Great wall of China, from Hong Kong -how?

"Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote in message
...
I'll be visiting Hong Kong, and I was wondering about taking a short
trip over to mainland China, mainly only to see (and walk a bit around)
the great wall of China.

If I don't have money to burn, how do I get there (and back), and is it
a short or long trip? In case it'll take more than a day's trip, are
there cheap backpacker places there where I could stay the night?


Hallvard

Well be prepared for a rather long walk. If you are wanting to see the Great
Wall while you're in Hong Kong then you're in the wrong place. You need to
at least get to Beijing.


--
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"Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote in message
...
JMS wrote:

"Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote in message
...

Hehe... not exactly what I meant though..... and yes, I'm sure actually
walking from Hong Kong to the great wall would be some journey!

I was more thinking along how to easiest/cheapest/quickest get to see
the wall, with my trip going to Hong Kong, which others have already
answered in this thread now.
Seems I have to figure out how much it'll cost me to go to Beijing.
Anyone taken this trip and have some rough estimate?

When looking for the price of flights from Hong Kong to Beijing, its always
a good idea to compare with the price for the flights from Shenzhen to
Beijing. Travelling from Shenzhen (just across the border from Hong Kong)
might add an hour or so to the journey, but can work out cheaper.

Martin

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:33:26 GMT, (Hallvard
Tangeraas) wrote:

JMS wrote:

"Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote in message
...
I'll be visiting Hong Kong, and I was wondering about taking a short
trip over to mainland China, mainly only to see (and walk a bit around)
the great wall of China.

If I don't have money to burn, how do I get there (and back), and is it
a short or long trip? In case it'll take more than a day's trip, are
there cheap backpacker places there where I could stay the night?

Well be prepared for a rather long walk. If you are wanting to see the Great
Wall while you're in Hong Kong then you're in the wrong place. You need to
at least get to Beijing.

Hehe... not exactly what I meant though..... and yes, I'm sure actually
walking from Hong Kong to the great wall would be some journey!

I was more thinking along how to easiest/cheapest/quickest get to see
the wall, with my trip going to Hong Kong, which others have already
answered in this thread now.
Seems I have to figure out how much it'll cost me to go to Beijing.
Anyone taken this trip and have some rough estimate?

Are there OK places to stay cheap overnight in Beijing?


I just came back from Beijing and stayed a few days he

http://reservations.bookhostels.com/...telNumber=1024

It was 50 RMB per night for dorm rooms (sharing with up to 7 others in
bunks. The rooms are clean, the place is safe and the guys running it
are decent. Was a good bunch of people staying when I was there too.
They run a daily trip to the wall at Simatai which costs 90 RMB, also
if you are up to it, they do a similar day trip to Jinshanling from
where you can do the 10k hike along the wall to Simatai (exhausting
but not too commercialised and views are fantastic).

Can possibly get smaller room to yourself if you want, but might have
to book in advance.






--
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One day there will be a real fire and we'll need them
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you can turn to the university students for help.
http://www.ruc.edu.cn
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/home.shtml
"Hallvard Tangeraas" дÈëÓʼþ
. ..
Captain Flack wrote:

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:33:26 GMT, (Hallvard
Tangeraas) wrote:

JMS wrote:

"Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote in message
...
I'll be visiting Hong Kong, and I was wondering about taking a
short
trip over to mainland China, mainly only to see (and walk a bit
around)
the great wall of China.

Are there OK places to stay cheap overnight in Beijing?


I just came back from Beijing and stayed a few days he


http://reservations.bookhostels.com/...telNumber=1024

It was 50 RMB per night for dorm rooms (sharing with up to 7 others in
bunks. The rooms are clean, the place is safe and the guys running it
are decent.

Had a look at it and seems exactly what I'm looking for!
Good price, safe, easy to get to, clean and not in the middle of
nowhere.

I had a look at the above web page, but understand that this is some
sort of common reservation gateway for many hostels. I didn't find any
direct link to the hostel itself though, and I feel a bit uneasy about
just booking like this and paying with my credit card to something I've
never heard about. Did you nook in advance? Is it really necessary?
If there's a phone number (or email address) to the hostel I could
contact them from Hong Kong if the rooms fill up easily.

And by the way, was it hard to find from where you arrived? It says it's
just 600 metres from the railway station, but it would be nice with a
printout of the address in Chinese so I could ask people for directions.



Was a good bunch of people staying when I was there too.
They run a daily trip to the wall at Simatai which costs 90 RMB, also
if you are up to it, they do a similar day trip to Jinshanling from
where you can do the 10k hike along the wall to Simatai (exhausting
but not too commercialised and views are fantastic).

Sounds perfect! As long as the walk isn't a small marathon and there are
plenty of stops along the way I think this would be great.
How many days do you think I'd need in Beijing before returning to Hong
Kong? Remember, my initial trip is going to Australia/New Zealand and
Japan, so all these other places are "extras" which I get for "free"
because of my round-the-world ticket, so I'll be prioritizing those 3
countries mentioned.
Still, I want to "taste" as much as possible of those other places as
well.

Did you travel to Beijing from Hong Kong and back? If so, how did you
get there? Bus? Train? Plane?


Can possibly get smaller room to yourself if you want, but might have
to book in advance.

But dorms are easier to get without pre-booking?
If this place is full, are there many other cheap backpacker places to
find in the same area?


Hallvard
--
Atari Launchpad : http://launchpad.atari.org
Notator/Creator SL : http://www.notator.org

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 11:13:49 GMT, (Hallvard
Tangeraas) wrote:

Captain Flack wrote:

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:33:26 GMT, (Hallvard
Tangeraas) wrote:

JMS wrote:

"Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote in message
...
I'll be visiting Hong Kong, and I was wondering about taking a short
trip over to mainland China, mainly only to see (and walk a bit around)
the great wall of China.

Are there OK places to stay cheap overnight in Beijing?


I just came back from Beijing and stayed a few days he

http://reservations.bookhostels.com/...telNumber=1024

It was 50 RMB per night for dorm rooms (sharing with up to 7 others in
bunks. The rooms are clean, the place is safe and the guys running it
are decent.

Had a look at it and seems exactly what I'm looking for!
Good price, safe, easy to get to, clean and not in the middle of
nowhere.

I had a look at the above web page, but understand that this is some
sort of common reservation gateway for many hostels. I didn't find any
direct link to the hostel itself though, and I feel a bit uneasy about
just booking like this and paying with my credit card to something I've
never heard about. Did you nook in advance? Is it really necessary?
If there's a phone number (or email address) to the hostel I could
contact them from Hong Kong if the rooms fill up easily.

And by the way, was it hard to find from where you arrived? It says it's
just 600 metres from the railway station, but it would be nice with a
printout of the address in Chinese so I could ask people for directions.

I reserved the first three days online. It worked fine. I turned up
and paid the balance in RMB for each night I stayed. You could just
turn up and get lucky, but if not, this works fine. I can vouch for
the web site and the hostel being trustworthy.

It is not hard to find the place. If you get to the International
Hotel (Guo Ji Fan Dian) which is the last stop of the airport bus, go
into their front foyer and they have a tourist info desk. Those guys
are really helpful, they'll give you a map and directions even if you
don't speak any Chinese. Basically, you follow the main road that runs
north from the International Hotel. Make sure you're on the left hand
side of the street. Look down each of the left hand alleys, one of
them has a banner across the alley (in Chinese) - if you look down
this alley there is the hostel, just on the right hand side about 20
metres down.


--
Support Trumpton's Striking Firemen
One day there will be a real fire and we'll need them
www.toonhound.com/trumpton-2.jpg

captain(underscore)flack(squirlything)hotmail(you know what)com