3 week Itinerary help

Hi,

My husband and I will be travleing to China in July. After reading all the posting this is what we came up with as our preliminary itinerary.

Does this seems fesable in the amount of time we have? Is there any places we should skip that we listed or others that are a must that we haven%26#39;t.

I am having a hard time with the transportation end. I have read a lot about buses but can%26#39;t seem to find any information on them.

We would appreciate any suggestions on travel, hotels, order of itinerary, etc.

DAY: 1-5 BEIJING

5 Take overnight sleeper train to Louyang

DAY 6-7 LOUYANG

7 Take train to Xian

DAY: 8-9 X%26#39;IAN

10 ?? Travel to Lijiang?? (does anyone know best way)

DAY:10 LIJIANG

11 ??Bus to Dali??(does anyone know best way)

DAY: 11-12 DALI

12 Travel to Kunming (overnight sleeper train)?

DAY: 13-14 KUNMING

14 Travel to Guilin?

DAY: 15-17 GULIN/YANGSHOU

Travel to Shanghai FLY

DAY: 18-20 Shanghai

Thanks! Tiffany

3 week Itinerary help

You be pretty pressed for time as the places you will be visiting are pretty far apart. It really depends on what kind of experience you want, some people don%26#39;t mind being rushed. Having been to all the places you%26#39;ve listed, if I had to choose, I%26#39;d probably skip the Kunming/Dali/Lijiang section (too far). Although if you%26#39;ve been to Vietnam and Halong Bay, you may choose to skip Guilin/Yangshuo.

If you want to go from Xi%26#39;an to Lijiang, the best way is to fly into Kunming (a much bigger hub, more connections, cheaper flights). If you fly into Kunming, you can then bus to Dali and then bus to Lijiang (buses run fairly frequently between those cities). Taking a train from Xi%26#39;an to Kunming is not advisable, since it%26#39;ll take you 36 hours to accomplish that.

If you skip Lijiang/Kunming, you have more time to spend around the Shanghai region. Personally, I would just do 2 days in Shanghai, then at least 2/3 days to Hangzhou/Shuzhou or any of the smaller cities in that region. Those were seen as the cultural and literary centers of China for centuries and definitly worth a look. Another place worth considering is Huangshan (the ';Yellow mountain';?), which appears in almost all Chinese paintings that involve a mountain.

3 week Itinerary help

Likewise, I think your itinerary is over ambitious. I did a very similar trip in 2005 and took 6 weeks although I did 3 three-day hikes, but I did not include Shanghai because I was living in Zhejiang at the time. Some of the ';days'; you have for visiting are actually taken up by 7 hour bus/train rides. Yunan is def worth visiting but you%26#39;ll have to fly as the distances are huge. (It took me 2 weeks to travel from Xi%26#39;an to Lijiang, via Chengdu %26amp; Kunming - and I flew Xi%26#39;an to Chengdu).

Perhaps go straight from BJ to Xi%26#39;an on night 5; spend days 6 %26amp; 7 there %26amp; then fly to Kunming on day 8. I think there was only a day train between Kunming %26amp; Dali when I was there (unless it returns by night).

Thanks for all the valuable information. We don%26#39;t want to be too rushed so I think we are going to cut the Yunnan area out of our itinerary and save it for another trip to China.

Do you have any suggestions to improve this?

DAY: 1-5 BEIJING

5 Take overnight sleeper train to Louyang

DAY 6-7 LOUYANG

7 Take train to Xian

DAY: 8-10 X%26#39;IAN

10 Fly or Train to Guilin????

DAY: 10-14 GULIN/YANGSHOU

14 Travel to Shanghai FLY

DAY: 15-19 Shanghai

Thanks! Tiffany

Sorry I also meant to add that while in Shangahai we do plan on taking your advise ';username: entropy'; and spending some time in Suzhuo and Hangzhou.

Do you think we should stop at these places before arriving in Shanghai since our flight will be leaving out of there to come back to the US.

Right now we have not booked out international flight yet. Please let me know if you think logistically for transportaion it would be better to enter into Shanghai and leave out of Beijing.

Again all your help is appreciated! Tiffany

To minimise back-tracking why don%26#39;t you fly from Gulin to Hangzhou %26amp; then travel by bus/train to Shanghai.? With only 2-3 daysw you don%26#39;t seem to have time for Suzhou as well.

I can%26#39;t see that it makes any difference travelling BJ-Shanghai vs Shanghai-BJ. All will be very hot. Shanghai will be more humid.

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