I had a post some 2 months ago about hotels and tours from Chengdu, to fill in 4 days prior to the arrival of my wife and 10-year old daughter into our Beijing accommodation for the Olympics. Then the massive earthquakes struck, devastating the area. I hear Chengdu itself is operating normally as cities go, but I am not sure I feel comfortable spending 4 tourist days in an area that has been saddened by such tragedy. I think I need to find another way to fill in the 4 days, or at least some of them.

Since general questions are hard to answer, let me say that until August 7 we will be in Hong Kong, and from August 11 we need to be in Beijing. So those are two end points. We don't like to really rough it, but we are definitely not luxury travelers either. I realize China is huge, but we'd be happy to see one or two interesting bits outside of the Beijing vicinity, and save the rest for another trip.

My wife and daughter have a preference to see beautiful scenery and/or local culture, rather than visit famous historical sites. My wife expressed interest in a scenic rail journey, if something moderate in length could be worked in. And we are all experienced travelers, though we speak not a word of Chinese.

I have procrastinated on this long enough, and would like to fill in this hole in our itinerary with something we all will enjoy.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Perhaps Guilin? Four days may be a bit much there, but it's a very beautiful part of China.

Scenic place to go instead of Jiuzhaigou? First choice will be Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province. Or Huangshan in Anhui.

Huangshan is great suggestion -- very beautiful! One night in Tunxi would be fine, and the old market street there is fun to explore. Then a private car to Huangshan, a ride up the mountain in the cable car, and two nights on the mountain should be about right. On the ride back, there are fantastic old towns to see with, maybe a final night in Tunxi.

Thanks for the suggestions. My guide book on China is light on these regions.

How do-able would the following be?

Friday morning, take Ferry to Schenzhen, then fly to Guilin.
Friday night in Guilin.
Saturday Li River Cruise and explore Guilin
Saturday night in Guilin
Sunday morning travel from Guilin to Tunxi (how?)
Sunday night in Tunxi
Monday travel from Tunxi to Beijing

Alas I find Chinese geography confusing and the massive distances hard to plan around.

Here's my suggestion:

-Get a hold of 20/30k NW miles (multiplied by the number of people in your party)
-attempt to book an open jaw between CAN (HKG also works, but I'd start in CAN myself because I hate connections), XXX, and PEK
-XXX could be virtually anywhere because CZ's route network is quite robust, but I would focus on Xinjiang because it is so cool and not very popular with Chinese tourists

The Shenzhen airport is rather far from the city. Why not just fly from Hong Kong? Also, I wouldn't bother with going to Tunxi for one night. You wont be able to see Huangshan or any of the old towns in the area. Also, Tunxi is kind of out in the sticks -- as I recall there aren't many flights in and out and I don't know if you'd be able to find flights when you want. I'd do either one or the other -- Guilin or Tunxi/Huangshan, but not both.

SZX - KWL can be significantly cheaper than HKG - KWL. Also more flights. Few or no flights in the morning from HKG.

Great idea to use miles. I think I can use Continental miles on China Southern as well, and I have legacy miles with them from my Colorado years, and can top up with AmEx miles as required. Of course, assuming availability.

If I can make that work, just how long do I need to allow to get from the Holiday Inn Express in Causeway Bay, HK to Guangzhou Airport?

Guangzhou Airport? Why are you flying out of Guangzhou? Guangzhou is an hour away by the express train, two by the regular train. Allow 30 minutes + to get to the station on Kowloon side. The train arrives more or less in the center of Guangzhou. I have no idea how far the Guangzhou airport is from the city, but China's pretty good about putting them out in the middle of nowhere.

Why not fly out of Hong Kong or Shenzhen?

Rewards using CO or NW miles are on China Southern who hub out of CAN. We could fly from Hong Kong, but to most places would have to connect in CAN anyway.

Hence, if it isn't too far, we'd trek to Guangzhou.

CZ has lots of flights out of SZX.

It's a long way from Hong Kong to CAN. While the direct train takes just over an hour, they just implement x-raying of all luggages, and is asking passengers to arrive 45 minutes prior to departure, compared to 30.

And with the pretty horrible traffic in Guangzhou, you need to leave a lot of time for going from Guangzhou East to the new CAN, which is 16 miles north as the crow flies.

BTW, I believe NW's NRT-CAN service is ending at end of Feb 2009.

Kai Tak.... Chek Lap Kok for example.

I agree with both of these points. I was thinking CAN because their coverage there is pretty stellar (Tibet, Xinjiang, Yunnan, you name it), but perhaps SZX is almost as good.

Furthermore, if it does come down to CAN, as much as I hate the idea of the HKG-CAN segment, I suppose this is better than the train.

I suggested NW for 2 reasons:

1) their award prices are really cheap and there are no zone restrictions
2) I've developed a system that allows me to -- pretty much -- redeem at will on CZ, which involves speaking with the manager in the BJ NW CTO, booking, then calling CZ and using my charm to get the waitlists cleared