My husband, my 4 yrs old and I will be going to the Beijing Olymics in early August. We have plan to visit Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou and the river cruise from Yichang to Chongqing after Beijing before flying to HK. With the earthquake and the fact that the road to Jiuzhaigou is blocked, we have to cancel that. I now need a plan B quick. We are looking for some place to go for about 10 days, Aug 16 thru 26, preferrably in China since we are there already. Any suggestions?

Well Snobot, we are in the same boat. Three kids and three adults going to the Olympics. We wanted to wait until we were in China to decide on our last eight days but we got spooked by the need to list hotel reservations on the visa application.

So we have come up with the not very novel tour of Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an. Oh well, should be fun anyways.

Xian and Guilin, while more touristed, are good choices and easy to get too. The countryside around Guilin is very pretty and lends itself to walking and biking. Xian offers much more than just the terra cotta warriors and I think the rural areas around it would be worth exploring as well. While I am not a huge fan of Shanghai, it has a good museum and good restaurants, it’s not a rural experience however. You could also visit the water towns for a day or more from Shanghai. You might consider Lijiang in Yunnan Province, which has a very lovely preserved old village area interspersed with canals, and is in a really beautiful mountain area with the beautiful Tiger Leaping Gorge, which may be a very good substitute for the Jiuzhaigou valley area (have not been to the latter). Some good walking and hiking here. You can also visit villages in the Yunnan area and places like Dali. Also consider Tibet as you can fly or train there (may be some visa issues during the Olympics, so check on this). I like the city of Quindao (sailing events are being held there), it was a former German concession and still has a fun beer hall atmosphere, and is on the sea. It’s a big city, but still interesting, and I think there are areas outside the city which would be more rural. This would be quite off the regular tourist path.

With regard to Hainan Island, while it is generally a nice island, in August you may have more rain than you bargained for, take a look at weatherbase.com and see Haikou and also look for stats on Sanya, where most of the resorts are located. I live in Hong Kong, which has similar weather pattern, and we get a lot of rain in August and the odd (well more than odd, pretty regular) typhoon in August. While in Hong Kong rain may not overly interfere with sightseeing, it can for a beach vacation. Just bear this in mind. (Do not ask why the Olympics are being held in August, including the equestrian events here in Hong Kong, even though it will probably pour with rain as it did during the handover in 1997. Has to do with luck.)

There are plenty of places to visit in the vicinity of Beijing. You can have plenty of day or 2 day trips to the Red Snail Temple, Chengde, etc.
You can check my blog where you can find my summaries of trips around Beijing: http://travel.chinafinds.com

Regarding Hainan Island, I own a small B&B on the in Boao. Currently we get a brief shower around 4pm. The island is easy to get around and the kids would LOVE Monkey Island!

Check us out at
www.hainan-letsgo.com

-elizabeth

a newly-launched tour consulting website is worthy to have a look http://www.sino-impression.com

Well

I have been to China two years ago, with a friend, for a kinf of road trip.
We have been to Shanghai, Beijing, Lhasa, Kunming, Lijiang and the south west of China. And we have seen families every where, even in Tibet, in some very wild area.
You can go almost everywhere, but in ten days, you should stay in China. Shanghai (10 hours by train from beijing), Suzhou (really close to Shanghai), Guilin, and even Kunming, Dali !! In ten days, you have enough time to do a little trip in those cities.

With my friend, we spent 4 days in Beijing, 4 in Shanghai and Suzhou, and 10 in the Yunan + 10days in Tibet...So , for 10 days, many things to do !!

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