BootsnAll's Travel Community

Going to China in September ,around 3 weeks (not sure yet..)
Tell me if this is too ambitious- Beijing 4 days, train to Pingyao (2 days) .Train to Xian (2 days) .Plane to Guilin (2 days) Bus to Yangshuo ( stay 4 days to see Li River )
Plane to Shanghai (3 days) Day trips to Suzhou and Hangzhou.Flight to Beijing.
Is this possible or should we change something? We don't know any Chinese. But we have done a lot of traveling.
Thanks all!

man....you sound like my wife. sure it'll be crammed...but not impossible.

just make sure you factor in travel time. since if you say fly or train midday, that day is actually gone.

ofcourse if your just going for pubs and beer, its another matter.

china 4 days is doable, but you'll probably miss something. 1 day great wall anda night activity. 1 day tianenman square, mouseleum, forbidden city. 1 day heavenly palace and summer palace. 1 day various other places.

havent been to pingyoa. xian 2 days? maybe just 1. guilin you might want to relax there it's a big backpacker area. Shanghai 1 day, train to SZ and HZ...possibly 2 days each.

That's a lot to do. I might take a day or two away from Yangshuo and add it onto Shanghai. Then again, you could take time to relax in Yangshuo. I don't think one day is enough for Xi'an--I did three and it was pretty good, so two days should be alright.

We just got back from China two days ago. Were there for two weeks and spent two days in Beijing, three days in Shanghai, and the rest in the Yunnan Province. You definitely need to factor in some rest time. Bus travel in particular is tiring. We had no Chinese language either and I highly recommend you at least learn some key phrases. My son speaks Chinese and was able to guide and translate for us.
If I were planning the trip over, I would spend even less time in Beijing. It's hot and extremely dirty. We did a 7-mile stretch of the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai and that was the best part of our time there. I also think I might start out in Shanghai and ease into the culture. You can fly direct there about as easily as you can fly into Beijing. Shanghai is a very pleasant place more friendly to westerners.
I'd be glad to share more but must sign off for the moment.

Just one thought: You probably don't need 2 days in Guilin (which seemed like a shit hole from my brief encounter) if you're going to spend 4 days in Yangshuo. All the good sights are outside Guilin anyway.

Use those two days as the buffer/rest time that the other posters are recommending. You'll need it, as traveling in China can be tiring!

Was in China last year, did a bit of the same route as you.
I'm not sure Beijing warrants 4 full days, but if youre tired getting there, you might need the first day to sleep?

Definitly recomend Pingyao, make sure you get accomodation with the huge brick beds, theyre theres a hollow in the bottom so a fire can be lit to warm it up during the winter, the bed's about 7 feet across for 2 people. Pingyao's beautiful, but theres not many actual attractions, just the town itself, so if you really have to, maybe one full day is sufficient?

The distances involved are fairly huge, as far as i can remember, its a good 10 hours at least from Beijing to Pingyao and 18 hours from Pingyao to Xi'an by train. The overnight trains (we got 2nd class sleepers) are really comfortable and you will more than likely sleep well (bring ear plugs and an eye mask, a train passing us in the night, with screaming horn and flashing lights nearly gave me a heart attack), but all that travelling will still be very tiring?

But whatever you do you'll havin an amazing time, its an incredible country.
Also try to learn the hand symbols for the numbers 1-10, invaluable

I thinks it is possible, even you do not know chinese. Maybe it is more interesting, remember to use your hand and take a manderin book, in case under bad condition , you can show chinese people what you want

It looks very busy, but possible. I would like suggest you add one more day in Xi'an, acient imperial city，lots of interesting sites. Gulin doesn't need two days, all the good seeings are in Yangsuo