我的旅行计划 (My Itinerary v0.2)

I've started investigating some specific hotels, as well as the actual logistics of how I'm going to get from place to place.  The total distance of my planned trip (from Beijing to Xi'an, Chengdu, Kunming, Shanghai, etc) is roughly the same distance as driving from Victoria to Montreal!  I had a lot of romantic notions of taking the train from place to place, however FORGET IT, for the most part I'm just going to fly.

(Case in point: from Xi'an to Chengdu is 19 hours by train, or 1 1.5 hour flight.)

There are a couple of legs I'll do by train, to get the local flavour, because the trip is relatively short (5 or 6 hours) and there aren't any convenient flights.

This baloons my travel budget - the total $$$ of all my domestic China flights will be in the $1500 to $2000 range (vs $400-$500 or less if I take the train).

Here are my latest thoughts:

April 5/6:  Flight Victoria to Beijing.

April 6-20:  Hutong School in Beijing.  I'll be in Chinese classes for 4 hours a day, but hopefully will have lots of free time to see the sights of Beijing.  (Otherwise I may tack a few days in Beijing onto the end of my itinerary.)

April 20-27:  Datong.  Fly Beijing to Datong.  Lots to see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datong.

April 27-May 4:  Dengfeng (near Luoyang).  Fly Datong to Luoyang (connecting through Beijing, possibly stay a couple of days in Luoyang) followed by a 2-hour bus trip to Dengfeng.  For some reason the hotels in Luoyang are more expensive than usual (and very pricey too!) at this time, possibly because of the May 1 holiday.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengfeng near http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luoyang.

May 4-18:  Xi'an.  Bus Dengfeng to Luoyang and then train to Xi'an.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi'an.  Lots to see, and one of the high points of my trip, I get to meet my Chinese teacher Valarie (a.k.a. 王老师).

May 18-25:  Chengdu.  Fly Xi'an to Chengdu.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengdu.

May 25-June 1:  Lijiang.  Fly Chengdu to Lijiang.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijiang,_Yunnan.

June 1-8:  Kunming.  Take the train from Lijiang to Kunming.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunming.

June 8-15:  Guilin.  Fly Kunming to Guilin.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilin.

June 15-26:  Shanghai, or ???.  Still working on this part of the itinerary.  Possibly take a Yangtze cruise from Chongqing to Yichang (3 or 4 nights http://www.yangtzeriver.org/cruisedate.asp?year=2013&month=6) and then fly to Shanghai.  Possibly fly to Changhai, and then immediately take the train to Tunxi and explore the Yellow Mountain area.  Many possibilities.  In any case, spend the last few days in Shanghai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai, and finally fly to Beijing for my ...

June 26:  Return flight Beijing to Victoria.

I'm spending at least a week in each location, to have lots of time to see the sights and experience the local flavour.  We'll see how it works out.  It means I miss out on a lot of places I'd like to visit, but my usual approach to a vacation is to rush around wuickly and try to see everything, and this time I'd like to do things a little bit differently!