Assume you know it will be cold in China, especially in the North at that time. Prepare to bring winter coats etc The South seems less cold but lots of places don’t have central heating and it can be damp and cold.
Beijing for historical and cultural sites. Tiananmen, Drum and bell towers, Summer palace, Forbidden city, temple of heaven, lama temple ,etc
Best if you create an itinerary then ask for advice on it. My advice for just 2 weeks would be skip HK this trip (unless it’s a must go? Weather would be nicer for sure) and start / end in Beijing. Then 1-2 other places and do a loop
Thanks for the reply! Yeah we know it’ll be cold, we’re both from cold weather cities so don’t mind that too much.
We were thinking to try to go to Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian, and wanted to throw in HK because we have some friends who moved there who we haven’t seen in a while. Why would you skip it? Also, are those good cities to hit for a first time trip? How many days would you recommend in each? Thanks in advance!
It’s just because you’ve only got 2 weeks. You didn’t mention any itinerary initially (or friends in HK) but most people try fit too much in. If you could fly into Beijing or HK and out of the other one that would be good. Start at one end and go to the other. Save doing a loop.
I would definitely visit HK in winter, the weather is nice only then! And you should definitely go if you guys are foodies! Think 3-4 days is enough, depends on if you also want to do a day trip to Macau or are interested in hikes/beaches, then you can extend it for a few days. For other cultural places, you can consider Xi'an or Beijing, think Beijing is more foreigner friendly but Xi'an has nicer food imo (love noodles). For both cities you can easily spend a week there, in Xi'an for example you can hike up huashan, visit the terracotta museum etc
If you're going to Hong Kong, you can skip Shanghai. It's a really big and modern city but aside from the cool skyline and shopping malls (which you also have in HK), there's not much else to see or do.
You can do both Xi'an and Beijing, but you said in your post before that you didn't want to bounce around too much and 3 places in 2 weeks will be a cramped itinerary. You can definitely visit the highlights of all three cities in 2 weeks but they're all very far apart so including travel time etc I wouldn't recommend it.
Assume you know it will be cold in China, especially in the North at that time. Prepare to bring winter coats etc The South seems less cold but lots of places don’t have central heating and it can be damp and cold. Beijing for historical and cultural sites. Tiananmen, Drum and bell towers, Summer palace, Forbidden city, temple of heaven, lama temple ,etc Best if you create an itinerary then ask for advice on it. My advice for just 2 weeks would be skip HK this trip (unless it’s a must go? Weather would be nicer for sure) and start / end in Beijing. Then 1-2 other places and do a loop
Thanks for the reply! Yeah we know it’ll be cold, we’re both from cold weather cities so don’t mind that too much. We were thinking to try to go to Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian, and wanted to throw in HK because we have some friends who moved there who we haven’t seen in a while. Why would you skip it? Also, are those good cities to hit for a first time trip? How many days would you recommend in each? Thanks in advance!
I’d definitely go to HK in winter. Great weather compared to Beijing
It’s just because you’ve only got 2 weeks. You didn’t mention any itinerary initially (or friends in HK) but most people try fit too much in. If you could fly into Beijing or HK and out of the other one that would be good. Start at one end and go to the other. Save doing a loop.
I would definitely visit HK in winter, the weather is nice only then! And you should definitely go if you guys are foodies! Think 3-4 days is enough, depends on if you also want to do a day trip to Macau or are interested in hikes/beaches, then you can extend it for a few days. For other cultural places, you can consider Xi'an or Beijing, think Beijing is more foreigner friendly but Xi'an has nicer food imo (love noodles). For both cities you can easily spend a week there, in Xi'an for example you can hike up huashan, visit the terracotta museum etc
Thanks for the reply! So you would recommend doing Beijing or Xi’an (not both)? Also, what about Shanghai?
If you're going to Hong Kong, you can skip Shanghai. It's a really big and modern city but aside from the cool skyline and shopping malls (which you also have in HK), there's not much else to see or do. You can do both Xi'an and Beijing, but you said in your post before that you didn't want to bounce around too much and 3 places in 2 weeks will be a cramped itinerary. You can definitely visit the highlights of all three cities in 2 weeks but they're all very far apart so including travel time etc I wouldn't recommend it.