China April Trip Route

ClintonL on 08/02/2025 - 18:29
Last edited 08/02/2025 - 21:19 by 1 other user

Hey guys, looking for advice for travel in China.

I'm looking to go around the 12th of April to 27th give or take a day or two if I can get flights for cheaper, wondering what you guys would suggest in terms of itinerary and best route of getting around. I'm thinking of including Beijing/Shanghai + Chonqing or Shenzen/HK. I' m not sure if adding all 4 would be feasible so wondering which you guys would suggest and also the route I should take e.g. If I should land in one place, then order of each city before returning to Australia. Key factors would be cost of the intercity travel and also cost of flights to and from Australia.

I was thinking of Xiamen airlines and going to Beijing > Chonqing > Shanghai and flying out of there but open to other suggestions.

Thanks

Travel Asia China

Comments

  • star-ggg on 08/02/2025 - 19:16
    +3

    Beijing > Chonqing > Shanghai

    This is a good route for 2 weeks. You can take a fast or overnight train to a stop in between. For example Beijing -> Xian -> Chongqing -> Changsha/Wuhan -> Shanghai. The local cuisine and dialects of each province is different in China esp if with that route where you're going north to northwest to east to central to east regions.

    • ryefig on 08/02/2025 - 21:11

      Hey star-ggg, can you speak the language?

      I am so keen to do an itinerary similar to this, and with all the cheap flights coming from these Chinese airlines it's making it even more appealing, but I am very worried about the language barrier.
      I usually wouldn't bother too much when traveling, and I have travelled a lot, but I understand things are verrrry different in China and I just wouldn't want to find myself in a tricky spot - esp because I know a lot of social media/google (?) is blocked.

      • sumyungguy on 08/02/2025 - 22:13
        +1

        I visited Beijing & Xian back in 2011 when I didn't data roam and the Google Translate camera hadn't been invented. Didn't have any trouble whatsoever with language thanks to the 2008 Olympics for which the Chinese made significant and welcome accommodations for international tourists. I still reckon they accommodate us way better than we do in return, where speaking slowly in a loud voice continues to be the order of the day.

      • SilverKing123 on 08/02/2025 - 23:50

        You can hire me as a travel guide/companion and it will be much easier. 😄

        Use a proxy, which is better than a VPN in China. Then there's no such thing as internet block by the Great Firewall.

      • star-ggg on 09/02/2025 - 09:27
        +1

        That itinerary is well touristed. You will not have issues getting around. Even if you don't use one of the many available methods to circumvent the Great Firewall, you could download the maps and translate offline beforehand.

  • bargaino on 08/02/2025 - 22:02
    +3

    China is enormous.
    Unless this is your last visit, I'd suggest you try to see what little is left of Old China while it still exists. Rural villages without electricity.
    Any old Warongs in Beijing that have not been demolished.

    Shanghai is not going anywhere.

    • sumyungguy on 08/02/2025 - 22:15
      +2

      Did you mean Beijing hutongs?

      • bargaino on 08/02/2025 - 22:16

        I most certainly did. My Chinese is rusty. I'm afraid to ask what warong means :-)

        • sumyungguy on 08/02/2025 - 22:33
          +1

          I did try to learn what a warong may be but couldn't find anything that page ranked. Now about rural China, you do need to have zero anxiety about human waste disposal.

        • meong on 09/02/2025 - 07:44
          +2

          Warong/warung is indonesian/malaysian for small food stalls

  • JIMB0 on 09/02/2025 - 00:00
    +1

    High speed trains are good if the cities aren't too far apart and you can get an express service. Travelling through the countryside at 350 km/h is pretty good.

  • SilverKing123 on 09/02/2025 - 00:07
    +1

    You certainly can do that route. Just one of a thousand options.
    Check this one out yourself and find out if the airline cost can be cheaper: Guangzhou > Beijing > Shanghai > Australia.
    Between Beijing and Shanghai, you can take bullet train.

  • wots on 09/02/2025 - 10:54
    +2

    I preferred Chengdu over Chongqing. History over skyscrapers (which are nice but the novelty wears off after looking at them for one evening). I was happy that we had 4 days to explore the Emei mountains in between those two cities. There’s more to China than just mega cities, and I wouldn’t want to see more than 2 mega cities in one trip, to be honest.

  • RD ADL on 12/02/2025 - 08:55
    +1

    @ClintonL Hope the planning for your trp is going well. I'm a veteran of 32 trips to China and my 33rd is coming up in a month. I've visited most major cities in the east and middle of the country but not had the chance to do much rural travel or much travel to the west.

    My choice of cities from those I've been to would be Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu (pandas and food!), Hangzhou (stunning places) , Zhoushan (best seafood in China), Xi'an (terracotta warriors), Dalian (think Adelaide in China) and Qingdao (beer and seafood).

    I would recommend as much high-speed train travel as you can. Trains in and out of Chengdu are Flights are not my preferred mode of internal travel and I'm lucky enough to be sat up at the pointy end and still don't like it! Airports are often some way out from the CBD, so can be time consuming and/or expensive getting to/from airports.

    If you can afford it, book Business Class on the trains. If you don't book business class, make sure your suitcase is of a size that will fit on an overhead rack as luggage racks for larger suitacases are small at best.

    Download Wechat and Alipay before go. Wechat for maessaging and some functionality. Alipay you can use to link to an Oz credit card for payment and for using the metro is major cities. You can also access Didi ride-sharing app in English from Alipay.

    Trip.com is a great resource for booking trains and tour bookings, airport transfers. They also do cashback via cashrewards. Make sure you pay in RMB to avoid extra fees.

    Dianping will also help you find some good places to eat. Tripadvisor now broadly out of date in China.

    Language: English language is certainly more widely spoken than it used to be but don't rely on that at all. My wife and daughter came with me on my last trip in November (first time in 10 years for my wife) and she was able to get around Shanghai easily.

    I stick to IHG hotels to maximise loyalty benefits.

    It is the most exhilarating and wonderful country. Incredibly safe. It has been a joy of my life getting to know China. Enjoy! Cheers! RD :-)

  • wetsandwich on 12/02/2025 - 15:48

    I'm doing a semi similar trip with some friends in May.

    Beijing > Xi'an > Wuhan > Beijing.

    Seems like going further gets you quite far away and the internal flights are all very expensive, so you have to rely on trains a bit. The more rural you get the less trains there are per day to get back out again.

    But yeah, first trip for me too so I wouldn't recommend copying what I'm doing!

  • FrankCR on 12/02/2025 - 18:23
    +1

    I'm in China, sitting on the high speed train now.

    Use gaode/amap they released an English version a couple of weeks ago and it's very useful.

    For paying if you can use WeChat that's pretty easy. It also has a translate function.

    Get an esim before leaving and you skip the firewall!

  • RD ADL on 12/02/2025 - 18:26

    Have fun!
    I'm with Telstra and just use the $10 per day data roaming - no firewall with that either.
    I find WeChat difficult to top up as a foreigner but Alipay much easier. :-)
    Safe travels :-)

  • Felix-9 on 13/02/2025 - 19:37

    I highly recommend downloading and registering for Alipay (it has an English version). Cash is rarely used anymore, and with Alipay, you can enjoy an incredibly convenient and seamless experience in China!
    And like the comment above, I also recommend downloading Amap (Gaode Maps)—it makes getting around so much easier! It's really a great app. Hope you have an amazing time in China! And trust me, Chinese food is absolutely unforgettable! 😆🍜

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