Avoid visit China during 1st
-7th of October, Chinese people call it Golden Week. Every people have
one week holiday. It's very crowded, and the price of hotel is higher.
If you wish to travel to
China on cheap, then both August and September will be the choice. But
they are also different. August is the hottest month in China
everywhere. The tempreture at daytime will be 36 to 38 C. Besides, it's
the vacation period for all schools in China, so you have many local
tourists everywhere. September is better than August, but prices of
hotels and flights may rise a little bit around 5% average.
There are many interesting
places in China to visit. For 2 weeks you can visit
Beijing/Xian/Guilin/Shanghai/Hangzhou/Suzhou or
Canton/Kunmin/Lijiang/Guilin/Xian/Beijing/Shanghai...etc.
From Hong Kong, you can enter Shenzhen through custom. Now you are in mainland China. From
there, you can start your independent tour. Overnight train are the
best choice, you can save money( You stay in the train instead of
hotel). Two star hotel with bathroom and air conditioning is nice and
clean. the cost is about $20-$30 per room.You can go to Beijing or Xian
as you like, I suggest you can view the scenery photos from
chinatourmap.com, there are lot of nice pictures of China, then you can
decided where you are heading.
Hard sleepers are fine,
especially if it is only 15 hours. however you will not have much
privacy so keep your valuable items close. two things to note: it seems
that on many trains, only "soft sleeper" sections have access to the
food car, so bring your own snacks. second, the bathroom facilities are
a little nicer in the soft sleeper section. but hard sleepers are
comfortable enough. if you can, ask for the lower beds, which are more
convenient (lower bed = xia chuang)