Vacation+spots

Vacations
Vacations and travel are some of the best parts about living overseas. Shanghai is reasonably located near many great destinations.

During week-long holidays in the past, people have traveled to these spots **outside of China**:
 * [|Thailand]
 * Singapore
 * Australia
 * Malaysia
 * Borneo
 * [|Vietnam]
 * [|Hong Kong]
 * Guam
 * Egypt
 * [|Saipan]
 * [|The Maldives]
 * Cambodia
 * Japan
 * Finland
 * The Netherlands

Quick Weekend Get-Aways **near Shanghai** (You can rent a driver and a van, or you can take the train!):
 * Anji (For the Bamboo Forest and Bambook Museum)
 * Hangzhou (For West Lake, the tea plantations, hikes, and pagodas)
 * Suzhou (For the gardens, pagodas, and the silk factory)
 * Nanjing (For the museums...)
 * Harbin ([|For the snow and ice festival] )

Other spots **in China** for great vacations:
 * Sanya (on southern Hainan Island)
 * Beijing
 * Xi'an (history and Chinese Muslim culture)
 * Xinjiang Province - The Silk Road
 * Guilin and Yangshuo (biking, rock climbing, kayaking)

For information on travel locations within China, some have found the following site helpful: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/

Sherry Sun - [|insightsun@gmail.com] Liz Shen - liz_shen_tptour@msn.com
 * Travel Agents** who can help you book vacations in China:

Be sure to double/triple-check the spelling of your name on all air tickets. I was enroute to the airport once when I saw that my travel agent had misspelled my last name. I rerouted to the Air China main ticketing office -- about an hour and two subsequent erroneous tickets later, I left with an adequate ticket. I missed my initial flight; fortunately I was able to catch the next flight out that day.

I've had good luck using the following on-line sites to purchase airline tickets. They also give hotel options -- I've just never used them for hotels. You can pay on-line, although - by my last check - they didn't accept the Bank of Communications bank cards we have through Concordia (although this is one of China's biggest banks). I also saw that you can use an international credit card, but they - like many travel agents locally - tack on an additional 3 to 4 percent. I have found it very convenient to have them deliver the tickets, usually for a very small delivery fee. You can pick the time window during which you can accept delivery, and it's worked like a charm every time.
 * Purchasing China Domestic Air Tickets/Hotels On-Line**

[|Elong.net] This is Expedia's China site. When you type in expedia.com, you're given a choice to either continue to Expedia or go to Elong. [|Ctrip] [|Ticket.9588.com]