China trip in March

[matrignano]

Esteemed learned PH travellers, may I quickly sense check my provisional itinerary for a first time two week trip to China next month?


Worried I may be trying to cram too much in, or spending too long/too little in some places.

Shanghai is non negotiable as I’m flying to/from there.

Xian non hugely interested in if you ask, saw the Terracotta Army at the British Museum and I think I don’t need to see those fellows again.

I’m more of a city type but missus wants to see “nature” so Guilin seems to be my pick for that.

Thoughts welcome!

6-9 March Shanghai: combat jetlag, eat chinese food, day trip to one of the water towns nearby-ish
9-11 Hong Kong: weekend - get pissed, eat a lot, buy dodgy watches
11-13 Chengdu: pandas, mount emei and the giant Buddha
13-15 Guilin: “nature”, hikes, rice terraces
15-19 Beijing: forbidden city etc, hutongs, day trip to the Great Wall
19-20 Shanghai: sleepover before flying back early ish

[wyson]

Have you done that much moving around before? A schedule like that would make me exhausted and require a recovery break back home. It is one country, but it is huge. Really a lot of those 3 day trips, you will spend 2 days travelling, getting to and from the airport, on a flight or on the high speed train. Do you have a private helicopter / jet lined up to whisk you from city to city? If not, doubt that schedule is achievable. You will be travelling, seeing the inside of transport terminals more than you are seeing sights.

I’d break it down into 3 stops at most.

Edited by wyson on Friday 9th February 21:18

[matrignano]

wyson said:

Have you done that much moving around before? A schedule like that would make me exhausted and require a recovery break back home. It is one country, but it is huge. Really a lot of those 3 day trips, you will spend 2 days getting to and from the airport, unless you have a private helicopter or something like that lined up to whisk you from city to city.

Edited by wyson on Friday 9th February 20:52

Yes I have and it pissed me off at the time
Worst I think was Singapore, Saigon, Hanoi, hoi an, ha long bay and phu quoc in 2 weeks. Was quite sporty!

But I also suffer from FOMO so I’m conflicted.

I think I could skip one of the legs, not sure if Chengdu or Hong Kong however?

Edited by matrignano on Friday 9th February 20:59

Edited by matrignano on Saturday 10th February 11:29

[wyson]

I’d do Guilin / Hong Kong for 1 two week break.

Then have another 2 week break and do Shanghai / Beijing.

Even then that would be a stretch, lots to see and do on both these trips, especially if you take day trips to attractions nearby. So in Shanghai, people also go to the lakes in Hangzhou as a day trip. Not far on the high speed train.

In Hong Kong, it’s common to day trip out to Macao. I liked seeing the rural seaside towns and beaches in Hong Kong and eating seafood. 2 days right there, peripheral to Hong Kong proper. If your other half loves nature, there are some really nice hikes with ocean views too.

I usually take a day or two off on a 2 week break, so it isn’t relentless sightseeing. Like make use of the hotel spa facilities, watch a movie in the room, and generally have some downtime.

I haven't been to Chengdu.

God, I feel stressed just thinking about the schedule you posted, so probably not the best person to advise. Once I did this sort of holiday, following my parents on a ‘see it all’ package tour in California, had the worst time of my life, vowed never to travel like that again.

Edited by wyson on Friday 9th February 22:26

[daqinggregg]

Personally I think you trying to cram too much into the time frame you have.

Don’t underestimate the times to clear passport control.

Shanghai/Hong Kong/Beijing, all have high speed rail connections to downtown.

Most go to websites; you will not have access without a VPN

Money, increasingly a lot of places no longer accept cash, traditional credit cards not widely used on the mainland. Download Wechat pay or use Alipay.

Travel, don’t underestimate distance; trains, very fast, clean and punctual. Metro systems in most major cities are excellent.

Weather March, Beijing/Shanghai 2ºC to 14ºC, many indoor places don’t have heating. South should be OK.

Destinations; most of the information is readily available on the internet, just a couple of points.

Shanghai, see the French Quarter, lots of interesting art deco architecture, walk along the Bund a must do.

Hong Kong. Forget dodgy watches largely a thing form the past and getting sloshed; night out on the source makes London look like a bargain European booze tour.

HK, is all about sight seeing and food. Sight seeing there are lots of easily accessible hikes with stunning views, which can be capped of by a visit to sea food restaurants; Lama Island probably the easiest for this. Make sure you go local food wise, dim sum, seafood, noodles, roast meats the choice is endless.

Scrub Guilin, go direct to Yangshou, 1 hour road trip away, has everything on your list and a much more relaxing vibe.

Chendu, huge, hilly city, not the best air quality, although personally I’ve not been.

Beijing, personally I stay in Chaoyang, easy access to Airport expess/subway/downtown/Sanlitun.

See ‘jetlag warriors’ recent youtube videos for travel tips.

[matrignano]

daqinggregg said:

Most go to websites; you will not have access without a VPN.

Money, increasingly a lot of places no longer accept cash, traditional credit cards not widely used on the mainland. Download Wechat pay or use Alipay.

Thanks, good tips! Yangshou is on the list but I guess I need to fly into Guilin to get there, hence why Guilin is on my list?

Good point re: "traditional" useful travelling websites like Google, Google Maps and Google Translate.
What is the go-to in China for web searching, maps and translation? Baidu?

Re: payments, will my Mastercard Clarity and Revolut cards not work do you reckon? Can set-up Wechat or Alipay, shouldn't be a problem.

One question re: mobiles, do e-Sim packages such as this work and make sense (other providers available)?
https://www.globalyo.com/?utm_source=google&ut...

I used to get pocket wifis in Japan but they can be a bit of a faff, this seems like the best of both, you get to keep your number but you can use the e-sim for data abroad?

[daqinggregg]

Yes, you do need to fly to Guilin to get to Yangshou, but I would suggest skip staying in Guilin and go direct to Yangshou. I went to Guilin in 1998 (early days of the internet) and thought WTF is everyone on about, nothing special here. After a coupe of days I met a Chinese English teacher “How do you like Guilin” “Not as special as I expected” “Ah, that’s because you need to go to Yangshou” All my friends in HK said go to Guilin, but then they all joined a tour, I did it independently. Hence highlighting this.

Baidu, is about the best option for online travel information/translation, (although far from ideal) best to get a translation app that works off line.

WiFi is not widely available, even when it is, its generally pass word protected, which presents its own problems, although often a young member of staff will help you log in.

Pocket WiFi and local sims are a real PITA to get, so not worth it.

Can’t comment on e-sims, no experience, I have a local network.

Do as much research as you can before leaving home.

Outside of the major chains (where is the fun in going to there) credit cards are not generally accepted.

Many shops/restaurants/coffee shops even taxis only take e-payments.

Be patient, many things seem to take a long time to be processed, but its just people doing their job.

[daqinggregg]

Note: watch 'jetlag warriors' really insightful.

[JP78]

From my experience the itinerary that you have planned is possible but I do think you are trying to do too much. So I might be tempted to drop a couple of bits. If I were you I would drop Hong Kong and do that as a separate trip another time maybe combined with Shenzhen and Guangzhou or do it as a stopover on the way somewhere else .

Shanghai is a great city with so much going on and a great bar and restaurant scene, as others mentioned French Concession is a cool area to check out as is The Bund and Pudong. There is now a great art scene in Shanghai if you are into that stuff and a load of good museums etc and it is just a fantastic modern Chinese city which is a pleasure to spend time in.

Chengdu is probably one of my favourite cities in China, I am writing this whilst in Chengdu as I am here visiting my wife’s family for Chinese New Year. The city is a great blend of old China and new and it has some of the best food in the whole of China in my opinion, especially if you like spicy food. Chengdu has a very vibrant music scene, is an extremely stylish city with a very young fashionable population and has some great modern shopping areas as well as some old traditional areas plus some amazing tea houses to chill in. Of course there are also the pandas which are really worth a visit.

Guilin/Yangshou are also very scenic and a nice way to spend a few days.

Beijing is obviously a must for the reasons you mention, Forbidden City, Great Wall, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven etc plus it has a very different vibe to Shanghai and is a different style of city but also very enjoyable. Strolling around the Hutongs and popping into some of the neighbourhood coffee shops or bars is great fun and March/April is a good time to be in the city, not too cold but not crazy hot.

Before you travel make sure that you download a VPN to your phone so you can still access google, Google maps, WhatsApp, Instagram etc. If you are an Apple user then Apple Maps works pretty well without VPN. You should download DIDI which is basically the Chinese Uber, there is an English version and this will make getting around so much easier, you can connect your UK bank card to the APP. Download the Trip APP which is great for booking flights, trains and hotels in China and again you can use UK credit card. I would also download Alipay and see if you can connect your UK bank card, in theory you can but most people I know have struggled with this. If that doesn’t work try WeChat but that is also a bit hit and miss. Having either Alipay or WeChat pay will make everything on your trip a lot easier though. Most major hotels will accept your UK credit cards but they won’t be accepted in many local restaurants or stores.

Also worth checking out Lostplate food tours as they do some great food experiences in Chengdu, Shanghai and Beijing.

If you would like more detailed recommendations on hotels/restaurants in the different cities drop me a PM and I can help you out. Of course my wife and I would also be very happy to welcome you to our wine bar in Beijing when you pass through.

[matrignano]

Thanks for all the great advice so far!

I think I will skip Honkers and spend one more day each in Chengdu to scoff on Szechuan food, and Guilin as base for day trips to Langji and Yangshuo.
I'm sure I can have a boozy time and buy watches in Shanghai or Beijing anyway!

Downloaded a bunch of apps already and managed to set up Alipay with my UK card. Added bonus is that Alipay app lets you book taxis via Didi and travel via Trip so a nice do it all.

Now off to watch jetlag warriors!

JP78 I may well reach out closer to the date for some restaurant recommendation and to try your wine bar!

[satans worm]

matrignano said:

Esteemed learned PH travellers, may I quickly sense check my provisional itinerary for a first time two week trip to China next month?


Worried I may be trying to cram too much in, or spending too long/too little in some places.

Shanghai is non negotiable as I’m flying to/from there.

Xian non hugely interested in if you ask, saw the Terracotta Army at the British Museum and I think I don’t need to see those fellows again.

I’m more of a city type but missus wants to see “nature” so Guilin seems to be my pick for that.

Thoughts welcome!

6-9 March Shanghai: combat jetlag, eat chinese food, day trip to one of the water towns nearby-ish
9-11 Hong Kong: weekend - get pissed, eat a lot, buy dodgy watches
11-13 Chengdu: pandas, mount emei and the giant Buddha
13-15 Guilin: “nature”, hikes, rice terraces
15-19 Beijing: forbidden city etc, hutongs, day trip to the Great Wall
19-20 Shanghai: sleepover before flying back early ish

I went to China and Hong Kong for a month 7 years or so back, i think my schedule was quite similar with regard how many places i visited and was fine for me, these places are not for a vacation but an adventure/exploration (i spent 3 days in Hong Kong at the end for a relax

i dont recall the places i visited off hand so all i can add is

Make sure you eat nothing but soup dumplings (Xiaolongbao ) in Shanghai (some places sell out by 3 in the afternoon and i ended up eating them for breakfast and were still incredible)

I did an over night at the Great Wall as its quite far from Beijing, also did a water town which whilst very commercial, gives a feeling to what life could of been like in a water town

The bullet style trains are incredible, as are the stations, huge and all in English (but you need to go through scanners all the time)

Guilin is a great place to go, i paid to meet some of the old fishermen who use hand cast nets and birds to help them fish (im into photography so wanted to get a snap)

My personal highlight was Huangshan Mountains, 2 nights there, utterly stunning scenery and great exercise

Enjoy it, and when you use the google translate app on the menu, be sure the food wont be anything like you thought it was going to be

Edited by satans worm on Monday 12th February 14:24

Edited by satans worm on Monday 12th February 14:26

[MrBig]

Glad you're going to Chengdu, great modern city, Panda Base is great if the Pandas are cooperating. I was there in June and it was fooking hot, so they weren't really in a sociable mood, but we did eventually see some of them. The downtown area is amazing. All the worlds top high end brands in ultra modern shops, surrounding a 2 thousand year old Buddhist temple.

Shame to miss out HK, but I assume you've been before? I loved it but haven't been in recent years and I'm led to believe it's really not the same anymore.

Shanghai is brilliant, make sure you see the bund and get across the river to go up one of the towers and as someone else has already said get some xiaolongbao - I'm still trying to find somewhere in the UK that does some even close to the ones I had there. Prebook the museum if you are there at the weekend as you'll have to be very lucky to get in otherwise. See the Yu Garden if you can and also the JingAn Temple. If you fancy a modern take on Chinese food or even their take on western food then there are plenty of options in the New World area, near Tai Ping Qiao Gong Yuan park.

I couldn't get WeChat pay to work because I don't have a Chinese phone number. Would have been so much easier if we could have used it. Messaging etc works fine though.

[satans worm]

Previous poster reminded me, get a VPN for your phone so google etc work, China is heavily censored on the internet as i understand it and some apps simply wont work there without the VPN

I got a local sim card but it struggled to work on my phone, the gist i got was that my (American) phone would not work with the sim so i sucked up the slowest download speed ever, but i think they just ripped me off

[matrignano]

Me again!

Now looking at day trips, namely:
- Longji from Guilin
- Yangshuo from Guilin
- Leshan Buddha from Chengdu
- Jinshanling Great Wall from Beijing
- Tongli or Zhouzhuang from Shanghai

Looking on Viator all of these are pretty much always ~£100 per head for a day trip, some offer multiple stops, an English-speaking guide and lunch, others not much more than transportation.

Are there local websites from which I can book these trips more cheaply? Or is it better to ask the hotels locally to arrange trips for us?

When it comes to transport only, is it cheaper to hail a cab rather than prebook a private hire car with driver (usually in the £70-100 range for a couple hours drive, wait time and drive back)?

Thanks!

[daqinggregg]

With regard to cost and convenience, only you can put a value on what you think is reasonable.

As JB78 pointed out, download didi. It will save you time, money and make for less stressful travel.

Last Sept/Oct we traveled in South West China as an example we got a didi from downtown Nanning to the airport (mainly highway) 40 minute journey 70RMB and that included a 10RMB road toll. I find hard to work out how they make money.

The cars are modern, clean and in the South mostly EV’s

As a rough idea.

Guilin to Longji RMB 180 – 230
Guilin to Yangshuo RMB 170 – 210

One thing to note; in light of recent events, a lot of the go to websites. Tripadvisor, Viator, Rome2Rio, contain woefully out of date information, I say that from recent experience

[JP78]

matrignano said:

Me again!

Now looking at day trips, namely:
- Longji from Guilin
- Yangshuo from Guilin
- Leshan Buddha from Chengdu
- Jinshanling Great Wall from Beijing
- Tongli or Zhouzhuang from Shanghai

Looking on Viator all of these are pretty much always ~£100 per head for a day trip, some offer multiple stops, an English-speaking guide and lunch, others not much more than transportation.

Are there local websites from which I can book these trips more cheaply? Or is it better to ask the hotels locally to arrange trips for us?

When it comes to transport only, is it cheaper to hail a cab rather than prebook a private hire car with driver (usually in the £70-100 range for a couple hours drive, wait time and drive back)?

Thanks!

For some of these trips if you want to explore yourself then it would be relatively simple to just book a Didi using the APP. With Didi you can choose the level of car you want, from a basic taxi up to a "luxury" car such as Mercedes E Class. I usually use "Premier" which guarantees a new decent car and a driver who is smart and will provide water etc, if you are traveling in a bigger group you can also book a 6 seater.

You can download the Didi APP before you travel and type a pickup location and then a destination and it should show you the price without actually having to book. This will give you a rough idea of what makes sense for you, I think Guilin to Yangshou would be around 200RMB one way but some of the trips you are considering will be a bit more so Jinshanling from Beijing downtown would be around 600 RMB one way.

Also don't rule out trains or subway for some of your trips. The trains are very simple to use in China and you can buy tickets online then scan your passport at the station to get on the train. So Guilin to Yangshou takes about 25 mins on the train (vs 1hour 45 in the car) and will cost you around 40RMB for a 1st class ticket.

As for Chinese apps there are a lot that are hard to use unless you read Chinese. I always use the Trip APP for my trains and flights, the English version is great. As well as flight and train booking they have a section for Attractions and Tours where you can book Great Wall Trips, Universal Studios, Summer Palace, Leshan Giant Buddha, Panda research etc

I would also have a chat with the team at WildChina, check out their website and see what they offer. They will basically do bespoke trips for you, they are not the cheapest but their quality is very good and they will take you to the best places and know the best lunch spots, guides etc.

[matrignano]

JP78 said:

For some of these trips if you want to explore yourself then it would be relatively simple to just book a Didi using the APP. With Didi you can choose the level of car you want, from a basic taxi up to a "luxury" car such as Mercedes E Class. I usually use "Premier" which guarantees a new decent car and a driver who is smart and will provide water etc, if you are traveling in a bigger group you can also book a 6 seater.

You can download the Didi APP before you travel and type a pickup location and then a destination and it should show you the price without actually having to book. This will give you a rough idea of what makes sense for you, I think Guilin to Yangshou would be around 200RMB one way but some of the trips you are considering will be a bit more so Jinshanling from Beijing downtown would be around 600 RMB one way.

Also don't rule out trains or subway for some of your trips. The trains are very simple to use in China and you can buy tickets online then scan your passport at the station to get on the train. So Guilin to Yangshou takes about 25 mins on the train (vs 1hour 45 in the car) and will cost you around 40RMB for a 1st class ticket.

As for Chinese apps there are a lot that are hard to use unless you read Chinese. I always use the Trip APP for my trains and flights, the English version is great. As well as flight and train booking they have a section for Attractions and Tours where you can book Great Wall Trips, Universal Studios, Summer Palace, Leshan Giant Buddha, Panda research etc

I would also have a chat with the team at WildChina, check out their website and see what they offer. They will basically do bespoke trips for you, they are not the cheapest but their quality is very good and they will take you to the best places and know the best lunch spots, guides etc.

Thanks both!

Looks like Alipay (which contains Didi) and Trip are two super useful apps!
I downloaded them a few days ago on one poster's advice, will have a play now.

Question: do you need to scan your physical passport every time you want to catch a train!?
Never been keen on carrying my passport around when travelling abroad

[MrBig]

You do need your passport when booking train tickets. I had mine checked a few times whilst on the train too.

[JP78]

matrignano said:

Thanks both!

Looks like Alipay (which contains Didi) and Trip are two super useful apps!
I downloaded them a few days ago on one poster's advice, will have a play now.

Question: do you need to scan your physical passport every time you want to catch a train!?
Never been keen on carrying my passport around when travelling abroad

Good question, I am not sure actually I have never tried it without my passport as it is so convenient to just scan. You might be able to avoid scanning if you ask someone to buy physical tickets for you but even then I think you might need to scan your passport to get into the station, they tend to like to know who is travelling where here!!

For the subway no need to have your passport.

You will need to show your passport for a lot of things, hotels will definitely need to see it but for other places you might be able to get away with a high quality print out or photos on your phone.

From a theft point of view crime is very low so it is unlikely to be stolen so it is just a question of not losing it, easier said than done I know!!

[JP78]

matrignano said:

Thanks both!

Looks like Alipay (which contains Didi) and Trip are two super useful apps!

Yes I use Alipay and Trip on a daily basis they both are very useful indeed. Only thing I would say is that yes Alipay does contain a car hailing service but this is actually an aggregator across lots of different car hailing companies. This is good in so far as there are a lot of cars on their platform which is great at peak times but it is bad in so far as you might not exactly know what you are getting. Services can vary so you might have some crappy cars and drivers calling you asking where you are in Chinese or refusing to come to certain locations.

So even though it might seem a pain to download another APP I would really recommend downloading the specific English version of Didi as it is much simpler to use, it has English maps, pre defined messages that you can send to the driver in English, explaining you don't speak Mandarin, asking them to wait etc. Plus the standards they set are very high for cleanliness of the cars/drivers and they have decent customer service set up if you leave something in the car it is easy to contact drivers and get stuff back.