My wife and I are planning a China trip around May 20th for a couple of weeks. Our primary interests include seeing some of the sites (Great Wall etc..), eating the awesome food and lots of shopping (clothing and such primarily). We were thinking of flying in to Beijing, spending a few days there and then taking the Z train to Shanghai (see this for an excellent review:
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archive...o_shanghai.htm) and spending the rest of our time there.
Since neither of us speaks any Mandarin (aside from like 3-4 basic sentences max), we were considering going on a tour (though we NEVER do that anywhere, we're worried the language barrier may be too great). Any suggestions on good tour companies? Alternatively, can we simply hire a local to take us around for a couple of days? Maybe a University student who wants to earn a few extra bucks? What do you guys think?
Also - considering our interests, do you think Beijing and Shanghai are the right places to go? Any suggestions on better places to spend our time?
Any other piece of advice would be greatly appreciated (like best restaurants, good outdoor shopping markets if available, best areas of town/hotels to stay at etc...)
We aren't on a student budget, but we aren't looking to leave our savings behind either. Think dinners at max $50 USD/person, hotels around $100 USD/night etc..
Thanks in advance for any tips!