Have done some more trip research.

[camwyn]

http://www.statravel.com has some wonderful student fares - $790 or so from Newark to Beijing, then back from HK - but you have to have a valid student ID card, and by the time I have enough money for plane fare, I will no longer be a student. And even if I were, the site seems to indicate that 'student' means 'full time', not 'taking night classes' - so it wouldn't be worth signing up at CCM for another semester. (Well, no. I might go for a class at CCM anyway. They have introductory Mandarin - but still.)

http://www.djoserusa.com has a nice package for people who want to see exotic bits of China and Tibet - something like 22 days for $2400. Problem 1: not the parts of China I'm most interested in right now. Problem 2: $2400. Tibet is lovely, exotic, rare, etc., but frankly I would rather see stuff in Beijing and maybe Xi'an, plus my penpals.

http://www.ritztours.com will happily let you combine individual city packages, which are something like 3 days for $320, but EACH package has a single supplement of $120 and they don't do Wuhan anyway. Plus you have to pay for domestic air fare/train. I am NOT taking any trip that requires me to cough up $120+ just because I don't have anyone with me.

I've looked at some other spots. They have lovely, gorgeous, exotic locales available all over the place, but they keep coming back to points that aren't important to me - points like 'five star hotels' and 'fine restaurants' and so on. I don't want luxury. You know what a five star hotel is, to me? One where you get Toon Disney and Animal Planet on the cable tv, where Outback Steakhouse delivers to the front desk, and where there's a weight room or swimming pool. I'll get some itineraries from the tour companies, but I'm not going with 'em if I can avoid it. Hostels, train fare, and a separate plane ticket all the way, thanks very much.

Comments

Avoid them.

[mtr1966.livejournal.com]

Avoid tour packages. They're for the people who want "safe" and "non-challenging" journeys so they can say they've been to China, but who will not have actually experienced anything Chinese beyond the blatant corruption of their tour guides (although most of them will be blithely unaware of how badly they got fleeced by their guides). Do it yourself and trust to Providence. It's the only way to go here.

No problem.

[camwyn]

I'm looking at 'em to get an idea of how much they cost and how much I should be spending - also to steal any good itinerary ideas I may spot. And to show my parents, who after all are paying for part of this trip, that I know what I'm doing. I wouldn't worry about it if they weren't financially involved. As it stands, Hostels International had some tours listed on their Focus on China page, so I've basically mentioned that fact to my folks and indicated a preference for staying at the hostels. I'm only really interested in HI's day trip to the Great Wall and possibly borrowing the use of a guide in Beijing if my Frommer's book doesn't work out. I doubt that'll be the case, though, I've gone through the Beijing section with a yellow highlighter and picked out the items I'm interested in, and next on my shopping list is a copy of Cityguide Bejing - either theirs or Lonely Planet.

Right now the itinerary basically stands at 'Beijing 3-4 days, overnight train to Xi'an, 1-2 days Xi'an, find train to Wuhan, visit Wu Jiangang (the penpal) there, see Chibi, get on train to HK or to city that will let me get on train to HK'. Screw the tour agencies.