Greetings.

Wife and I will be in China for 2 weeks. She's working near Beijing (Fangshan) for one week, then Nanjing for 1 day, then 2 days off and 1 day in Suzhou. After that, we have 4 days til we leave from Shanghai.

I suppose we'll explore Suzhou in the 2 days after Nanjing...after that, I'm open to suggestions. I'll get my fill of historical sights in Beijing (Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc.), and we're not the urban sightseeing type to begin with. We live in the mountains, and we'd rather be on a beach (fat chance), in great scenery, or other out-of-the-way spots, than in museums or in anywhere that reminds us of Manhattan. We would rather be "experiencing" and "doing" than "looking at". And we'll so some shopping, I'm sure.

We've been advised to visit Xitang, the ancient town where "Mission Impossible 3" was filmed, which looks like a day trip from Shanghai (no, we are not fans of Tom Cruise).

Huangshan Mountain looks interesting; however, we live in the mountains and I don't know if it'll be that novel, and it looks like a long haul. I've also gotten conflicting opinions on whether Hangzhou is worth the trip.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi, Jerry, and welcome to BootsnAll! Here's our China Travel Guide - you can get to the links for Shanghai and any other city you're visiting on the right and read travel articles that might help you decide what to do with your time. You might also check with our Asia Insiders for suggestions.

Try Zhouzhuang. You take a tour from Shanghai for a day. It's a beautiful old town with canals. And you should definitely check out Jing An Temple in Shanghai... it's very cool to see it surrounded by the skyscrapers.

Zhouzhuang looks perfect. I'd like to spend as much time out of the cities as possible.