China next year?

se999

Hello,

Want a low cost trip to China for 2 adults. So looking for ideas on flights, hotels & tours etc.. We think we will probably want to fly into Beijing.

We do want to see the classics like the Great Wall etc., but maybe also some more out of the way places.

Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks.

melt71

Hi, I've never been to China and therefore can't help with what to see/do, but lots of my students are from Beijing and Shanghai so I regularly have to book flights there;

Tips

Don't go at the end/start of term time as the flight prices more than double. This might sound obvious, but I'm talking about the broader termtime dates not just the standard state school half term dates. It's very difficult to get economy seats so avoid this time if at all possible.

Check the following website which will trawl through lots of air companies to get you the best prices, If you really want to keep costs to a minimum its well worth taking an indirect flight, which if you plan it carefully can mean a stopoff of just an hour or two. http://www.traveljungle.co.uk/ It can be difficult to find a direct flight for long haul as the site wants to show all the cheapest first which are usually indirect, but keep trying and you'll find some good deals.

You can call an agent for them to check on all the best direct flights, get the information (flight no and time) you can from them and then try to book it yourself online (don't tell them I told you this!) it will probably be cheaper. I use http://www.trailfinders.com/index.htm Bristol Office 0117 929 9000 and they are really helpful, but not always as cheap as booking online.

BA and I think Virgin have sale days where they vastly reduce the price of long haul bookings for just a couple of days, but they obviously don't advertise it in advance. You can risk waiting for one of these, but if you can, I would say book well in advance and you will get a great deal anyway.

Don't forget to look at Air China for direct flights - that's who the canny Chinese students use as they are cheaper than the major UK airlines.

For hotels I would go onto sites like http://www.tripadvisor.com/ and get some reviews before you book anywhere.

Hope that helps, if you want any more help, please pm me.

nelly_2

We went to Beijing and Xian (terracota army) last year, we got a "rough guide book" that did us well.



We stayed at the Grand Hyatt expensive but nice. http://beijing.grand.hyatt.com/

They have a huge tropical indoor pool with a projected sky and jungle type sounds playing. 3 restaraunts and a huge lobby that have a very nice 4 piece band with singers on each night. They even learnt "somewhere beyond the sea" in a day for us as a request. (its an our tune for us

Taxis are as cheap as it can get, and theres millions of them, so use them. There are people employed by the hyatt just to stand out side and hail taxis they ask you where you want to go and tell the driver in chinese. But I supose all the big hotels do this.

Beijing is utterly enormouse apparently its the same size as Belgium, and a lot more modern than I expected too.

Things to see;

Go to the silk market and pay less then half what they ask for, haggling is part of the deal. Its fun they hassel and grab at you and dont let you go we found it hillarious, they all have calculators to comunicate the price on so there is no problem there.

The Summer palace is a great day out, we drove to a part of the city then went by boat, spent all day there its huge too, some really great architecture a huge lake which you can rent motor boats and a few places to eat.

Theres a place off Wang fu Jing which is a main shopping road near the hotels and Tianamen square. Its called snack street, there are about a hundred stalls all selling real strange food, we had a cracking laugh there too, I ate scorpion, dog, sparrows on a skewer and silk worms YUM YUM

We flew to Xian to see the army and well worth it it was too. We stayed 2 nights our hotel organised a day trip to see the emporors tomb his wifes spa and the army plus a meal, and he drove us off back at the airport all for about 30 quid.

They dont take tips too, taxis, doormen anybody.

I got my hair cut by a street trader for 14 pence, and he wouldnt take a tip.

There is an acrobat show that is really worth seeing to.

Beijing zoo is an utter disgrace some of the animals are kept in tiny tiny pens more like prison cells. Although the pandas are having it large in there very own section, and it also has a VERY impressive aqurium rivaling sea world in Florida.

The chinese are pretty much how you expect them to be, but some of the ones who have come from the rural areas to see their capital will stop and point and stare at you
and I mean stare they dont do it slyly they just stop what they are doing and stare they havent seen white faces before, we were told, its quite funny, we caught a few taking candid photos of us, and one couple asked if they could have a photo of us holding their baby, makes you feel like a celebrity

Its a great place if i think of anything else ill add on

stratford_2

Brilliant place to visit! My gfriend and I spent about 4 weeks there at the end of 2003 as part of a bigger trip. Can't recommend the sights and people highly enough. Can't wait to go back and see the bits that I missed. Now on to the more useful stuff...

We decided to go on a tour since it was our first destination and because we wanted to see some other things that we might not have seen (or thought about). We decided ro go with intrepid (https://www.intrepidtravel.com) since they have a maximum of 12 people on their trips (we had 7). As they tend to use public transport, independent hotels and local fixers it was quite similar to semi-indpendent travel, especially as you do have some of your own free time. You also have the advantage of being in a group to order lots of different food! Our particular trip was 'Essence of China' southbound and included beijing and the visiting an excellent, more remote part of the wall away from the crowd, chengdu & the panda sanctuary, xian (brilliant city) and the soldiers, 3 gorges and then hong kong. You can add time either side as well as there's so much to see in Beijing and HK. They also do 'premium' trips with better hotels and chartered transport, but we thought it was great to muck in with the locals on overnight trains in the middle of nowhere...

If you want to see some pictures of our china trip & extracts from my journal (scroll right to the bottom) look at https://www.roundtheworldtrip.com Hopefully it'll give a flavour of what you might experience there.

SallyD

I cannot wait to go back to China, I went with Travelsphere last April and cannot fault the content of the tour,accommodation or food. Next time I will travel independently clutching a Lonely Planet to enable me to spend longer in each city. If anyone fancies a year out there teaching spoken English you will be much in demand. Thanks to everyone that contributes to this interesting thread.

VeryTrying_2

For your first trip I'd definitely recommend an organised tour - mainly because making your own arrangements can take up so much of the day. On a normal day, travelling independently might get you to two or three major sights, whilst those on an organised tour would have been bussed round half a dozen.

The first time I went in 1985 we did a tour, but since then it's always been do-it-yourself - even though trying to buy a train ticket can take up a whole afternoon.

I'm looking at a brochure from CTS Horizons (they've been around for years), web address https://www.ctshorizons.com who are offering 9 days from £595 for Beijing next February, £635 in March. BTW avoid June to September - it's far too hot and uncomfortable, as well as prone to dust storms ..... horrible.

Have a look at what they offer. Friends have been with Jules Verne in the past and it's been OK, Travelsphere seem cheap and cheerful.

se999

Thanks for all the information so far, I'm startting to look into it.

I normally use https://www.weather.co.uk to look into weather internationally, it gives a current 10 day forecast, but also you can click to get the annual monthly figures for temp. max & mins and precipitation. It doesn't mention dust storms, hurricanes etc., but for most places it gives a basic idea of what to expect, expecially for last minute packing.

When I lived near London the Chinese students used to go into China town to book tickets at specilist agencies, anyone any ideas which ones?

samraj

Traveljungle mentioned is a very good site, we are going there in 3 weeks - I like to do diy as it's part of the adventure for me. A big word of caution, if you are going in the off peak season (not during term holidays) DON'T book too much in advance. I booked my tickets in December and paidup in a week thinking I had brilliant deal, 8 weeks later I could have saved almost £300!! There are lot of airline companies now flying to China and are all fighting for the same passenger. I've booked open jaw travel, i.e fly into Beijing & fly out of Shanghai. I will take care of my internal travel in the Hotel lobby, which I am told are very capable. I've booked mine for 440, and I've seen prices drop to 330, Cathay Pacific even offered it at 370!! Apparently in China the reverse psychology works, i.e ticket prices always drop closer to time of travel?!!

se999

Thanks Samraj, sounds like you want to do a similar thing. Please let me know how you get on. Specific recommendations would be very appreciated.

Flight prices sound very good, especially for 'open jaw'! It sounds ideal, I thought we wouldn't be able to afford something like that, and would have to have one main base.

We will be trying to go off peak. We've found things are normally cheaper, and smaller numbers of tourists normally mean you can do things far quicker without the queues and the crowds.


Thanks again

RobBob_3

I wouldn't waste your time going to chinatown looking for cheap tickets - just do the usual search on the internet and it will be cheaper as usual. Going to chinatown for tickets is for people without credit cards, without trust in the internet (and e-tickets) and without adequate english.

Also, I wouldn't risk leaving it to the last minute to book tickets - they do sell out at unbusy times too as not many flights are necessary for this route. You will find yourself flying via Milan and paying 600£ one way (as I did!).

Air China or British Airways could be the cheapest depending on dates - white + excess luggage = money on Air China (they will quote British Airways policy to you) - but sympathetic to chinese students - another reason they would fly Air China maybe?

Don't think about taking a train from shanghai to beijing. No, really, don't.

Otherwise - Lonely Planet and Rough Guide (total price cf. to cost of trip) - you will have a great trip! Each to their own, but if you want beautiful architecture, nice parks go to London. Go to China for food, shopping, "difference" feeling and fantastic markets of everything and anything for almost nothing.

melt71

se999 wrote:

When I lived near London the Chinese students used to go into China town to book tickets at specilist agencies, anyone any ideas which ones?

Our students use http://www.omegatravel.ltd.uk/ if they want to book the flights themselves and we have also used them a couple of times, they do have staff that speak English but they are all Chinese as far as I know.

Pricewise I think they do tend to come out slightly cheaper than the English agents, although I still think booking via the net will get you the best deal. Worth giving them a ring though.

Mel