Does anyone know of any companies that offer budget tours of six to seven days to mainland China that start and finish in Hong Kong? I would like to visit Bejing, the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army at Xi'an. I guess this will involved flying between the cities. All the tours I have so far seen involve staying in 5* hotels which make the tour very expensive. I am travelling alone.

I traveled to China June 2001 and Jun 2002. Both trips were budget tours. I used www.pacificdelighttours.com in 2001 and www.laurustravel.com in 2002. Both offer very good deals. Laurus Travel offers smaller groups while Pacific delight offers slightly better hotels. Another budget tour company (I have not used) which comes highly recommended is www.chinafocustravel.com. They tend to have very large groiups (over40). An unfinished review of the 2002 can be found at http://e3brown.home.attbi.com Good luck and enjoy your adventure!!

I am local people in BeiJing ,P.R.China,
You may reserve hotel via "www.ctrip.com", It has english version. It is better that the hotel you chosed should be located near from Metro Station.

You may take tour bus to Great Wall at "QianMen" Metro Station. the bus is as big as shuttle bus,but pls don,t take mini bus,they could be cheating you.

another interesting way is taking boat on "KunYu river "to summer palace, you may listen Chiese traditional music on the boat.

HongQiao Market and PanJia Yuan Market are great place to buy some Chinese style gift for your friend.

if you want to know more detail, you may send e-mail to : chy333@sina.com.
Have a good trip, welcome to China.

Eddie

It is my pleasure. In my view, if you make the trip with a partner that is better to save money and more safe than you are alone.
Beijing and ShangHai are very big and safe cities in China and also modern.
December is not bad season for traveling especially in your accommodation but it is not best to see nature view. September and October are better for that. You may tell me what kinds of thing you are interested in , maybe I can recommend some.
In December, some sights can be visit:
In Bejing:
1\ Traditional places: Great Wall, Forbidden City, TianAnMen Square; TianTan Temple;
2\ some market places: HongQiao market ; PanJiaYuan Market ( Chinese traditional gift in there);
you may tell me what kinds things you want to buy;
3\ Bar street for your night life, it is very famous street; Traditional Foot massage, many TaiWan people, Japanese , Korean like to go; Beijing Opera ; Chinese Tea;
4\ food: eating in China is great thing to enjoy;

In ShangHai
It is a western style city I think, but I like it.
1\ WaiTan Street
2\ PuDong area: the biggest finance area in China, like wall street;
3\ Oriental Xin-Tian-Di : located in MaDong Street, there are many architecture with ShangHai old fashions; it is also a bar street;
4\ HuaShan street is a bar street; you can ask some foreigners there for finding some interesting bars, I know some places , but not sure the street name;
5\ Shopping in ShangHai is only thing for Chinese women.

I should recommend you to visit north area of AnHui province, there are some small cities with Song Dynasty style.
Huang Shan mountain has different tastes in different seasons;

ChenYue

I am not sure you may receive mail from my sina.com box, so that , I post this information on web-site that you can access.


I should tell some great provinces location where are they in China: China in map looks like a cock, right?
BeiJing: located in north of China, position is on the neck ;
ShangHai, AnHui province, ZheJiang province, JiangSu province are together located in east of China,position is on the bingy.
DaTong is in ShanXi province, located in the middle of north of China, position is on the back.
Xi’An is located in north and west of China, position is on the buttock, but not tail.
Si Chuan province is under the Xi’An, located in south and west of China;
YuanNan is under the SiChuan province, also located in south and west of China.

For your schedule, if you have only 14 days staying in China, I suggest you give-up ShangHai stop.
Reason: if you visit east area of China, some place you should visit: ShangHai,
In JiangSu Province, there are Chinese Gardening in SuZhou City;
In ZheJiang province, There are XiHu lake in HangZhou city, old architecture with south Chinese style in WuZhen town and stitch-work art. There is the biggest bamboo area in HaiNing county( have you seen the film made by An Lee, the director in HongKong, the films’name is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
In AnHui province, I have told you last time; for touring these provinces, there could be 14 –16 days to spend. So that , please make second trip next time;

I suggest trip route is land off in Beijing air port, staying in for 3-4 days;
Take shuttle bus ( 120 Yuan RMB) to DaTong( 1 day), PingYao county( old architecture with style of north area)( 1 day) , WuTai mountain visiting the biggest temple area in north of China( 1 day);
Take the night train to Xi’An city ( I didn’t have experience going to Xi’An); I think 2-3 days that is enough.
I strongly recommend you make trip to SiChuan province , ( ChengDu city and ChongQing City);
Flight from Xi’An to ChengDu could be spending you 540 Yuan RMB for air ticket. Although I didn’t have experience of traveling in SiChuan, It is my dream place to visit. You may find many information about SiChuan province.

But I think there could be a problem for your trip. You should take flight back to BJ.

Maybe Beijing – ShangHai--JiangSu—ZheJiang—AnHui is good route for you.
Next time, maybe ShanXi( DaTong)—Xi’An—Si Chuan---YunNan is another route.

I have not experience taking flight from HK to ShangHai. But if you take train from HK to ShenZhen City first, and then take plane to ShangHai,it must be cheaper than flying directly. As my friend said, air ticket cost with discount could be 730 RMB; it will take you one hour and 55 minutes. Pls remember that departure fee in air port internal is 50 RMB; for international is 90 RMB;

From ShangHai to Beijing, The best way to save your money is taking night train.
Train No.: T22 ; star time 18:00/ ShangHai; Arrival 8:00 BJ ;Cost: RMB480 for first class, Second class should be around 300 RMB( you may sleep in these two class )---you may choose second one, it is safe for you, just like night train from Paris to Madrid; Flight from ShangHai to BeiJing with discount could be 750 RMB;


From BJ to HK flying directly in August, there is a special discount offered by China Airline, cost will be 1650 RMB. Ticket agency: 0086-10-65121368 Mr. Wen Xiao Jun; it will take you 3 hours flying.