New Reply

Post a Reply

Thread: New Year Quandry advice please

Title: (100 characters at most)

Content: ( 3,000 characters at most, please )

You can add emoticons below to your post by clicking them.

[quote=KMATH71,337642]In my wisdom, I thought it'd be a great idea to see in the Chinese new year in the Capital. However, we are planning to travel across China to Hong Kong, so we can catch a flight to the Philippines before heading back into China to catch our return flight home. I realised that train travel would be challenging, and was fully prepared to experience this, but did not realise that:

A- Booking train tickets online via an agency would be so expensive, or
B- I'd only be able to book train tickets a couple of weeks in advance or
C- The Visa requires that I show proof of the flights to the Philippines.

This means that if I book the flight to the Philippines in time for the visa applications, that we may not be able to guarantee we will make our connection. I can't afford that.

Our flight to Beijing will arrive on the 25th. I was planning to spend a couple of days there, seeing The Great Wall, Forbidden Palace etc before heading south on the train to Hong Kong around 27th-28th, fly out to the Philippines where we would remain for about 10 days, before heading back to China to see the country when the public transport had settled down.

Unfortunately my research led me to train prices which are only available to people buying tickets once in the country, and I have worked out our budget accordingly. I have considered a flight but this is considerably more expensive, and becoming more so as they sell out (I am holding out for pay day!). After paying for this, and other major expenses, it will only leave us about 501.731 CNY a day to live on (food, hostels, local travel) there will be four of us.

Should I gamble, perhaps booking the Philippine flights for a later date, and trying Beijing train station daily in the hope I can get train tickets?

If so, would it be possible to cut costs by buying two hard seat, and two sleepers, so the party can take shifts sleeping?

On slightly different note, we were planning to arrive back in China around the 7th, and our flights back leave on 21st Feb, leaving us 14 days to explore China, however, I am greedy. I want to see-

Karst hills (not Guilin, I'd like to avoid the tourists)
Mingyong glacier
The Terracota Warriors
Sand dunes in Inner Mongolia
A volcanic area?

and I am ameniable to other areas of great beauty, especially nature reserves

Of course, this is recipe for a very tight schedule, and we also have to consider the weather, especially re. Mingyong Glacier.

Money is very much an object, I saved all year, working double shifts, for the international flights alone.

We will have about 3,010.48 CNY for train travel for the return tour, so I'm trying very hard to pick regions which combine the above as much as possible to cut travel, and am also looking at overnight sleepers to combine sleep and travel where I can to save time and money.

Is it also possible for us to rent a twin room a have some sleep on the floor to cut costs?

Any tips about the any of the above would be gratefully received.

Thank you,

Kaz

[/quote]

characters left

Name:

Get a new code