Beijing to Chengdu itinerary

[dlee85]

Hello. I will be landing in Beijing on 2nd June and will be there for 4 nights before making an overland trip to Chengdu. At the moment the only place I have on my list to visit is Xi'an. I will be flying back to Beijing from Chengdu for my return flight on the 17th. There is so much to see in China, but does anyone have any must see/do suggestions?

[abcdefg]

Consider a stop in Datong (Shanxi.) In the city you can see the Jiulong Bi (Nine Dragon Wall.) Nearby you can viist Yungang Grottoes, Mu Ta (Wooden Pagoda) and the Hanging Monastery 悬空寺 (at Hengshan.) I was there earlier this week and thought these places were well worth the trouble.

One night and part of two days there should be enough. Datong is about a six hour train ride from Beijing and is on your route to Xi'An and Chengdu.

[skylee]

If you stop at Datong you might also consider visiting Pingyao. The town is a UNESCO site. They are quite far apart, though.

[Mindmaxd]

In beijing you should go to Forbidden City(gu gong故宫)，Great Wall（chang cheng长城），In the morning go to The Temple of Heaven (tian tan gong yuan天坛公园)，There are so many old trees at there,the air is very fresh at there and you can also watch 天坛.

I was live in Datong several years ago,now the city is great,It was just rebuilt to be a old city as it in the old histroy,Like abcdefg said you can visit that places,except that don't forget eat Sliced noodles(dao xiao mian刀削面)，I love it!Its veeeeery famous,There is one call 东方削面（dong fang xiao mian），Its easy to find just ask the native people.

Xi'an Terra-Cotta Warriors(bing ma yong兵马俑)and Qinshihuang Mausoleum（qin shi huang lin秦始皇陵）.

That is what I know, hope will be useful for you.

[jbradfor]

You might want to check out this recent thread as well: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/37244-bennys-travel-plans-shanghai-to-chengdu-to-beijing-suggestions/ . There is a lot of good ideas there that you might like.

[Lu]

In Beijing, don't forget the Summer Palace (nicer than the Forbidden City imo). In Xi'an, also check out the Other Mausoleum, I think it's called Hanling. It's a bit out of town, more or less on the way to the airport. Instead of an army, the emperor in this grave got buried with a miniature terracotta household: servants, eunuchs, dogs, cattle, everything. The terracotta people were made with wooden arms and small clothes (all of which have rotten away in the centuries since). Not as spectacular as Qin Shihuang's entourage, but still a cool place.

[dlee85]

Thanks guys. It looks like the frequent route is Beijing - Datong - Pingyao - Xi'an - Chengdu so I'll stick with that. Can anyone recommend places to stay? Hostels or hotels. I've already booked my hostel in Beijing and will have somewhere to stay in Chengdu so just for the places in between. Hostels/hotels who help with booking onward train tickets is a bonus.

[abcdefg]

I was just in Datong and Pingyao this past week. In Datong I splurged on a fancy hotel, since I had traveled cheap through Ningxia and Inner Mongolia and craved some luxury. Datong had lots of great stuff to see, both in the city itself and in the vicinity.

The main lodging tip I have for you is to definitely *not* stop in Taiyuan on your way south. Go straight through to Pingyao instead. I made the mistake of stopping in Taiyuan and then taking the bus to Pingyao.

Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi, is surprisingly expensive as well as very dirty. It's a large coal mining city with lots of heavy industry. That and the blowing sand/dust make the air quality even worse than Beijing.

One afternoon it got dark with heavy haze about 5 p.m. At first I thought it was a solar eclipse, but it wasn't. Could not see half a block away. I have absolutely nothing good to say about the place.

It took six hours on the train to get from Datong to Taiyuan. Hard sleeper cost about 100 RMB. Only a little longer to Pingyao. On the map below, Pingyao is the red "A" between Taiyuan and Linfen.

[dlee85]

abcdefg - noted. Will definitely go straight through Taiyuan. Is the train from Xi'an to Chengdu worth the trip? The alternative is by air, which is fairly cheap.

[abcdefg]

Is the train from Xi'an to Chengdu worth the trip? The alternative is by air, which is fairly cheap.

Sorry, I have not taken that train. Looks like it takes about 16 hours and the plane takes about an hour and a half. Plane costs approximately twice what the train costs in hard sleeper, but neither is exorbitant.

http://www.chinatrai...on/chengdu.html

http://flight.elong....12-06-05_Y.html

I've taken enough trains in China that the novelty has worn off and I only do it when it's more convenient than flying. Your situation may be different and you may value the "China train experience" for its own sake. As a rule of thumb, the outside views are not stunning; most trains run through kind of boring terrain, plus you will be traveling part of the time at night on that route. An overnight train can save you the cost of lodging, however.

If you want to do it by train for the sake of interacting with locals, then that's also a valid consideration. Time spent getting from one place to another needs to enter the equation as well.

So it's a personal choice, plus a matter of how much time you want to spend getting from one place to the other. No "perfect" solution will fit everyone.

Hope you have a great trip!

[dlee85]

As a thank you, I thought I would do a write up and offer some travelling tips.

2nd to 6th June - Beijing

2nd June

Landed in Beijing around 9 am. As I was disembarking from my plane, my immediate thought was 'that can't be fog' and then 'bloody hell, the air in Beijing is really bad'. Ended up waiting longer than expected for my sister, whose flight was delayed from Chengdu, and didn't get to our hostel around 1pm. The taxi cost around 100 RMB (includes the charge for the express way) from the airport to the Sunrise Hostel in Dong Cheng just west of Tiananmen Square. The hostel was about 10 minutes walk from Tiananmen East subway stop.

As it was the first night, we decided to stick to areas close by and visit Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. Unfortunately, we left it a bit late and entry to The Forbidden City was closed. Walked north to try find Zhongshan Park but couldn't find it and was approached by a tricycle driver. He wanted to take us on a hutong tour but we asked him to take us back to our hostel for 3 kuai a person. As we were heading back, he tried to convince us to take the tour and when we asked him how much he said 3 kuai per person so thought, why not. He asked us the time before heading to the hutongs. Towards the end of the tour he started talking about because we are overseas Chinese he had given us a special discount - he would usually charge 6 kuai per minute but only charged us 3 kuai per minute! My Chinese is by no means good but if he had said 3 kuai per minute I would have understood and my sister definitely would have as she is currently a Mandarin student! Needless to say, we were feeling a little bit scammed. Asked him to quickly take us to the main road, as we were getting off he said the charge was 3 kuai per minute per person so wanted 114 for the 19 minute tour! Argued him down to 60 but still felt cheated. Back at the hostel, I saw a sign saying be careful of tea/English speaking scams and don't take the tricycles and then suddenly remember reading it before we left.

Pro tip 1: Be wary of tricycle drivers.

Spent the night eating at Donghuamen night market. For those who have eaten street food before, the food there was nothing special, but the atmosphere was lively so for me it was definitely worth a visit.

Sorry, I was going to write up the whole trip as one post, but this took me longer than expected and I'm about to head to the gym. Will continue again later.