Help Us Plan Tour of China (approx 10-12 days)

poe.tuesday

have a look at vjv.com - I went on a 10 day tour with them and they were fab - it was a few days in Beijing then a 4 day river cruise to the three gorges and then to Xian to the terracotta warriors - it was amazing and cost about a grand each - this was some years ago so the prices would have gone up but it was excellent value for money and the service was brill

stressedoutmum

Its the china classic tour i think - 12 days. The price includes all flights, internal and domestic, food on most days, accommodation in 3/4 star hotels, tour guide, visas etc.

freeme86

Hi there,
I am interested in tips for China too...we are going for 2 weeks on 16th October..flying in to Hong Kong and home from Beijing. We want to see as much of the unmissable sites as it is probably a once in life time trip...but we also want to try and budget, and not spend too many of our days travelling. This is our itinery we are thinking of:
Hong Kong 4 days
Yanshou 2 days (flight to Guilin)
fly to Shanghai for 5 days (including day trips to Tongli + Hangzhou)
train to Bejing for 3 days (including day trip to Great Wall).

So we were thinking of missing Xian out as it is another days travel time and cost...do you think we will regret that??
Any tips for these days would be appreciated. Thanks!

jamsandwiches

Xian is the place I am looking forward to seeing the most - would definitely be upset if I did not see it so yes - imo - would go there.

freeme86

hmm ok thanks, i need to look in to Xian more! To be honest my knowledge of China was very poor before I started looking in to the holiday, so I was sticking with the places I most heard of (Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai), and after looking on the internet Yangshou looked like a popular place with unique scenery...now I've just noticed Guangzhou too....too many places to pick from!
I'd be interested to hear which one place people would pick from out of these 3...Yangshou, Xian or Gangzhou? I am looking for some unique scenery and sites..thanks :-)

Pollycat

Just come back from holiday so only just read your post, freeme86.

Take a read at my reply to the OP - we did a 27 day tour of China in 2008.

The last link at the bottom of my post is to my review of our trip, it mentions Xian, Guilin & Yangshuo - you might find it useful.

The water towns (Tongli is one) are very picturesque.
We visited Suzjou and Wuzhen.

We weren't tremendously impressed with Hangzhou.

We had 4 days in Shanghai and it was more than enough, although the Bund was in a bit of a mess as they were preparing for Expo 2010 and it was a giant building site so maybe our view was a bit biased.

Is the train from Shanghai to Beijing overnight?

I'd not have missed seeing the Terracotta Warriors for anything.

Don't finalise your itinerary until you've done more research, one of the links in my post is to a little book I bought, maybe you could get it from your local library to decide which places you want to go.

HTH

fabsaver

Pollycat wrote: »

Just come back from holiday so only just read your post, freeme86.

Take a read at my reply to the OP - we did a 27 day tour of China in 2008.

The last link at the bottom of my post is to my review of our trip, it mentions Xian, Guilin & Yangshuo - you might find it useful.

The water towns (Tongli is one) are very picturesque.
We visited Suzjou and Wuzhen.

We weren't tremendously impressed with Hangzhou.

We had 4 days in Shanghai and it was more than enough, although the Bund was in a bit of a mess as they were preparing for Expo 2010 and it was a giant building site so maybe our view was a bit biased.

Is the train from Shanghai to Beijing overnight?

I'd not have missed seeing the Terracotta Warriors for anything.

Don't finalise your itinerary until you've done more research, one of the links in my post is to a little book I bought, maybe you could get it from your local library to decide which places you want to go.

HTH

Great review :T

I'm looking to book a China tour of around this length but I am concerned by the factory tours.

"Possible negatives – factory tours. We visited a pearl shop, silk factory, brocade factory, tea plantation, jade factory, cloisonn! factory, paper cutting shop."

I have no interest in these whatsoever and I don't really want valuable sightseeing time to be filled with them. I do understand why the companies do it and that they obviously gain financially from taking a coach load of tourists to them.

Many of the reports on Tripadvisor complain about the factory tours on WenduWu as well.

Can anyone recommend any good value companies that do not fill their itineraries with factory tours?

gggareth

freeme86 wrote: »

Hi there,
I am interested in tips for China too...we are going for 2 weeks on 16th October..flying in to Hong Kong and home from Beijing. We want to see as much of the unmissable sites as it is probably a once in life time trip...but we also want to try and budget, and not spend too many of our days travelling. This is our itinery we are thinking of:
Hong Kong 4 days
Yanshou 2 days (flight to Guilin)
fly to Shanghai for 5 days (including day trips to Tongli + Hangzhou)
train to Bejing for 3 days (including day trip to Great Wall).

So we were thinking of missing Xian out as it is another days travel time and cost...do you think we will regret that??
Any tips for these days would be appreciated. Thanks!

Tongli is a good 2 hour journey out of Shanghai.. there is so much to see and do in and around Shanghai before even thinking of a 1/2 day + car journey. tongli in a nutshell,,
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=79123&id=732269533

Pollycat

fabsaver wrote: »

Great review :T

I'm looking to book a China tour of around this length but I am concerned by the factory tours.

"Possible negatives – factory tours. We visited a pearl shop, silk factory, brocade factory, tea plantation, jade factory, cloisonn! factory, paper cutting shop."

I have no interest in these whatsoever and I don't really want valuable sightseeing time to be filled with them. I do understand why the companies do it and that they obviously gain financially from taking a coach load of tourists to them.

Many of the reports on Tripadvisor complain about the factory tours on WenduWu as well.

Can anyone recommend any good value companies that do not fill their itineraries with factory tours?

Thanks.

You could have a look at the companies I listed in my earlier reply (15/8/2010) and ask if they include factory tours.

But as you acknowledge:

I do understand why the companies do it and that they obviously gain financially from taking a coach load of tourists to them.

you might struggle to find a group tour that doesn't include factory visits so maybe you'll have to look at tailor made tours.

Dave101t

just bumping for travel insurance costs, 4 of us paid 115 quid total for 2 weeks in october, is that ok? includes all extras.

also, the tours rates sound great as it includes flights, ive seen most of whats on the tour as my wife is chinese so she took me independant of tours, tho parts dont need a full day, if its your 1st trip im sure you would rather have a slow tour than rush around to meet an itinerary.

there is alot to take in and i cant remember exactly where ive been as there is alot off the beaten track that local guides will be happy to show you, just dont buy all the junk they throw at you!