Hi
I am travelling alone(April) in china for 60 days getting a china permit.
I will be stopping in yunnan(kunming), before travelling to tibet, to chongqing(three gorges dam),to hunan(zhangjiajie,hunan), jiangxi(lushan),anhui(huangshan), zhejiang(hangzhou).
I would like to get some advice, regarding travel from each province using fast bullet trains and also the permit required to travel tibet.
Hi greengerm.
Can you get a Chinese visa for that length of time? I am a UK resident and we can only get visas for a month at a time. I had to renew mine while I was in China.
When I was in China, I used trains and buses mainly and only took one flight. It's very easy to get around using their transport system. I didn't take any fast trains but the latest line from Beijing to Guangzhou in 8 hours is... very quick.
I had to travel differently to other places I had been and that was because of the size of the cities and towns and because of the language barrier. To move from place to place, I used to book my hostels online from an internet cafe when I found them because they aren't easily identifiable from the outside, when I got to a new town or city I would find a taxi, ring the hostel and speak an English-speaking member of staff and tell them to give the taxi driver directions to the hostel. I did that because I had found out in advance that the taxi drivers might not be able to read so giving them a written address or directions won't always help.
The rules of travelling to Tibet seem to change. It changed a couple of times while I was in the area. You might be better to wait until you are there to get the most up-to-date info. The hostel staff are generally very good and they will have the information you need.
You might be travelling alone but you will meet other travellers (if you want to). I was fortunate to hook up with five other solo travellers. We travelled together for about a week and had a great time. We were very lucky because one of the travellers was born in China but grew up in NZ so he could speak Chinese.
Have a great time! I loved China. It is one of my favourite countries.
Hi,
I would advise you to plan your route carefully as you may be spending most of the time on the road. I've never been to other parts of China but I personally went to Shanghai, Hangzhou and Huangshan.. Not all cities are reachable by bullet train and you may need to purchase your tickets in advance to secure a place. If you're taking a cab to the hotel/ guesthouse, do ensure to get the name of the road in Chinese name. The cabby may not know if you provided him just the hotel / guesthouse name :) .
Btw, Shanghai is just a city , nothing much but it's all about tall buildings. Quite easy to travel around by trains actually :) I personally prefer Anhui province esp Huangshan and Hongcun :)
It's very easy to get a Chinese visa in Hong Kong, and they tend to give you more time than the Chinese embassy in London.
We just wondered in, and were given 90 day, multi entry visas. Cost around $45 for the same day service.
You'll also probably get cheaper flights to HK than going straight to Chongqing. Train from HK to Chingqing, via Guangzhou should take about 20 hours and cost $70.
Might be easier than renewing a visa...