Hey guys,

I am planning a vacation for next summer to China. I currently have my airfare on hold via CX and I am trying to fill in the pieces. I will be flying into HKG and wanted have 12 days and 11 nights in China. I was thinking I would do the following major cities.

3 or 4 nights in HKG

Fly to PEK, 4 nights in Beijing

3 or 4 nights in an unknown destination (possibly Taipei (TAIWAN) , Xian, Hangzhou, Lhasa, Shanghai)

Is Shanghai worth a visit or is it similar to Beijing or Hong Kong?

Do you think 3 nights is enough in HKG? Do I need a 4th? If not, I can do 4 nights in one of the cities listed above or possibly another? What do you guys think? I am open to doing/seeing anything.

- In my opinion, 3 nights is enough for HK.
- 4 nights in Beijing seems about right, though you could shorten it to 3 nights/4 days.
- Out of the other destinations you listed, you could fly from Beijing to Xi'an for 1 night/1-2 days, then on to Shanghai for 3 nights and do a day trip to Hangzhou.
- For Lhasa i would suggest 1 week minimum.
- Taiwan - next time.
- You could throw in a night/day in Guilin for a Shanghai night, but that makes it quite a busy trip travel wise, so may leave that for next time.

Assuming you're coming from NY, be advised that HK is quite a bit out of the way from most of the places you're talking about. Therefore, open jaws often make sense (fly into HK and return from BJ).

I am flying on Cathay Pacific's nonstop from JFK to HKG on an award ticket and my ticket does not allow for stopover's, so I will have to pay or use more miles for intra-China flights. I will be starting my trip in HKG since we arrive at 7pm, so that would make the most sense. It looks like the generous consensus on this board is still 3 or 4 nights in Hong Kong, 4 nights in Beijing (there is a lot to see here) and possibly Shanghai with a day trip to Hangzhou. Would you recommend splitting 3 nights in Shanghai and then overnight in Hangzhou? I think that may be a little too much traveling.

That's a nice flight. If you're willing to do the Shenzhen Shuffle and travel in a reasonably continuous direction, intra-China flights will not come close to breaking bank. But, I suggest you fly home from Beijing (much closer to NY), unless you're continuing on south after China.

Unfortunately, I am leaving out of HKG as well since I redeemed the award through AA and they don't have any other partners in China, so I have to leave out HKG. This is why I was going to do HKG to Beijing and then back to the south again. I am flying in Cathay First class for $55/person, so I couldn't pass it up at all and this is why I mentioned possbily going to Taiwan for 4 days because it is only 1 hour 40 minutes from Hong Kong. Shanghai is approximately 2.5 hours to Hong Kong by plane. The only problem with Shanghai is there really aren't many sites to see compared to the other cities, so that is why I was leaning towards Taipei. My good friend's family is from Taipei and he recommended me visiting there as it is a very vibrant city with plenty of action.

AA flies between ORD and PEK/PVG... soon LAX-PVG as well. And, JL is also an AA partner, with flights from a handful of Chinese cities to Japan and onward to JFK/LAX/ORD/SFO/YVR. JL F is pretty sweet (better than CX imo), but isn't offered on all routes.

I would prefer the non-stop to NYC. I could have booked 2 F on China Airlines to Beijing through Aeroplan, but I heard Cathay is one of the best. Do you think it's worth a stop in Shanghai/Hangzhou. I'd be probably staying outside of Hangzhou at the Aman resort as it looks incredible. If not, I'll probably go with Taipei.

If you're in Beijing or Shanghai, then backtracking to HK grossly falls short of your n/s requirement. Both ORD and NRT are much more direct.

CI doesn't fly from HKG to PEK (without a connection in TPE). I'm guessing you meant Air China. Most of my friends prefer KA on HKG-PEK, but when we're using our own money tend to settle on cheaper options because it's not an especially long flight.

Yeah, I see what you are saying. I'll look into changing the return leg from Beijing. Thanks for your help.

I think that Shanghai/Hangzhou are worth the visit.