China - never a dull moment!

Will be visiting China for the first time in Dec/Jan and the missus might also be pregnant at the time. We originally booked this to go Harbin for the winter fest, but now I’m not sure where else to visit, since many other places are better to see in the summer.
We’ll be back to China again to explore other spots, but for now, where should we go during our 2.5week trip?
Oour flight will be to Beijing and we’ll probably fly home from Hong Kong.
 
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Will be visiting China for the first time in Dec/Jan and the missus might also be pregnant at the time. We originally booked this to go Harbin for the winter fest, but now I’m not sure where else to visit, since many other places are better to see in the summer.
We’ll be back to China again to explore other spots, but for now, where should we go during our 2.5week trip?
Oour flight will be to Beijing and we’ll probably fly home from Hong Kong.
Errr… is she pregnant now? Or planning? The stage of the pregnancy will likely determine some of the activity.

But I’d reckon the traditional ‘tourist’ route… Beijing for a couple of days, Great Wall, Xian for the warriors, then head down to Shanghai. Take a day trip from Shanghai to Suzhou. I just went for a week with a first-time visitor to china, we spent it all in shanghai - with a day trip to suzhou - and we had plenty of stuff to fill the time. And it was a very moderate pace… nothing more than a few hours per activity.

Would recommend the free walking tour of shanghai on your first day to get your bearings. You could probably do the other things on the tourist trail in a week, split between Beijing, the wall and xian (or save xian for another trip)
 
What points programe did you use booking domestic flights within China - any airlines.. Air China, China Southern, China Eastern, etc..
Im finding it hard to find anything besides CX.. used to have a lot of MU through QFF but no longer available.
 
Errr… is she pregnant now? Or planning? The stage of the pregnancy will likely determine some of the activity.

But I’d reckon the traditional ‘tourist’ route… Beijing for a couple of days, Great Wall, Xian for the warriors, then head down to Shanghai. Take a day trip from Shanghai to Suzhou. I just went for a week with a first-time visitor to china, we spent it all in shanghai - with a day trip to suzhou - and we had plenty of stuff to fill the time. And it was a very moderate pace… nothing more than a few hours per activity.

Would recommend the free walking tour of shanghai on your first day to get your bearings. You could probably do the other things on the tourist trail in a week, split between Beijing, the wall and xian (or save xian for another trip)
Sorry I remember typing a reply but I guess it didnt post.

We are planning. If she's not pregnant, then we can do some winter sports, and she gets to enjoy SQ F more :)

I think we'll do something similar to what you said but skip out on Xian. Not sure what else is there besides the Tera Warriors. It'll also be less moving around with luggages.

Looking at visiting:
Beijing 3/4 nights
Harbin 2 nights
Shanghai 4 nights + day trip to Suzhou
Hong kong 4 nights
Macau 1 or 2 nights

Booked this trip to visit Harbin so that is a must. We need to stop going to cold places in December
 
What points programe did you use booking domestic flights within China - any airlines.. Air China, China Southern, China Eastern, etc..
Im finding it hard to find anything besides CX.. used to have a lot of MU through QFF but no longer available.
China Eastern classic rewards via QFF are still MIA, which is a PITA. But they’re bookable via other partners if you have points.

I was able to book Air China PEK-XIY via UA.

Otherwise, airfares seemed to be only bookable as full Flex Y outside of China. So very expensive. Which makes the trains more attractive.

You can search and book trains via Trip.com. The tickets are issued ~2wks out.
 
China Eastern classic rewards via QFF are still MIA, which is a PITA. But they’re bookable via other partners if you have points.

I was able to book Air China PEK-XIY via UA.

Otherwise, airfares seemed to be only bookable as full Flex Y outside of China. So very expensive. Which makes the trains more attractive.

You can search and book trains via Trip.com. The tickets are issued ~2wks out.

Is that the reason why airfares are so expensive! I didnt know that. So VPN doesnt work to get cheaper fares?
What if we have someone in China book for us or reach out to a TA there?
My sister just came back but my parents are still there and can ask them to find me a TA if this works..

Do you know what programes can book MU?
I will also look at Air China via UA thank you. Easy to book via website?
 
Is that the reason why airfares are so expensive! I didnt know that. So VPN doesnt work to get cheaper fares?
I couldn’t find any info to suggest it did but there must be a way to get discount fares?

I even looked via AliPay while I was there recently and I could only see ~A$500 whY fares.
What if we have someone in China book for us or reach out to a TA there?
My sister just came back but my parents are still there and can ask them to find me a TA if this works..
One of the regular AFF visitors might have further ideas.
Do you know what programes can book MU?
They’re Skyteam, so any of those. I could see heaps of availability via AF/KLM but didn’t have enough points.

Just before Covid, I’d booked PEK-XIY (return) via QF but had to cancel that trip.
I will also look at Air China via UA thank you. Easy to book via website?
Yes, quite straight forward to book. Just make sure you enter your APIS (PP etc) straight away so hopefully it gets into the CA system. We just had a weird situation where they emailed to provide PP details via return email. But it wasn’t clear if that worked.

The CA app / website is horrible if you don’t book direct…
 

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