china trip ideas and internal flights

Hi,
If you are looking for sunshine and beaches, maybe Xiamen, Qingdao, Dalian are some of the possible options.
You can google for more information (weather, transportation, etc.) for these cities, and might need to adjust your itinerary as they located in different parts of China.

Cheers
Chen

You need to provide more information for us to give you a rational response--such as:
What time of year is this trip? That makes a huge difference in suggestions.
What are your children's ages?
How long do you have for the total time in China?

There are other options for kid fun besides beaches, as China isn't known as a beach destination. But as far as Sanya goes, yes things can get fairly expensive there, but if you are looking too far in advance, the discounted airfares wouldn't be in the system yet.

we were looking into going from

beijing->xian
xian->chengdu

Those routes are going to be competitively served by the High Speed Train. With deep discounts on flights, flying might be a little cheaper, but the train will be leagues more comfortable, particularly with kids. Xi'an and Chengdu airports are also rather far outside the city center, so the time savings wont be much.

and onto sanya but the sanya flights are pretty expensive.
Does anybody have any ideas where we could go after chengdu? we were looking at sanya as it has hotels with outside pools which seen rare in china as we are travelling with 2 children that willl get tired of trains and just city.
Would appreciate ideas.

If you want a true beach destination, do not limit yourself to China. You could get flights to the Philippines, Thailand, or Vietnam for pretty cheap and enjoy much better beaches at a much lower cost.

the children are 8 and 12. We just thought china as we would already have visas for china and flying in and out of beijing. The idea would be to have some downtime after the travelling to and from xian/chengdu and have say 5 nights somewhere before we have to get back to beijing for 2 nights before leaving. Sanya just looked very pricey to fly to from chengdu and hotels are pretty much all top end which we arent bothered by but is Sanya worthwhile to put the effort into getting there? Happy for other suggestions.

We have 3 weeks but after the travelling around would probably loose 3-4 days on total travelling which is nt too bad, we would also save on the odd hotel night as would be on train.

IMO, Sanya is not worth the time and money to get there from Chengdu because, if you're going for beaches, those in/near the city are not especially great. The good ones are about 2-3 hours out of town--yet while the sand is nice the surf is rough and there are no life guards. For sure, they're not like Waikiki's. In short, you can find better beaches, if that is your goal. I'd suggest diverting instead to Hong Kong for slightly better ones (look for info on HK beaches on this forum), and it would probably be the about the same expense as going to Sanya. Or, think about this: head back in the direction of Beijing with stops at Pingyao and Datong for some cultural experiences. Spend some of the money you're saving by not going to Sanya or HK or wherever and stay at 5 star hotels that have a nice pool.

the children are 8 and 12. We just thought china as we would already have visas for china and flying in and out of beijing.

When I was living in China I took my nephews, then 10 and 11 on a trip through China. The 11 year old was very much into all the museums, history, and culture. The 10 year old thought it was a bore, because a 'vacation' needed to involve time at the beach playing in the sand with other kids.

I took them to Qingdao, mainly for the german architecture, seafood and beer, but also they have a beach. It's not Boracai or Ko Samui quality, but you might be able to think to compare it to some of France's Atlantic coast beaches

Sanya just looked very pricey to fly to from chengdu and hotels are pretty much all top end which we arent bothered by but is Sanya worthwhile to put the effort into getting there? Happy for other suggestions.

Sanya is indeed an overdeveloped, expensive hole. It doesn't get good reviews from anyone able to travel outside China for better, cheaper, more laid back beach destinations.
I certainly do not think it is 'worthwhile' but YMMV

We have 3 weeks but after the travelling around would probably loose 3-4 days on total travelling which is nt too bad, we would also save on the odd hotel night as would be on train.

I was talking about the high speed train. Beijing to Xi'an 4.5 hours. Xi'an to Chengdu in 3.5 hours. Door to door highly competitive with flying.

The sleeper trains are even better in my opinion, as you lose no daylight to travel. But some people dont like that mode of travel.

The idea would be to have some downtime after the travelling to and from xian/chengdu and have say 5 nights somewhere before we have to get back to beijing for 2 nights before leaving.

Do Beijing, (Pingyao if you like), Xi'an, Chengdu. Then fly from Chengdu to Qingdao(or other beach destination) and then take the train to Beijing before you depart. You could also fly to Xiamen, Beihai, or Shenzhen/Hong Kong(multi entry visa required).

With all of them, the beaches are not that great, so pick a destination that has something besides sand and water.

now thinking of lijang or yangshao. I thnmk going all the trouble and expense for getting to sanya, and being disappointed is the wrong thing, There are other places to do beaches and china probably isnt one of them

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