Traveling to China

Parent Cafe
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<p>Ok, people here have helped me travel before. Here is my newest challenge. My dd just moved to Shanghai and of course, I have to go see her! I have never been to China, dh has been several times for work. I would also like to see Beijing & the Great Wall. I am also thinking of a side trip to Xi"an and Yangshuo. Is it ok to plan this without a tour? We have traveled to Argentina and Ireland on our own. Any recommended agendas? My only real must is to have 3-4 days in Shanghai to see dd. I am thinking we will travel in early September. Any advise you can send my way is appreciated. I am trying not to get overwhelmed but trying to look upon this as a great adventure. Thanks!</p>

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<p>It might be much cheaper if you join a tour. To plan for travel to those places by yourself is not advisable if you do not know the language. Besides, you need some one to take you to the important view points, without knowing the local custom and travel routes, you might be lost. For example, we were with a tour in Kewilin and for whatever the reason, one of the seat in our returning flight to Shanghai was canceled only for my family, we have to split our family to travel in two different flights and on two different airlines. It is un-conceivable anywhere in the world, we bought a “group” ticket and everyone on the tour should travel together. But it happened in China. The Chinese interior flights are at a mess and delays and cancellations are Rampant. Fortunately, we learned our situation 24 hours prior to departure and with our insistence, the travel agent finally was able to “squeeze” us on the flight.</p>

<p>There are tours you can join that Starts in Beijing and ends in Shanghai and then you can have your time with your dd for as long as you wish.</p>

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<p>I suggest joining a tour also. Make sure it is with a reputable firm and not something you see online at bargain basement prices. Those cheap tours dump the tourists off at shops (kickbacks for tour operators) for hours at a time, basically wasting your time.</p>

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<p>We did a few trips to China when my S lived in BJ and in Shanghai. We just arranged for day trips and a driver through the hotel when our S couldn’t join us. Although we got around on the subway by ourselves as well. Both cities were amazing - completely different form one another.
(One thing I always try to do when traveling is read a novel set in the area. May I suggest Shanghai Girls? And although not a novel, Midnight in Peking was a terrific story.) </p>

<p>I’ll ask my S about the must-sees in both cities. (He took us to some fabulous restaurants when we were in BJ last year!)</p>

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<p>Just a reminder that you need a visa to go to China - you may want to start working on that right away, as it takes some time to get.</p>

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<p>We did this many years ago when we used to visit my brother in HKG often. We used Dragon Air tour.
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<p>Those airlines offer probably is a great bargain. Make sure you ask before you sign up that the tour is run by the company you singed up and pay your money with. There are too many “consolidators” in the US market where they took your money and farm out the actual tours in their Chinese counter part. That will be trouble to the get go. You are like cattle being sold from one travel tour operator to the other. We took the tour, only found out later the first half of the tour was from one company the second, optional. tour was ran by another company.</p>

<p>Yes, you will find those $99 tours, where you will be dumped into shopping centers for hours a day and after you have arrived, you will find there is a “tip” that was not disclosed. However, the new administration is cracking down those operations, that has just happened few weeks ago, we do not know the effect of those new laws.</p>

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<p>Travel to and within Beijing and Xi’an are quite manageable without knowing Chinese. If you are not intimidated going Rome or Frankfurt alone without speaking the native tongues, Beijing and Xi’an shouldn’t be too difficult to navigate without a tour group. I would recommend staying with a larger hotel (there are many international Hotel Chains in large Chinese cities), which all have English speaking staff that can help arrange taxi or local tours; for non-Chinese guests, they also write down on cards places you want to visit in Chinese and English which you can show taxi drivers where to go.</p>

<p>Yangshuo might be a little more challenging. You probably need to fly into Guilin and take a long cab ride. But there maybe hotels that can arrange transportation from the airport. </p>

<p>I’ve traveled a lot in China in recent years. I don’t find Chinese domestic flights worse than in the US. But I highly recommend taking the high speed train from Shanghai to Beijing instead of flying.</p>

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<p>If you go to any city in China, you can hire a private tour guide very reasonably if planned tours are not your cup of tea. I’ve been traveling to China for years now–and even lived there all of last summer (where the smog is a nightmare, of course)–and the key is to work with a reputable agency. There can be a lot of up-sell that they try on you, so buyer beware. As for September, it is a lovely time to visit. The suffocating heat has dissipated and the autumn is wonderful. Shanghai, is by reckoning, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.</p>

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<p>We went to China when our D was working there. We did do a tour at our D’s suggestion. We did not join a group but planned our own independent trip. We used a travel agent in the US but the arrangements were through Swain tours. We were able to custom plan our trip. We had them make all the train and plane reservations. We had them do some of the hotels others we arranged through our D’s company. We had guides on some of the days. They also were able to add on our D for a portion of our trip.
It was nice to have an English speaking person meet us at the airport in Shanghai and take us to the train station where we caught a high speed train to my D’s city. In most places we had a guide for part of the time and part of the time we were on our own. The guides would meet us at the airport or train station and deliver us to our hotel. They would help check us in. The guide would meet us in the lobby and we would be out for the day. Lunch was usually included. Dinner we were on our own. Our guides were all interesting women. They ranged from just out of school to 50 years old. It gave us a great insight into the country and the people.
From Shanghai we did a day trip to Suzhou.
Also close to Shanghai we went to Hangzhou and West Lake. We were in mid October and there were few foreigners in Hangzhou.
The highlight of our trip was to a visit to Xizhou in the Yunnan province. We stayed at the Linden Centre. The Linden Centre is in a rural village and is a protected heritage site and has been restored in the Bai style. It was a pleasure to see a different side of China. We had rice fields outside our window. It also was great to see the blue sky again.
We normally do not use guides or tours and have done a lot of traveling but in China it was definitely money well spent.</p>

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<p>Much of my Chinese travel is long ago, save a trip to Shanghai when S was living there. But with minimal Chinese, I traveled the country top to bottom, on the train back in the '80s. I would suggest buying Lonely Planet, and start reading the details for do it yourself. </p>

<p>The advantage to train, besides seeing the countryside, is being delivered to the city center, with easy access to hotels and sights. Hotels can help you get day guides, or figure out public transport. There is a new express rail access Shanghai/Beijing. From Beijing, it is about 5 hours to Xian by train, and another 20 to Guilin. Yangsho is a smaller place south of Guilin (or was back in the day) and we took a boat trip down the Li River past all the amazing karst hills to get there. </p>

<p>Looking, I found this web site. [Train</a> travel in China - a beginner’s guide](<a href=“Train travel in China | A beginner's guide | How to buy tickets”>Train travel in China | A beginner's guide | How to buy tickets)</p>

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<p>mom60, how interesting that you went to the Linden Center! I read about this in the Atlantic, and have met the Lindens in their galleries here in Wisconsin. What they are doing is rather amazing.</p>

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<p>My post looked really strange, not all was posted. I liked dragon air because we were able to choose our hotels. Their tour guides were very knowledgeable. They didn’t take us to many pearl factories. </p>

<p>China is a big country, so if your time is limited, it pays to go with a good tour company. We certainly didn’t choose Dragon Air because they were a bargain. We had 6 people, we ended up having a private tour. Our mini bus didn’t have to do pick up and drop off at designated tour bus drop off points, which saved us a lot of time.</p>

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<p>If you want to arrange your own travel, tours and hotels in China, you might want to check out Ctrip which is the leading online travel site there. It’s a huge and reputable company with an English language department. If you want a simple, not terribly expensive hotel in a great location, look at the Donghu Hotel in Shanghai’s French Concession. One of my kids lived in Shanghai for 5 years and that became my favorite place to stay. There are lots of fun shops and restaurants within walking distance.</p>

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<p>^Second ctrip.com for booking in China, excellent site.</p>

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<p>Onward, prepare to be the subject of interest. On 3 different occasions, D was approached by Shanghaians who wanted to have their picture taken with her.</p>

<p>Find out exactly what your health insurance covers overseas. You may wish to pick up some trip medical insurance.</p>

<p>If I were going to Shanghai, this would be at the top of my list. Among other things, there’s an amazing scale model of the city:</p>

<p>[Shanghai</a> Urban Planning Exhibition Hall](<a href=“http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g308272-d554654-Reviews-Shanghai_Urban_Planning_Exhibition_Hall-Shanghai.html]Shanghai”>http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g308272-d554654-Reviews-Shanghai_Urban_Planning_Exhibition_Hall-Shanghai.html)</p>

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<p>By all means, you can plan for the trip DIY, but you will not beat the price from a tour company. The tour companies have contracted with major hotels and you will stay mostly in 5 star hotels. We have done the math and if you just add all these hotel charges using Ctrip, it will cost more than what they charge you for the tour total. That is without interior airfare, tour guide, local transportation and sight seeing entrance fees.</p>

<p>My extended family had planned a trip over there, I did not go. Based on my cousin who did all the planning, a DIY trip will cost more, but you have no one to rush you and you can go where ever you want to go, do whatever you want to do. They probably spent a month to see what a tour will cover in a week.</p>

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<p>Time is on your side so self-planned tour is an option. I have a few tips just for your information:
1 Fly in Shanghai. Fly to Xi’An, then from Xi’An to Guilin (only 65 kilometers to YangShuo, frequent buses). Fly from Guilin to Shanghai, from Shanghai back to US.
2 Fly in Shanghai, visit Xi’An then Yangshuo. Take several hrs bus from Yangshuo to Shenzhen (bordering on Hong Kong, 45 mins by train to H.K.). Fly to US from H.K.
3 Make hotel reservations thru online service providers, very convenient and no prepayment required. Make travel plans for each areas you are going to visit. Your dd may have friends in Shanghai who can help you with travel plans.
Have a great trip.</p>

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<p>I really like using the high speed trains in China.</p>

<p>Normally, other than a big holiday, no need to book in advance, and many trains departing every day. Much easier than the hassle of dealing with airports, usually cheaper, let’s you see the countryside, and forces you to wish your own country had such a good system. </p>

<p>Just turn up at the station maybe 30-45 minutes before the train you want is scheduled to depart.</p>

<p>Typical speed is now capped at about 300 km/h. </p>

<p><a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Rail_map_of_China.svg[/url]”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Rail_map_of_China.svg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>As an example, I regularly take the Wuhan-Shenzhen train, which is about about 5 hours for 1,200 km. 2nd class costs about $90 and is perfectlye OK, but I usually prefer 1st class for $140 for a little extra space. There is a much more expensive business class (yes, business is better than 1st) which I havn’t tried for $280.</p>

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<p>If I were Op I would not do this, I’d order the ticket on line ahead of the time. On some less popular routes it maybe ok to just show up right before, but on more popular routes, such as Beijing to Shanghai, you maybe out cold if you have not planned ahead. We did not, and showed up 5PM on a Non-holiday September weekday, lo and behold the 7PM tickets were sold out and the line was very long and forced us to buy a 9am train the next day. We had to stay extra night in Beijing, unplanned.</p>

<p>Chinese had the bad behavior to cut lines, that was the most frustrating experience at the Beijing station as well.</p>