| Planning my first trip to China and need help | |
|---|---|
| Aug 25, 2005 03:08 |   |
 | I need advise from someone that's visited China before. I'm planning a trip there next year on my own and the cost is mounting rapidly. To reduce the cost now I need to drop part of my itinerary. The choice I'm faced with is to drop my Yangtze river cruise or not fly to Dali and spend 4 days exploring the area around Dali and Kunming. Not having been to China before, it's a hard choice to make as I want to see it all! So can someone please advise me which area is best to visit out of the two. It doesn't help that the Yangtze is being flooded and I feel like I'm running out of time to see it. |
| Aug 25, 2005 03:16 | #1 |
| Which month do you plan to come to China? Beijing ,the capital of China ,is a must to see place ,for the thousands history and culture ,the Great Wall is marvelous !! |
| Aug 25, 2005 03:23 | #2 |
| How about the advice from a person lives in China forever? :P Dropping the yangtze river cruise is helpful to reduce the cost, but it also depends on what kind of cruise ship you choose. To tell the truth, many interesting historic relics or marvelous things have already been under water. So, it won't hurt much if you come later. I prefer Dali and kunming:) |
| Aug 25, 2005 06:54 | #3 |
| Hi Lace! How much time do you have and what is your complete plan??? |
| Aug 25, 2005 11:31 | #4 |
| Yes, give us some more information about your itinerary and budget - we may be able to suggest cheaper ways to go, you may not have to drop your itinerary at all. I travel regularly at 100 yuan a day and get by fine. For some, even that's a lot for travel in China. |
| Aug 25, 2005 15:29 | #5 |
| Hi, thanks for replying. I really love history, architecture and scenery and am very keen on photography and from what pictures of seen of the two areas, Dali and the Yangtze, I think it would be best to drop the Yangtze cruise as far as I'm concerned. Karen |
| Aug 25, 2005 15:37 | #6 |
| I've got around 21 days in total travelling from the UK and back, although I may be able to get another couple of days off and extend it to 24. I'm planning on flying into Beijing, then travelling to Xian, Guilin, Yangshuo, Kunming-Dali, then from Dali-Kunming-Chongqing, Yangtze river cruise, then Shanghai. I'm travelling on my own October/November 2006 and because of that the travel agent has advised that the supplements for the hotels, guides, train fare, cruise, internal flights is adding around 1,000 english pounds to the cost which is why I need to reduce the places I visit. I love scenery, architecture and history and was thinking that the Yangtze might be the area I'd have to drop but wanted advise from someone who knows about China, as I've never been. Karen |
| Aug 25, 2005 16:40 | #7 |
| I got really excited when i read this post! Reminded me of planning all the cool stuff i did in China. Anyways, in my opinion, unless your thinking of booking an expensive (therefore, more comfortable)cruise down the Yangze then drop it. I heard bad reports from fellow travellers being cramped on Chinese passenger boats etc. In any case, S.W. China easily matched Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an for me, especially if you like scenery. And, of course, theres a boat trip oppertunity at Guilin-Yangshuo. Have a good trip! I'm envious! Gaz |
| Aug 25, 2005 20:11 | #8 |
| Luckily,you have choosen the best places of china,In BeiJing and Xi'an,you can enjoy our history and architectures!in Guilin and Yangshuo,I think it is the best scenery!You will lose so many films!!! If you want to give up some parts,my own opinion is the Yangtze river cruise! Btw,you will come to china in Oct,please avoid the 1st---7th,it is the golden week in our country,so many persons go out for travelling,it is very crowded in everywhere! |
| Aug 26, 2005 03:20 | #9 |
| Hey Lace, To save some money avoid some unnecessary flights. For example from Beijing to Xian take the train for 18 EUR (Hard Sleeper)! Departure is in the afternoon, arrival in the morning. The rest is a little bit tricky because train connections are quite bad for your destinations. Maybe you should fly to Kunming (I guess around 1000 Kuai or 100 EUR) take bus to Dali (50 to 70Yuan I heard(5-7EUR), but I never did that myself). Return the same way, take plane to Guilin. Bus to Yangshuo to get cheaper Li River Cruises - if the water is low you have to go to Yangshuo anyway. (I think it was a 5 Yuan ride, 50Cent). The best part of the Li River is between Xingping and Yangshuo anyway. From Guilin I would recommend to take the plane to Chongqing because trainride is really unnecessary too long. I did that for 500 Yuan (50EUR) but could be more expensive during your time. Chongqing For river cruises I can give you the emailaddress of a good guy in chongqing, so you can check it. But I never took a river cruise on the ChangJiang. (I grew up next to the river Rhine, the European version of the ChangJiang - the middle Rhine is UNESCO world heritage...blablabla) Oh, I think you cant go all the way to Shanghai. But therefore a ChangJiang specialist on this board might help you.... So what do we have so far: transportation costs between cities: 250 EUR flight costs, 18EUR train, busses 11-15EUR,plus river cruise? Of course you can lower that by using more trains. Actually I had one trip with more than 5000km by train and boat for around 70 EUR. Wont get far with that in Europe, huh? Get your tickets for departure already when you arrive in a place, just to make sure. accomodation: from your price ideas I guess you prefer luxury 5star palaces, but let me tell you that it is possible to stay in cheap hotels or hostels for up to 5 EUR in every place (even HK). food: the range is wide, you can eat for 20 to 50 Cents a meal in street kitchens or open end luxury restaurants - and everything inbetween, of course. So you dont need to drop anything because of costs. BUT I always avoided Chinese holidays for travelling, this could be more difficult. |
| Aug 26, 2005 03:32 | #10 |
| To Elcabron:which Nu.of the train(the hard sleeper from Beijing to xi'an cost 180RMB)?I cost 256RMB!!! |
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