Travel
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
One week in China...more unusual places?
I'm in the midst of planning a second major trip to Asia this summer. I'm doing a study tour for 2 weeks in Shanghai and have already been to Beijing...I'd like to go somewhere less touristy for my last week. Any suggestions?
Re: One week in China...more unusual places?
Less touristy or less internationally touristy? In a country with a billion people, most places worth visiting are filled with local tourists! (And you'll have a tough time finding cool undiscovered places without local help. I did visit a fantastic Sino-French winery and a charming rural village in the middle of nowhere, but both were thanks to local guides.)
If you're based in Shanghai, have you been to any of the water towns? That was my top must-see when I lived in China, and it didn't disappoint. I skipped Tongli and ZhuJiaJiao because I'd heard they were the most touristy. We ended up going to Wuzhen instead, which was definitely touristy, but we only saw a dozen westerners the whole day. (You can easily do this as a daytrip from Shanghai. There are buses to many of the water towns from Shanghai Stadium.)
I assume you've been to Xian? It's definitely touristy, but it's worth braving the crowds. The terra cotta soldiers and horses are pretty spectacular, and if you've never climbed any of the sacred mountains, Hua-shan is quite convenient. Xian also has a few worthwhile sights of its own (the drum and bell towers, the muslim quarter, the city walls...) as well as some others in the surrounding area (Wild Goose Pagoda, Huaqing Palace...).
Otherwise, my top recommendation would be Guilin and Yangshuo. The scenery is beautiful (this was my XH's top must-see, and again it didn't disappoint) and the caves are fun to explore. Floating down the Yulong River on a bamboo raft is an incredible experience, and the area around Yangshuo is fun to explore by rented cycle.
Inner Mongolia is a bit more off-the-beaten path, but it can be hard to experience without a group or guide, since the attraction is the wide open grasslands and yurt camps that are a bit far from the big city.
I've never been to Sichuan, Xinjiang, or Yunnan, but I've always wanted to go. And if it was winter, I would tell you to go to Harbin for the unbelievable ice festival!
St. John, USVI
How little? If you can get by on a daily basis (order food, direct a taxi, etc) you could probably survive if you stuck to the most touristy areas, although I found it to be very difficult at times. Can you read some?
Yes, I can read a bit...and hopefully with wifi I could get by with some translation programs in desperate moments.
Did either of you do Tiger Leaping Gorge? And/or Dali? I'd love to hear about your experiences there...
St. John, USVI
Yes, we went to Kunming, Dali, Tiger Leaping Gorge. Kunming was a great city, but we mainly used it as a fly-in city for our trip so we were not there long. Dali was very cute, and pretty touristy. But we were able to leave the city and did some rock climbing and hiking. Then we were off to Lijiang before Tiger Leaping Gorge. TLG is a must do! It was breathtakingly gorgeous. There are hostels on the trail and they do have menus in English so you can at least point if they cannot speak. And in such remote areas, they still have internet too!
Anyway, if you want more info, PM me. Just let me know so I will just my PMs!!