I plan to travel around China in August, but as we are students we dont have a high budget and we only have around 10 to 12 days max.
I wanted to go to Yunnan province but the air ticket is rather expensive, a round flight to Kunming is around 3000yuans (ctrip.com)
I dont want to waste time with a whole day or night train.
Moreover It seems that August is not a good season to go there, as its the raining season?

So I was thinking changing my destinations to the north, taking the train along the coast (Qingdao, Yantai, Tianjin, then Beijing)

If I dont plan any itineray or hotels in advance, is it easy later to buy train tickets or find hotels in the cities we go through?
If you know any cheap agencies, or contacts or have good tips , please let me know.

Thanks for your help!

Shelynaa we have traveled extensively within China often without planning our itinerary and hotels in advance and for the most part have not encountered problems however you need to be able to be flexible when it comes to the train

as an example we just returned from an adventure in Henan and while it is well connected railway-wise ALL tickets to Shanghai from their capital Zhengzhou were sold out 11 days in advance with the exception of a few standing seats on a couple of odd-hour trains- we tried substituting numerous cities on route and finally were able to secure tickets on a train to Nanjing that left at 4:37 in the morning 3 days after we originally wished to depart (from Nanjing we took the CRH fast train)

our Shandong trip before that had no trouble at all showing up at the train station and securing tickets for when and where we wished to go but keep in mind Qingdao is using its temporary SiFang station as its main one is under renovation for the Olympics through June 08

overall if you are on a tight schedule as soon as you arrive in a city try to secure your tickets outbound to avoid potentially being 'stuck' somewhere longer than you had hoped

also understand there are 5 classes of train tickets (not all trains offering all classes)- in order of least to most expensive:
1: no-seat (free-for-all standing)
2: hard seat w/assigned seat number
3: soft seat w/assigned seat number - as implied more roomy and comfortable
4: hard sleeper bed (6 berths to a compartment, 3 to a side, no door) - lower berth (xia) having most head room and most expensive; middle berth (zhong) having less head room, slightly less expensive than xia; and upper berth (shang) - cramped, stuffy and a hassle to get up/down - slightly more expensive than soft seat (3) but less than zhong- personally would avoid if possible!
5: soft sleeper bed (4 larger, cushier berths to a compartment, 2 to a side, with door) - xia/lower will be more expensive than shang/upper because of the coveted easy access to the floor/card table but both are okay comfort wise

the CRH fast trains only offer seats - their second class seats being better than economy airline seats


we have never had trouble with hotels - of course it helps to have a general idea of what to expect ahead of time something easily accomplished with pre-trip research

keep in mind hotels will require a deposit of upwards of 1000RMB at check-in to be returned on check-out - the amount required is usually determined by the value of the room reservation

how good is your Mandarin?

train info
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/
http://www.thatsqingdao.com/qingdao-new ... edule.html
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-t ... t32=SUBMIT

as for budget hotels in the areas you mention the jinjiang inn chain is good
http://www.jj-inn.com/Default.aspx

ctrip is a good site - it's destination section is worth a browse
http://english.ctrip.com/

feel free to PM

cheers!

Hi MIExpat! Thanks a lot for all those details, I was deseperate to see nobody answered. I will check the websites you mentioned.
Do you know about caves in Longmen? is it worthwhile visiting?
So are there any places in China you have not been yet ?
cheers!

yes we went to Longmen Grottoes just last week - it is a UNESCO site and interesting

worth visiting? mmm not sure... we have also been to the Mogao caves near Gansu's Dunhuang and to the lesser caves near Mati also in Gansu

as to "caves" at Longmen most are small open alcoves in the rock and as a result the art in them has been subjected to significant weathering; Dunhuang's caves are actual caves you enter

the art at Longmen is not near as vibrant as it has not been as extensively managed/preserved and the majority of statues are missing their face if not entire head which is frustrating but some are frustrated that the access to the caves in Dunhuang is restricted (you must travel in a group with a guide, enter only a small number of caves and you are not allowed to bring your camera into the venue)

I would probably put Dunhuang's Mogao caves above the Longmen Grottoes on my 'must-see' list but if you can't make Mogao and are interested in Buddhism the Longmen caves are worth a visit

if you go try to go in the morning as it gets hot quickly in the grottoes and it is a lot of walking so you might want to do the Bai Garden/Xiangshan Temple on the eastern side first before doing the caves on the west side (entry includes both sides)

also you might want to print the map and cave descriptions from the Longmen site http://www.longmen.com/en/index.html unless you want to hire a guide as there is little signage

I am working on getting our pictures posted if you are interested
http://miexpat.smugmug.com/gallery/3169726

as to places we haven't been yet? everytime I cross a place off my list at least 3 are added including the Datong caves!

cheers!

Thanks for the details you gave, that's so nice of you! Actually I sent you a mail in your box, because I thought you would rather watch it more often than shanghai expat postings, anyway I said in that mail that I cant find any connection between Zhengzhou and Jinan before going to Qingdao.
Why this question, because as I want to visit Henan and Shandong provinces, I dont really know from where to start and finish, when I looked at the map, I think starting with Henan then ending with Shandong is a good option, but how to cross those provinces...There should be train or buses I guess, but when I search on internet , its not obviously said there is a connection.
I saw there is a flight through Ctrip but we can not make any reservation now I guess because its a small flight so we cant book in advance.
Anyway this is where I am, searching the best way to make a smooth itinery, I dont know when you have visited those provinces if you did it separately or altogether then how did you do?
Concerning the caves, I did one in Xinjiang province and It was more or less the same as what you have described in Longmen so I am not sure to visit it.
I will definetely have a look at your pictures!
Thanks again!
cheers

a list of major stations is here http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-t ... tation.htm

keep in mind the trains are named for their start and end destinations so a train from Zhengzhou to Jinan will be labeled with different cities - K206/207 for example is labeled Chengdu to SiFang(Qingdao)

a quick look has these two possible routes involving connections:
a) Zhengzhou to Xuzhou a major hub in Jiangsu and then up to Jinan- been through the Xuzhou station twice and it offers many connections
b) Zhengzhou through Anyang up to Hebei's Handan then over to Jinan through Liaocheng

the "direct" trains are here http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-t ... t32=SUBMIT

but just having experienced the ticketing nightmare of Zhengzhou I would not suggest relying on being able to secure tickets from there unless you can afford to wait many days or don't mind traveling on a 'no-seat' ticket (another option would be to travel east to west through Henan and end up in Xi'an (Shanxi) which is easier to secure tickets from but that might involve backtracking)

Zhengzhou being Henan's capital will offer many bus options - I believe it has 8 stations with the long-distance one being across from the train station but we didn't check to see which destinations were an option

as to the Zhengzhou-Jinan flight - yeah I saw they only list the one flight SC4966 - you should have no trouble booking it now (I pretended to book it and got all the way through to the final confirmation stage) - the only caveat is that because it is a once-a-day thing if the flight is not full they may cancel it

hope this helps

cheers!

wow, very good travel info to know.....

Thanks for the details

yes, thanks for all those details. You never thought of opening a travel agency ?

Qingdao

cheap hotel with nice view

cheap sea food

u can get air ticket for 199 RMB sometimes even 99 RMB if lucky

single trip

www.china-sss.com

thanks Gabriella, this price sounds incredible, in ctrip , the round flight is more than 1000rmb in August.
What is the rate for a cheap but decent hotel in Qingdao?

is it worth the life to fly spring air?? coz the price is truly a bargain

Check ctrip for hotels in Qingdao, you will have a range of prices.
The ones near Lao ren beach is probably the best as far location is concerned.

Qingdao

cheap hotel with nice view

cheap sea food

u can get air ticket for 199 RMB sometimes even 99 RMB if lucky

single trip

www.china-sss.com

I am checking now the web site but the prices are too high, Shanghai-Qingdao-Shanghai 1040?

Please can anyone recomend another options for Qingdao?

Thanks

latina wrote:

Qingdao

cheap hotel with nice view

cheap sea food

u can get air ticket for 199 RMB sometimes even 99 RMB if lucky

single trip

www.china-sss.com

I am checking now the web site but the prices are too high, Shanghai-Qingdao-Shanghai 1040?

Please can anyone recomend another options for Qingdao?

Thanks

Check out elong.net . Slightly cheaper than that website, and probably even cheaper if you can book further in advance. (I only checked flights for the next week or so.)

Thanks i will check it out now, and will post here how is it.