our first holiday to china

hello we are looking for advice on our first trip to china we are two ladys ones 67 and the other 51 we have travelled r ound thailand with ease and are now looking at china ...........we will be doing a month we do it on a tight budget and use public transport and eat local foodwe need to know best months to travel and where to also how long in each place we dont drink and loveto do local sights so any info would be apreciated

our first holiday to china

visit Beijing, shang hai, Xi%26#39;an

our first holiday to china

Visit Beijing of course! I also recommend going to Guilin it is really beautiful there! Also go to Lijiang and Dali in Yunnan if you get a chance. My favorite city is Chengdu in Sichuan province. If you want to go out west skip Dunhuang, its a tourist trap and worth only 2 hours of your time. Go to Jiayuguon and if your really adventurous go to Urumqi. I prolly spelled those last two cities incorrectly. I also think you should check out this site http://www.immersionguides.com/ for useful info too. I found some helpful phrasebook and guidebooks from them. Good luck and even though you say you dont drink, you have to if you come to China. Its a custom! When you go to some minority villages they make you have a shot bai jiu before you can come in....

Avoid mid summer as it can be very hot in most of China - post Olympics, mid-September-October would be better, Remember that to eat local food you will need at least some Mandarin as you will not find English spoken outside of 4 start hotels unlike Thailand. Youth Hostels are good. Hard sleeper on overnight trains is not as bad as it sounds - no worse than 2nd class on Eurail.

Best months overall probably September/October, avoid the 1st week of October though.

Your questions are too vague as there%26#39;re too many destinations in China to go to, you could spend a lifetime here and not see it all. Look on the following URLs for sightseeing information.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/m/1d57/

chinabackpacker.com/pn/modules.php鈥?/a>

chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-travel鈥?/a>

www.hillmanwonders.com/china/index.htm#_vtop

http://www.chinatrekking.com

鈥trip.com/Destinations/DestinationGuides.asp

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/china/

lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/鈥hina

roughguides.com/website/鈥?/a>

http://travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/

virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/China/TravelG鈥?/a>

Otherwise please be more specific about your sightseeing interests/preferences, points of entry/exit, expected daily budget etc.