glocklt4

The wife and I have Seoul, Palau, Saigon, Bangkok, Chiang Rai, and Chiang Mai booked for next year already (using United miles). She is out of vacation for 2014 but I have another week I could use. I'm trying to find a good destination and stopover to use up my 90k US Air miles for a North Asia trip about 9-10 days long.

Any recommendations for the most photogenic areas to go to as a solo traveler? I don't know that much about most of Asia really (maybe more than most though), but looking for something that's high up on the list of things that you simply must see and photograph in the world. Landscapes are a favorite of mine.

We've been to Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai (out of the North Asia region). In the list of North Asia countries, Japan, Taiwan, Mongolia, and other parts of China interest me most. Unless there is something I don't know about the "-stan" countries, I don't have a huge desire to visit them on solo travel right now.

EVA airways is really great, and it would be easy to catch DFW-LAX-TPE and do a stopover there if there are some great places to see in Taiwan. Also I've been recommended to go to Hangzhou due to it's nice landscape.

Thanks!!

zehbra

If you're interested in landscapes, Guilin/Yangshuo in Southern China spring to mind, probably one of the most visited places for its landscape in China (hint: it's crowded; so try not to go on a Chinese holiday).

Otherwise, i found China's Northwest rather interesting (Qinghai lake, Dunhuang), but that might be a bit far off for a timeframe of one week.

BarefootBandit

I found Kyoto and surrounds to be incredibly photogenic. I think picking the right season, depending on what you want to shoot, may be critical, though...

Z...

glennaa11

Taiwan has lots of photogenic places, especially along the east coast and Taroko Gorge. Plenty of things in and around Taipei as well.

I was just in Taiwan for about 10 days and this time went down to Sun Moon Lake and the central area before we went over to Lukang. I am hoping to have a TR up soon. You can see the TR I did from last year's trip though. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...tg-c-ua-f.html

On my trips I have used the services of Neil Wade who is a pro photographer (among other things). He knows good places to go. What we have done is 3 day weekends with him driving. He's pretty laid back so it's like traveling with a friend. Depending on your budget that might be an option. Taipei is easy to get around on your own. On my first visit Neil met me the first day and showed me how to get around town and gave me lots of ideas of places to go on my own. And then he picked me up Friday morning for our weekend trip.

glocklt4

Guilin/Yangshuo looks amazing. Very interesting terrain. It looks like Air China flies into Guilin, so that would be doable. Qinghai lake and Dunhuang are very interesting as well, but yes, those are a bit far off I think to split with another stop. Thanks for the ideas!

glocklt4

Thanks, yes I've thought about going to see the cherry blossoms as it seems to be quite amazing for photography. I'm not going to be able to make it there this March/April though.

glocklt4

Taroko Gorge and Sun Moon Lake look great! Thanks for the recommendations. I think we are leaning pretty heavily on a stop in Taiwan since we can take EVA directly there from LAX. Do you think 4 days would be enough to see some of the major highlights of Taipei and also make a stop by Taroko Gorge and Sun Moon Lake? Also, any suggestions methods of transportation to these places?

Thank you!

glocklt4

FYI, the wife has Pinterest and apparently has "pinned" a lot of places in Guilin that she didn't realize it. Some pretty amazing pictures of that area and the Lijang river. Also Zhangjiajie and the Tianmen Mountain road area looks really amazing too. May see if we can do Taiwan, Guilin, Zhangjiajie and Hangzhuo. May have convinced my parents to go along on the trip and then they would continue on to Shanghai and Beijing.

glennaa11

It could probably be done, but it would be a bit of a rush, I think. It is about 3 or 3.5 hours from Taipei to Sun Moon Lake. Taroko is probably a similar amount of time. I think there is more to see in Taroko if you only have to pick one. You'd probably need to rent a car. I'm not sure the logistics of that. There are buses that go there but the gorge is big and having your own transport within the park would probably be worthwhile. Personally the thought of driving in a place where I don't know the language or customs fills me with dread. So it was nice having Neil to do all of the driving so I could just sit back and relax. There is a train that goes from Taipei to Hualien. You might be able to rent motorbikes there to get around the area.

For Taipei it is easy to get around by MRT and on foot. There is an extensive bus system but I have not used it much. I only used it last year to get to the National Palace Museum. There are buses that go right from one of the MRT stations to the museum so it was easy. The buses in that are were nice because they announced the stops in English as well as the local language. In my opinion you could easily spend 4 days in and around Taipei and have plenty to see and do. If you want to get out into nature there are some parks in the city plus there is the Maokong gondola cable car that takes you up a mountain south of the city in an area with lots of tea houses and plantations. In order to get further afield from TPE I would suggest a longer time in country.

Hopefully some of the Taiwan experts will see this thread. I have only been there twice but really enjoy it.

glocklt4

Thanks for the additional information. After looking through China more, I do think that it would be wiser to spend our time in Taiwan both in Taipei and Taroko only (and skip Sun Moon lake). I found some information on the trains there, but like you said it's a big area and you'd want transportation once you get there. I'll do some further reading on that, but I suspect that 1 full day in the area might be fine, maybe an overnight stay though.

In the end, maybe 3 days in Taipei and 1 day at Taroko, then 2.5-3 days between Guilin and Yangshuo, 2 days at Zhangjiajie, and also considering a couple days at Hangzhou.

glocklt4

Could use some more quick help here if you guys can offer!

I've decided to expand this to bring my parents along as well. My dad retired 2 years ago now, but my mom is retiring the end of May. Because of her last day, we cannot leave until the last day of May at the earliest. I've figured out award tickets with UA getting to Taipei, but getting to/from Guilin/Zhangjiajie/Huangshan/Jiuzhaigou is a major pain! With Star Alliance, all of these cities seem to connect back to Beijing instead of to each other, which is way out of the way.

My overall thoughts are to do 3-3.5 days in Taiwan, seeing Taipei for 2-2.5 of those days, and one full day out to Taroko National Park. From there we head to central China for almost a week. I think Guilin/Yangshuo is a must for 2.5-3 days, plus one more central town like it for another 2.5-3 days. Zhangjiajie is highest on the list after Guilin/Yangshuo, followed by Jiuzhaigou and then Huangshan. My concern with Zhangjiajie is getting there from Guilin/Yangshuo, and concern with Jiuzhaigou is altitude. I get pretty bad altitude sickness and it seems this area is very high. Huangshan doesn't seem quite as scenic as the others.

So, any recommendations here? As far as the award ticket itself, I am planning Taipei as our stopover, and then we'll take the rest of that leg to central China, so I have to get that figured out quickly. Since I do not have endless time off of work like the retired people (I wish!), I am going to head home after Guilin/Yangshuo and the other central city (or maybe spend one day in the gateway city as well).

My parents are going to see Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an after I leave. I wouldn't mind spending 1 day in Shanghai on my way home because it has been 5 years since I've been there and i'm sure it has changed due to all the construction we saw when we were there!

BTW, my last concern with all of this is the rainy season. Trying to figure out if we should push this whole thing to Sept/Oct. I have a Thailand/Vietnam trip setup with the wife starting the 2nd week of Nov already though.

RustyC

Sept./Oct. is THE worst time of year for rain in SE Asia, though our summer months are also monsoonal in other parts of the region. I went to Taroko in summer and it was rainy, though thankfully not of the all-day type.

Saw Naadam in Ulaan Baatar last year and it was very memorable. People dress in their colorful best, and the opening ceremony is an amazing riot of colors in motion. Though with the smaller Naadams in other towns you get much closer to the action and the people, or so I'm told. Mongolia would be a great country to travel further afield in (I got to UB and Terelj), but the distances can be great and transit slow. Lake Khusvogol, the far west and the Gobi were the most popular excursions, but you needed at least 7-8 days. Weather in July was delightful (highs 70s, lows 40s, sunny).

I found Vietnam to also be especially rich in both people and scenery photos, though I'd rate the north better for that than the south. Beware pickpockets, though.

allset2travel

OP,
Couple of additional thoughts.

China and Asia are a photographer�s dreamland. Don�t expect to do it all in half a dozen trips, less to say 1 trip. The key is to concentrate on just couple of regions to minimize flying.
While in Guilin/Yangshuo, you can tag on Longji Rice Terrace (or others in the same area). All can be done in 3 nights/4 days.
As far as Guilin, Yangshuo and Longji, some images can be found below:
http://stefanofoto.smugmug.com/Asia-...jiang-Li-River

http://stefanofoto.smugmug.com/Asia-...ilin/i-WHf8zc9

http://stefanofoto.smugmug.com/Asia-...aces/i-P4gp3qB

Toss in a couple of places to consider (on top of what up-posts suggested), while you�re in the southwest China, how about LiJiang (the city) and Dali, both are in Yunnan. To fly there, need to transit in KMG (I think? Not sure if any direct flight KWL-LJG).
Some images from LiJiang & Dali can be found on this (2011) trip report:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...dventures.html

jiejie

There are nonstop flights from TPE to KWL on EVA but may not be daily...but if you could do an award all the way to KWL with stopover in Taiwan on the way, that would work pretty well. Then return from Shanghai or Hangzhou. Try very hard not to route through PEK at least on the way inbound. Jiuzhaigou may not be a place that you can get awards in/out of due to demand. And regular flight tickets are quite expensive. If you choose Huangshan (TXN), then flying from there to PEK and picking up an award PEK-home might work. Doubt if CA is offering awards that would include the TXN - PEK segment but you can try.

More confusing to me is your time frame. I thought you started with only 9-10 days for a trip. I think given your wish list, you may have some unrealistic time frames concerning intercity travel and particularly trying to get in/out of Zhangjiajie. Getting from Guilin to ZJJ is not a straightforward or time-efficient exercise. For an adequate trip to both including the transportation, figure on 7 days right there. Additional if you want to put days in Hangzhou and/or Shanghai. Jiuzhaigou is not in the same geographic area. It isn't all that high, and altitude is normally not a problem for most people. The upper reaches of nearby Huanglong (a separate park), does get quite high and that can be problem for some. But again, if you want to carve out time for that, at a practical minimum you'd need 3-4 extra days to do the plane connections then time at the park(s) themselves. Huangshan is quite accessible from Hangzhou by road and Shanghai by air, so one of the easier itineraries would be Guilin - fly Hangzhou - road to Huangshan - fly Shanghai. This could be done in a week. Make sure that you understand the setup at Huangshan--cable cars are available but a lot of stair work up and down will still be required. There are photogenic villages in the area that might be of interest to you.

I can't speak for Taiwan, but central and mountain China would typically be better in September than in early June due to weather (rain) issues. Try to avoid July, August (school holidays and all tourist sites exceptionally busy) and at all costs avoid the first week of October (national holiday).

bibbju

Suggest you try to avoid the golden weeks in China in Sept & Oct as places will be extremely busy. For 2014 these are Mid-Autumn festival (Sept 6 - Sept 8) and National Day (Oct 1 - Oct 7).

Surprised you haven't also considered a trip combining Hanoi and Halong Bay. Great places for photography!