang", which is supposed to be the bar district of Xian. It was indeed a very cute small street, filled with cafes, bars and lots of tourists. Sat down somewhere with a beer and relaxed.

At about midnight, we decided to call it a day. Took a taxi back to the hotel and slept.

This was one city where we could never get hold of an English map. The Tourist Office on Bell Tower Square had only Chinese maps, and the hotel did not have one either. So we had to manage with our Lonely Planet map throughout. It amazes me, that a country like China which has made such tremendous progress in infrastructure, which has such a beautiful country to showcase, and which is keen to make its mark on the world as having "arrived", could be so careless on these soft issues (which are the easiest to fix). If only their Tourist offices could be manned by English-speaking personnel, they could make English maps more freely available, and do a few more tiny things, they would be an extremely tourist-friendly nation.

Thanks zverybestfamily. Please keep the accolades coming !

Great trip report. You've given me much info that will help in a future trip to China. I look forward to the rest of your report.

TRIP REPORT (Continued):
Day 6: Wednesday, May 13th: XIAN :
We woke up late, and breakfasted in our apartment, with all our grocery purchase of the previous evening. Left the hotel by about 9:30 am. It was cool and cloudy again, with intermittent drizzle throughout the day.

We first took a taxi to the "Temple of 8 Immortals", which is just outside the East Wall. Nothing notable about the Temple, but an antique market springs up there every Sunday and Wednesday. As today was Wednesday, we decided to stake it out. There were lots of shops and temporary stalls there. Probably nothing was genuine antique, but there was good stuff on offer at reasonable prices. We did our first serious shopping of the trip here, and bought a fair amount of decorative pieces at rock-bottom prices.

Over the last 5 days we had been practicing our bargaining skills, and getting a feel for how low the prices can be brought down to. Had realized that whenever you are offered a price, make a counter-offer of about 15-20% of the quoted price (I know this sounds ridiculous, but is quite accurate). The shopkeeper will pretend to look alarmed and will respond with a sneer, but stick to your guns. Suddenly a revised offer will emerge of 50% of the original offer. Each time they make a revised offer, you are expected to hike up your counter-offer. This is the etiquette of bargaining ! So if the original offer was 400 Rmb, and you counter-offered 60 Rmb, the now revised offer stands at 200 Rmb. Move your offer to atmost 70 Rmb. Keep up the game, until the shopkeeper has reached 130 Rmb, and you have climbed incrementally to 90 Rmb. At this point of time, it appears that you have reached a "breaking" point in the negotiation, and you should appear disinterested and walk away. The shopkeeper then runs after you, catches your arm, and consents to your price. Can be fun the first few times, but after a few days, this lengthy charade can be boring. The final price is rarely more than 25-30% of the initial offer, and it takes quite some time to reach that point.

From there we hopped into another taxi to go to the Xian Railway Station. Tried explaining "Train Station" to the taxi driver, but got a blank stare. Mimed a choo-choo train, with its hoot and whistle and the sound of its chugging wheels. By now the driver probably thought I was nuts ! Finally unearthed "Train Station" written in Chinese, and we were there in a flash. In the parking lot of the train station, we easily found the Bus # 306 that we were looking for, which goes to the Terracotta Warriors. Thanks Fodorites for recommending this very convenient and cheap option. It is a very comfortable bus, costs only 7 Rmb per person, and takes only 50 minutes to reach (with only one stop in between). Seems a waste to take a taxi for the journey.

When we alighted at the Warriors site, there was inadequate signage, and we wandered in the wrong direction. After walking for 15 minutes, we hit the Exit gate, and had to retrace our steps to reach the Entry gate. It was 12:45pm by the time we finally entered. At the entry point, there were a lot of uniformed guides of "China Tourism", offering to take you around for 100 Rmb (no bargaining). We liked the idea, as the premises are large, and finding your way around can be somewhat confusing. The guide was cheap, and she spoke decent English; her knowledge of the subject was also not bad.

We had been advised to first see the movie of the Warriors in the Theater, then visit Pit Nos 1, 2 and 3 in reverse order (as Pit # 1 is overwhelmingly the best, it should be visited last as otherwise everything else is anti-climactic). We told our guide of this plan, and she endorsed it. The movie gave a good background on the history of the Terracotta Warriors; unfortunately it was in Chinese, but impressive nonetheless (it is a 360 degree movie, well shot).

The premises are quite large, and you should budget on about 3 hours to tour the entire premises. Pit No. 1 was simply awesome. It is amazing to see how the warriors are being reconstructed from the ruins. And they have stopped excavating until they can come up with a technological solution to prevent the colors from evaporating in the sunlight. There is plenty more which is yet to be excavated, and the full size of this discovery is probably not yet known.

By the time we were leaving the site at about 3pm, it started raining somewhat heavily. Bought an umbrella to duck under. Tried having a coffee at one of the numerous cafes on the exit route. Their menu cards do not mention price, and when you enquire, a high price is quoted, and a willingness to bargain is indicated. I refused to bargain for my coffee, so we left sans refreshments.

Our guide informed us that to go back to the Xian train station, we could not only take the Bus # 306, but also the Bus # 914 or 915. As we exited, we saw a #914 ready to leave. Boarded it, but the decision was later regretted. It does go to the Xian train station, but by a different route, and for most of the way, the road was under construction. So the ride was a bit rough, and the time taken about 20 minutes longer. Advice: stick to Bus # 306 if possible.

From Xian train station, we took a taxi back to our hotel. Dumped our morning shopping, freshened up, and left. It was 5 pm, and we had not had lunch. Knowing the problems of finding veg food in the vicinity, we ducked into a Pizza Hut outlet, and gorged on some veg pizzas to fill us up. We then continued walking towards the South Gate. Just before the South Gate, we ducked into a shopping street called Shuyuan Xiang, which was very interesting. Then we climbed the City Wall and strolled all around. I would highly recommend a climb of the City Wall while in Xian; the sights are good.

It was past 7pm. We had wanted to see both the Little Goose Pagoda and the Big Goose Pagoda from outside. But there was no time for both. So we took a taxi and went straight to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Alighted at the North Square of the Pagoda. The place was absolutely magical. The Pagoda looks so pristine, and it casts a spell on you. The Square in front is also well laid out, with benches, sculptures, gardens, lights etc. Sat there for a long time and could not get enough of the scenery.

The guidebook mentioned that the Musical Water Fountain show comes on at 8pm or 9pm, depending upon the time of the year. Tried asking numerous people about timing; the opinion was evenly split between 8pm and 9pm. Somehow, I found the votaries for 9pm sound more convincing. We decided to wait till 8pm. If the show did not start, we would quickly go for dinner and return by 9 pm.

However, at 7:45pm, it started to rain heavily, and we had to run for cover. Decided to take our chances, and proceed for dinner right away. Had researched on two Indian restaurants located on the same street, just west of the Big Pagoda. The street is called "Yantaxilu", and the restaurants we were looking for were "Delhi Durbar" and "Cacaja".

We found the street easily, and what a revelation it was. It is one of the prettiest streets in Xian, very wide, and lined with restaurants and bars on both sides. Virtually every international cuisine is represented here. No guide book or travel site had referred to this street, and we found it a wonderful place for any tourist to visit. We chose to dine at "Cacaja" which had better reviews than the other Indian restaurant, and had a wonderful meal of Kadaai Paneer, Alu Gobi, Missi Roti and Kulchas, with Mango Lassi. Good food and reasonably priced.

Left just before 9pm, and quickly walked back to the Big Pagoda. Reached just as the Musical Water Fountain show was starting at 9 pm. The show was well worth the wait, and very enjoyable. Lasted for 20 minutes. Thankfully, the rain had stopped, and everyone could enjoy it. After the show was over, I simply did not want to leave. I kept gazing at the Big Pagoda in its splendid night lighting, and found the sight too beautiful for words. Really liked this place.

Finally, we reluctantly pulled ourselves away. All the taxis were going full, and realized that it would be difficult to find a vacant one. So we walked to the nearest bus stop, and boarded Bus # 609, which dropped us at the Bell Tower. We went back to the Muslim Quarters, where we bought a set of moderate-sized Terracotta Warriors, and those wonderful Chinese kites. Reached our hotel at about 11pm, packed for our early morning departure, and slept.

We had really enjoyed Xian. It was magical. Too bad about our incoming flight delay, which knocked off 3 hours of sightseeing. Missed seeing the Small Pagoda and the Great Mosque as a result. But we were satisfied. The Warriors had lived up to their expectation, and the Big Pagoda was wonderful. The whole city was lovely, and worth spending two days (but perhaps not more).

"Mimed a choo-choo train, with its hoot and whistle and the sound of its chugging wheels" - lol! I remember trying that very technique on a rickshaw driver in Amritsar. It didn't work there either!

Glad that the buses worked out for you in Xi'an.

Just great. I think you two are very intrepid indeed, doing it the way you did. I'm not sure I'd last the distance. It can get VERY exhausting bargaining and having to stay on red alert ALL the time, let alone the problems with communication. But what an adventure, eh? The smallest things bring rewards, travelling the way you do.

I'm very impressed.

BTW, what part of India do you live in?

thursdayd,reassuring to know that others have tried similar stupid misadventures, and have failed like we did !

dogster, we live in Pune, which is quite close to Mumbai. I agree that this China trip by ourselves, at this age, was quite an adventure. Being seasoned travelers, we found the difficult times also amusing. This is the fun of travel. Basically people are nice, wherever you go. Getting through to them may require different techniques in different countries. But deep down below, all of humanity is nice and well intentioned.

I just saw your report & enjoyed reading it very much. We also are traveling on china independantly right now. Have been here since may 8 & return to the u.s. This weekend.

I had to laugh about bus 914 in xi'an. We also took it back from the warriors site! Big mistake, it travels on a horrible dirt road. We couldn't find the 306 for our return.

Our trip has been excellent with only minor problems. Quite a physical undertaking though for our 55 yr. Old feet!

I look very forward to more of your trip report! To bad we didn't meet in xi'an as we stayed in the same hotel!


We're in a hutong in Beijing now, a bit rough around the edges but very kind people.

Weather has been fantastic throughout china all month.

Chinese people are very happy people. They love their parks, dancing, singing, card playing etc. Etc. In the parks. This is a long 4 day holiday here and we've spent hours enjoying observing them at play.

Bathroom situation is horrible. Learn to squat!!

Thanks for your enjoyable report!

Well, I was not all that far from you, indiancouple, just a fortnight ago. When you've finished writing your report and feel inclined, just click on my name. My misadventures in YOUR culture might bring a smile.

But not yet - you have more writing to do!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your report. i'm doing a 16 day trip to China in July alone at first for 4 days, then joined by 2 friends.I'm 54 yr old lady, being jioned by my 2 nieces in therir 20s. i planned this trip in July to see the solar eclipse. I wish I could you did but I don' thinh I can manage, cos I'm too scared of missing things like trains, flights etc. So i'm booking through a chinese agent, who will arrange my hotels, flights, trains.
I do want some advice. Is it OK to go to GT Wall in Beijing without a tour guide, just take a taxi, ask him to wait and bring us back. Can we do Hutong tour on our own?
Any suggestions about which hotel to dtak in Beijing and Shanghai? In shanghai I will be alone, but in Beijing I will be with my nieces.We are on a budget ,so want to do things economically.I believe it's best to stay in Wangfujing area in Beijing.
Thanks

Indiancouple, so glad to hear how much you enjoyed Xian! My husband and I are taking our 2 teenage sons to china in August and it looks like we are doing the same exact trip in a little different order.
धन्यवाद and can't wait to hear more.

More, more...I am thoroughly enjoying this and taking tons of notes. We will be traveling independently as you did. Our greatest stories are the misadventures, getting lost and finding things that were unexpected.

Images2 - Looking forward to seeing your trip report as well!

Thanks everyone for the overwhelming response to this travelogue.

Images2, this is really strange. Our China trip also started on 8th May, like you. And to think we were in the same Xian hotel at the same time, and we both made the same mistake of boarding Bus # 914, well that's real coincidence !

dogster, would love to hear about your Indian misadventures; I am sure there would be many in a country like ours.

faridabobat, I think it is totally unnecessary to take a guide to the Great Wall. What will a guide tell you, that you cannot pick up in a few minutes of internet research ? If you book a taxi to take you there and back, it is more than enough. As for Hutong tours, the moment you enter the Hutong area on foot, you will be approached by numerous pedicabs asking you to take a Hutong tour. We hopped on one and found it to be quite adequate. As for hotel recommendations, I need to know your budget etc. Suggest you look at tripadvisor.com for hotel ratings.

zverybestfamily, dgunbug : glad you are both enjoying the report. I hope you find something useful for your own journeys.

TRIP REPORT (Continued):
Day 7 : Thursday, May 14th: BEIJING :
Awoke early again at 5 am, and after breakfast in our apartment, we checked out of the hotel before 7am. We had a 9:30 am flight for Beijing that day.

It was just a 2 minute walk to the Melody Hotel, from where we had to board the Airport Shuttle Bus, but it was raining cats and dogs, and impossible to venture out in the rain with our luggage. We asked the lady at the hotel front desk to call a taxi to take us to Melody Hotel. She argued that it is only a 2-3 minute walk. I kept showing her the pounding rain, but she could not fathom why anyone would take a taxi for such a short distance. I spotted a taxi nearby, and called him over, and asked him to load our luggage. The reception lady came out running, and asked the taxi to stop loading our luggage ! This was getting out of hand. I said some stern words to her, and she explained that it will cost me 8 Rmb for the short journey. When she realized that I was fully aware of this, and prepared to pay the princely sum of 8 Rmb, she was shocked, and asked the taxi to resume loading our luggage !

Had a "wet" transfer to the Airport Shuttle Bus, and we were at the Xian airport by 7:45 am. Our flight was on time, and we reached Beijing Capital Airport by 11:30 am, where a taxi from our hotel was waiting for us. We reached the Bamboo Garden Hotel shortly after noon, and were very pleased with what we saw.Lovely room, well decorated, with a computer terminal and free internet connection thrown in. Nice large hotel grounds, with shady walkways (which we never found time to explore). Nice restaurant, and some English-speaking staff.

We had a nice Chinese lunch at the hotel restaurant. We needed to do our flight bookings for Guilin, and then on to Shenzhen. The hotel enquired from its travel agent, who quoted a rather high price. So I checked out "Ctrip" site on the computer, and found much lower rates. Called up Ctrip, and they offered to deliver the tickets to the hotel within an hour. This was good. Within the hour, the tickets were at our doorstep. My advice to all independent travelers to China is as follows : do not book your internal flight tickets in China until 3-4 days before the journey date, as that is when the best rates appear. Just call up Ctrip's toll free number from anywhere, and you can do the transaction on the phone itself, with them delivering the tickets to you.

Changed currency at the hotel desk (good rates), and left by 3:30 pm. The hotel was in the "prime Hutong area" of Beijing, near the Bell & Drom Towers, so we strolled into some Hutongs (i.e. alleys) nearby. We were finding the stroll interesting, when a pedicab approached us with a flyer for a Hutong Tour for 1 hour. We bargained him down to 30 Rmb for the full hour, and hopped on. Then followed a very interesting one-hour ride, into various hutongs, where we saw groups of people playing some checkers-like game in front of their houses, deeply engrossed along with an interested audience, totally oblivious to whatever else was going around. Took lovely photographs; always asked permission to click, and no one objected. They all appeared very friendly and happy. The pedicab also took us to some courtyards, where a young girl would emerge and ask for money in practiced English, to permit us to enter the compound for a peek. We avoided those tourist traps, and just focused on capturing daily Chinese life on our camera. Suddenly a long line of 20 pedicabs would emerge, all carrying tourists from some group tour, and provide a jarring edge to the hutong tour.

Our pedicab tour ended in front of the Drum & Bell Towers, where sat down on the terrace of the "Bell & Drum Bar" and had a coffee. Nice place, but overpriced. We then walked over to the Hua Hai lake area, and strolled on various roads lining the lake. Some of these streets were very touristy, with lots of bars, restaurants and interesting shops. Then a pedicab hauled us some further distance, and dropped us somewhere near the Qianhai Lake, which was prettier. We wanted to go to the Beihai park, but were told that it was closed.

After some long and rewarding walks by the lakefronts, we slowly started walking towards the veg restaurant where we planned to take dinner : "Wo Xing Wo Su", near the Zhanghzi Zhonglu metro stop. It had started drizzling by now, and the weather had suddenly turned very cold. We found the restaurant, and had a really nice dinner in this boutique establishment.

We had planned on going to Wangfujing Dajie after dinner, but the weather made us change our mind. The drizzle was getting heavier, and our hands were freezing. So we simply boarded the metro, got off at the Guloudajie stop, and went back to our hotel early for some much needed rest.

TRIP REPORT (Continued) :
Day 8 : Friday, May 15th : BEIJING :
This was to be a "big travel day", as we had planned on visiting Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City this day. For some reason, ever since the 1989 student uprising, Tiananmen Square had always intrigued me. The largest public square in the world, where riding a bicycle is forbidden, but tanks are OK, has to be someplace special !

We awoke at 6:30 am, and left the hotel by 8 am. Had a fruit breakfast at a roadside fruit shop, and boarded the metro from Guloudajie to Qianmen. Walked to Tiananmen Square. It took a while to get my bearings here. The place was huge, and there were understandably no signages in the middle of the Square. It took some time before I could understand which direction was North, and which monument was which.

Went past the "Front Gate" (which is a double-date), the Chairman Mao Memorial (where there was a huge huge line to enter), and the "Monument to People's Heroes", before entering the "Great Hall of People". The latter was quite opulent, specially the foyer, the smaller meeting rooms, the auditorium etc. After a satisfying tour of the "Great Hall of People", we returned to the Chairman Mao Memorial, where the crowds had considerably lessened by 11 am. As you enter the building, the first room which contains a large statue of Mao seated on a chair, hits you in the face with its splendor and life-like image. In the next room, as we walked past his embalmed body in a glass coffin, my hair stood up on ends - I was within handshaking distance of this legendary man !

Enjoyed strolling through the crowds on the huge Tiananmen Square ; couldn't really believe that I was actually standing on the Square. Then slowly walked south, towards the Front Gate. From the Front Gate, we walked further south on a newly revamped touristy road (very pretty architecture, though most shops have yet to start operations) called Qianmen Dajie. On reaching the end of the road after a long walk, we searched for a vegetarian restaurant called "Gongdelin", but could not locate it. A pedicab driver communicated to us through an English speaking lady that the restaurant had closed down, and offered to take us to another veg restaurant. I did not trust him, but decided to take the gamble. He took us through various alleys to a lovely looking restaurant and stopped. I stepped down and inquired if indeed it was vegetarian. To my surprise, it was a 100% veg restaurant. Further surprise. It was in fact the restaurant that we were searching for : Gongdelin, at its new changed location !

The restaurant was classy in ambiance, but the food was so-so. Asked them to write down their address in English, but they showed an inability to do so. Opened out a map, and asked them to point out where the restaurant was, and they again seemed unsure. All they could do was to hand out a business card written in Chinese. I wanted to fix the location of this place for a repeat visit (as I didn't know exactly where the pedicab had brought us), but gave up.

After lunch, we started walking back towards Tiananmen Square. A pedicab carried us most of the way. We got down at the corner of Qianmen, from where the tour buses leave for the Great Wall. Enquired about tours for the next day. Most tours are for Badaling. We wanted to go to Mutianyu. For Mutianyu, they said tours would leave subject to 20 passengers assimilating. We decided to skip these bus tours, and take a taxi for the Great Wall visit.

Continued walking across Tiananmen Square towards the northern end, the imposing "Gate of Heavenly Peace". A huge portrait of Mao hung outside. Went through the gate, past the Duan Gate, reaching the pretty Meridian Gate. Bought tickets for the Forbidden City, audio guides, and entered.

We had heard so much about the Forbidden City, but were not quite prepared for the onslaught of its beauty. The rooftops, with enameled stone tiles, looked so rich; the paintings on the Halls and the Pagodas were so vivid; it was being transported to a different world. DW kept imagining as to how the place must have appeared when all the inhabitants were around, and it was enthralling to visualize it all. One wanted to linger more, to see more, but the amount of walking we had done since the morning had caused our legs to become very weary by then. I don't know if visiting Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City on the same day makes sense, as it gets tiring. The distance you have to cover on foot is quite large, and there are no benches around to rest your body.

We reluctantly left at 4:30 pm, which was getting close to closure time. Exited from the Meridian Gate, and retraced our steps back to the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Then went to the Tiananmen East metro station, and rode the metro one stop to Wangfujing.

For some reason, I had imagined Wangfujing Dajie to be a flea market kind of shopping place. I was surprised to see a totally different scene before me - a nice shopping district, full of malls, and decent stores. We did do a fair amount of serious clothes shopping on Wanfujing Dajie: silk shawls, silk tops, Chinese-style shirts, hand-made cloth shoes etc. Good shops, with fair prices and good quality.

For dinner we went to "Sichuan Restaurant" just off Wangfujing Dajie. It is a very famous old restaurant of Beijing, and photographs on its walls testify to Zhou En Lai, Deng Xiao Ping etc all having dined here and hosted various banquets here. The restaurant appears a bit worn out, but the food was most excellent, and reasonably priced. We gorged on their fried eggplants with garlic & chilly, together with Dandan noodles.

We located a Foot massage place in a shopping mall, and treated ourselves to a lovely foot massage for 30 minutes each. The juices started flowing in the legs again, and suddenly we felt that we could walk again.

We then walked back to Tiananmen Square, near the Gate of Heavenly Peace, and saw the Square all lit up at night. People are not allowed on the main Square at night, but the sight is very pretty from anywhere nearby.

Just then we spotted a young man, wearing two gold medals, striking a very bizarre pose in the middle of a flower bed, getting himself photographed. The medals did not appear to be from the Beijing Olympics! The sight was hilarious, and when we could not control our laughter at the ludicrous scene, the subject in question saw us and started laughing too !

We boarded the metro at Tiananmen East, returned to our hotel by 10 pm, and crashed out after an exhausting but fulfilling day.

Your report continues to be wonderful. I am wondering though, why did you schedule your itinerary as you did? I would have thought you would have gone from Beijing to Xian and then to Guilan, but you seem to have flown back and forth. Was there a reason? Also, wondered if you had considered using the overnight trains and if so, why you chose flights instead. I look forward to the rest of your report. Thanks so much. - June

Hi thank you very much for your advice.The tour agent said it would be too difficult for us to go to GT wall without a guide as we won't know where to go and see everything-I guess he just wants to make money! Well, who Doesn't? I will just take a taxi -can I just get one from outside the hotel, or ask the hotel to arrange one for us. Language may be a problem to if we take one from outside. I noticed you stayed at BAMBOO garden hotel-would you recommend this hotel as one from where we could easily move around, with good facilities. I am rather fussy about bathrooms-I like having baths twice a day and want the bath to be clean, and toilet not too near bath-actually shower.We 3 will share a room and cost so we could get away with a hotel slightly above average in price.
Also the tour agent said that if we did Hutong tour on our own we will waste a lot of time since Beijing is a huge city with huge traffic jams. After what you said we will do it on our own. After reading your report I feel we shoud try and do things like you-it will out a lot cheaper! Only I wonder, will we manage to get our train and flight tickets easily according to our planned itenarary. Would it be OK for me to send you my itenarary and you could advice me furthur. I woud really appreciate this. I have paid a deposit to this agent, so I wonder what to do If we decide to do things ourselves?
Wolud you say it's best to stay in Wangfujing area or near Forbidden city?
Thanks again
I read that you are in Pune, how far is this from Mumbai?

dgunbug, perhaps it would have made more sense to fly from Shanghai to Beijing, then Xian and then Guilin. But if you add up the total travel time or the airfares, it does not really make much difference doing it in the order in which we did. I guess our motivation was to alternate between large cities and smaller ones, to give more variety. So we spaced out Shanghai, Beijing, and Hongkong, and put Xian and Yangshuo in between. We chose to fly rather than use overnight trains essentially to conserve time, as China is a large country, and we wanted to cover as much ground as possible in the limited time available. And if you purchase tickets 3-4 days before departure, the flight tickets are no different in cost to the train tickets (may even be cheaper).

faridabobat, it might be safer to book a taxi through your hotel. This is what we did. As for hotel location, I think it is more important that the hotel be within walking distance of a metro station, rather than the actual location within the city. If you are within a 5 minute walk to a metro station, you can pretty much get to anywhere in Beijing in a short time. The same would apply for a large city like Shanghai. We selected our Shanghai and Beijing hotels based on proximity to metro stations, and user reviews on tripadvisor.com ; I have no hesitation recommending Bamboo Garden Hotel to anyone.

I would not worry about getting train and flight tickets, unless you are traveling during one of the Chinese holiday periods. Otherwise, it is sufficient to book 3-4 days in advance, and much cheaper.

Doing the China trip yourself (without any agent) would be considerably cheaper, and more fun. But I hope you are a fairly experienced traveler, for otherwise it may also be a bit daunting.

Pune is only a two hour drive away from Mumbai.

How gracious our indiancouple is:

I would have noted that faridabobat joined Fodor's yesterday and tactfully suggested they do their OWN research and stop diverting this post to their own agenda.

Our heroes from Pune are only half-way through a huge task; one that will benefit countless others. This is becoming an encyclopedia of how to 'do it yourself in China'. It seems a shame to send it off in another direction.

This is not about YOU, faridobat, or your bathroom requirements, it's about THEM.

I would have noted that - but then, I'm a curmudgeonly sod. Our Indiancouple are far too cultured, too kind and too generous to suggest anything of the sort.