Traveling to China

Hello everyone.
I am making a trip through south east asia and would like to make it up to China for a Month. My idea is to cross in northern vietnam and start making my way towards Tibet, the end goal is to get to base camp. I will have aout 30 days in China and am just wondering is this is a realistic goal. Does anyone have any suggestions or any insight as to what my best plan is? Any help would be great.
Thanks
Cheers Jamie

hi.
Sory what's 'base camp'?

If you wanna start your journey in CHina from Tibet,
you can then go down to Yunnan, then GuongZhou, maybe Hong Kong as the final destination!?
Or...if you fancy Shanghai, Beijing more, maybe you could take a train from Yunnan to get there too.
YUnan - Shanghai - Beijing.

I strongly recommended Yunnan as a must see place, if you've planned to go to Tibet* Shangari-la...is definitely a heaven!

Hope u'd come up with something great!

Carrie

I've heard about Everest Base Camp.
Don't know exactly what it is. can someone illustrate me?
I'm planning to go april 2007 to hong Kong, guangzhou, beijing (great wall) and i'm very interested in finishing with some everest adventure or some transiberian rail trip. Right now know nothing about it but im looking for info that could help.

thanks

javierapx

this site has some info on getting to tibet, from within china.

Hi Jamie,
First you should make it clear that where you would like to start to reach Everest Base Camp. From Tibet China, you can. From Nepal, you also. Tibe is in the north of Himalayas. And Nepal is in the south of Himalayas. Because of the weather and the high altitude, in Tibet, you only can rent the car to reach base camp (of course you also need to walk, the car wont take you right there). The round trip is around 4 days. And in Nepal, this is a really trekking itinerary - you walk to base camp, around 15 ~ 18 days. In general, most travellers will start from Lukal, 2850M. Then en route will pass some villages, some over 6000m ice mountaions. And then reach everest base camp.

Yes, if you have 30 days in China, you will have enough time to reach everest base camp. But firstly make sure you can get to Tibet. You know, for foreigners to Tibet, there is special entrance permit needed. And you should have at least 2 people to go together. Once you reach Tibet, Mt. Everest is a must-visit spot. Good luck!

I don't know where you want to visit in China and plan. So, i can't say if it is the best. You can tell me the places you want to visit, i think i can help you to work out your best plan.

Happy travelling!

[ Edit: Edited at Jun 22, 2006 8:09 AM by greensquar ]

Thanks for the posts everyone. they have been a great help in tring to plan this trip. I will be crossing in to China from Vietnam and going to Nanning. From there i will be catching the train to Kuming in Yunnan. This is where i have some questions. After reading up on Tibet and how to enter and it seems most people fly into Lhasa. So i am thinking instead of going to Chengdu and making my way towards Tibet i may as well fly and save some time. And spend some time in Lhasa getting used to the altitude. What would you suggest? But ya i am traveling with my brother so that shouldn't be a problem. I was also wondering with the Tibetan "Visa" and the other permits i will need to visit Shigatse, Sakya and then Everest base camp. Do i need to get a permit to visit all of these town individually or does it work all together differently? As for the walking part, i am expecting to walk. Totally up for that. Thanks for the reply. You Rock.
Cheers jamie

Yes, the first part of your plan is quite good - from Vietnam then to Guangxi Province. And then go to Yunan Province by train.

But refer to the part - to Tibet, i would like to suggest you as below:
You can spend so many days in Yunan. Li Jiang, Da Li, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lu Gu Lake, etc. - I think you already get enough info about Yunan in LP China guide book. But don't forget Shangrila - Zhong Dian & De Qin!! There you can see more charming sceneries and rural tibetan life. Temple, Mei Li ice mountain, Nu River district... So, in Li Jiang (or in Zhong Dian), you can find some fellow travellers in Guest House to rent a car together(for 4 or 5 persons and the price per day is around RMB1000~1100, don't pay more remember) to enter Tibet. You can visit De Qin district en route. And because the spots of Tibet are seprated. A car can make your trip more convenient. And from Zhong Dian to Tibet by car also make you have a good acclimation to high altitude because you reach high elevation step by step.

And you can also ask how to get the 'visa' in Li Jiang. I suppose there are some agents to help foreigners to get it. And you must ask them to write down the towns you mentioned above on your permission. We chinese don't need special visa to Tibet. But we also need to ask the government office to issue the permission to some specific places. (I can ask my friend how to get the permission. He is an Aussie and just went to Tibet last month. Will keep you posted.)

Btw, from Zhong Dian to Tibet is one of the most famous itineraries to enter Tibet among local chinese backpackers. So, try it and you won't regret!

Any questions, feel free to contact me. I must go back to watch World Cup. Lukas Podolski already shot twice tonight. Klose really passed well! I am the fan of Klose and still hope he can play hat-trick tonight!!

[ Edit: Edited at Jun 24, 2006 8:40 AM by greensquar ]