Hi all,

I've got a trip to the central/west of China coming up in a few months and am just starting to put together a sketch of what I'd like to do - and was curious to get any views - I've been to China a couple of times before but always the coastal corridors (plus Xian) so I'm pondering my options for this trip. I'm travelling with my wife, have just under 3 weeks (18 nights) and fly into/out of Chengdu.

Travel style: Typically 4/5* business hotels (Marriott, Hilton, SPG), best class of domestic travel (in China that will be G class VIP/business, of course now with this trip I'm expecting less high speed train routes so a preference of a domestic F flight vs an overnight sleeper train).

Thoughts as planning:

• Skip Lhasa against more time elsewhere
• Day hikes only, nothing overnight - using cablecars to speed things up
• Generally on this trip want to see highlights only
• If the "best site ever" is a 6 hour bus ride away I'll tend to skip it unless on the route to my next stop
• Trains I will typically get one leaving between 6-8am
• This post from jiejie gave me a fair few ideas but I'm targeting a different area at the moment

The following cities were chosen based on guidebooks and I'd see the top sights around

1. Chengdu (2 nights)
2. High Speed Train to Chongquin (1 night)
3. Three Gorges Cruise (3 nights) to Yichang (1 night)
4. High Speed Train to Wuhan (1 night)
5. High Speed Train to Changsa (1 night)
6. Normal train to Wulingyuan (1 night)
7. Normal train Huaihua to Guilin (3 nights)
8. Flight Guilin to Kunming (2 nights)
9. Flight Kunming to Chengdu (1 night)

One of my key things to ponder is whether to reverse the trip so that we have the "relaxing/dull" cruise at the end. Any other cities you'd add/replace? Should I reduce the time around Hunan to give more time in Sichuan?

Many thanks for any thoughts