China planning suggestions

[Floradon]

Planning a trip to China this November - 3 weeks in total with DH.
We’re flying in to and home from Beijing.
I’ve booked a few random places (Beijing, Chengdu and Xi’an) to use as the basis for the tourist visa which we’ve applied for but are looking for ideas - so anyone been and can suggest anywhere? Realise China is massive so we’re not trying to see everything in one go! We’ll probably go back if we enjoy it as we’re both keen travellers so we don’t feel massively pressurised to try and squeeze loads in. We’d rather visit maybe 4 or 5 places over the three weeks. Would love any ideas :)

If you’re looking for amazing scenery, Zhangjiajie or the Avatar mountains. Can easily spend several days there, Grand Canyon, glass bridge, various mountains, some amazing villages. Was there in summer so can’t comment on Nov weather.
the other usual scenery place is Guilin and Yangshuo with the rivers, karst hills, caves, rafting etc.
I loved China, such an under-rated destination. A few tips - hardly anyone speaks any English, download a translation app before you go. We had a driver and private car everywhere we went so managed fine but still used the trans app in restaurants.
You’re also best to use their WeChat and Alipay, hard to manage without them. I had a Chinese sim in order to speak to my guides but also had a holafly eSIM to get around the Chinese firewall so still had full access to all western websites.
Beijing - the Great Wall was incredible, we drove 2 hours from the city to a much less visited part of the wall Jinsaling or similar name.
Xi’an - again, warriors are amazing, also hire bikes and cycle the city walls, great fun.
we also spent a few days in HK where we flew home from.
There are so many amazing cities and scenery, we would easily go back. Instagram is very good for finding out about lesser visited sights.

I went earlier this year, I flew into Beijing, then went to Xian, Chengdu, Guillan, and flew home from Shanghai. I had two or three nights in each place and travelled between the places on a mixture of bullet trains and internal flights.
I had an absolutely fantastic holiday.
When I go back I’d add on Tibet and fly in or out of Hong Kong as I haven’t been there.

There is an area in the centre of Xi'an which looks a huge park but its actually he overgrown site of the Tang dynasty city which has never been excavated much.The old walls around the core of the city are also great to cycle around.I d also recommend Pingyao which is between Beijing and Xi'an,its an intact walled Ming dynasty city which remains fairly authentic.The Shanxi museum in Taiyusn is also one of the better in the country.Luoyang is also a very historically important city in a similar way to Xi'an and has the longmen caves to visit on the Yihe river nearby.

Taiyuan*

Nothing constructive to add but if you haven’t watched the latest series of Race Across The World on BBC iPlayer, I really recommend it. It starts off in Beijing and the contestants visit some amazing looking places.

Thanks so much for this @Losalamo! Zhangjiajie was on our list as a maybe so great to hear you’d recommend it. Do you remember what area you stayed? We were having a browse and the wider area is massive and there wasn’t an area that immediately jumped out.

Xi’an is looking great as I’d love to see the city walls and the Terracotta Warriors. Had not realised about that overgrown area @DarloEscapee so thanks for that!! We were looking at Pingyao as well - if you’ve been to both Xi’an and Pingyao which would you recommend one over the other @DarloEscapee? Not sure if we’ll have time for both!

@MyElatedUmberFinch thanks for this! The bullet trains look great. Did you travel standard class or upgrade? We haven’t booked anything yet and working out whether it’s worth spending extra for business class train tickets or if standard class is nice enough? Thanks.

Thanks also everyone for the tips on WeChat and everything else!

Very excited now!

We’ve watched it! It definitely gave us a nudge - China was high on our list but watching this season helped encouraged us to actually book it as it looked amazing. Might actually go back and see where they stopped at as I can’t remember.

We stayed in Wulingjuan, plenty of hotels there, just a short drive to the park. Would definitely suggest having a driver/guide as it’s so much easier. The park is huge so they will take you to the best places. We had 3 days, could have done 5. Lots of walking though.
We used some bullet trains - very efficient, most have standard and first class. Some may have business class. To confuse matters, their business class is the highest and has lie flat beds like flying BC. Considerably more expensive. Their first class was fine for us, all seats reclined, clean, spacious. There is security at all train stations and you have your bags go through X-rays, more like airports than our trains. In fact, most places you visit, you’ll go through security and show your passports. It’s generally all very efficient. The only place we had to queue for more than a few minutes was for Tianamen square in Beijing.

I booked train tickets through China Highlights, which worked well. We travelled 1st class ( see comment above; cheaper than business class) on an 8.5 hour trip and 2nd class for a 4 hour trip. I appreciated the extra space for the long trip, but 2nd class was more than fine for the shorter trip. The trains are very clean and efficient. The train staff come through frequently to collect rubbish and offer food to buy. People get food delivered to stations, which gets brought to their seat by the train staff. I was very jealous! We bought food on-board, which was decent but no good for vegetarians. China's an amazing destination, I can't wait to go back.

@Floradon We used a holiday company to put together our itinerary. This is roughly what we did.

We started off in Shanghai and finished in Chengdu. In between - train to Beijing and flight to Xian.

Shanghai has a superb museum with clothes from different areas, ceramics, coins, and bronzes amongst other art works. The River and Financial area is futuristic and the old areas have character. We also went to the canal town of Tongli but you could go to Suzhou. More developed but bigger. Have a look at the Prosperous Suzhou scroll. It’s fantastic.

Beijing - obvious places to see here but you must see the Great Wall. The nearest access point to Beijing can get crowded so go to Jinshanling or Mutianyu access points. Less people but November might be cold! Check the weather. These areas are exposed. It’s a do not miss though!

We went to Guilin and also went to the rice terraces. The scenery around Guilin is beautiful but very much a tourist area. We also stayed at Longii in the rice terrace area and was great.

Xian has many treasures and go to the Shannon museum as well as the warriors. The warriors are spectacular but there’s also the tombs of Emperor Jingdi. Han dynasty tomb and less visited. It’s near the airport. The walls are immense and the pagoda is fantastic. There’s puppet shows to see and there was a bouyant Muslim quarter. Hope it still is.

Chengdu - we just had to see pandas! Fascinating seeing the cubs. Memorable visit. You can travel out of the city to see a giant Buddha and there’s various temples to visit too.

Steppes Travel and Audley Travel have great itinerary ideas. Not sure I’d do DIY in China. I like Abta protection! We organised flights and did bespoke tour for us once in China. You will need to look carefully at excursions if you DIY and I’d use a planning book such as Lonely Planet. Chinese guides tend to rush you around and miss important sights out. You need to know what you will actually visit and if you have time for what you want to see.

The UK Government has full details about going to Tibet. It’s not a DIY destination.

We booked the one up from standard, no westerners seemed to book standard. The trains are lovely, I way preferred it to flying.

3 weeks wow! Since you've named beijing, xi an, and chengdu, I'd split your time into 1 week for each region. You could spend 1 week in beijing, take the train down to xian, spend another week there, then take the train again down to chengdu and take a flight back to Beijing at the end of 3 weeks.

Beijing - could spend 1 week entirely exploring the sites, or venture out to tianjin and hebei.

Xi an - terracotta warriors, mount hua, muslim quarters etc would take you about 3 or 4 days, then I'd go to gansu to look at dunhuang, or leave earlier for chengdu

Chengdu - pandas, mount emei, jiuzhaigou, chongqing

There's so much to see and do. The food is so delicious as well and you see so much variation across the different provinces.

If you get any chances to do bike rides I can’t recommend it enough. My holiday highlights were cycling in Xian on the walls and in the countryside in Guillan and I didn’t even realise I liked cycling.

Thanks so much @Losalamo and @flatfelled and @MyElatedUmberFinch for the info on Zhangjiajie and the trains. I hadn’t appreciated that there was first and business class but it sounds like first would be a good balance. We’re not massively fussy (we’ve travelled around India by train which was pretty rough at times) but we have a healthy budget so don’t mind spending a bit for a more comfortable experience.

Ah thanks for all this information! That’s super helpful. I think Xi’an is a definite as we’re both interested in history and I’d definitely love to see the pandas in Chengdu.

We always DIY - never done a tour other than in Bhutan where a tour booking is required to get the visa. We’ve been to Asia many times (Taiwan, India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Bhutan) as well as to S America and Africa and always been independent. Part of the fun for us it planning it all ourselves! Might have a look at the tour companies you mention though to get some itinerary ideas though so thank you!

We started in Shanghai, day trip to Suzhou, then went to Xian (bike ride along the walls is a must), and then Beijing (didn’t have as long). We’d already been to HK, but our family members hadn’t, so they went there next. We went in November; plan for T-shirt, jeans and jacket weather in Shanghai, with colder weather in other places.

Went with CTS; had a private driver and guide in each place for our day trips, which was great.

Thanks for these ideas! These all sound amazing. We’re not set on just visiting those places and happy to add a couple more stops - we just had to book some hotels (with free cancellation) in those cities to put into the visa application. We’ll be flying into and out of Beijing so will definitely have a few days there and Xi’an and Chengdu seem like they’d tick a lot of boxes for us. I also think Zhangjiajie looks amazing so we may fly there from Beijing and then work our way back up on the trains via Chengdu and Xi’an and maybe a couple of others places.

Has anyone been to Fenghuang or Furong - they both look quite accessible from Zhangjiajie?

Thank you! Yes looking at the weather it looks like it’ll be pretty cold already in November in Beijing but warmer in Chengdu. Definitely seems like layers will be needed! Did you see any autumn colours when you visited or was it too late?

I d say Pingyao old city.It is only about a square kilometre in size but its still mostly Ming with its original walls.When you approach it in the morning Shanxi mists its look incredible.And it has guesthouses with courtyards and gardens which are a step back in time.I remember the doorbell of the guesthouse we were staying at rang late at night when we were drinking in the courtyard and when the door was answered nobody was there (shen me gui?)the owner said it was just a local ghost.Atmospheric but also eerie especially at night.

We definitely saw autumnal colours, from memory.

@Floradon China is not any of those countries though. Even on a planned holiday there can be issues. We had a building being demolished just across the street from our hotel room in Chengdu. It had a wrecking ball clanging into glass and brick at 11 pm onwards. Obviously we could not sleep and the hotel was full. We could not open windows as there was dust everywhere. Our tour company moved us to the Ritz Carlton. How would you move? The Chinese have to put up with things but you might not want to. I cannot see much advantage in DIY there and not having access to help or Abta cover.

No - I realise it’s not the same as other countries. But we’re experienced travellers and we’re happy DIYing as we enjoy doing the planning plus the flexibility, find it cheaper and are happy to sort things out ourselves on the v rare occasion that something might go wrong. But glad the tour companies work for you! And thanks for the tips.

Amazing thank you!

Wow @DarloEscapee that does sound amazing. I’m going to have a proper look into Pingyao now.

My advise is not to be too ambitious if this is your first time in China. Try to take your time to enjoy each place you go because there is so much to see. A lot of young Chinese can speak English and are keen to help so dont hesitate to ask. November is a great time to see autumn colours.