China Travel Forum

[Martin]

Hi,
I and my other half are starting our trip in about 10 days .our first stop is China. and i need to know a good hostel or cheap hotel to stay in Beijing which should be convinient to the railway station. I have looked at the information provided on this site but would like the advice of someone who has actually stayed in a place themselves.
We are spending 3 days roughly there and then getting the train down nourth -west, stopping along the way. We have been advised to get the Xian rail pass but the information is slighty confusing. Is this the right thing to do because it is expensive as well.
I just need some guidence as to where to stay and what the best sights to see while in Xian. We plan on staying in Xian for a total 3 days and plan to fit alot in (i hope) in that amount of time. can you recommend me about silk-road that start from Xian?
Thanks

[kamal]

the time you are going to spendl on silk road is not enough.The scenic spots you are going to see armore. in Beijing don't need to worry much about the Hotel.I think it is better to live Hotels arround Wangfujing or live in Wangfujing hotel. Three-day is enough for beijing and take a night train to xian(if you can prelong your time in china see Hangzhou for two days by the way) and three days in Xian is more than enough. take night train to Urumqi from Xian that take about 35 hours.
four days In xinjiang is not enough if you wanna see all that you mentioned.
take a circle trip that urumqi , Kucha,Kashgar,Hotan,Keria,Urumqi.
Have fun