Hi, all. I'm bumping this thread because I'm now starting to get more serious about escaping from China on January 23 (new year's day); I do want to see the festivities on the night of the 22nd because I've never witnessed a Dragon CNY before.

The $64,000 question is where to go. I have 3 criteria: 1) warmer than Beijing; 2) some place that doesn't celebrate CNY; and 3) as cheap as possible. Regarding #3, I'm thinking of a $1,200 budget.

I have lots of miles that I could use for the ticket, but I'll probably end up just using cash. I've been monitoring fares from PEK to pretty much all of SE Asia (haven't checked Air Asia out of TSN yet), and KUL is the cheapest I've found thus far ($700 RT). I'm also willing to try to one way and come back over land, as far as Nanning, but I'm not so sure what visas I would need (VN only?) and where I should get them.