Anyone planned a trip to China without a travel agent?

A good travel agent site is https://www.zuji.com.hk

I spent two months in China with my GF when we were on our gap year.

We flew into Beijing and then used the overnight sleeper trains to about 15 places around China.

Given your time constraints, I think you would be better flying, although that said, if your budget is tight and you want to see real china and meet some real Chinese people in their own settings, overnight sleeper trains are fun, save money on accomodation and a real experience.

If this is an option, let me know and i'll give more detail.

M

MORPH3US wrote: »

I spent two months in China with my GF when we were on our gap year.

We flew into Beijing and then used the overnight sleeper trains to about 15 places around China.

Given your time constraints, I think you would be better flying, although that said, if your budget is tight and you want to see real china and meet some real Chinese people in their own settings, overnight sleeper trains are fun, save money on accomodation and a real experience.

If this is an option, let me know and i'll give more detail.

M

that's what i did too and it was great...

My sis took Internal flights and booked these via travel agent with just 1 or 2 days notice and these were cheap

alyth wrote: »

I'm planning to visit China in probably October or November and want to travel round on my own. My basic itinerary is 5 days Beijing/2 days Xi'an/4 days Chengdu/3 days Shanghai then back to Beijing. I'm struggling a bit as the flights are fairly expensive in October, and I can't for the life of me think how I can travel between the cities. can I arrange rail travel from Scotland from, say Beijing to Xi'an to Chengdu? I'll fly from Chengdu to Shanghai, but can I book these flights on my own from Scotland as well?

I've been to China twice before so I vaguely know what I'm doing, but I'm really struggling tonight to try and think how to plan the trip - can anyone offer any advice/assistance?.

I've been to China many times and never needed a travel agent. So your plan is feasible, although since your time is limited you might want to leave Shanghai for your next trip.

Flights to China are normally very affordable in October, so search a wider range of airlines and/or wait until better fares are released.

The best way to get around China is by train. You will need a reservation for a berth in a sleeper, since most journeys are overnight and take 15 hours or longer. Despite the name, "hard sleeper" is very comfortable and is a safe, sociable way to travel. It gets booked up very quickly, so you many need to take a "soft" sleeper, which offers a higher degree of privacy but for that reason is less fun. Some trains also have de luxe sleeping compartments, where you are on your own with a private bathroom, and of course pay a high price for the privilege.

Getting reservations for any of these facilities can be challenging: the main ticket offices at stations will almost certainly tell you they are sold out or not available. You have to go through ticket agents: virtually all hotels have a travel agent, and you can also find some with offices in railway stations. Expect to pay a service charge over the ticket price: in my experience this has varied from a pound or so up to more than the actual ticket price! Anyway, tickets for most journeys only go on sale four days before the date of travel so you will have time to get them once you are in China.

Domestic flights are actually not at all expensive, although some agents charge a fortune to foreigners who don't know any better. There is a website that Chinese people use (but it is available in English) offering discounted tickets for advance booking. Again, your hotel's travel desk should be able to help. I have also found good deals on tickets at the last minute by going to the airline's desk at my airport of departure and just asking for their lowest fare (and haggling a little).

Do check the weather: by November, Beijing is horribly cold.

MORPH3US wrote: »

We never experienced the above in our two months and over 10 train journeys around China.

However the language barrier when booking tickets may become a problem if you do it yourself at the station.

And when you are in the stations a) be prepared to be started and pointed at (quite funny if you don't worry about it) and b) they don't queue like good old british people, its just one massive crush to get to the train (not a problem if you have a bed reserved but still strange to see).

M

Yeh no problems either though i wrote out all my destinations that i wanted and they were laughing but i got to where i wanted to go

If you cannot get the sleeper just take the seat then upgrade while on the train..