Any ideas on an itinerary from Hanoi to Beijing?

Hi,

This is a really useful site - well done, and thanks!

Anyway, I'm planning on flying to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam in about a month in order to travel up to Beijin to get the trans-mongolian home. I know Vietnam's geography makes any itinerary fairly simple, however from Hanoi to Beijing I don't really have a clue.

I've spent a short time in southern China before, and didn't have the best of times because I did literally no planning (I didn't even have a guide book!), so I'm not going to make the same mistake again. I have about 3 weeks to a month, and I'd like to get a boat up the Yangtze to the three gorges damn, but other than that, I have no real plans. So fire away! Where would you guys go?

Rich

You can catch a train from the veitnamese border to either Kunming (from Lao Cai) or Nanning (from Dan Dong). I'd say the Kunming direction is more fun. Then you can either hang for a bit or make your way up to Chongqing and get a boat on the Yangtze there.

Hi, thanks for the ideas. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go through Nanning again, as I did that last time and hated the place, so Kunming is a definite possibility.

If anyone has any other ideas on decent cities/other places to visit between Hanoi and Beijing then please give me a shout!

In this case, I'd say go via Kunming. It is definitely one of the better cities I've been in China. Yunnan is pretty cool overall as well, you can spend some time there maybe.