Originally Posted by
lasvegaswannabe
Thank you again. I think cutting down to 5 days in Shanghai may work. I will begin to look for somewhere similar to stay on the Puxi side. I will also see how to maybe work in Pingyao and maybe cutting out Hangzhou. Back to the drawing board. All suggestions are welcome and appreciated. I am trying to get our itinerary down pat so we can begin to purchase tickets, secure hotels, etc....It is not as easy for us to get away from work for extended periods, especially at the same time. So I am trying to get in all the "high points" because it may be unlikely we will get a chance to return in the future. Much thanks to everyone.
With an April trip, all the arrangements for in-China transport and hotels can and should be made much later in this process and probably not until at least late February 2014 so don't sweat that. Take your time over these next few weeks to first work out various itinerary possibilities for feedback before going for international air tickets. If this may be your only trip to China, then try to scrape up all the days you can since defraying the international air ticket cost (whether cash or miles) over more actual in-country days is good value. Your current plan is very city-focused and that will make for an unfortunately limited sampler of China with no small town/village area or scenic area in the mix. But getting either of the latter in probably needs about 14 in-country full days in order to be able to add to your existing wish list of cities without sacrificing any of them.