rrz518

I have 10 solid days, currently only booked to Shanghai. Is that too much time to spend there? I'm considering a side trip to Hanoi; if so, how much of the 10 days should I dedicate?

If I stay in Shanghai, are there any recommended day trips?

Any recommendations aside from Hanoi? I would like to keep the flight to 1 - 3 hours. (I would consider Beijing, but I'm going in late November, and prefer warmer weather).

Thanks

moondog

As much as I love Shanghai, I do think ten days is a bit much (even if you add Suzhou/Hangzhou/Nanjing into the mix). Beijing would be my first pick; November isn't so cold there and is generally okay wrt air pollution. Hanoi is cool, but not as cool as Beijing, and it costs a lot more to get there.

MSPeconomist

With day trips to Suzhou/Hangzhou/Nanjing and allowing time to recover from jet lag, I could be happy with ten days in Shanghai. It's more than necessary, but there are things to do and I don't think I'd be bored. One can spend a lot of time going to some obscure museums, often of the "this famous communist party leader lived here" sort. You can also enjoy wandering around the French concession, the warehouse/art gallery area, and the philosopher's/writer's antiques street. However, if you just want to efficiently tour the main sites and not take time to walk around various neighborhoods and find things off the beaten path, then you will feel that ten days is too long.

dtsm

Do a 36-48 hr visit to Xian

jamar

I've done weekend trips to Osaka from Shanghai before. The existence of Juneyao and Spring make this a lot more affordable than it used to be.

rrz518

Are either/both of those airlines reliable? (ie not prone to cancellations)

BuildingMyBento

In late 2011, I flew into Nanjing (but at the time, didn't enter the city). The goal after ten days was Pudong Airport; my not-so-odious journey there roughly followed the course of the Grand Canal/HSR.

I went to

-Yangzhou: on menus throughout the country, it contributes its name to fried rice; laid-back; it has its own West Lake (a smaller version of Hangzhou's?)
-Zhenjiang: just for its vinegar; don't recommend it
-Changzhou: has a giant pagoda; gritty; can recommend the Changzhou Grand Hotel (they lent me a desktop computer after laptop broke)
-Wuxi: they've got a metro now; can't recall much about this pea soup-sky city except that it had lion's head meatballs and was near Lake Taihu
-Suzhou: easily the most touristy of these, lots of gardens and temples to check out, as well as stone bridges passing over canals. as in any Chinese city, if you stray too far from the downtown, you'll end up in neighborhoods that are mostly devoid of raisons d' (your) être but are chock-full of random fires, electric bikes, non-working traffic lights, and nicely paved roads

Once reaching Shanghai, I only had about a day, but I had to play tour guide, so YuYuan, the Bund and the Jianguo Hotel's DPRK restaurant were in order.

Welltended3

If you have a single entry visa, if you go to Hanoi you cannot get back into China, I suspect. Check that out.

MSPeconomist

The same is true for a side trip to Osaka (or flying to Osaka and spending the time in Kyoto). However, with proper and careful planning, one might be able to use 72 hour TWOV for one of the stays in China.

jamar

Juneyao has been fine in my personal experience, but I've never flown Spring and couldn't really say. I'd also say that the surrounding region is worth a look if you're into that kind of scenery. I suggested Osaka because some people are not into that (back when I went to school in China, I once recommended Suzhou to some exchange students from the US and they came back saying they didn't think it was worth seeing, but had plenty of fun in Japan).

BuildingMyBento

I wouldn't say any Suzhou attraction really stands out, but their HSR station is one of the more unique ones in the country.

mosburger

My personal favourite areas in Suzhou are the cultured shores of the Taihu lake, nearby East Mountain tea and fruit plantations (the springtime tea is worth buying, just make sure it's really local) the Old Town in general and natural landscapes in the northern Xiangcheng district.

Suzhou is all about a civilized and cultured lifestyle and is best compared to Tuscany in Italy or the Home Counties of England etc.