Hi all, my spouse and I are planning a trip to china this year for vacation, in October. I was hoping to field some advice on where to go exactly, what to see, and general advice on navigating while only understanding English. What apps should I install on my phone for payment, translation, etc.

Rough plan currently is to fly into Hong Kong/stay for 1-2 days. Train to Shenzhen for 1-2 days. Train to Beijing 1-2 days. Then fly back.

Not sure exactly what we want to see, yet. For sure, the Great Wall. Also want to take a super fast train to Beijing.

Happy to hear all your thoughts, thanks!

  • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    8 days ago

    My suggestion:

    • fly into Hong Kong, book a nice room at one of the Vegas style resorts in Macau and take the ferry over directly from the HK airport.
    • Spend the following day checking out Macau, it’s a super weird little city, at the end of the day take the ferry back over to HK, which will drop you off in the center of the city.
    • Plan for 5 days in HK, it’s an awesome city. Ofc it’s more politically liberal than mainland cities, and suffers from major wealth inequality (you’ll see on Sunday when it’s house keepers’ day off so they hang out on cardboard under these multinational bank HQs :/.
    • I would day trip to Shenzhen, maybe 2 days in a row. I didn’t do this when I was there and I regret it.
    • I would skip Beijing and do a dedicated Beijing/Shanghai trip another time, riding the train is great, but spending a whole day on it is a significant opportunity cost unless you have 10+ days for your trip.