Confused

My wife and I are planning on going on Oct.6, 2007. We plan to fly to Shanghai and then take trains to Nanjing, Xiamen, Kunming, Xian and Beijing. How do you think it is the best way to book our tickets? We think to use the soft sleepers. We should be going for 18 days. All advice will be welcome.

Confused

Are you going in the order that you mentioned? How many days would you have to do this trip? Some journeys wouldn%26#39;t require sleepers at all eg Shanghai -- Nanjing is only about 2-3 hours!

Confused

Ellyse: thanks for your interest. We were planning on going on that itinarary, but a friend told me this morning that some of the legs are about 48 hours or more. That means that we have to change plans. maybe fly one or two times. What would you suggest?

Well the first thing you need to know is the Special Olympics will be on in Shanghai, which means, more western tourists than usual will be travelling.

I am very pleased to see you are travelling to Nanjing.

I lived in nanjing nearly 4 years and regularly promote travel to Nanjing,

Nanjing is only 3 hours by train, however climbing into that train with luggage can be difficult.

So a more comfortable alternative is the Business Coach, which leaves from the Hong Qiao,Rainbow Hotel at 9am and 2pm daily, luggage under the bus.

Bus is never crowded,cost 88rmb and you can disembark at the first hotel stop in Nanjing and have assistance into a taxi.

A much more pleasant experience than the train.

Thans for all the advice. I will email Helen.

We can arrive either city Beijing or Sanghai.

That%26#39;s nonsense. None of the trips you%26#39;ve listed are as long as 48 hours unless you purposely pick very slow trains!

You might also like to email me directly at ellyse99@yahoo.com if you have any more queries. Please put ';TripAdvisor Floridawestonian'; in your subject line so that I don%26#39;t junk your email by mistake, thanks.