<p>Starting to look ahead. D1 will be working in China for 6 months later this year. We plan on visiting her at some point. Her location is about an 1 plus outside of Shanghai by fast train. This will be our first trip to that area of the world. What do you consider the must see places. Also what would be a great stopover place to visit. We will be traveling from the west coast.
Also favorite airlines for such distance travel?</p>
<p>Check your passports.
If they expire anytime in 2012 you may have to renew before you apply for a China visa.
Your passport needs be valid for 6 months beyond your travel dates.
Plan your trip for the fall, it can be too hot+humid in the summer.
Button down your dates of travel.
Airline fare bargains are scarce now.</p>
<p>What city is she in and how far do you want to travel around China? If just around Shanghai, you can do daytrips to Hangzhou (south of Shanghai, really lovely, lots of gardens and temples), and Suzhou (old canals, not exactly like venice but you get some nice gardens). I spent a couple years in Nanjing. The train line from Shanghai runs through Suzhou to Nanjing. The summers are brutally hot and humid in this area, best time would be fall - Sept/Oct.</p>
<p>amandakayak-Nanjing- that is where she will be. So we should plan on going in the fall. Self employed so we are flexible as to when and how long to be gone.
One determining factor will be where kid #3 decides to go to college. Also how long to be out of touch at the beginning of freshman year.
I know my passport is good. Need to check expire date for H.</p>
<p>Yea for Nanjing!!! Nanjing is brutally hot from June till early Sept - called one of the “furnaces” because it lies between mountains which block any cooling breezes. And by brutal, I mean you have to get up and do any sightseeing, running around before 8 am lest you melt! It’s a really nice city (but alot more modern now than when I lived there in '84-85). So definately Suzhou and Hangzhou and Shanghai. Besides that, if you have time/inclination, see Beijing, Xian. You should pick up a guide book and start figuring out what you most want to see.</p>
<p>Huangshan, the grand canyon of China, accomodations in the mountain are limited. You should use a travel agent to book the trip. lots of walking and climbing steps. but the view is wonderful. The sunrise is a must. You have to get up in the dark, bring your flash lights and walk to the spot to wait for the sunrise. Get up early as it tended to be crowded. The best hotel on the mountian is equivalent to the worst hotel in USA like motel 6, but that is all they have. The old town in the foot of the mountain is great, lots of food and lots of local tea stores, tea tasting is free.</p>
<p>It is not too far from Nanjing, trip via overland is possible.</p>
<p>Huangshan - yeah, I did that! The strange thing about the mtn is that steps (about 4" tall so a bit shorter than a real step) were placed or carved out going all the way up the mtn. In '84 when I went, it was a two day climb to the top - and exhausting (and I was 19?)</p>
<p>My daughter will be in Hong Kong after graduation for 3 weeks. Does she need to apply for a visa? And if so, how do we go about doing this? Thanks and sorry OP. Don’t mean to be rude.</p>
<p>For visa information, go to [Secure</a> Your Travel Visas and US Passports for Business Travel and Tourism with CIBT | The Visa and Passport Professionals](<a href=“http://www.cibt.com%5DSecure”>http://www.cibt.com) and follow the directions there.</p>
<p>mspearl- no worries. I am thrilled if my thread can help others.</p>
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<p>Apparently you have not taken the cable car to the 3/4 way point.^^^</p>
<p>^^^I did, took the cable car.Got up early for the sunrise as well. We had clear blue skies all day, one of those very rare events and we were able to view all the peaks clearly.</p>
<p>Mspearl, no, your DD does not need a visa to visit Hong Kong if her stay is less than 90 days. However, if she wants to take a day trip to China, she would need one for China.</p>
<p>Hi~I am a Chinese.Welcome to China…Shanghai is one of the most important cities in our country.But when you come there，you need to notice：1、take an umbrella all the time 2、avoid the rush：7：30~9：00 am and 5：00~7：00 pm
The best place:the Oriental Pearl Tower、the Bund、narrow Chinese lanes（really enjoy Shanghai one needs to live in the Lanes）
When traveling here, you can’t miss the famous and delicious snacks like Nanxiang steamed buns, steamed pork dumplings with crab roe, pan-fried steamed buns and so on.
More：take a train to HangZhou（most famous sigh spot：XiHu）
Xitang（my most favorite place）
Xitang Town is very unique among the old towns of the same rank nationwide-world-famous for a great number of bridges, lanes and covered corridors.
Do not miss their famous cakes：Qian Shi Gao！！！I love it so much！！</p>
<p>Also：you can come to Beijing~I live here~Beijing was a capital for eight dynasties~you will feel a sense of history.And eat Beijing snacks here！</p>
<p>A US citizen doesn’t need a visa to visit Hong Kong on holiday, but of course does need one for China.</p>
<p>Hong Kong would be a good transit point on your way to Shanghai, many flights from west coast, and an easy introduction to Asia.</p>
<p>If you enter China, then go to Hong Kong, you will NOT be able to go back to China unless you had a 2-entry visa for China. Or you get another visa in Hong Kong to enter China (which can be done obtained same-day).</p>
<p>Anyway, the simple principle is that the visa regime for China and Hong Kong are not harmonized.</p>
<p>Sorry, CABLE CAR??? What has the world come to when you are not forced to endure knee pain? No, there was nooooooo cable car in 1984. And if the mid-pt lodging is Motel 6-like? Wow, what we had included rats and pit toilets, so yeah - lucky travellers of 2012!</p>
<p>My daughter lived and worked in China for a year after she graduated college. My husband, our HS sophomore son and I visited her for a couple of weeks after she had been there for about 9 months. I planned the whole trip myself because I love to plan trips and it involved plane travel, sleeper train and taxi’s. There was a huge learning curve because I wanted to see some not so known places and because I was relatively unfamiliar with the country. My daughter was living in Shenzen, which is a HUGE city (bigger then NYC) close to Hong Kong, but on the mainland. I spent lots and lots of time on Tripadvisor with a map of China spread out in front of me.</p>
<p>We visited Yangshuo, which was the highlight of our trip, Shenzen twice - when we got there and before we left, Xian and Beijing. We took a sleeper train from Xian to Beijing, which was quite fun.We flew in and out of Hong Kong, but unfortunately, there was a typhoon going on when we returned and we were unable to explore very well. I met with a person at AAA, but they were only interested in us going to the well known places and chain hotels. </p>
<p>One thing that I had heard before we left, but I didn’t quite believe, was how little English is spoken. I was glad we had my daughter for part of the trip as she had learned enough English to help us.</p>
<p>I got a private guide that we used for a couple of days in Beijing and she was wonderful. She accompanied us to the Pearl (or was it the Silk??) market and really helped with the bargaining. We stayed in a Houtong there, which was really cool.</p>
<p>Few years ago when I visited China, via HKG, I used Dragon Air package deal. They offered air, hotel, and various types of tour. We opted for for a private tour. We had a small bus for 6 of us. It was cheaper than going through AmEx. We felt it was a lot more efficient than trying to do it on our own. We didn´t have to stand in line and tour guide all spoke very good English.</p>
<p>mom60, If you enjoy planning your own trips, I highly encourage you to plan this one yourself. I found that most packaged trips want to take you to places that are full of tourists with what they think Americans want. Frankly, I don’t eat at McDonalds at home, I certainly don’t want to do it in China. If you do decide on a tour though a friend did this one [China</a> Walking & Hiking Tour Beijing, Xi’an, Great Wall | CW](<a href=“http://www.countrywalkers.com/find-a-tour/by-destination/asia%2C-africa-%26-south-pacific/china/china%3A-beijing%2C-xi’an-%26-southern-provinces]China”>http://www.countrywalkers.com/find-a-tour/by-destination/asia%2C-africa-%26-south-pacific/china/china%3A-beijing%2C-xi’an-%26-southern-provinces) and it sounded like a lot of fun.</p>
<p>We went to China two years ago. Visited Beijing, Chengdu and surrounding areas in Sichuan, and Shanghai. Our trip was part business and hosted, so didn’t have to plan anything ourselves or deal with language problems since we always had a Chinese speaking person with us. The downside of this was that we were taken to places they thought we would want to see, which weren’t always the same as what we actually wanted to see. </p>
<p>Some random comments:</p>
<p>One of our hosts was a current Beijing resident who had spent some time in the US and claimed that Pizza Hut was better in China. She took us to one and was right–the menu was pizza and pasta with a Chinese twist and much more interesting than in the US. It was very popular with locals. She said the same thing about McDonald’s and since there was one across the street from our hotel, we did try it. She was wrong about McDonalds. So the bottom line is: if you really want some familiar food when you are in China, try Pizza Hut. Avoid McDonalds.</p>
<p>Shanghai is the easiest place to be a tourist–because of long history of Europeans living there, there is a lot more signage in a roman alphabet. The Shanghai Circus was fun–Circ du Solei is a copycat. We were there in June and it was miserably hot. </p>
<p>We really enjoyed visiting Changdu and traveling around Sichuan. Many interesting things to see and not as oppressively crowded as Beijing and Shanghai.</p>
<p>We decided that if college doesn’t work out for S, he can have a career as a model in China. He was constantly being stopped by teenage girls who wanted to take their picture with a blond, blue-eyed American. </p>
<p>Be careful about the wild monkeys, specifically when hiking on Mt. Emaishan. On the way up, S turned his back on one (so that a girl could take his picture) and it jumped on him and bit his shoulder. Fortunately, he was wearing a high tech rain jacket that prevented fluid transfer, even though the bite broke his skin. On the way down, another monkey grabbed a plastic soft drink bottle (actually containing tea) right out of his hand, and instead of unscrewing the top, got the contents by biting a big hole in the plastic.</p>
<p>The best way is to get a travel brouchure of tours being offer to China. They generally hit the highlights of the place you want to visit. Bear in mind that tours tend to cramp in lots of place in a short time. If you plan to travel on your own, give a few extra days. Go to sites like ritztours.com and look at their itenerary for ideas. </p>
<p>From Suzhou, you can take day tour to Shanghai, Nanjing, Hongzhou, Wuxi…</p>
<p>Avoid summer travel if possible. It is hot and humid, and flights are more expensive. Go to Kayak.com to check for airfare. Chinese airlines are usually cheaper.</p>