1

Shanghai would be the obvious cut, and not a great miss in my opinion.

Maybe look at a flight from Guilin to Zengzhou (if you want to go there).

So, overnight train from Shenzhen to Guilin; perhaps see the rice terraces first and spend a night there. Then down to Yangshuo for 2-3 nights. You can book the Shenzhen-Guilin train in Hong Kong for around HK$100 commission per ticket.

Then flight up to Zhengzhou and Shaolin (might need 2 nights; don't under estimate travel times). Look on ctrip.com ,elong.net and travelzen.com.

Zhengzhou is on the high speed line to Beijing- so not much need to use an agent to book in advance.

Probably have 4 nights in Beijing at the end.

2

Thanks for this. We've decided to cut Shanghai and possibly replace Zhengzhou with Xian. I've been told that it offers so much History that the commercialisation is worth it. would you agree?

As for not using an agent, I've been told that this is very difficult in China due to the language barrier?

3

You will find a lot of places in China highly commercialised and crowded with visitors. Unless you really have the time to get to out of the way places, plus the language skills to get there, I think you just have to accept China as it is and treat the massive crowds as part of the experience.

Xian has quite a lot to see, and its logistics are probably easier than Shaolin for a first time visitor.

I think the language barrier is less than of issue compared to the demand for certain tickets. You can often get tickets through a hotel travel desk for a much smaller commission, or get the hotel to write down in Chinese which ticket you want exactly, then get from the train station yourself.

If you are going Hong Kong- Guilin (Yangshuo)- Xian - Beijing, then I think the two routes you could have overnight trains are Shenzhen - Guilin, and Xian- Beijing, but do also look at flights on these routes as fares can be heavily discounted. If by train, tickets on the Xian- Beijing route do go fast, so you would probably need to use an agent to try to get that one. For peace of mind, I'd probably fly that route and book tickets online myself.

The Shenzhen - Guilin train can be booked by yourself in Hong Kong for a commission of around US$13 a ticket - or if the online ones can do it for a similar price and get the ticket to you at your Hong Kong hotel, do it that way. Or, if you are prepared to play it by ear, cross the border around lunch time and try to get a ticket for same day travel yourself, and if none are left, go by sleeper bus direct to Yangshuo.

4

Personally I love Shanghai. I can't for the life of me think of why #1 said it's the "obvious cut". It's an exciting and vibrant city. I also think that Xi'an is highly overrated.

5

Hello TeamV:
Beijing is the centre of the Chinese universe and it deserves at least five days. We backpacked China last year, arrived at Beijing (from Canada) and had planned to spend one week. But we left Beijing only after one full month! There were so many things to see and so little time.
Feel free to peruse our travel notes for details and tips:
http://konniandmatt.blogspot.com/2012/07/03-jul-31-jul-2012-beijing.html
Happy and safe travels always, Matt.