Would this itinerary work?

My husband and I are off to China in about three weeks for an eleven day trip鈥攙ery excited! We鈥檙e still working out the details of our itinerary, though, and I wanted to run our plans past the very knowledgeable patrons of these forums, to see if we鈥檙e kidding ourselves with everything we want to do and see.

Here is the current plan:

Day 1 (Fri): Arrive Beijing early afternoon

Sat: Beijing

Sun: Beijing/Great Wall

Mon: Beijing; overnight train to Xi%26#39;an

Tue: Xi鈥檃n; fly to HK in evening

Wed: Hong Kong

Thu: Macau (stay overnight)

Fri: Hong Kong; fly to Shanghai in evening

Sat: Shanghai

Sun: Shanghai/maybe a day trip to a water town

Mon: Shanghai; fly to Beijing in evening or next morning

Tues: Beijing

Wed: Fly home

It%26#39;s a pretty packed schedule, but it feels do-able and not TOO crazy (at least in theory!). Any advice? Are there any obvious flaws in it that we鈥檙e unaware of (besides the fact that we鈥檙e not spending as much time as I鈥檓 sure we鈥檒l want to in these cities)? Any advice would be appreciated鈥攊t鈥檚 our first trip to China, and it may be the only one we can take for a long while鈥?/p>Would this itinerary work?

You will need a double entry visa as you exit China when you visit HK.

Can%26#39;t you get an open jaw ticket? Fly in Beijing and out of HK or Shanghai?

While I love Macau, I%26#39;d probably drop it and give myself more time in either Beijing or Hong Kong.

Overnight train back to Beijing? Or fly back to Beijing on Wednesday and then continue home. Would save a trip to the airport.

Would this itinerary work?

Yes, we%26#39;re getting multi-entry visas, but couldn%26#39;t do open-jaw, so it%26#39;s roundtrip from Beijing. Not ideal, but it was all we could do.

Overnight train from Shanghai back to Beijing (saving on a hotel) does sound appealing...

Ok, presuming you really want to go to Hong Kong and save money, fly to Shenzhen instead of Hong Kong. Then fly from Shenzhen to Shanghai (or do you have these flights to HK as a free add on?)

Alas, no, nothing free (except our stay in Shanghai, when we%26#39;ll be with friends). I had heard that flying to Shenzen would be cheaper--how long does it take to get to/from HK proper from there? If it%26#39;s complicated, it might be worth the extra $ to us to save our (already limited) time.

Thank you so much for responding! I%26#39;m glad that the itinerary doesn%26#39;t seem too off-the-wall.

Flying to Shenzhen rather than Hong Kong will involve slightly more travel time on the ground but it%26#39;s not complicated. If you are booking one way flights, you will also save a significant amount of money.

Too rushed, I say. Less time in Shanghai and skip the water village.

Well, turns out we%26#39;re going to have to re-work this itinerary anyway, as only one of us was granted a multi-entry visa (!), so HK/Macau are out of the picture. Lijiang or Yangshuo have been suggested to us as other destinations to visit instead, or possibly Nanjing.

We haven%26#39;t researched these new locations yet, so we%26#39;ll be looking into it, but if anyone has a strong pro/con feeling on any of them, please do share! (I don%26#39;t think we%26#39;ll cut Shanghai down to under two and a half days, however, as we%26#39;re visiting friends there.)

Strange that one of you doesn%26#39;t get the multi entry.

I think Yangshuo would suit you more - see yangers.com Fly into and out of Guilin.

Lijiang is great - but I think it would need more days, while Yangshuo is possible in the couple of days you have.

I wouldn%26#39;t suggest Lijiang, as I feel that the cost and travel time outlay would not be worthwhile.

Yangshuo would be ok if you%26#39;re looking for some ';typical Chinese'; scenery. Otherwise, Nanjing is a very good choice especially if you%26#39;re interested in history (I strongly recommend this!) and it%26#39;s also convenient with regard to transport/geography considering the rest of your itinerary.

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