4 weeks Itinerary in China - suggestions
Replies: 10 - Last Post: Aug 19, 2012 3:16 AM Last Post By: Nice_But__
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4 weeks Itinerary in China - suggestions
Hello all,We're a couple and planning a trip to China for 4 weeks during September. Our incoming flight is to Beijing and outgoing is from Hong-Kong. This is our first time in China.
We composed an iteriray and we would love to hear comments and suggestions on how to improve things from people who know the places involved.
What we planned is this:
day 1: arrive at Beijing (around 16:00). Walk from hotel to Beihai park and then to Jingshan. In the evening walk through the night market
day 2: Tienanmen square and Forbidden city. night time: Chaoyang Theatre Acrobatics show.
day 3: Great wall of China. A hike from Jinshanling to Simatai. night time: ???Any suggestions
day 4(Sunday): Dirt market, Lama temple, Hutong
day 5: The summer palace and the heaven temple. Night time: catch the Z train to Xi'an.
day 6: Xi'an town walls and the Muslim square. Night time: ????
day 7: Terracota Army. In the evening catch a bus to Huashan.
day 8: wake up early and hike Huashan. sleep on the mountain.
day 9: Sunrise, some more hiking and take bus back to Xi'an and from there a flight to Jiuzhaigo.
day 10-day 11:Jiuzhaigo. end of day 11 take a filght to Chengdu
day 12: Panda reserve in chengdu
day 13: Take a train to Emei. Hike Emeishan
day 14: Hike Emeishan. train back to Chengdu. fly to Lijiang.
day 15: Lijiang
day 16: Lijiang
day 17: Tiger leaping gorge
day 18: Tiger leaping gorge. back to Lijiang and night train to kunming.
day 19:Stone forset. train\flight to Guilin
day 20-21: Yangshou.
day 22: Dragon shaped rice terrace.
day 23 : Train to shenzen. cross to hong kong
day 24:Hong Kong
day 25:Hong Kong
day 26:Hong Kong
A couple of questions:
1. Does Hong-Kong merit 3 days?
2. is this schedule to crammed?
Would love to hear your suggestions.
1
Day 3: Is Simatai opened? I heard it is closed for renovation. You'd better confirm it beforehand.Day 6: Xian city wall and muslim street ( I guess you mean) won't take you a whole day. You may also visit the Big wild goose pagoda, Shaanxi Provicial Museum...
Day 12: Still it won't take you a whole day.
3 days in Hong Kong is fine.
2
Hi,Thanks for the reply. Would you happen to know how to check if Simatai is open? I tried googling it but didn't find anything useful.
Also, would you be able to recommend an alternative? it's my understanding that the Badaling part of the wall isn't very much fun because of tourism overload.
thanks
3
Day 13-14 around Emei might by a little tight. It's a big mountain, and a couple of hours at least from Chengdu. I think you need to drop either Yunnan or Yangshuo, and give yourself a bit more time in the place you keep. Both are good to see, but having more time will increase your enjoyment.Hong Kong - if you arrive in Shenzhen by overnight train, then you have a full day the first day. The final day depends on the time of your flight, but if late, you could spend it on Lantau seeing the Big Buddha and other places. So, you could do it with just one or two nights.
4
day 6: Xi'an town walls and the Muslim square. Night time: ????You could actually wait to do the city wall at night and bike around the top. I think the bike rental at the South Gate is open until about 9:30pm.
Also, I was found the Tang Dynasty Dinner Theater performance to be surprisingly good and the dinner was very good too. Pricey though.
Badaling part of the wall isn't very much fun because of tourism overload.
You can get a lot of Great Wall info at The Great Wall forum. According to a post on this site "Simatai closed from 17 June 2010. The hiking from Jinshanling to Simatai can be done only halfway. You have to stop at Qilin Tower and exit from the new path, or you have to go back the same way to Jinshanling." It was planned to be closed for a 2 year period, but an opening date apparently hasn't been announced. One tour site says it is now anticipated to be open in October or November of this year.
The alterative to Badaling is usually Mutianyu, which I preferred, and while there were still a lot of tourists, it wasn't as bad as when I went to Badaling.
6
hello,I am familiar with Jiuzhaigou, Chengdu and Emei section:
day 10-day 11:Jiuzhaigo. end of day 11 take a filght to Chengdu (if you like Huanlong park, calcified colourful lakes, you may spend hald day on D11 before you fly to Chengdu)
day 12: Panda reserve in chengdu. Bus to Emeishan. Overnight at foot of mountain and visit Baoguo Temple if time permits.
day 13: Hike Emeishan. Take some public bus and cable car to golden summit and Wannian Temple then hike down the hill. Down the hill.
day 14: Bus to Chengdu. Visit Renmin park, Kuanzhai lane etc. fly to Lijiang.
The earlist afternoon train from Emei to Chengdu is 5620 17:38--22:40pm. The former one is K166 10:20--12:53. If you keep on hiking on D14 you may miss your flight. This is important.
Hope this will be helpful. Any question about Chengdu or surrouding area, I'd be glad to offer my help.
As for Simatai great wall, it is really closed now. One day hiking on Jinshanling is OK.
7
Hi,A big thanks to all the people that took the time to reply. It really help getting the perspective of someone who's been to those places.
A couple of questions
Honeyclover: I understand that you wouldn't recommend a two day hike in emeishan? Is Leshan better? I'm toying with the idea of flying straight to lijiang immdieatly after the panda resreve (+ night at Chengdu) to give some more time in Yunnan. When I read the verbal description of the mount in LP it seemed awesome but the reviews I read online are mixed. How would you describe this Hike? is it a must if you are in the area?
In face, if anyone who;s been both to Yunnan and emeishan could give his opinion on the matter it would really help.
Cheers.
8
Emeishan - a mountain with lots of steps; parts are very scenic; parts are over-run with tour groups;it has quite a few monasteries where you can stay overnight which adds to the attraction; the summit is a big attraction with domestic tourists - but for me that part was very commercialised, and was covered in dense cloud so there was no view anyway.Lijiang - very commercialised town which is over-run at times with tourists. Most of the old town has been re-built in the old style, but it still looks scenic early in the morning. You probably need to spend a night before and after in Lijiang if you are going to Tiger Leaping Gorge, and a night /morning is about enough for me.
Tiger Leaping Gorge- a hike in China without the steps, and while quite popular you do not get the tour groups doing the high trail (except the odd western tour group). Some very nice guesthouses to stay along the route. If the weather is clear some great view on the route.
Yangshou - the town is increasingly popular with tour groups, but you don't need to go far outside the town to escape most of the crowds and be in great countryside. Some good guesthouses to stay in, and pretty easy travelling for a non Chinese speaker.
9
Other great wall alternatives: Huanghua and Jiankou. Nice parts and very few tourists. At Mutianyu there are quite a lot of tourists but the views are good.Jiankou is really untouched, great views and something of an adventure. Huanghua is also very beatifull, more renovated and I heard that is would soon be open to tourism for real, for now you just pay the locals 2rm.
To get to these places, hire a car with driver for the day. Look at thebeijinger.com , there are lots of drivers that put adds there, if you look around you will be able to find an english speaking driver with a good car for 700-1000rm/day/car. You could also ask them to take you to other sights that is on the way, for example the silver pagodas. If you find some other to share the costs with it is really worth the price.
10
Day 18/19 looks crammed.You'd need a day-taxi waiting for you at Kunming to do all that in a day.
