china itinerary

Hello,

I%26#39;m headed to China for about 11 days this May with my family (all young or middle aged adults) and have been working on an itinerary and was wondering if anyone would be willing to let me know how it looks... that is, is it feasible and is there anything i should consider dropping/adding. I have some specific questions at the end as well. Advice and feedback is much appreciated. Thanks!!

Tuesday - arrive in Beijing ~3pm, explore city

Wednesday - tienamen square, forbidden city, jingshan park, confucius temple, lama temple, drum and bell towers. Evening: kung fu show

Thursday - the great wall at Mutianyu, stop by summer palace on the way back. Evening: chinese opera

Friday - temple of heaven, Niujie Mosque, (summer palace or old summer palace if not seen on Thursday or other sites missed on wednesday). Take train to Xi%26#39;an departing ~9pm.

Saturday - Arrive in Xi%26#39;an 8:30am, explore great mosque, muslim quarter, culture street and market area, South gate/city walls, big wild goose pagoda, small goose pagoda, bell tower, Shaanxi history museum, (if time, forest of stone tablets museum).

Sunday - terra cotta warriors museum and Huaqinghot springs/Li Shan, Banpo Matriarchal Clan Village

Monday - take train to Luoyang (leave 7:20am arrive 12:15pm). Explore White horse temple, Guanlin Temple, Luoyang Ancient Tombs Museum

Tuesday - leave early and goto longman caves. Depart to Shanghai: take 430pm or 8pm train

Wednesday - arrive 9 am or 1pm in shanghai and explore Jinmao tower, Oriental Pearl Tower, The Bund

Thursday - Yu Garden, Shanghai museum, French Concession, People%26#39;s square, Peace Hotel (+/- Shanghai History Museum), Jade Buddah Temple, Longhua Temple. Evening: Acrobat show

Friday - take morning train to Suzhou, explore gardens and canals of suzhou

Saturday 鈥?explore any missed sites from thursday in the morning, flight departs to US ~4pm

Okay, now a few specific questions:

1)How far ahead of time should we arrive at the train station (both to buy our tickets as well as to safely catch the train). Should i be at all concerned about tickets selling out for overnight soft-sleepers for Beijing-Xian and Luoyang-Shanghai routes. How about the 5 hr trip Xian-Louyang?

2)We initially planned to try to squeeze in Guilin instead of Louyang but ultimately decided against this as it would make for a lot of travel within a very short period. Was this reasonable or should we reconsider (i realize the two sites are quite different ... the longman caves versus natural beauty of Li river and the surrounding hills/mountainous terrain). Any thoughts??

3) Any days where we should try to squeeze in more or fewer sites or reorganize which sites we%26#39;ll visit based on location??

Again, many thanks.

china itinerary

Basically it looks okay. You certainly do not have time for Guilin.

Personally, I would drop Luoyang and spend an extra day in Beijing to make things more manageable. Also, it is not that great to go to Luoyang and still not have time to see Shaolin Temple.

You can get to a train station 45 minutes before a train departs. If it is the originating station, you can board the train ahead of time

china itinerary

Thanks a lot for the feedback. i%26#39;ll definitely do more research (sort of pieced this together off a couple of guidebooks/maps/internet research and wanted to see whether i had put something reasonable together).

I agree with spending an extra day in beijing and skipping Luoyang, but everyone else wants to see the caves which is reasonable, so we%26#39;ll squeeze them in. Would love to make it to shoalin temple (even though some of the reviews i%26#39;ve read are that it%26#39;s too touristy. but just not enough time since its more than 2 hours each way from Luoyang).

I%26#39;ll need to look into Luoyang to Suzhou trains, hadn%26#39;t thought of that.

We%26#39;ll be reaching luoyang on the 19th of May so i%26#39;m hoping things will be less busy by then??

Last question regarding the train tickets again. Should i try to purchase train tickets days ahead of time or from what i read it seems that soft sleepers are easy to get and hopefully i can purchase them an hour or two before the trip?? Also, for soft seats for Xian to Luoyang train, will i need to purchase this ahead of time or will i be okay buying tickets right before. We%26#39;re so tight on time, i would hate to miss our train due to lack of tickets.

Thanks again for the help!!

Once make decision,to hold on the train tickets is very very important. At same time, to inquire the hotel quota is important both from Internet and travel agency as well.

Very useful train tiemtable as follow:

Beijing-%26gt;Xian Z19 air 21:24-08:25(next day) Soft sleeper:420+30

Xian-%26gt;Luoyang K214 air 14:30-19:48 Hard: 110+30 S:160+30

Luoyang-%26gt;Suzhou 1657 air 20:05-11:22(ND) H:230+30,S:360+30

Suzhou-%26gt;Shanghai get tickets very easy at any time.

Note:1)Hard sleeper is divided into 3 layers,down/middle/upper,one wagon has 66 occupancies. Sofe sleeper has 2 layers,upper and down,4 in one cabin. 2) Ahead of 10 days deposite pay(20% of full rate),the tickets can be issued out. 3)1USD=7.0RMB(today) RMB is rising day by day than USD.

My understanding is that the soft sleepers on the Beijing- Xi%26#39;an trip run out and it%26#39;s best to get them when they go on sale - 10 days before they are to be used. You can usually get the hotel where you will be staying to get them for you.

I (4 of us) went to China from 10/14/07 to 11/1/07 start with Bejing. We went to all those places that you have mentioned. Definitely go to Mutianyu part of the Great Wall and take the sled down the hill--sooo much fun.

We took the overnight sleeper train from Bejing to Luoyang. I definitely recommend the Longman Caves. However, the overnight train ride was an experience. The trains in China are not exactly up to date on comfort. Hope you and your family are traveling light or you are with a tour group that will take care of the baggages because the cabin is very small. Each cabin holds 4 people, you might (certain) have to share the cabin with other people if you can%26#39;t fill up the cabin.

In Xian, you could go to the Drum/Bell towers, muslin quarter and street market on your own (all located near the Drum/Bell towers. You don%26#39;t need a tour guide to go there, just take a taxi and tell the front desk that you want to go the Drum tower from you hotel. You have to go to the Starbucks near the drum tower.

The museum (similar in Shanghai) is OK and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda is just an empty shell. Not much to it. Instead, if you could spent more time at the City Wall and bike (cheap rentals) the whole wall (8 miles). Very fun to see both sides of Xian from the wall.

Our last stop was in Shanghai. My sugguestion for your wednesday, go to the Shanghai museum, then the Bund. We didn%26#39;t go up to the Jinmao %26amp; Oriental towers. You can go to the French Concession (called Xin Tian Di in China) at night; very nice place to eat and drink. The shops %26amp; restaurants are catered to westerners.

On Thursday, you might want to go Zhujiajiao, about 40 minutes from Shanghai (similar to Suzhou, a water village and if you are brave enough, eat the Chinese Tamales there-very well know for that kind of food there. Do you research) that morning and afternoon to Yu Garden and other places.

We did not go to Suzhou.

If you travel on you, make sue to do all your research on purchasing train/airplane tickets. We went with Travel china guide at www.travelchinaguide.com. Very reasonable price guided tour and we did have any problems even through the travel company is located in Xian. You don%26#39;t have join a large tour group and instead your family is the tour group (private tour). Private tours are very popular and common in China that they arrange everything for you, so you don%26#39;t have to worry at all. Each city we went to, we have a tour guide and a minivan driver. You could organize your own itinerary. Hope my information will help you.

You need to rearrange your itinerary.

I%26#39;m sorry but the Beijing part sounds overly optimistic unless all of you can teleport. I%26#39;ve chosen to skip the less important sights in order to have a reasonable amount of time at the remaining ones.

Tue: arrive Beijing 1500, check-in hotel, perhaps Qianhai/Houhai nightlife

Wed: Tiananmen Square flag-raising, Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, Wangfujing, kungfu performance

Thu: Summer Palace, Chinese opera performance

Fri: Temple of Heaven, Yonghegong Lamasery, overnight train Beijing West -- Xi%26#39;an

The Banpo matriachal stuff in Xi%26#39;an seems to garner rather lousy opinions so I think it would be ok to skip that.

Sat: arrive Xi%26#39;an, Terracotta Warriors, bike ride on city walls, Bell Tower, Great Mosque %26amp; Muslim Quarter

Sun: Shaanxi Provincial History Museum, Big Goose Pagoda, dumpling feast

Mon: bus Xi%26#39;an -- Luoyang (4 hours, faster than the train), Guanlin Temple, Longmen Grottoes

Tue: White Horse Temple, Ancient Tombs Museum, train Luoyang -- Shanghai

I believe you can only get sleeper tickets on train 1660/1657 (1956--1247) for Luoyang -- Shanghai. Actually, to save on backtracking you should just get the train Luoyang -- Suzhou instead: 1660/1657 (1956--1122).

Wed: Lion Grove OR Master-of-Nets Garden (pick one), Coiled Gate, Suzhou Museum

Thu: Hanshan Temple, Shantang Jie, afternoon train Suzhou -- Shanghai, Xintiandi

Peace Hotel is currently closed for renovations.

Fri: Yuyuan Gardens %26amp; Bazaar, Old City area, Shanghai Museum, Nanjing Lu pedestrian street, the Bund, acrobat performance

Sat: Jade Buddha Temple, French Concession area, flight out 1600

1) Tickets go on sale 10 days in advance. Please get your tickets ahead of time, might have to get your hotel to help with this. Otherwise I doubt you%26#39;ll be able to get sleeper tickets on-the-spot, especially if you%26#39;re travelling around the 1st week of May. For boarding, be at the train station 30-45 mins before departure time.

2) Very different sights so this decision would depend on your sightseeing interests/preferences and also if you could afford to fly. I personally think Luoyang is a better option though.

3) I just did that for you above.

I just came back from a weekend trip to Luoyang/Shaolin and Shaolin Temple was extremely crowded. Our tour guide was quite outstanding though.

thanks ellyse for the advice ... how did you like luoyang and the shaolin temple? How long does it take to get to and tour each?? I%26#39;ve heard mixed things about the temple (perhaps because it is so crowded)?? If definitely worth seeing, we could probably manage to see it if we just focus on the longman caves one day and the shoalin temple the next (the other sites in Luoyang seem nice but certainly not %26#39;can%26#39;t miss%26#39; stature). Thanks again for all the advice.

I would give the better half of a day for each. It took our chartered bus about 1.5 hours to get from Luoyang to Shaolin Temple, early morning on a Sunday: left our hotel at around 0750 and arrived at Shaolin Temple at around 0930.

Both are worth seeing, though I was a little underwhelmed since I%26#39;m seeing both for the 2nd time. The kungfu performance at Shaolin Temple was still extremely outstanding though.