Chiang Mai To Hangzhou

[seesip]

Wondering if there's any direct flights, Air Asia is suggesting CNX-KL-Hangzhou which is pretty roundabout. Also would appreciate any background on Hangzhou... never been before and thinking of making a family trip.

[khwaibah]

China Eastern threw Kunming from CNX.

http://en.ceair.com/

[LawrenceChee]

Hangzhou is a beautiful Chinese city. Regarded by the chinese as one of the most green city ...the gardens and tea drinking culture there is amazing

As a city due to their long association with the city scholars of ancient times , people there are slower paced spot less in streets and helpful to tourists

Best to go in the months in spring or in October when the summer weather is gone ...the weather is nice and very Cooling

Try the famous hangzhou long jing tea ( dragon well tea) its a light green tea with a very nice taste

Lots of international hotel chains there surrounding the lakes and pagoda

Together with Suzhou which is a close 45 bullet train ride, these 3 cities are regarded in china as with the most greenery and beauty

Enjoy

[hellodolly]

Hangzhou is a beautiful Chinese city. Regarded by the chinese as one of the most green city ...the gardens and tea drinking culture there is amazing

As a city due to their long association with the city scholars of ancient times , people there are slower paced spot less in streets and helpful to tourists

Best to go in the months in spring or in October when the summer weather is gone ...the weather is nice and very Cooling

Try the famous hangzhou long jing tea ( dragon well tea) its a light green tea with a very nice taste

Lots of international hotel chains there surrounding the lakes and pagoda

Together with Suzhou which is a close 45 bullet train ride, these 3 cities are regarded in china as with the most greenery and beauty

Enjoy

Would I have any trouble there with my English and the wife's Thai. I would say my Thai but I have a sneaky hunch she is the only one who understands it.

[LawrenceChee]

All the chain hotels staff speak English at differing levels ( so if u have survived Thailand ) ...you won't be in trouble there

People there are gentle and really want to help so if u have a dose of patience ..everything is easy there

Plus the majority of the street signs and tourist stuff are in English

[hellodolly]

All the chain hotels staff speak English at differing levels ( so if u have survived Thailand ) ...you won't be in trouble there

People there are gentle and really want to help so if u have a dose of patience ..everything is easy there

Plus the majority of the street signs and tourist stuff are in English

Are there a lot of tea houses such as the coffee houses here in Chiang Mai or back in North America?

[masuk]

I've just done my 2nd trip to China via Guangzhou. Waiting around in BKK adds to the length and cost of the journey, and I could have been in Macau in half the time. It's 2 hours to Guangzhou by direct bus.

Maybe this will help, as I know Hangzhou is a train trip away.

My experience was that booking train trips from a hotel is far preferable to doing it at the station.

Watch the taxi drivers in Hangzhou. they have some tricky ways of extracting more than the basic fare.

[brommers]

Hangzhou is a beautiful Chinese city. Regarded by the chinese as one of the most green city ...the gardens and tea drinking culture there is amazing

As a city due to their long association with the city scholars of ancient times , people there are slower paced spot less in streets and helpful to tourists

Best to go in the months in spring or in October when the summer weather is gone ...the weather is nice and very Cooling

Try the famous hangzhou long jing tea ( dragon well tea) its a light green tea with a very nice taste

Lots of international hotel chains there surrounding the lakes and pagoda

Together with Suzhou which is a close 45 bullet train ride, these 3 cities are regarded in china as with the most greenery and beauty

Enjoy

I agree. Hangzhou combined with Suzhou & Shanghai by rail is a good plan. Each of these cities have unique charms. The best plan is to get a good guide book as well as a good guide or guides if you cannot get one who is permitted to do all three. The West lake & the tea plantation in Hangzhou are good as are temples & pagodas. Suzhou has temples again & also a fascinating place where they weave pictures from human hair - sounds gross but in fact is fascinating & unbelievably skillful. And Shanghai is amazing with the contrast of ancient and modern. The Bund is an essential place as is the Museum which has a truly wonderful series of exhibitions with each floor dedicated to a different art-form i.e ceramics, bronze, furniture, calligraphy etc.

So fly to Shanghai & start and end there. Still means going via BKK but it is the easiest as there are a number of flights per day.

I hope you have a good holiday. I would go back any time.

[Thailand]

Alternatively,fly to Macau,get domestic flight from there.

Or even more economical cross over to Shenzhen and fly from there, or take the train but a long journey.

Another great destination from here is to fly to Kunming and then on to Lijiang & Shangrila.

[L&J]

There have been articles in the news recently about the Chinese making visa procurement much more difficult.

Requiring coordination papers with a travel agency in China, hotel reservations and roundtrip ticketing. All this

is of course manageable but a niuisance. Not sure but it may preclude getting any kind of multi-entry visas

so you have to get a new one for multiple trips. Quite expensive particularly for USA citizens. Have no idea if the

Chinese Consulate here in CM is using this policy or not?

[LawrenceChee]

I was there every week from may to July and I would only comment china is open for business and it's not hard to get in at all

[Caibiao]

China Eastern threw Kunming from CNX.

http://en.ceair.com/

I also think this is a good choice.

China Eastern Air: CNX - KUNMING

KUNMING - HANGZHOU

Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Round trip can only cost about 400US$ recently.

The disadvantage:

CNX-KUNMING and KUNMING-CNX are all at evening, so KUNMING-HANGZHOU will be at the next day, you have to spend a night at KUNMING. But when you go back, you can flight back one day.

HANGZHOU is one of the most famous tour cities in China. Many upper posts said right things about traveling in HangZhou.

1. West lake, and some resorts aroud lake, both day and evening sights.

2. Tea, like upper posts said.

3. Silk clothes. You can go to the silk shopping street to buy.

4. HangZhou foods are also famous, some snack foods, especially HangZhou XiaoLongBao!

Travel near HangZhou:

Shanghai, the bigest city in China, can make you know much about China.

SuZhou, famous for its Chinese Garden.

Some small villages, famous for its water, ancient Chinese style water village.

HuangShan Mountain, one of the most famous mountain in China.

... ...

And English can work when you travel in cities like HangZhou in China. Many Chinese young men can speak English.

By the way, as I know, the China's visa fee to Americans is equal to the American's visa fee to Chinese,...

Hope you have a good time in China!

[seesip]

Thanks everyone for all this info. Most likely I'll try the CNX/Kunming/Hangzhou route by China Eastern. Has anyone tried the high speed train Hangzhou/Shanghai? If I'm in Hangzhou for 5 days, is it worth it to make the trip to Shanghai for one day/night?

[LawrenceChee]

The high speed train is fast and easy to get tickets (ask your hotel recep) and definitely worth a try

Going into shanghai for one night will be a bit tight on time unless u just want to do the Bund area and enjoy the nightlife and eateries there

Be away that the high speed trains stop at the south station which is about 1 hour away from the bind area suggest taking a taxi which is inexpensive to your hotel versus trying to figure out the metro subway unless u are only carrying a very light luggage