I'm going to China around May with my girlfriend, and since there are sereval people here who know the place well, I thought I'd ask for some tips! It's going to be a city trip mostly, our current itinerary is:
- Hong Kong
- Hangzhou
- Shanghai
- Beijing
From Hangzhou we want to make a day trip to Huangshan. We've thought about staying there overnight to catch a sunset/sunrise, but it would add a lot of logistical stress, so it's going to be back and forth from Hangzhou on the same day.
My girlfriend really wanted to visit the Shaolin Temple, but it's so far away from our current destinations that we can't find a way to fit this in our schedule.. Does anybody know of any similar temples or connections to Shaolin in the above cities?
Apart from the must see sights, we haven't researched much yet. Any recommendations?
I'm going to China around May with my girlfriend, and since there are sereval people here who know the place well, I thought I'd ask for some tips! It's going to be a city trip mostly, our current itinerary is:
- Hong Kong
- Hangzhou
- Shanghai
- Beijing
From Hangzhou we want to make a day trip to Huangshan. We've thought about staying there overnight to catch a sunset/sunrise, but it would add a lot of logistical stress, so it's going to be back and forth from Hangzhou on the same day.
My girlfriend really wanted to visit the Shaolin Temple, but it's so far away from our current destinations that we can't find a way to fit this in our schedule.. Does anybody know of any similar temples or connections to Shaolin in the above cities?
Apart from the must see sights, we haven't researched much yet. Any recommendations?
Ok! Well, I've been to all of those places, but I know Hong Kong the least. I don't have a lot of time to write suggestions now, but I'll come back later. Also might be a good idea to ask my wife too.
Hangzhou is one of those places where you go not for the skyscrapers, but for everything else. West Lake is one of those must see places.
It looks like this:
I took the picture in December. Bet it looks even better in May.
There are places around West lake, that just walking around you'll find some interesting stuff to see. I recommend taking a personal boat out on the lake to enjoy it. Don't pay over 160 (80/person) RMB, no matter how much they grumble.
If you plan well, and get to Hangzhou early, you can head down to the Longjing tea plantation. You'll be going at the time of year where they should be picking green tea off the mountain. Would be a cool thing to see. I also recommend Lingying temple, and I'd also check to see fi they're still doing a show that you can see performed on the West Lake. I'd also recommend hitting Qinghefang st / Zhongshan st at night. There's a lot of great street food, shops and cool architecture. When planning, just keep in mind distances. Use google maps (or heck, Baidu maps might be more accurate) to plan it out. Chinese cities are huge. Lucky for you, buses and taxis are dirt cheap.
Now I know you're talking a day trip from Hangzhou to Huangshan, but you might want to rethink that. Hangzhou and Huangshan are not close. Huangshan is smack in the middle of Anhui. A G train (High speed) will get to Huangshan city in 2 hr 45 minutes. Of course, you're still a fair distance away from huangshan. Your best bet might even be to take a bus from hangzhou to Tangkou, which sits at the base of the mountain. You could also look up Huangshan China travel service and take a bus to Tunxi (which is farther from Huangshan) but they'll be able to arrange transportation for you. Also, I'd like to ntoe, that it's *extremely* unlikely you can make this a day trip. It's pretty much a 2-day minimum trip in my book. But it's worth it. I've been twice and would be happy to go again. Also, if you're brave and want some baiju, the area around the tangkou huangshan train station has some great varieties.
IT LOOKS LIKE THIS.
*sigh* Oh, my younger, thinner self.
I'll come back with Beijing and Shanghai suggestions later.
Shanghai was fun to wander around, both on and off the Bund. I'd recommend trying the restaurants on both sides of the Bund, but not the soup bun place past the Pearl Tower. I can't remember the name, but I have pictures and it was awful.
We took a bus tour from Beijing to the Great Wall that also stopped at a "recently" discovered tomb of an emperor. (I really need to find my notes with the proper names.) Aside from the obvious Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven and the Olympic Village were great to see.
Thanks for all the tips so far! I initally did think of spending more time on Huangshan, but it would make the trip way too travel intensive in the mid-section of our journey (lugging baggage around and such). We would also have to take time out of our Shanghai or Hangzhou stay and I feel like that's a bit of a shame, since we're there anyway. But I'll check it out in more detail later on, maybe we can still change things around.
Any suggestions about the Shaolin part though? Perhaps there are shows or performances if there's nothing like the temple around? Speaking of shows, I hear China has lots of amazing ones. Which ones would be the coolest to watch? Acrobatics, kung fu, other things?
