| 18 days China trip on our own: many doubts! | |
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| Jun 19, 2007 08:29 | #21   |
 | Hi,FREEMANBILBO, 1- Hangzhou is a beautiful city which is worthy to go, so we suggest you to share your time for it.Then you have no regret! 2- For some places, you don't need guide & for some history scenic spot with special culture, we suggest you to have a guide. 3- If you need other suggestion or tour guide service in Shanghai, you also can add my MSN: hotmail.com|Susan205060. Susan ( Shanghai guide) |
| Jun 20, 2007 12:24 | #22 |
| Hi everyone! thanks again for every advice! We already bought Lonely Planet guide... so much info! We are re-planning our trip this way: August 11st: arrival and visit Suzhou (getting there by night train from Xi'an) August 12th: visit Suzhou. August 13th: visit Suzhou and take evening train to Shanghai August 14th: day trip to Hangzhou by train (night at Shanghai) August 15th: Shopping day in Shanghai August 16th: we leave in morning plane to Spain! (via Moscow) Our idea is to take it a little easier in Suzhou and visit some main touristic spots in Hangzhou, while we will stay in 2 different hotels instead of 3, which will permit us to take some rest. We decided to "sacrifice" Nanjing hoping Suzhou and Hangzhou will be a little different from the rest of our China trip, with their gardens, channels and lakes. (We even thought about night ships connecting Suzhou and Hangzhou... any advice about them?) I'm afraid we won't have time to see many things, some scenery, etc... (we would have loved to visit Guilin or Yangtze Gorges) but I think we will be able to visit lots of things in China, and enjoy our 18 days the best we could. Thanks again for the advices about guides... and thanks for the offers... we are still thinking about it! We will take advantage of great advices like "how to start" at the Terracotta Warriors, sure! We already booked accomodation for Xi'an in Bell Tower International Hostel, as it seemed very well located and user reviews were great for this hostel. Seems there is no "special accomodation" in China like Ryokan in Japan... (we found nothing about this). Anyway, we still have to book for Suzhou (and 3 more nights in Shanghai), where hostel offer doesn't seem very good compared to other cities. We are thinking about booking a hotel... Does anybody recommend any hotel or hostel in Suzhou? Doesn't matter if it's a little more expensive than a hostel, but we don't need the best place... just well located, clean, and double room ensuite if possible ^_^ Any romantic accomodation or restaurant in Shanghai? ^_^ In Beijing, our idea is to go to a classic chinese opera show... (and of course, have a duck dinner) Any recomendation? By the way... to get to Shaolin Temple, our idea is to make Luoyang-Denfeng connection by train (or bus) and there, get the bus to the temple. Is this ok? Any problem to get to the Shaolin Temple? And to the Longmen Grottoes? One last thing... what about water places like lakes? Are they just for color fishes? ^_^ I mean... do you recommend us to take a swimming costume "just in case"? It will be very hot in summer... Nothing else by the moment... just thank you all again for your help, we really apreciate it!!! See ya! |
| Jun 21, 2007 05:55 | #23 |
| Hi, people! Yesterday a friend asked me about street stalls where you can buy cheap food (noodles, etc). Do you recommend this street stalls? Are they safe for tourist stomach? Or we have to take special care buying food in this places? Thanks again! |
| Jun 22, 2007 22:21 | #24 |
| Hi FREEMANBILBO, Welcome to Suzhou! I’m Jason Qiu and I’m Suzhou Native. Base on your trip planning, here, I prepared some suggestions for your trip. Hope the planning is useful for you. August 11th: arrival and visit Suzhou (getting there by night train from Xi'an) August 12th: visit Suzhou. August 13th: visit Suzhou and take evening boat to Hangzhou(depart from Suzhou at 17:30~next morning 7:00 arrive Hangzhou. Double Room: around $20/person) August 14th: Visit Hangzhou (night at Shanghai) August 15th: Shopping day in Shanghai August 16th: Leave in morning plane to Spain! (via Moscow) Regarding the hotels in Suzhou, I’d like to recommend 2 hotels for your reference. These two hotels are typical Suzhou Hotel. Xiangxuhai Hotel (Four-Star Hotel) Double Room: $33 or RMB250 (including breakfast) Nanyuan Hotel (Five-Star Hotel) Double Room: $86 or RMB650(including breakfast) Maybe I can help you to book the hotel and boat ticket if you decided. I also can be your guide for your Suzhou trip, and provide a vehicle(Volkswagen PASSAT). Guide Fee – Free! Car Rental -- $40/day or RMB300(except Park Fee, Gas Fee); $46/day or RMB350(including Park Fee, Gas Fee); (For Aug. 11th pick-up, from Suzhou Train Station to Hotel – Free!) The details, you can contact me via Email: hotmail.com|jason.su.zhou |
| Jun 22, 2007 22:44 | #25 |
| It's nice to viist China I do sugest you viist Xi;an ,which is quite necesary to each forigh traveller. and i'm xi;an local and know the hisrory quite well and one more news,one of my frined is psanish tour guide ,amy be she can ofer the necessary help to you . Best regards Jeff 163.com|zyq981125 |
| Jun 24, 2007 02:30 | #26 |
| Hi Jason, Great to hear the info about the overnight boat from Suzhou to Hangzhou. Many of us would love to make this trip sometime. Can I suggest that you post the details under 'transport' or 'must see or do' for both these destinations otherwise it tends to get lost when the thread dissappears as it surely will when these guys have finished thier trip. That's good offer you have made. |
| Jun 25, 2007 12:55 | #27 |
| Hi Jason, we were making arrangements to book tomorrow for the Suzhou Garden View Hotel, which seems pretty well located and has good reviews from the users. And it's got a Chineese touch in the decoration! Is this hotel OK? By the way, has anybody here made a book through travelchinaguide sending a FAX with your credit card details? Did everything work fine? (I'm used to the "fill the form via web" method for the payments) About the boat... we are considering it, but I'm not sure if we will feel strong for another +10 hours trip after coming from Xi'an 2 days before. Is it worthy to do this 14 hours journey considering that Shanghai is less than 1 hour away by train? (speaking about time) Will contact you if we decide to receive guide help in Suzhou, ok? We still haven't decided that kind of things, just started planning details! Anyway, thank you very much for your help! Greetings! ^_^ |
| Jun 26, 2007 08:07 | #28 |
| Well, bad news... at least for us :-(((( we must cancel our trip to China due to unexpected and "unavoidable" work dificulties. So all this hard (but happy) work will have no use at the moment. Anyway, thank you all for the help. We will take advantage of your advices when we go to China in the future... but not yet. We are very disapointed, but will sure look for another oportunity for China in the future. Again, thank you all... |
| Jun 27, 2007 01:05 | #29 |
| u know what~ travel so many city in 15 days? i never agree with this kind of quick view.china is a country with plenty of great old-line culture.it would never fit for a XXX day travelling, u need time to feel to understand it. otherwise u can only tell your friends u have been to somewhere that's meanless. just try to stay in one city for longer. |
| Jul 8, 2007 08:37 | #30 |
| hello, I am student in Shanghai and I plan a week end trip to Luoyang, to visit the shaolin temple and the longmen grottes. I would arrive on the saturday morning (7 am ) and leave on sunday afternoon (4pm). Do you think there is enough time for these 2 attractions? Do you know any way to get a english speaking guide ? Any hotel that you could advise to me ( 100 to 300RMB) ? thanks |
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