Tours to China?

fruitpie

oysterman wrote:

Cheers for the reply, probably look for a 16- 20 day holiday to include poss Hong Kong.
Beijing,Great Wall,Xian & Shanghai would be on the list, but think we are going to have to do our homework to get the best out of a trip.

Yes oysterman it takes a great deal of planning to get it right. The longer time you have available in each city is better - its not such a rush round then. Just avoid any Chinese National Holidays.

Went to Hong Kong last year - its a blast - we loved the place - spent two weeks there ! stayed at the Marco Polo Hong Kong - right by the Star Ferry - great location. Let us all know what you decide. :beer:

bubblybabe

hi Cristal !

going bejiing ,shanghai ,xian 5 nov -prob a little cooler then -gloves and scarves???!!!

Sarahpuggy

Hi guys,

Would anyone mind telling me what sort of prices all these trips were?

I'd love to start planning something like this for next year and would like to get an idea how much it would cost.

Thanks

Christal_2

HI Bubbly, don't think you will need gloves and scarves if you don't go north beyong BJ, sh will be the warmest in 3 cities and shirt/t-shirt+light jacket will definately do, at BJ and XIan you may need a sweater but not gloves or scarves. Do you plan to visit Hang Zhou as well while you are in SH? It's a shame most people miss this beautiful city, it's only 2 hours train away from SH, and 2 days would be enough, its a beautiful city with lakes and gardens also a very interesting temples, one of my favorite city in China.

Christal_2

HI Sara, I don't know about the escorted or package price, but if you want to get the flight and hotel arranged by yourself, flight cost from 300 to 500 depends on airlines/connecting flights/season, but usually it's quite easy to get a return flight with one connection for less than 400.

Hotel wise big cities can be expensive (but still not as bad as london!!), in BJ or SH you will be looking at £40 for a 3-star hotel, price is per ROOM per NIGHT, not per person though. For smaller cities you could get a 4-star even 5-star for that price.

Inland flight is not expensive either, but you will have to know where to buy, usually it's about £100 for a return flight from BJ to SH (2 hours).

Christal_2

HI Oysterman, with 16-20 days you could spend 4-5 days in each city which will allow you to enjoy the trip more. If you go to SH, I suspect you will be going to the following place: Xin Tian Di ( a place somehow like SOHO, great bars, restraurants, discos, can go either day or night, but night would be more fun), Yu Garden (or chen huang miao) historical chinese building with some good chinese restruarnt, make sure you ask the tour guide to take you to one called Nan Xiang Xiao Long to try the famous Xiao Long (i think the english name should be bun, with pork filling), it will be the best bun you ever have. The Bund, obviously, the night view is fantastic on the Bund. Gonna go work now, will add some more after work.

Lebowski25

I am also interested in visiting China, most probably on an organised tour in February.

What sort of age groups go with Archers Direct and do they have single travellers.

Looking to go alone

oysterman

Cheers for all the replies, most appreciated. Thought of a couple of more things.

Do you need any jabs to visit china?

In peoples experience, because of the size of the country, would you advise say split the country in half do top half first & the bottom half at a later date or do what you want now?

Can you see it all in say 15-20 days?

Looking at some of the websites, is it best to go for one that fly's between cities or by trains, or does that come down to cost.