Well BJ is a wonderful city, so you can’t go wrong there. Try to get away from the tour groups and see the great wall. Mao’s bloated corpse, Tiannmen and the Forbidden city are all good too. I’m heading back to China a little after you and heading up North maybe to some places in the North east past Dailan and such.

There are just too many places to go.

Hopefully redkat can help out with more!

Visit the Hutongs behind the Forbidden city

G’day Andrew

Suggest (in no particular order)

Palace Museum (Forbidden City)
Summer palace
Temple of Heaven
Hutongs North of Palace Museum, particularly around the drum tower and lakes
Take a full day and get out to the Wall at Jinshanling and hike through to Simmatai
Wander the shops in Wanfujing Street (downstairs (near Starbucks) in the North end of the pedestrain section, they have recreated the old shops (signs in english!!))
Lamma Monastry/Yong He Gong
Tiananmen Square

Other than that, perhaps a o/n train to Xian to the warriors and o/n back to Beijing. I would however recommend a couple of days in Xian.

I love China and will be back there in Feb sometime after I finish my tours in SE Asia.

Hope you have a great time

Cheers

Fantastic! It really depends on what you want to see and if you want to trek around in the cold or in slightly warmer weather. I live in Chengdu and have traveled a bit through the NE, NW and SW of China.

Since you don’t have much time, I would recommend either staying in the NE – Beijing, Harbin, Dalian, Shenyang, Dongdang or a Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu circle. I think you would see more of China in two weeks if you did Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu but to do it and have time you would need to fly. It takes about a half a day to a full day to get to each of these places from the other by train.
If you have any questions about Sichuan/Chengdu, let me know.

Hi redcat, yeah, Beijing and Xian are the places where we definitely will spend lots of time. What would you suggest for Sichuan/Chengdu this time of year? I was thinking also about Guanchzhou and Guylin – have you been there?

Unfortunately, I have only been to Guangzhou for a football tournament and the team started drinking three hours before the flight out here in Chengdu and then didn’t stop for three days…. so I don’t remember a whole lot of that trip
And Guylin is on my to do list, but I have heard that it is absolutely amazing!

As for Chengdu/Sichuan, I recommend going to:
Siguniang Shan (Four Girls Mountain), its not in the LP
Kanding
Jiu Zai Gou (sp?) A national park that you can now fly to via Chengdu
Songpan
Xi Ling Xue Shan (for skiing, although I’ve heard that there is somewhere better, but I don’t know the name so you should ask Tas about this one)
Le Shan
Emei Shan

Chengdu this time of year is a rathole. Grey, foggy, damp and horrible. Its the places just outside of it and the football team that make it tolerable.

I also recommend Harbin, if the Lantern Festival isn’t over. That is one amazing place during winter. Stupidly cold, but the ice and snow sculptures are worth it! And its not too far from Beijing, with direct flights to Beijing and Chengdu.

Anyway, I have pics of this whole mess at http://imageevent.co…. I am hoping to get more pics up before I go to the States in January. Let you know when I do!

And if you want a slowly evolving copy of my guide/thoughts to China and the places I have been, drop me a line at cubestorm@hotmail.com and I’ll send you a copy.

I’m envious!

(of both you and Tas!)

"Guanchzhou"? You mean Guangzhou right? Guangzhou is better known as a business and trading gateway rather than an attractive scenic city. Most people go through Guangzhou to get to Hongkong. I remember Guangzhou being rigid and polluted. But if you’re planning on going down to southeast China, why not go to Hongkong and Macau instead.
Guilin on the other hand, is lovely, known for its picturesque landscape along the Li River. I’d pass on Guangzhou and spend more time in Guilin.

Depending on your time, I’d suggest Shanghai. It’s the New York of the Orient, in my opinion.

If you wanna see the best of Beijing and surrounds, it’ll take u 6 days at least.. so plan about a week in Beijing.
I’m currently living/working in Beijing, so let me know if you have more questions about Beijing.

I’ve been to Guangzhou.. it’s nothing special to vacation to..
You should consider "Yun Nan" or "Si Chuan"
Yun Nan is the typical mountains in the clouds, finding your way to heaven etc etc.

Sichuan has "jiu zhai gou" which is apparently really amazing as well tho i’ve never been but heard it’s great

Another place is to go to the north – Dalian. but seeing u’re coming in Feb.. it’ll be cold.

Good luck!!

Guilin is really just a big city now.

It is surrounded by magnificent limestone karsts and you do start the Li River cruise from there, but other than that, I would recommend heading straight to a smaller town like Yangshuo (where the Li River cruise finishes).

Yangshuo is being developed, but still retains the beauty and traveller haven status that it has enjoyed for a long time.

Cheers from bloody hot Malacca!!!

PS Sailor, when are you going to visit me in China (or even S Korea)!!!!?

Malacca?

Tas, are you in Malaysia right now?

Would love to visit you in China. Will you still be there in September?

Sailor – Yep!

KL now. Thur – Cameron Highlands; Sat – Penang; Monday – Ao Nang (Krabi Province in Thailand).

Don’t know about China in Sept – should be, but I am running our Korean tour next year (if anyone books on it!!!)

Where abouts in Korea?

All over

Starts Seoul
Jeju – do
Busan
Geongju
Hahoe
Andong
Sokcho
Inje
Seoul

Try the following address:

http://www.imaginati…

To sort of keep on topic, I will probably be flying in and out of Beijing.

Cheers.

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