Originally Posted by
passionforhotels
Depends on what you really want to get out of your trip. I agree that Seoul has plenty to do for a few days - not to mention great beauty product shopping if you can figure out what you're buying! - but I'm not convinced that it's more interesting than Beijing. I don't think Manila has enough to offer for four nights.
Assuming you're after a city break to combine with Pulo, then Darwin or Cairns may be of interest and are about the same flying time to PH as Beijing? Or Macau (but not really for four days). What's wrong with Taipei in May? It would be a shorter flight. If you've ruled out SE Asia and have been to most of the other places in the region, then you haven't left yourself that many options, other than regional cities in China. Or elsewhere in the Philippines.
Hong Kong/Manila flights are actually synched with the Amanpulo flight timings to an extent. Seoul and Tokyo/Osaka also link up fairly well, though not quite as good as Hong Kong does. With Beijing, doing it after Amanpulo may be okay - would never want to rely on a flight departing from Beijing (or Shanghai) on time to make your connecting/Amanpulo flight.
Doing some of the other cities would likely mean an extra stopover (or a very long layover) in Manila or somewhere else.