RURAL CHINA HELP PLEASE!

My boyfriend and I are looking for a place to go that we can kinda do the "world travler/backpacker" wanna be type thing. We arnt really looking for a tourist spot nor do we care if the place has anything relly major to see. We mostly want to do some "trecking" ie walkign or hiking around just kind of exploring the parts of China that not many get to see. We hope there is a place like this that is accessable by train and has some form of cheap hostel/hotel because our budget for this 4-6 day trip is not large. Could anyone give any suggestions on a place. I have been searching websites like travelchinaguide.com and lonelyplanet but its kinda hard to find a place like this without any knowledge of where you want to go. Thanks a TON!

My husband and I just went to Wutai Shan (Shanxi Province) and Hua Shan (Shaanxi Province, near Xian) in March. We would recommend both places for trecking.

Wutai Shan is one of the five sacred Buddhist mountains in China and has lots of monastries etc. It was so peaceful and beautiful (was snowing when we went, so very romantic).

Hua Shan is the most dangerous mountain in China and is not for the faint hearted... the scenery is spectacular but don't go if you're afraid of heights. If you go there, make sure you and your boyfriend buy a lock with your names engraved on it, and chain it to the chains on top of North Peak (it was on the Amazing Race). Do some google search on these two places.

send me an email and i will forward it to those people who can help you on this


thanks

wow. thank you helen, it sounds like a perfect place for the two of us. may i ask, was your trip to these places spendy?

Look at http://www.bikechina.com/index.php and see if this sounds like something you'd be interested in? http://www.bikechina.com/index.php

I know the town of Yangshuo has a reputation for being a bit touristy, but there is a decent hostel there, it's beautiful, rural, and there are plenty of trips you can take from there. Since you are in Shanghai, have you tried guidebooks or talking to Shanghai expats about where are great places within a reasonable distance of SH?

yeah i have but the only problem with that is that most of the expats here that i am in communication with are older with children or stable jobs so they are not so cost concerned so their suggestions for cheap places are slightly diffrent from what two broke college kids might think of as cheap :)

Yah, I get your point, and as rugged as the bikechina trips appear they also apppear pricey. I well remember trying to plan a trip to Thailand, and an expat recommended a great place at Koh Samui. When I looked at the web site it was absolutely stunningly beautiful, and also over 20,000 HKD per night! I find the lonely planet Thorntree bulletin boards are more oriented toward my budget. Or, can you look in a Lonely Planet guidebook for location suggestions then go from there? In general, overnight train on hard sleeper may be the cheapest way to get someplace(and fine if you're really traveling light), but sometimes flight discounts are significant if you are flexible to fly on off-days. (Check out http://www.elong.net ) From Shanghai, Putuoshan looks a bit interesting to me, and the water towns west of the city are also interesting but they're not "wilderness" by any means. Suzhou, 3 hrs west of SH by train, is designated as a world heritage cultural site because of its gardens, but it has about 6 M people. I think hua shan would be pretty expensive to get to and perhaps complicated. I don't think there's a train that runs right by it? You'd probably catch a train to Xi'an and then pay a minimum of 80 RMB per person for a bus ride to the mountain or 400 RMB total for a private car. The closest big, sacred mountain to Shanghai is probably Huang Shan? Huang Shan is still several hours by train, gorgeous, and would be quite an adventure. Check out maps and guide books.

well you are really helpful. I have been to Suzhou is was very lovely, def. a day trip though not much else to do for more than that. Went to Hangzhou twice once for a day and recently for 6 love that place and would like to return. Huangshan my Dad went to the same time i was at hangzhou and as much as I would love to go there and probibly will in late june, he said it was rather pricy just to do that activities around the mountain. But there are things there that i do plan on seeing so i will plan a short trip there. actually Wutai Shan was a suggestion to me that really made my ears perk. I am looking intensely into that one. I have also been to Lijiang which i wouldnt mind returning to, SOOOOO beautiful but very pricy and difficult to get to. but again, thank you for all your suggestions, i will look into all of them and that web site is very useful!