What's the best way to holiday in China?

Legacy_user

Our daughter is due to study in China from Sept 2006 and will celebrate her 21st birthday out there. She wants us to go over there on holiday to help her celebrate. I have got several brochures but most seem to sell organised tours which are too restrictive when we need to have time with our daughter. Can anyone give us a few tips or links to help us get the most from 2 weeks in the Orient including information on possible internal flights/train journeys etc.

We would like to include the usual sights such as the Terracotta army, Tiannamen Square and Great wall and anything else anyone can recommend.

System

Just bumping it up to the top again !!

nelly_2

We went 2 years ago, stayed in Beijing for 10 days. My girlfriends mum was teaching there.

Get a "rough Guide" book it was excellent.

We flew down to Xian (teracota) for 2 days, We checked on expedia when we were there but then one of the students who liked hanging round with us phoned up a firm and got the same thing for half price, dont know who he phoned but hopefully one of your daughters colleges will know.
Our hotel organised a tour for us in a mini bus.

An emporer built the army to take into his after life, the tour took us to his palace then to his wifes palace the to some natural spring place then onto the army its self.
Deffinately get a guide at the army, we learnt SO much from ours. Ill dig out my photos to try to get the hotel name. Xian is an experiance on its own, it had few english speakers and was hillarious some times.

Back to Beijing.

Its massive and I mean MASSIVE its the same size as Belgium and busy. But taxis are for nothing. From the airport to the center( we stayed just near tianamen) it is roughly the distance from Manchester to Liverpool the taxi cost £6 yes six quid, and they flatly refuse tips. It will be the cheapest holiday you have ever had I guarantee.

Watching the driving is unbelievable just close you eyes and hope, you'll see what I maen.

The forbiden city is off Tianamen, def go in there all the old architechture and that is great, you get a pre recorded tour by Rodger Moore.

One of our fave places was the Summer palace, its just a great day out.

The main shopping street is just near Tianamen square its called Wangfujing, but the best thing is just off there, called Snack street, cant remember if it was open in the day but at night. Its a loooooong row of stalls selling snacks, unsuprisingly, how ever were not talking burgers and nuggets and chips.

To my girlfriends utter horror and hillarity I ate
Silk worms, (not nice)
Scorpions on a skewer,( wasnt sure at first the sting was still on them, but they were really nice)

Sparrows on a skewer,( inch long drumstick was a pain in the @rse)

and dogmeat (yes real dog and tasted lovely, like soft pork)

They also have snake, seahorse, skined frog the lot, but we got there too late it shut's at 9.45.

It's gross but a good laugh if your up for it, if not, just watch the idiots like me who are up for it.

Also go to the Silk market , but be prepared, they hasle and grab you like mad, but its fun if you are pre warned which you are now we loved the haggling and hussel and bussel, the hawkers outside pester you to cd's dvd's t shirts watches, buy nothing off them though. As an example we had 1 lad trying to flog us 2 watches at £90 by time we got into the taxi they were down to £5 and still dropping.

Getting to the wall we got a lift through a friend of the mother in law which we paid for but a taxi would only be about a tenner I think.

In the interest of money saving expert I got my hair cut.... for 14 pence, and he wouldnt take a tip neither.

They have a zoo which is an utter disgrace to the animals it has to be seen to be believed its horrible,we went to see the pandas who are having it large but the rest is awfull, they do have an aqurium that rivals any I've seen in the world though

All in all China has ranked as one of our fave places ever its just soooo different and interesting. I'll ad more if I think or ask any questions you like I'll answer if I can.

System

Thanks Nelly for the information. We were debating whether to book some tours and internal flights before we left but from the sounds of it it may be cheaper to do it when we are in China. We're not sure which city our daughter will be studying in, it could be either Shanghai or Beijing but either way if we are travelling that far we want to get as much as possible out of it without breaking the bank.