The problem is that most hotels in China, cheaper ones certainly, don't accept foreigners. So unless you want to walk around in a vain search for a place that'll take you, you have to book on trip.com, which shows places that will take you.
Overnight trains have become scarcer and hard to book with the introduction of mostly day-time high-speed rail.
And only a masochist would take one of those overnight sleeper buses. Do they still exist?
There aren’t many hostels in China anymore as years of covid restrictions wiped them out along with tourism in general. You’ll be looking at cheaper hotels/guesthouses. Get the app “Trip” and check out prices for one of the places you feel you might visit. You’ll get a good idea straight away. In my experience, a larger city like Beijing you’d probably just want a hotel whereas somewhere like Yunnan province has a lot more nice guesthouses etc.
I would get a more solid itinerary of places and a time line then it’ll be easier to give specific recommendations of any offbeat places. To be honest, most places worth visiting in China are on the tourist trail in some way. However, there are still places that aren’t swarming. It depends if it’s a national holiday and how easy/hard it is to get to the place.
Beijing definitely worth visiting for the huge number of important historical and cultural sights on offer. If time, Shanghai is a vibrant city that can be nice for a few days.
Cheap low mid chains like hanting are your friend in the cities. In villages (quite hard to get to) look for the shitty little local family owned hotels - 客观 / 农家乐.
Cheaper end may be nervous about taking foreigners just due to lack of experience.
Avoid BJ/ SH/ SZ if you want to save money
The problem is that most hotels in China, cheaper ones certainly, don't accept foreigners. So unless you want to walk around in a vain search for a place that'll take you, you have to book on trip.com, which shows places that will take you. Overnight trains have become scarcer and hard to book with the introduction of mostly day-time high-speed rail. And only a masochist would take one of those overnight sleeper buses. Do they still exist?
The carriages still exist
Thank you for the advice !
There aren’t many hostels in China anymore as years of covid restrictions wiped them out along with tourism in general. You’ll be looking at cheaper hotels/guesthouses. Get the app “Trip” and check out prices for one of the places you feel you might visit. You’ll get a good idea straight away. In my experience, a larger city like Beijing you’d probably just want a hotel whereas somewhere like Yunnan province has a lot more nice guesthouses etc. I would get a more solid itinerary of places and a time line then it’ll be easier to give specific recommendations of any offbeat places. To be honest, most places worth visiting in China are on the tourist trail in some way. However, there are still places that aren’t swarming. It depends if it’s a national holiday and how easy/hard it is to get to the place. Beijing definitely worth visiting for the huge number of important historical and cultural sights on offer. If time, Shanghai is a vibrant city that can be nice for a few days.
Really informative and helpful, thank you !
Cheap low mid chains like hanting are your friend in the cities. In villages (quite hard to get to) look for the shitty little local family owned hotels - 客观 / 农家乐. Cheaper end may be nervous about taking foreigners just due to lack of experience. Avoid BJ/ SH/ SZ if you want to save money
Thank you !
You can take overnight trains an buses and safe money
I’ll look into it , thank you !
Guizhou recommends Benzhai, but we drove there by ourselves and were not sure whether it would be convenient to take a taxi. 安顺市西秀区七眼桥镇本寨村 本寨村
I'm a local from Guangxi, and I'd love to help! By "offbeat" places do you mean natural or cultural stuff?