One last thing, you should check if your cell phones (the actual phone, not your service) works in China. If it does, you can pick up sim cards for 50-100 rmb. The cell phone coverage is excellent, and it might be the difference between a ruined trip and a good one.
when is your trip? does your tour include hotels or just the flight? does the flight cover any of the domestic bits? how many days in china?
whatever you do, get etickets. much easier and if you lose the paper ticket you have to buy a new one. search and you should be able to do this on line and in advance.
I second suggestion you do an overnight train. soft sleeper is 4 beds to a closed compartment. I did shanghai to beijing recently for about $50.
give more details on trip, # people and budget, and i’ll give suggestions. sounds like a do it yourself tour, so I recommend quality time in just 2-3 cities.
china guy, who just took his boss, wife & 6 year old to the great wall mutianyu section on saturday. also am author of a long out of print guidebook to southwest china published 1987.
We depart from MSP to PEK on 3/25 and arrive the night of the 26th. We leave from PVG on 4/05. So that’s 11 nights and 10 full days. It’s going to be a do-it-ourselves tour so we’re assembling this Frankenstein piece by piece.
There are 5 of us altogether. 2 adults and 3 kids (ages 5/7/13), so I’m thinking 2 hotel rooms (preferably with adjoining rooms with the kids in one and peace & quiet in the other 
).
For hotels: We’d like to keep the total for both rooms around 800 RMB a night. One hotel that caught my eye was the Astor House in Shanghai which is a bit more than that, but seemed to be in a good location and good quality. If the place has a breakfast, that’s a huge bonus too.
Destinations: Well, it’s a bit up in the air. We know we have to move at some point down to Shanghai and it seems we have enough time to hit a 3rd city for sure. I’m thinking either Xi’an or Guilin. It sounds like both **Treis **and you are recommending doing the overnight train. I think it’d be great to do for one of the legs and then do a plane for the other leg. Any suggestions on that? **Treis **, would we be able to squeeze the two young 'uns in one bed in the soft sleeper so we don’t have to play odd man out (I don’t mind paying full fare obviously, we just would feel better having everyone in one room).
Well, I think you can’t go wrong with a Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai for a first trip. You probably want at least 3 nights in Beijing. Plan with jet lag that you go to bed early and get up early (which is good for a tourist). Maybe do 4 nights Beijing, one night train to Xi’an, 2 nights Xi’an, 3 nights Shanghai.
hmm, we still have some time. I’ve got some vacation around Christmas and can hunt around some details for you like hotels, planes and trains. I use an agent through work so I don’t know that stuff off hand.
Beijing - with a 5 year old I wouldn’t recommend going crazy on the wall and some of the less developed parts. Where we went Mutianyu on Sat was just about right for a 5-6 year old. Actually, you take the cable car up to the high point, walk mostly downhill with one big section up, and then can take a sled ride down on a track (which is a blast). The older kids can go off on the non rebuilt parts if they want. We left at 8:00 and back at the hotel by 1:30 with a hired van. 2 hours on top of the wall.
Temple of Heaven is kinda cool. Long walk though. Tiananmen and the forbidden city (and the park on the hill behind the forbidden city). I like Lama Temple (yonghegong), and listening to the tibetan monks chant.
Ming tombs are probably a pass.
I haven’t been to Xi’an but everyone says the terra cotta army is a must see, especially if you’re not on a tour. Likewise, a lot of people enjoy exploring the city itself, which is really old and historic.
You might want to think about a different place that’s logisitically more between Beijing and Shanghai like maybe Qingdao, but Xi’an is probably more of a once in a lifetime experience. Guilin is okay, and the Lijiang River cruise nice, but I think it’s way out of your route and not so great. If you really dig caves, then maybe. And you would want to stay in Yangshou and not Guilin. Still, it’s out of the way and requires a round trip flight…and you want to avoid flying just because it eats up time.
Another hint, if you fly in China, take the first flight of the morning (8:00 am ish). It’s generally on time but no guarantee for the rest of the day. I personally love Tibet, and you might want to think about Jiuzhaigou, but it’s pretty far out of the way from Beijing.
Shanghai doesn’t require a lot of time. Definately keep at least one day or a day and overnight free for visiting one of the river towns like Tongli or Zhouzhuang. That’s pretty unique. Shanghai is good to wander for a day. Skip all the ancient stuff and get that in Beijing or Xi’an or elsewhere.
Anyhoo, I’ve got some time around Xmas and can check out some arrangements for hotel, travel, etc for you then.
Yeah, you could fit two small kids on one of the beds if they are good with sharing. You might want to bring an extra blanket and pillow though.
As for where to go, I’d say one day for Forbidden Palace and the park behind it, one day for Tienanmen Square and Temple of Heaven, one day for the Wall, and a half day for the Summer Palace. Then take the night train to Xi’an. Thats 4 days and 5 nights including travel.
Xi’an was one of my favorite cities in China. It’s a good city to just wander in. You should take a half a day and go see the Terra Cotta Warriors. Hire a van and a driver instead of taking a guided tour, because they will bring you to places and try to sell you crap. Places to hit include Muslim street and the Great Mosque, Big Goose Pagoda, and biking on top of the wall. I’d say three days is good, and take the night train to Shanghai.
Shanghai is probably a better city to live in than visit, but the Jin Mao Tower, and the Shanghai People’s Museum (in People’s Square) are definitely worth seeing.
Wow! So much information! We are loving this, thanks so much. We’d REALLY appreciate your help planning this trip. Please let us know if we can take you out for dinner or bring anything from Minnesota that you’re not getting over there.
I’m back in the USA after spending the summer in China, but thanks for the offer.
One more, thing I really recommend looking into staying in Hostels over Hotels. They might not have the immaculate cleanliness of a standard hotel, but if you are a clean freak China isn’t for you. The Leo Hostel is a sweet place right in the middle of Beijing. It’s on a cool shopping street, and about a 5 minute walk from Tienanmen Square. We stayed in The Xi’an Shuyuan International Youth Hostel and it was fine. I don’t have any specific recommendations for Shanghai, but I am sure there are tons.
Hostels are going to be a lot cheaper, and best of all, will have cheap beer and very good Western food available.
I’ve driven by the Leo Hostel and can confirm it’s probably about as well located in Beijing as you could ask for. It’s down the street from the $200/night Grand Hyatt. The Hostel probably can do you a much better and interesting deal on stuff to do in Beijing than a 5 star hotel.
BTW, China is quite safe. You get some pick pockets but just treat it cautiously like any other big city and you’ll be fine. It’s really rare for a crime of violence against westerners, and usually that happens when tourists are just completely stupid and usually involves alcohol and hookers.
I’ll email you and we can take some of this off the boards