Shanghai To Bkk And Back

[rideswings]

I will be going to Thailand for the majority of a 2 month stay in Asia. I will be flying from the USA to Shanghai on 10 August 2009 and returning to the USA on 21 October 2009 from Shanghai. After I arrive in Shanghai on 10 Aug, I want to spend a few days touring China possibly taking a train from Shanghai to Hong Kong, then Air Asia from Macau to BKK.

I realize that this is a Thai forum, but has anyone tried this before? I have never tried to fly from Macau to BKK, always direct from the USA to BKK with stopovers in either Japan or Korea. Anyone know which visas I will need? I know I will need my Thai visa at least.

Im still sketching the trip out, so any tips will be highly appreciated.

[scorecard]

I will be going to Thailand for the majority of a 2 month stay in Asia. I will be flying from the USA to Shanghai on 10 August 2009 and returning to the USA on 21 October 2009 from Shanghai. After I arrive in Shanghai on 10 Aug, I want to spend a few days touring China possibly taking a train from Shanghai to Hong Kong, then Air Asia from Macau to BKK.

I realize that this is a Thai forum, but has anyone tried this before? I have never tried to fly from Macau to BKK, always direct from the USA to BKK with stopovers in either Japan or Korea. Anyone know which visas I will need? I know I will need my Thai visa at least.

Im still sketching the trip out, so any tips will be highly appreciated.

I would encourage you to explore China, it's well worthwhile, and there are modern train services in many areas. Internal air travel has improved quite a lot in the last few years, both in terms of customer service and in safety.

Some possibility to consider in your 'master plan':

- Train from Hong Kong to Shenzen (big new modern well planned industrial city but visually quite nice, very green). Modern train, I've done this trip about 10 times, very comfortable and clean, nice snack facilities on board, about 1 hr 15 minutes trip, passport check at Shenzen is quick and easy, but you do need a visa to enter China in advance. My work colleagues wait until they arrive in Hong Kong to get visa to enter China, seems to be a whole lot easier and quicker, My staff took my passport and photos to company travel agent many times and were back with perhaps 2 hours all finished, but perhaps this was because the visa issuing point had a history to look at . But perhaps better to contact a professional travel agency in HK in advance to be sure, but this assuming you would go to HK first. Sorry I can't comment on trains from Shenzen to Shanghai. If you stay overnight in Shenzen be careful of some taxi drivers. You can find enough English to suffice, especially in the bigger hotels. Beware of touts for brothels.

- If you haven't been to China before, then Shanghai is a must. Very interesting modern bustling city with lots of old character. Right now there are good deals on hotels. I've stayed many times in the 'Merry Rendezvous Hotel', bills itself as a 4 star but is pretty much a 5 star hotel, last time I checked they had reduced their internet room rate enormously. Keep in mind that hotels in China are not cheap like Pattaya or similar. Note that some industries in China don't mention taxes but you will have to pay legitimate taxes on top of the quoted price. Merry Rendezvous is also good for organizing local taxi trips etc. Also very central. Plenty of English. Good food.

- If your going to travel from Hong Kong to Macau or reverse then best option is a ferry. Big very modern ferry boats, seem to be very safety conscious, very comofrtable, inexpensive, about 60 minutes trip. Ferry port in Macau is about 15 minutes drive from city area (city area means the casino area). Ferry port is very easy to get to in Kowloon area of HK. From Macau you can also take a ferry direct to main HK airport. Macau is worth a visit to see the spanish influence, but there's not much more than gambling. Unless your interested in gambling not worth more than a day trip, perhaps one night. Not cheap. Lots of English spoken.

Hope this is helpful.

[rideswings]

Wow Scorecard, thank you soooo much for taking the time to make your post. I appreciate all the tips, and it makes me not so scared to try this trip.

Aside from Shanghai and Hong Kong are there any destinations that might be nearby that I should see? I have been all over Thailand, but China for me is "The Undiscovered Territory."

Thanks again for the tips....

[jerrylee]

I will be going to Thailand for the majority of a 2 month stay in Asia. I will be flying from the USA to Shanghai on 10 August 2009 and returning to the USA on 21 October 2009 from Shanghai. After I arrive in Shanghai on 10 Aug, I want to spend a few days touring China possibly taking a train from Shanghai to Hong Kong, then Air Asia from Macau to BKK.

I realize that this is a Thai forum, but has anyone tried this before? I have never tried to fly from Macau to BKK, always direct from the USA to BKK with stopovers in either Japan or Korea. Anyone know which visas I will need? I know I will need my Thai visa at least.

Im still sketching the trip out, so any tips will be highly appreciated.

Macau is an ex-Portuguese Colony (not Spanish), and the Hydrofoil or Hovercraft going over is better than the ferry.

[scorecard]

Wow Scorecard, thank you soooo much for taking the time to make your post. I appreciate all the tips, and it makes me not so scared to try this trip.

Aside from Shanghai and Hong Kong are there any destinations that might be nearby that I should see? I have been all over Thailand, but China for me is "The Undiscovered Territory."

Thanks again for the tips....

Your very welcome.

I've been into China many many times because I worked until retirement for an international management consulting company, but I only ever visited Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzen and Quangcho (which is very similar to Shenzen and only 30 or 40 kilomteres from Shenzen).

My visits to the above cities have sparked my interest in China and I also would like to see more.

Sorry but I can't comment on other places but of course there's hundreds of attractions / interesting cities (many of which are huge and many are very modern). I'm guessing that many westerners would be unaware that Shanghai, and other cities, have excellent underground metro services etc., going to many locations.

Other points to share:

- Beijing is a more bland city (government centre of China) and it has very severe pollution problems, and not good to visit if you have respiratory issues. However I'm aware that many people do visit Beijing:

- To see Tianamen Square which is simple but is surrounded by beautiful Chinese architecture and includes the buildings and complexes you've seen on TV a million times as a 'logo' for China. Also (at least in me) inspired a deep sense of history, emotion, etc.

- To see the Olympic venues

- Because it's the most convenient place to start a tour to the great wall, which is 'double awesome'. There are many such tours starting from Beijing, mostly in full size tour buses, however my old colleagues in Beijing pushed to towards a small group tour, about 8 people, in a new modern mini-van, more expensive of course. Guide was excellent, friendly, good listener, very knowledgeable, had studied the wall in university and spoke excellent English. I would encourage anybody to include the great wall as a must see. Small downside of such tours is compulsory stops at jade factory / set lunch, but this is fairly normal on such tours anywhere. Other benefits of smaller group: nowhere near the hastles of trying to round up 40 or 50 people before the bus can move on, and better food services for a group of 8, compared to restaurant serving 50 people in a small time span.

Back to Shanghai. Shanghai Pu Dong Airport is world class; new / modern / simple but elegant / friendly / very functional / huge but easy to navigate airport either going in or coming out / passport check and custome checks are well organized and fast.

In Shanghai The Merry Rendezvous hotel organized a day tour to a typical authentic old village which escaped destruction in the cultural revolution. About 3 hours by bus, It's a village from memory about 1 kilometre long, build on a canal. It's real, not a mock-up. Infrastructure, houses, rooms furntiture, etc., are still same as 200 years ago. Lots of modern coffee shops etc., but not compromising the original architecture etc, Well worth a visit. The trip there was also interesting, some nice glimpses of rural areas, small provincial towns etc.

Not sure whether it's important to you, but you'll find Starbucks and similar chains everywhere in China and Starbucks is a good place to find some English, staffed mosly by outgoing friendly new generation early twenties Chinese kids keen to try to talk to westerners etc.

[scorecard]

I will be going to Thailand for the majority of a 2 month stay in Asia. I will be flying from the USA to Shanghai on 10 August 2009 and returning to the USA on 21 October 2009 from Shanghai. After I arrive in Shanghai on 10 Aug, I want to spend a few days touring China possibly taking a train from Shanghai to Hong Kong, then Air Asia from Macau to BKK.

I realize that this is a Thai forum, but has anyone tried this before? I have never tried to fly from Macau to BKK, always direct from the USA to BKK with stopovers in either Japan or Korea. Anyone know which visas I will need? I know I will need my Thai visa at least.

Im still sketching the trip out, so any tips will be highly appreciated.

Macau is an ex-Portuguese Colony (not Spanish), and the Hydrofoil or Hovercraft going over is better than the ferry.

Sorry, my apologies, it's not Spanish, it's Portegese influence. The standard ferry service between HK and Macau is quite good, but it's true that the modern Hydrofoil service is even better.

[rideswings]

Thanks again and thanks for the recommendations for the Merry Rendezvous Hotel, it might be a good starting point and is reasonably priced.

Now I just need to figure out how to get from Shanghai to Shenzen... Im thinking the train.

Do you happen to know if there is a Chinese touring website sim ilar to ThaiVisa that can have more information....

I feel guilty asking questions about China here

[scorecard]

Thanks again and thanks for the recommendations for the Merry Rendezvous Hotel, it might be a good starting point and is reasonably priced.

Now I just need to figure out how to get from Shanghai to Shenzen... Im thinking the train.

Do you happen to know if there is a Chinese touring website sim ilar to ThaiVisa that can have more information....

I feel guilty asking questions about China here

Sorry but I'm not aware of a similar website for China.

I regret that I can't give you specific answers about other train services, but I'm guessing there would be a train service:

- Shanghai to Shenzen,

- Or perhaps Shanghai to HK then HK to Shenzen???

Actually this sounds like a nice trip but unless it is a modern faster train it could take quite a long time. Flying time from HK to Shanghai and return is 2 hours, so as a very rough guide, Shanghai to HK by train could be at least a 24 hour trip, but i'm wildly guessing. But maybe it is a fast train, there are very modern train services all over China.

One other thought - if you fly into or out of Shanghai you might like to use the Maglev fast train to leave Pu Dong airport for the city or the reverse trip. It's maximium speed is 432 Kilometres per hour, from memory it completed the 33Kilometre trip 1n 16 minutes. but it is a little expensive. Only downside is that the station inside of Shanghai is not really 'downtown', and you need to take a taxi to get to the real city area. To Merry Rendezvous is perhaps 20 minutes but longer is bad traffic.

Regards.

[jackspratt]

rides, have you tried googling these questions you have about China?

For example, googling <train from shanghai to shenzhen>comes up with over 300,000 hits. I sure one of them will give you your answer.

[scorecard]

Thanks again and thanks for the recommendations for the Merry Rendezvous Hotel, it might be a good starting point and is reasonably priced.

Now I just need to figure out how to get from Shanghai to Shenzen... Im thinking the train.

Do you happen to know if there is a Chinese touring website sim ilar to ThaiVisa that can have more information....

I feel guilty asking questions about China here

Sorry but I'm not aware of a similar website for China.

I regret that I can't give you specific answers about other train services, but I'm guessing there would be a train service:

- Shanghai to Shenzen,

- Or perhaps Shanghai to HK then HK to Shenzen???

Actually this sounds like a nice trip but unless it is a modern faster train it could take quite a long time. Flying time from HK to Shanghai and return is 2 hours, so as a very rough guide, Shanghai to HK by train could be at least a 24 hour trip, but i'm wildly guessing. But maybe it is a fast train, there are very modern train services all over China.

One other thought - if you fly into or out of Shanghai you might like to use the Maglev fast train to leave Pu Dong airport for the city or the reverse trip. It's maximium speed is 432 Kilometres per hour, from memory it completed the 33Kilometre trip 1n 16 minutes. but it is a little expensive. Only downside is that the station inside of Shanghai is not really 'downtown', and you need to take a taxi to get to the real city area. To Merry Rendezvous is perhaps 20 minutes but longer is bad traffic.

Regards.

Hi rideswings,

Just found this website by accident:

http://www.seat61.com/China.htm

It contains a lot of railway maps, and other information about trains in China, plus a lot of other information for travellers in China.

Hope it's helpful.

Regards