Places to go, people to see

Being an only child, the thought of me traveling by myself halfway around the world to a foreign country of which I am not yet fluent in the language was not a pleasant one for my parents. There were worries surrounding communication, safety, and general survival during my trip. But they always support me in all that I do and this time was no different. I promised to call once a day to check in, and to send them a detailed itinerary with where I'll be traveling.

I'm not usually the 'planning' type, and instead prefer the spontaneity of last-minute get-aways and snap decisions. However, planning ahead in this case was probably not a bad idea. I'm sure I'll have enough to deal with without wondering where I'm going to sleep each night, or trying to figure out which train goes to Guilin. So, for the sake of efficient travel, and the sanity of my parents, I drafted an itinerary (click image for enlarged view):

There you have it! The only thing I haven't pre-booked is the weekend trip I want to take to Xi'an during my month in Beijing. I'll figure that out when I get there, but trains leave several times a day, so it shouldn't be too difficult. A few things I learned while planning this trip:

• You can't see it all--I learned this lesson early on in the planning process. I really wanted to make it Zhangjiajie and Shanghai, but there simply wasn't time to fit it in. Maybe on the next trip!
• Trains vs. Planes--The train network in China is quite extensive from my research, but trains take time. The cool thing is that domestic flights throughout China are relatively cheap, especially if you purchase tickets in advance. I used flights strategically to save travel time and spend more hours in my destination. For example, the train from Shenzhen to Guilin takes over 13 hours! The flight, however, is just over an hour and was only $55. Totally worth it!              (For in-country flights, use Ctrip: http://english.ctrip.com)
• Read Reviews--Best case scenario, I would get to inspect hotel rooms before buying. But, I traded in this opportunity for the ability to pre-book. Because of this, I read reviews on every hotel/hostel booked, and checked a couple booking sites to make sure the good reviews were somewhat consistent. For hotel bookings, I recommend Agoda (http://www.agoda.com) and Booking (http://www.booking.com)

More pre-departure info to come!

再见

Sara