josep_requena

Hi all!

I am planning a two week trip to China with my girlfriend for August this year. I want to make the trip by free and I wanted to ask you a couple of initial questions to start preparing it. The main question would be the route ... I had originally thought about flying back and forth to Beijing and the route would be more or less:

Spend a couple of days in Beijing to see the city and take a trip to the great wall. From Beijing, take a flight to Zhangjiajie and spend a couple of days seeing the natural parks there. From there go to spend a night in Fenghuang. From Fenghuang go to spend a few days in Guilin to do the excursions on the river and the fields. And from Guilin back to Beijing to catch the flight back to Spain.

Do you think it's a good route? Do you recommend me to change it or do you think I'm leaving basic things? I know that China is huge and has many beautiful sites and that I will be missing a lot but with a trip of two weeks I can not do much more. Any advice will be very grateful, as well as tips on how to move around the country. Do you recommend using English-speaking local guides for individual tours?

Thank you very much in advance and greetings,

Josep

thursdaysd

[/QUOTE] I want to make the trip by free[/QUOTE]

Sorry, that doesn't make sense.

There is a great deal to see in Beijing, two days is very short. Guilin is very touristy.

I recommend good guidebooks, not local guides.

josep_requena

Thanks for answering! Yes, when I say a couple of days, I mean a few days, whatever is necessary. I hope I will have much more time to see everything well ...

CanadaChinaTraveller

It is doable but not the best plan. These places are rather far apart. You will waste a lot of time with transportation.

kja

I felt rushed with "only" 6 days for my visit to Beijing.
I'm glad I included Xi'an on that trip.

Good luck!

josep_requena

Thanks for the tips! And yes, I will consider closer cities

jacketwatch

Last September we went to China. I agree 6-7 days in Beijing is good. We did 6 days and still didn’t see any of the museums. Also agree about going to xi’an to see the terra cotta Warriors. We took a bullet train from Beijing which took about six hours. Three days there would be ok and you would have 3-4 days left to go to Hong Kong too if you so desire. In any case you need more time in Beijing IMO.

jacketwatch

Trip report; Beijing, Xian and Kuala Lumpur

Heres a link to my TR.

josep_requena

Hello jacketwatch, thank you very much for your information! I have been watching your trip and it seems very complete and beautiful. The truth is that it takes many days to see these types of cities. Although, truthfully, my girlfriend and I tend to like landscapes more than cities. That's why I had included mountain sites and passages on my route. I have to think it over, but all your advice is very helpful

jacketwatch

Thank for for your compliment.

Best of luck in your planning.

I think having some sort of translation app on your phone would be most helpful.

Cheers, Larry.