Originally Posted by
lasvegaswannabe
Thank you everyone for your replies. Question, if we were to fly into Shanghai (approx. 4/5/14) and use Shanghai as our base for 7 days. Doing day trips to Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou and possibly Tongli, would this be possible? Then take the train to Xian for 2 days, then Beijing for 3 and then fly home from Beijing. Is this itinerary doable? If we can fit Pingyao that would be great. We are very interested in the water towns and more "historic" type towns. I just am wondering if having a "home base" for 7 days would work with doing day trips. The Marriott Executive Apartments in Pudong is where we are looking to stay in Shanghai if this itinerary works. Again many thanks to your replies. Since B/F is probably not doable (not enough miles yet) we are thinking of Delta in their Economy Comfort. LAS-SEA-PVG-PEK-SEA-LAS. If I could figure a way with miles I would but I only have 35k with UA and 15K with AA. I do have 2 passes to the UA Lounge (via Chase Card). Again really appreciate the replies and help.
You can make separate daytrips to Hangzhou, Suzhou, and a water town. IMO, Nanjing is a bit too far and has too much to see to daytrip satisfactorily, though I know people try to do it. I think a better plan is to base out of Shanghai for 5 nights, then move to Nanjing for 2 days and 1 night, then train from Nanjing to Xi'an by overnight Z or D train (same line as from Shanghai but shorter journey). Xi'an for 2 nights then Beijing for the balance. If you want to get Pingyao in, add 2 more days (including transport time) where it will sandwich between Xi'an and Beijing. If you can't get the extra time, then Pingyao would be a higher value target for you than Hangzhou. Cutting that and at least 1 day/night from the Shanghai part and doing some judicious intercity transport scheduling might get it to work in your current time frame. May need to stick a domestic flight in there somewhere.
Staying in Shanghai in Pudong is a bad idea if you intend to do all these daytrips. You need to stay on the Puxi side, preferably something where you can get to Shanghai Hongqiao station fairly easily by subway, since that's the one you'll likely be using the most to daytrip from.