China Travel Forum

[Robert]

here are my travel plans for my Chinatrip.
The trip should start at Mid-June and should be around 20 days.
I am interested in:
food,some shopping,architecture,culture,nature.
Only restriction:
I arrive at Beijing and depart from Hong Kong. I will stay at a friend's house in HongKong. I will probably travel alone (if someone wants to join, you are welcome).
My budget restrictions aren't that tight: I am able to fly (if necessary) between distant cities and Hotels/Hostels should be clean, with 24h hot water and own bathroom
My questions are:
- Is it worth to pack in more cities (Datong, Pingyao, Shanghai, Kunming)?
- Getting from Yangshuo to Hong Kong, is the bus to Guilin -> plane to Shenzhen -> bus to Hong Kong a good method?
- All the train tickets and internal flights will be booked in China, as it seems to be cheaper, is this correct?
- is it worth to stay 1 day in Macao or better enjoy more of Hong Kong?
Regarding hostels:
Is it better to book the hotels in advance? Any suggestions regarding websites or hotels? This seems to be changing very rapidly, so is it worth sticking to the travelguides?
Please post your comments. Any opinion is welcome and valuable.
Thank you very much in advance...

[Tim]

I might suggest taking two days or three out of Beijing and put a flight to Kunming after Xi'an. Later take the train over to Guilin from Kunming. Since you want more nature, I would take three to four days around Kunming by going first west to Dali and Tiger Leaping Gorge. There is also some sort of water falls about half way from Kunming to Guilin, although I never stopped to see it.
Then I would cut your Yang Shuo part by two days and travel further south down to Zhan Jiang and over to Hai Kou. You could travel on the third night of Yang Shuo and get into Zhan Jiang in the morning while sleeping on the train. Hard sleeper is a good choice. Then take the overnight train from Zhan Jiang over to Shen Zhen, cross the border and take the train into Hong Kong. I wouldn't bother with the bus through the New Territories to Hong Kong.
Even though it is summer, you can book everything when you get into each area. Use the travel guides as help in finding the right places. I never stayed at anything over 2 stars so can't help with the more posh places. My preference was to not have a tolet in the room as it alway seemed to stink unless you are staying in 4 and 5 star places. And it was much cheaper to purchase a bed in a door style room. You got to meet a lot of fellow travelors too.
As long as you have the time and money, go to Macau. It is a short hydroplane ride across the bay.

Have fun.

[Guest]

don't try and do too much. from bejing fly to kunming and spend a week in yunnan then go to yangshuo (train/flight). From yangshuo, bus to guilin and train/flight to shenzhen, cross the border and get on train to hong kong island.

don't do datong - out of your way, polluted dump, you don't have much time. there're some great caves but it's a day excursion away from datong. shanghai is brilliant but given the time stick to kunming and yangshuo and hong kong/macao. macao day trip from hong kong so may as well go see portuguese architecture