| Beijing |
RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Wed March 7, 2007 02:27 AM UTC
1) How many days do you exactly have in China?
2) What are your sightseeing preferences and interests?
3) What's your budget like?
4) Do you have any knowledge of Chinese at all?
5) What's "inchoate"?!
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| Beijing |
RE: RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Wed March 7, 2007 03:13 AM UTC
End of May beginning of June shouldnt be a problem to find accomodation. there are youth hostels in almost every town your are going..dont know about Pingyao, but if there isnt a youth hostel there will certainly be a cheap Chinese 3* hotel somewhere!
As for the Great Wall, I like Simatai the best. You would probably need to arrange transportation to get you out there as getting on and off local buses and private cars would be too much of a nuisance for someone who doesnt speak Chinese. You can arrange that through a hotel/hostel or find out form people who have been to Beijing before who they went through.
The ides of using guide books is good as that means you are never sure of what you are going to come across(both fun and frightening!) and by not using a guide, you are at your own free will to go wherever you want and whenever.
But just remember, Chinese people will try to scam you at any given moment...they will do it VERY well, they are trained at it...so dont compare prices with what they would be back home, use your common sense and work out what they should be for chinese rates. If someone tells you that a particular place you want to go to is closed for the day and that they are prepared to take you somewhere else instead, dont believe them..it is a scam..they will get commission for taking you to this other place...go with your instincts, move away and ask another driver instead! You'll get the hang of it and by the end of the trip, you'll be pros!!!
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| Beijing |
RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Wed March 7, 2007 03:40 PM UTC
Maybe you should post your rough plan first, then we can give you some advices. Now we don't know where to start? Transportation, spots, warning? according to your interests.
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| Beijing |
RE: RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Wed March 7, 2007 09:58 PM UTC
Thanks for info and advices. There are some more of our plans: We will be in China for 2 weeks. Start and finish in China. Have not so bad knowledge about social, political, cultural situation in China, but do not speak a single word in the language and have never been there. In Europe we like to visit old towns, with walls and castles, but also the beautiful environmental places like waterfalls, mountains, rivers etc. But we are concious that China is a different world, especially because the scale. I know that 2 weeks are extremely short time, but hope to see something like "China in a nutshell".
I have written above where we probably will go - Beijing, Great Wall, Datong, Xi'an, maybe seaside. But I am afraid that there are many interesting places around, which we don't know from books. For example we think that it could be good idea to spend a day or two in the village in Inner Mongolia, but is it actually worth to visit it and how to organize such a trip?
Budget? You know, we are rather kind of backpackers, don't need luxery appartaments, standard double rooms in 2-stars hotel should be enough... AFAIK trains for us are not expensive. Food too. So hope not to spend too much money, but if it will be wise and reasonable we are ready for extra expenses (e.g. flying from one Chineese city to another, but we do not know the prices yet). Of course we don't want to overpay, so the fair and up-to-date prices in China are interesting for us.
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| Beijing |
RE: RE: RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Thu March 8, 2007 06:13 AM UTC
If you travel from the end of May to the middle of June in China, I suggest you may visit Longsheng/Guilin/Yangshuo.
Longsheng is renowned for it's rice terraces, June will be the best season for visiting Longsheng caz visitors may see splendid view after irrigation.
Yangshuo is a lovely town with wonderful Karst Geology along beautiful Yulong River.
Only 5-8 euro for a hostel room and everything affordable.
You may search www.elong.com or www.ctrip.com or www.cs-air.com/en/ for discounted air fare.
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| Beijing |
RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Thu March 8, 2007 09:42 AM UTC
China's beaches are not really anything to sing about, so don't feel obliged to include those.
Some sample itineraries:
a) Beijing (3 days) -- overnight train -- Pingyao (1 day) -- overnight train -- Xi'an (2 days) -- overnight train -- Luoyang (1.5 days) -- bus -- Shaolin Temple (1 day) -- bus -- Zhengzhou (only for transit) -- flight (via Guilin) -- Yangshuo (3 days) -- flight (via Guilin) -- Shanghai (2 days) -- overnight train -- Beijing (flight out)
b) Beijing (3 days) -- overnight train -- Pingyao (1 day) -- overnight train -- Xi'an (2 days) -- flight -- Jiuzhaigou (3 days) -- flight -- Chengdu (1.5 day) -- flight (via Guilin) -- Yangshuo (3 days) -- flight (via Guilin) -- Beijing (flight out)
c) Beijing (3 days) -- overnight train -- Xi'an (2 days) -- overnight train -- Nanjing (1.5 days) -- bus/overnight train -- Huangshan (3 days) -- bus -- Hangzhou (2 days) -- flight -- Qingdao (1.5 days) -- flight -- Beijing (flight out)
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| Beijing |
RE: RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Thu March 8, 2007 11:49 AM UTC
From my opinion, for a history or cultural purpose, you should Beijing-Datong-Pingyao-Xi'an, all by train.
The train (Datong-Pingyao, Pingyao-Xi'an) is not speed, the condition is not good enough, so you should buy tickets of soft sleeper.The number(Datong-Pingyao):2462/2463. The train(Pingyao-Xi'an) number:2353 or 1674/1675. You can stay in Youth Hostel in Beijing, Pingyao, Xi'an. But I don't know if there is in Datong. The first thing when you check in the hostel/hotel is booking the tickets to the next place. Because you will not stay in Datong and Pingyao for a couple of days.
Beach is boring, not special. I recommend that you stay in Beijing for 3/4 days, in Xi'an no less than 3 days. Then go to Jiuzhaigou-Chengdu.(flight,then flight.) or Chengdu-Jiuzhaigou (train/flight depends on the discount of flight-bus). If you have time, go to Yangshuo, if you have no time, spend more days in Chengdu, there are many places around it.
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| Beijing |
RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Fri March 9, 2007 06:01 AM UTC
It's better for you to visit Longsheng/Yangshuo instead of Jiuzhaigou in the early of June.
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| Beijing |
RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Fri March 9, 2007 11:38 AM UTC
Hi Mark
Strongly recommend that you visit Pingyao - if you like castles etc I think you will like the "authentic" feel of Pingyao- for us it was a highlight. We also really liked Yangshuo. If you have a look at our pages you'll see why we loved both these places.
We usually booked our flights/train journey through hotel staff - we never had a problem - it may be different traveling in June.
In terms of hotel accommodation I booked and paid most beforehand over the net but then we stayed mostly in 3 star hotels as opposed to backpacker accommodation.As Victoria has indicated you will need to be careful of scams. When we arrived in Beijing and tried to find our hotel a little old gentleman "offered" to help us and then proceeded to take us to a hotel of his choice!
I do think that if you only have two weeks you might consider taking a couple of flights to destinations- travelling by plane is quite cheap but it is quick!
I suggest you have a good look at all the wonderful information on the VT site!
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| Beijing |
RE: I know much more, but... Posted: Sun March 11, 2007 01:34 AM UTC
You are great, thanks for recommendations and inspiration. Now we consider route such as: Beijing (1 day in city) - Datong (1 day) - Pingyao (2 days) - Xi'an (2 days) - Guilin/Yangshao (4 days) - Beijing (3 days).
Do you think it is good and practical? Will we manage buy train tickets in Beijing for the next day? Is it very warm and wet in the Guilin region during beginning of June? Maybe Jiuzhaigou will be better place and cheaper to go? And what about spending time in Beijing at the end of the all journey?
Are there direct fights Xi'an-Guilin and Guilin-Beijing? The former I couldn't find, the latter I have seen with prices like ¥1800 - is it a good price; couldn't be less?
How long before flights should we make reservations? Are www.elong.com and www.ctrip.com reliable pages? Should we have of visas once making reservation for domestic flights?
Sorry for so many questions, but you are the best experts ;-) Real travelers, real info.
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| Beijing |
RE: RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Sun March 11, 2007 02:37 AM UTC
It's more expensive to visit Jiuzhaigou than Guilin.
It's not so hot in the early of June in Guilin.
There are direct flights between Xi'an-Guilin and Guilin-Beijing, full fare of the fomer is RMB1090 plus tax & fee and full fare of the latter is RMB1790 plus tax & fee.
However,as I've mentioned in other posts, you may get your fare as cheap as 60% off if you have fixed your itinerary,which means RMB440 for a flight between Xi'an and Guilin, while RMB720 for a flight between Guilin and Beijin.
Simply log on:
http://ec.cs-air.com/B2C/modules/order/bookOrder.jsp
If you can not find discounted air fare on this web, try www.elong.com or www.ctrip.com and click 'english' on the right top of the main page.
If you fly back to Beijing from Guilin for your last 3 days tour, it's better for you to visit Longsheng first, then go to Yangshuo. Otherwise it will be tough for you to climb the rice terrace as well as The Great Wall within few days.
Good Luck.
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| Beijing |
RE: RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Sun March 11, 2007 04:41 AM UTC
I would recommend putting the days in Beijing at the front instead of the back. 2 main reasons: jet-lag recuperation and onward ticket purchasing.
Jiuzhaigou is always good to visit, but yes, it would be much more expensive than the Yangshuo region. The admission ticket alone is 220 + 90 = 310 RMB.
Yes, there're direct flights for both Xi'an -- Guilin and Guilin -- Beijing. It's way too early to be looking for discounted flight prices, looking after 8/5 would be timely. VTMail me with your dates if you want me to keep an eye on the flight prices for you.
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| Beijing |
RE: I will thank for every piece of information... Posted: Fri March 16, 2007 10:37 AM UTC
The plan sounds good. But two days in Xi'an is not enough, you'll miss many things.I think, at least stay there for 2.5 days, fly away at the third day's afternoon.Then make a efficient plan of Xi'an.
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