Hi AJLondon:

I'm planning a similar trip, but in late Feb, and with my 4 year-old.

So far, my plans include flying into Shanghai, stay perhaps for 2 or 3 days, and then take the overnight train (see this website for a review http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archive...o_shanghai.htm - looks pretty nice), and then onto to Beijing for 6 days/5 nights.

Keep in mind that if you stay at a SPG hotel for 4 nights on points, you automatically get the 5th night for free (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...anding.html#10) We plan to consume 40,000 SPG points stay at the St. Regis for 5 nights (which works about to 8K points/night). Not too bad.

And I've read in other posts that Gold and Plat members have access to the executive lounge @ the St Regis (i.e. free breakfast and evening snacks) <Readers: If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me >

So far, we plan to visit the following in Beijing:
1. Great Wall (mutianyu) http://www.travelchinaguide.com/chin...g/mutianyu.htm - it has a 1 mile (or is it 1 km) toboggan ride. My 4 year-old will have fun with this, though it might be kinda cold in late Feb.

2. Tiananmen Square

3. Forbidden City

4. A hutong - use the opportunity to remind my daughter not to complain about our life in the US

Sidenote: As a techie, I'm planning to setup a blog of our travels, and then use my soon-to-be-purchased GSM 1.3 MP cameraphone to take pictures, e-mail them to flickr, which will in turn post the pics to my daughter's website (assuming all technical difficulties have been resolved). Mummy will then see what mischief we've been up to.

My little one's quite a traveller. When she was 3, she travelled to Asia twice, and earned about 60 K frequent flyer miles. When she received her NWA Silver Elite card, she said "goody, a credit card. Let's go shopping". Methinks she has been shopping with mummy too often

5. Various temples

Have fun