(All of my China blog posts can be found here.)

My friends call me “the China girl” or “part-Chinese.” I laugh and, usually, I agree with them!

My semester in Beijing in 2014 took me to 10 different Chinese provinces (in addition to shorter trips to China in 2013 and 2016), leaving me with a semi-comprehensive understanding of the different Chinese provinces, its transportation network, and, ultimately, how to travel around the country. And travel through China isn’t straightforward or easy like its other Asian counterparts, but man, is it worth it.

China is diverse, massive, and has so much to offer as a destination. It does have crowded, sometimes polluted cities as portrayed by media sources, but beyond those cities lies incredible mountains, gorges, plains, rice terraces, lakes, rivers, cuisine, people, and so much more. Traveling to China is an adventure that offers a deep understanding of China and its role in the world. I strongly believe that every person (especially Americans) should take a trip to China at some point in their life time. If you want to know more about why every American should visit China, go here.

But enough about “why China”…let’s talk about planning a trip to China!

Basic useful websites to get you started:
Accommodation: Hostelworld
Train Schedule Look-Ups: CNVol
Train & Plane Tickets: Ctrip
Plane Tickets (cheapest site I’ve found, but it’s only in Chinese so you’d have to have a Chinese-speaking friend help you book using their Chinese credit card): Qunar
Great China Travel Blogs: China Nomads, B More Nomadic, Far West China

Here are the steps I recommend when planning your trip to China:

1. First off…what do you want to see the most?

Here are a few of my favorite areas that you can target based on your interests:

Chinese culture & history:
Beijing (Hutongs, Tiananmen Square/Forbidden City, Great Wall)
Xi’an (Mosque/Muslim Market, Terracotta Soldiers)
Urumqi, Kashgar, and elsewhere in Xinjiang province (the old Silk Road)

Impressive skylines:
Hong Kong (not technically part of China according to some parties, but a good way to break up your stays on your visa)
Shanghai (“The Bund”)
Guangzhou (a few hours across the border from Hong Kong)

Laid-back, enjoyable cities that are still full of culture:
Nanjing (old City Wall)
Hangzhou (West Lake)
Harbin (featuring Russian influence, including a grand cathedral)
Lijiang (beautiful architecture & Old Town)

Food:
Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao in Shanghai)
Roast Duck (Beijing)
Rice Noodles (Guilin/Yangshuo)
Yak meat, Yak momo, Yak Butter Tea (Tibet)
AMAZING Cabbage (Harbin)
Lamb Hotpot (Beijing)
Lamb Pao Mo, noodle soup with bread bits (Xi’an)
Spicy food (Yunnan/Sichuan)
Basically, everywhere in China has some type of delicious food for you to try!

 

 

 

 

Nature:
Jiuzhaigou waterfalls (near Chengdu/Lanzhou)
Gobi Desert (near Dunghuang or other places along the Mongolian border)
Qinghai Lake, the largest lake in China (near Xining)
Yamdrok Lake (Tibet)
Three Rivers Gorge (near Chongqing)
Hainan Island, the “Hawaii of China”
Inner Mongolia Grasslands
Panda Reserve in Chengdu, Sichuan province
Jungle/Elephants in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province
Longsheng Rice Terraces (near Guilin)
Yellow flower fields (near Luoping)
Yuanyang Rice Terraces (near Honghe)
Dali Lake (near Lijiang)
Suzhou Gardens (near Shanghai)
Volcanoes in the far Northeast China

Mountains (my favorite category!):
Huang shan (near Shanghai)
Tiger Leaping Gorge (near Lijiang)
Mountains along the Li River (near Yangshuo/Guilin)
Hua shan, the “Plank Walk” (near Xi’an)
Tai shan (near Qingdao)
Zhangjiajie (near Changde)
Rainbow Mountains/Zhangye Danxia National Landform (near Xining)
Danxia shan (near Shaoguan)
Wuyishan (near Nanping)
Mountains throughout Xinjiang Province, including K2 (featured on this blog)
Yading & all throughout Sichuan/Yunnan provinces (near the Tibetan borders)
Mt. Everest & all other Himalayan mountains in Tibet

Engineering Feats:
Three River Gorges Damn (near Chongqing)
Xining-Lhasa railway
300 km/hour bullet trains (most common is Beijing-Shanghai)

Museums:
Nanjing Massacre Museum (one of my favorite museums in the world)
Chinese Urban Planning Museum in Shanghai
Chinese National Railway Museum in Beijing
Chinese National Museums in Shanghai & Beijing

2. How much time do you have to visit China?

This will make a world of difference in your trip. Keep into mind these factors:
–China is HUGE. Like, United States huge. So if you’re trying to get from Beijing to Yunnan Province (Southwestern China), it’ll take nearly 2 days by train. Unless you can spend a lot (see next point), which means flights are also options.
–Be realistic with your plan. If you only have 2 weeks, you can either spend two weeks in one or two provinces and get to know those provinces incredibly well, or you can travel to areas all over China but only get to see 1 or 2 cities within a province. There are trade-offs in both situations, so it’s ultimately up to you.
–In general, once you’ve arrived at your initial destination, try to spend less than 25% of your full days in transit between places. (For example, if your trip is 2 weeks long, spend only 3 full days or 6 half days getting from place to place.)
My advice: 3 weeks is a great amount of time to visit a variety of areas in China, but 2 weeks is a good chunk for focusing on a specific province.

3. What’s your budget? This also makes a big difference

Tight Budget:
If you’re on a tight budget, understand that your main transportation options are slow train travel (~$40 for a 12-hour train) or bus travel (~$15 for a 5-hour bus). This will make it harder for you to travel long distances, so if you only have a week or two, don’t waste 2 of those 14 days stuck on a train. But if you have weeks or months, night trains will become your lifeline. If you can spare 12 hours for a slow train, avoid bullet trains: a 5-hour bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai costs $90, whereas the same train in the form of a 13-hour sleeper train will cost you around $40 (and you’d skip out on the cost of one night in a hostel, too!).

Less Tight Budget:
If you’re not as concerned with your budget, plane travel in China can get you to main cities and even sites that would be difficult to get to by train or bus (such as Jiuzhaigou or Huangshan). Planes in China aren’t terribly expensive–a round-trip flight from Beijing can range from $150-$350 depending on how far you fly. But in comparison, a round-trip train from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet (48 hours and 4,000km each way) will cost around $230. Unlike in Europe, in China, trains are almost always cheaper than flights.

4. To Guide or not to Guide?

I’m not going to lie to you here–China’s language barrier is incredibly difficult. The language barrier in China is one of the most difficult in the world, and outside of big cities, very few Chinese people speak English (unlike other locals in India, Thailand, or elsewhere in Asia). The decision to choose a guide is often based mostly on this fact.

Travel by Guide:
There are plenty of guide companies that offer all kinds of trips throughout China. My parents went on a 12-day trip with ChinaTours in 2014 and had a great time. Their tour took them to Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, and Guilin/Yangshuo, and they had the option of staying in 4-star or 5-star accommodation. Although they enjoyed it, it limited their options for activities since the itinerary was set. It was pricey in terms of how cheaply you can travel through China, but if you are a well-off middle-aged adult who is intimidated by the language barrier and has a low to mid-range level of activity, traveling with a guide is a great way to visit China.

Partial Guide Travel:
During my travels through China, I met a Canadian couple that planned their own itinerary, booked their own transportation, and hired day-guides in each of the cities they visited. They said that it was a great way to save money on the commission fees associated with longer tours, and websites such as Ctrip made transportation-booking easy for English-speakers. In Beijing, for example, many providers offer day-long tours for ~$50 that take you to the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, the Ming Tombs, and a tea plantation–all in one day. My parents said that if they were to return to China again, this is how they’d do it.

Doing it Yourself:
For all the adventurous folks out there, I highly recommend traveling through China by your own means. I can promise you this: it isn’t as scary as you think. Yes, there will be communication issues here and there, but of the 10+ hostels I’ve stayed at in China, all of the desk clerks spoke English and were able to help me book activities such as rock climbing and bike rental, book buses to sites or other cities, and tell me about the best things to do in town. If you choose to do this, I also highly recommended purchasing a China guidebook. I used my Lonely Planet China book throughout my travels there. Although I don’t agree with everything in the book (it is 1,000+ pages), it offered some great insight on transportation connections and sites in certain places that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

5. Other Considerations

Visas:
Unlike many countries, every nationality needs a visa to visit China. The process is usually changing sporadically, so keep up-to-date on the latest information here and make sure you get your Chinese visa well in advance.

Permits:
In some areas within China, you need special permits (notably Tibet and some areas of far Western China).

Safety:
The only safety issues I encountered in my 6+ months in China are pickpocketers and tummy troubles from food (ironically, the only time I’ve gotten sick in China was from eating pizza). Chinese people, in general, are very kind and welcoming (even more-so if you can speak a few words in Mandarin!). I have found China to be very safe country to travel through.

Plan away!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Thanks for reading!