Originally Posted by
susiesan
That's what I'm afraid would happen. I suppose I could look at some of the itineraries offered by travel agents, see how much the hotels and air tickets actually cost, and decide if it's a good value or not. I may follow the itineraries described in trip reports posted on Fodors.
As an example, I see a 14 day private tour from China Custom Tours starting in Shanghai then Suzhou, Hangzou, Wuzhen, and Beijing. $ star hotels, 3 meals a day, all transportation, $1200 each. Is that way too much compared to doing it on your own?
I may limit myself to only 2 other cities besides Beijing and Shanghai. Are there more places to visit closer to Shanghai in the south or Beijing in the north?
- You could also fly out of Hong Kong or Guangzhou, most US airlines have flights there.
- Between Shanghai and Beijing, there are several options. Around the shanghai area, Hangzhou (maybe Wuzhen or the other museum town - somebody help me with its name) is worth a trip. From Shanghai you could work your way up to Nanjing (or even Hefei), stopping in Suzhou -> Wuxi -> Nanjing. The latter is, imo, a very beautiful city, where you can spend several days at.
From Nanjing, Hefei is an option, if there is time left, or you fly further up to the north: Qingdao is worth a vist (although it might be a bit "chily" in September), continuing on to Yantai (if you like), then heading to Beijing.
- Going down south from Shanghai, you still might want to go to Suzhou / Wuzhen / Wuxi, or even Nanjing. Then Hangzhou -> Shaoxing area (very nice scenery) -> Ningbo. Then maybe continue to Quanzhou/ Xiamen (famous for Gulangyu island). If there's still time, you can do a trip (even a day trip) to see the Hakka houses. From Xiamen, continue to Guangzhou/ Hongkong.
- Deep down in the South, there would be Yunnan and somehow also Guilin/Guangxi. Both of them
tend to be overrun by (western) tourists during the summer/ late summer months, but are nice to go to, anyway. I wouldn't combine it with a Beijing departure, though (4 hr flight)
- Going west, the area around Chengdu and Chongqing is quite interesting. Going deeper into the West, Xinjiang/Gansu is certainly feasible, whether I would recommend doing this as the first individual, non-guided trip to/in China ... I don't know. The further west you get, the more "difficult" it can
sometimes be, i.e. no high speed trains, long flights (Xinjiang), bad infrastructure.
I would not book with a (Chinese) travel agent. They overcharge and the east coast is really easily doable. We'll certainly help here, too
Originally Posted by
susiesan
When we visited China in 2001 on a tour, the meals were included. They were not very good and not authentic local food. We had to beg our tour guide to take us somewhere that he would eat, not to where he thought we'd like to eat.
is it typical of hotels in China to include breakfast in the rate?
Yes, tour group food is awful and some try to meet the western tastes...
Breakfast is most of the time included, some chinese hotels might only have chinese options though. If you opt for western chains, they have the same rate system (you decide whether you want breakfast or not) as everywhere else.