Originally Posted by
farbster
No personal experience, but then again I don't think I need personal experience when judging by professional tour companies that only pick the optimal times.
When you look at the high end tour companies, they only plan trips at the best time. Look at Travcoa. They run tours to China next year in April, May, Sept and October. Why? Probably because Beijing is so hot you either hot as balls or cold as crap if you go in other months. I've been to Beijing, but only in October.
While you can go to Beijing other times of year, why would you want to do that? Do you plan a luxury ski trip at either the beginning or end of the season? You'd have to be a moron if you had the flexibility.
Very strange comments. Most professional tour companies tend to be lemmings, so that's not necessarily a "gold standard" for trip planning.
As for bringing China into this mix, it's also strange that you seem to equate "China" with "Beijing." Forgetting perhaps, that's it's as big as the USA with all the variation in climate and ideal times for different locations that this implies.
Advise your friend however you see fit. But remember you're the one who asked for advice on open forum, presumably from people who know more than you about these things....from personal experience.