Asia & Oceania group posting on GLOBOsapiens

China May 2005

Postings 1 - 9 of 9

downundergal Premium account Joined: Jun 02 Points: 12936 Posts: 221 Posted: 2004-11-18 10:19:00    Hi fellow travel nuts, I am wondering if anyone has done China independently? Or is it still one of those countries you need to travel in a small group tour? I am looking at a tour something like this - Hong Kong>Yangsho>Yangtze River Cruise>Chengdu (large carved Buddha) & the Panda Breeding Base>Xian(Terracotta Warriors)>Beijing. Is this the pick of the many fascinating cities? Has anyone ever gone by train or flown from Beijing back to Hong Kong? Is it easy? Thanks for any input! It is still in the early planning stages. Cheers, Kerrie --- Where to next? Reply    Reply with quote    Contact downundergal   mortimer Premium account Joined: Jun 04 Points: 15075 Posts: 528 Posted: 2004-11-18 10:31:00    Hi Kerrie I have been to china in a small group tour with an australian company called intrepidtravel. http://www.globosapiens.net/mortimer/travel-tip-intrepid-travel-1095.html For me the amount of time was the deciding factor for choosing an organised trip. I only had 3 weeks available so I chose a tour. What I liked was that only about one third of the time is organised (mostly the basic stuff like transportation and obvious sightseeing) the rest is up to you. The guides are well trained and know where to take you. The language barrier in China is quite high so you really need a lot of time to get what you want. And there is the problem of loosing your face for Chinese people. You could have been standing in a line in front of a ticket counter and when it's your turn the counter closes, because staff possibly doesn't know any english and doesn't want to loose their face. Train travel in China is great and a very good experience. China has very big cities, when looking at your list I see only yangsuho as a smaller place. (And yangshuo is very touristy) When we toured china we did Bejing, Shanghai, Xian, Chengdu, Yangshuo and Hong Kong. After nearly three weeks of big cities I really had enough. I'd be glad to give you some more feedback please contact me if necessary. And I will be putting up some more pictures about china in the near future. Martin --- Today is the first day of the rest of your life, enjoy it! Reply    Reply with quote    Contact mortimer   daniserralta Premium account Joined: Aug 02 Points: 11491 Posts: 124 Posted: 2004-11-18 22:31:00    Hi! Yeah! Really possible. I did it alone and by my own. You ever find friends on the way, you know!. I did something similar: HKG, yangshuo, kunming, dali, lijiang, leshan, chongqing, the YangTze river to Wuhan, the yellow mountains, Hangzhou, Shanghai, the Shaolin temple, Xi'An, Beijing. Fascinating!!! I love this country. If I can help you in any way just contact me. Bye! Dani! --- The journey is the reward. -- Tao saying Reply    Reply with quote    Contact daniserralta   downundergal Premium account Joined: Jun 02 Points: 12936 Posts: 221 Posted: 2004-11-20 09:20:00    Thanks guys, I have been looking at going with Intrepid Travel;so I am glad that you have been with them Martin. I am not a tour person at all so as long as you have plenty of free time it should be OK. I will have a fairly strict timetable so I am wondering if you had extended time there Dani? I would like to do a 15 day trip but really want to see the Panda Research station & it seems you need to go with a minimum 20 day tour. I will probably contact you guys individually when I need more info & I have decided that's what I am doing. Still tossing up between China & Vietnam/Cambodia at this stage. Thanks again, Kerrie --- Where to next? Reply    Reply with quote    Contact downundergal   kathmandukitten Premium account Joined: Sep 03 Points: 2729 Posts: 82 Posted: 2005-01-04 18:32:00    I'm also looking for some tips for China. Planning on flying into Beijing, internal flight to Xining and heading to Yushu to volunteer for 9 months... anyone got tips for places to go along the way? --- Would you risk it, for a biscuit? Reply    Reply with quote    Contact kathmandukitten   mistybleu Premium account Joined: Aug 04 Points: 53340 Posts: 245 Posted: 2005-01-05 23:06:00    I went to China in 2003 indepently and it was really great. I went to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Xian. I had a lot of time to myself to explore the cities and I found it really interesting. I only down two tours (to the Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors) which was also great, as I got a lot of history of on the areas from the tour guides. But it is really easy to get around in Hong Kong the transporation isystem is really good. In Shanghai the buses were really overcrowded but taxis were cheap. You have to either agree a price first or make sure its on the meter as they are prone to cheap foreigners. Even though I didn't speak any mandarin or cantonese - any of the younger people speak a little english and it was easy to get around. If you want any other info let me know, I'm about to publish are report on Beijing which my be of some assistance. Misty((*_*)) --- "So many places, so little time" ((*_*)) Reply    Reply with quote    Contact mistybleu   bootlegga Premium account Joined: Jul 04 Points: 15194 Posts: 124 Posted: 2005-01-06 04:29:00    I went in 2001 with a couple of friends and we did everything ourselves, from wandering all over Beijing to booking hotels over the Net and getting a flight from Beijing to Shanghai on a Chinese airline. If you don't mind a little work, it can be done. It really depends on how much 'off-the-beaten' path travelling you want to do. Obviously, in rural areas, it will be more difficult than in the cities. Based on your itinerary, it should be doable. The biggest thing you will need for the trip is patience. --- "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." – Mark Twain Reply    Reply with quote    Contact bootlegga   gardkarlsen Joined: Dec 02 Points: 2833 Posts: 55 Posted: 2005-01-06 16:19:00    Hi Have you seen my trip report from China on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com ? My wife and I went there in March a couple of years back and we went to Beijing, Xi'an and Hong Kong independently. We took the train from Beijing to Xi'an by the way and it was better than we had expected :-) Regards Gard Stavanger, Norway --- Regards Gard http://gardkarlsen.c-om - trip reports and pictures Reply    Reply with quote    Contact gardkarlsen   downundergal Premium account Joined: Jun 02 Points: 12936 Posts: 221 Posted: 2005-01-12 03:26:00    Thankyou to everyone for all the fantastic feedback, hints and tips! It certainly sounds like it can be done independently. When I get a chance I will read (& reread) all the reports. Cheers, Kerrie --- Where to next? Reply    Reply with quote    Contact downundergal