Hi, off to China for 17 day honeymoon in May, starting in Beijing, hope to then go to Xi'an, Jijiang, Guilin then finally HK. I would appreciate any advice, particularly with regard to:
1. How to travel between these places, it is our honeymoon so we are prepared to pay for flights etc.
2. Also is there anywhere else we should go or anything in particualr we should do at these destination other than the major attractions?
3. Are we trying to do to much?
Thank you all in anticipation, and hope you can help us make our honeymoon a memorable one (as we only intend having one!)
Gordon
gordon76
1
purpletreefrog
Is Jijiang actually Lijiang?
Whether or not you are trying to do too much depends on you two (congratulations by the way). If you have a long held dream of visiting China and seeing as much as possible then I think that plan sounds ok. If you want to have a very relaxed trip mainly enjoying each others company then I might skip somewhere. If I was going to do your trip and money wasn't a problem then I would do something like this.
Beijing 5 days. See all major sites and also spend sometime just wandering hutongs romantically staring into one anothers eyes...Maybe an overnight trip out to somewhere like Chuandixia if you want to see a bit of village life outside the city.
Xi'an. I would take the overnight train to Xi'an but maybe that's just me - I like trains. Since it is your honeymoon you could splurge and buy all 4 beds in a softsleeper compartment and have it all to yourself.
Stay in Xi'an for 2 days. See the warriors, explore the city.
Lijiang - fly to Lijiang. Spend maybe 2 or 3 days here. (I'm assuming you don't want to go hike tiger leaping gorge since you didn't mention it). I'm too lazy to check but I don't think you can fly direct from Xi'an to Lijiang, any flight will go through Kunming.
Fly to Guilin (once again not direct) Go straight to Yangshuo. Spend around 3 or 4 days here going bike riding/walking and enjoying the countryside.
Take bus/flight to HK for you last few days.
A fair bit of moving around but it isn't too bad. If you want to make it more relaxed I would skip Lijiang (if indeed that is where you were planning to go). It is nice but a bit of a hassle to get to.
2
ellyse
1) I presume "Jijiang" is a typo and you really mean Lijiang in Yunnan province.
Beijing (4 days) -- overnight Z train -- Xi'an (2 days) -- flight -- Kunming (transit only) -- flight -- Lijiang (3 days) -- flight (via Kunming) -- Guilin (transit only) -- bus -- Yangshuo (4 days) -- overnight bus -- Shenzhen (transit only) -- bus/train/ferry -- Hong Kong (3 days)
3) It's a little rushed but I think you should be ok.
Cheers!
Pro tip
Lonely Planet
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