Today, I am trying to help Sally about his/her Beijing & Shanghai trip. Here is the letter: (Again, for my readers who haven’t read my privacy policy, I reserve the right to publish any email you send to my email address (hotmail one) unless you instruct me not to do it. Also, when I publish any email, I will NOT include email address, unless otherwise noted in your email).

Dear Mr. Wang,

Wishing you and your family a Happy & Blessed 2008!

We have read your Blog and we enjoyed and appreciate the information/life stories you had posted. In particular, we are impressed by the information you shared on the Z5 TRain from Beijing – Shanghai as we are planning to make a trip to China in early March 2008. Hence, we would appreciate your advice on the followings:

• Weather in Beijing & Shanghai in early March
  What are the clothing we should bring – thick winter clothing or just few sweaters? We are traveling with a child of 6 years. Is thermal wear for kids necessary?

Generally speaking, Shanghai is still pretty cold in March. Although Spring is coming, it may still be like winter. This year, for example, we are expecting freezing weather at the end of Feb, and even snow. This year in Shanghai is particularly cold. So, definitely bring your sweater, and other cloths to keep you and your family warm. Beijing is even colder than Shanghai, since it is 1000 km north of Shanghai. Hope the Weather section of my blog gives you more detailed, and more personalized feeling about what the weather looks like during March (especially the Spring section).

• Hotel in Beijing & Shanghai
  We are considering staying at Harmony Hotel in Beijing (Suzhou Hutong) and Holiday Inn Downtown in Shanghai – could you advise if these are good choices (considering that we would like to go locals as much as we can i.e. taking MRT, buses instead of joining local tours)

I don’t know about Harmony Hotel in Beijing, but I know Holiday Inn is pretty good. Not sure which one though. The one near railway station is not that good, since it is very crowded nearby. The one in Xujiahui is much better.

• Places of interest/Shopping
  Could you please help us to list where are the places of interest for us to visit?
  Shopping – is there a wholesale centre where we can get things are good prices for children’s summer clothings and accessories?

For attractions in Shanghai, I have about 100 articles in the attraction section. I am not an expert in Beijing (and don’t want to pretend to be).

• Z5 Train versus Bullet Trains
  We are impressed with the article on the Z5 train from Beijing – Shanghai. But we have been told about a bullet train. Do you have any idea on the pricing/schedule etc. Do you think a 6-year old child would enjoy the train experience? We would certainly appreciate and grateful for any other relevant information that you could provide so that we can better plan our holidays and have a memorable trip this March.

  Thank you in advance for your time and efforts.

  Sincerely

  Sally Teo Singapore

I would suggest you to take the bullet train – it is newer, faster, and takes less time. However, as a traveler, Z5 is still attractive since it travels at night (leaving Beijing at night and arrives in Shanghai in the morning) while the D (Bullet) train travels at day time (10 AM to 9 PM). Choosing the Z5 train also means you save both time and one night cost of hotel. I believe your kid will enjoy the train, although 10 hour trip may be too long or boring for any kid. For the other information, if you want to invest the time, there are 2000 articles on this blog about this topic, and you can use the navigation menu to walk around in this blog.

P.S. I would appreciate questions that are new and never covered, and would appreciate questions that are specific. To be honest with you, a big portion of emails I got is basically one question: give me some suggestions about my trip to Shanghai. I am willing to help but I guess the 2000 articles help more than an email response.