China Itinerary advice - 2wks

Thinking of a 2 week trip to China in Beijing, Xian and Guilin. Would fly in and out of beijing and probably do internal flightsbetween cities, possibly one train instead of a flight?

What are your recommended amounts of time in each place?

Is it easy for vegetarians to get food (not strict veggies but no meat at all)? Are there pizza type restaurants in these places? Love chinese veggie food but not sure about 2 weeks worth! Sorry to ask this!

Is end of Oct early Nov a good time to visit?

Thanks for any help.

China Itinerary advice - 2wks

You could do something like

6 days in Beijing

Overnight train

2-3 in Xi%26#39;an

1 day for travel

5 in Guilin, Yangshuo and in the countryside.

You could add time in Xi%26#39;an and climb Huashan.

You can get vegetarian food, but there are challenges. Chinese food uses lots of vegetables, but also often flavors them with small bits of meat and seafood. Vegetable and tofu dishes may come with bits of meat, tiny shrimp, etc. A big surprise for Westerners in China is that tofu is often served with meat.

People may take %26#39;no meat%26#39; to mean %26#39;no pork%26#39;, so you might get other meats or seafood.

Otherwise vegetarian dishes might sometimes be cooked in lard.

If you are willing to eat around meat and risk some animal broth, juices or fats it%26#39;s pretty easy. It%26#39;s much harder if you want to steer clear of that. Obviously, vegetarian restaurants are a good choice, but you do have to plan ahead so you can find those.

As for non-Chinese vegetarian foods, Beijing has lots of options, from pizza to Indian.

There are less places in the other cities, but you can almost always find pizza, and the big hotel restaurants are an option if you can%26#39;t find anything else suitable.

China Itinerary advice - 2wks

Beijing (5 days) -- overnight train -- Xi%26#39;an (3 days) -- flight -- Guilin/Yangshuo (5 days) -- flight -- Beijing. That%26#39;s assuming if you only want to visit these 3 places and nothing else.

I have a printable JPG file with Chinese characters detailing what vegetarians cannot eat. If you think that would be of use to you, email me at ellyse99@yahoo.com and put ';TripAdvisor'; and your own username (eg mrspink) in the subject line.

There are some absolutely world class vegetarian restaurants in Beijing. Check with your hotel concierge and on line before you go. One is a few blocks south of Lama Temple. Another is a buffet across the street from the Confucius Temple. (Not world class but good and cheap nontheless.) Several more are inside the Second Ring Road. I found the quality and quantity of vegetarian restaurants the best in Beijing, so pass on the pizzas in Beijing. A Buddhist-style veggies place a bit west of the Forbidden City was great.

Elsewhere, stick to stir fried vegetable dishes. There is a common dish of red peppers and tofu that is fairly good. A big western breakfast is a good time to pack in the protein with dairy and grains. Restaurants associated with Buddhist Temples are a good bet too. You should have no problem finding cheese pizzas, but the cholesterol will kill you night after night!

I agree with the above comments. Also, I find vegetarian dumplings (jiaozi and baozi) to be a very reliable choice.

One issue I%26#39;ve had when taking people to vegetarian restaurants was that they objected to all of the mock-meat dishes.

You might want to steer clear of those when you order, or you can just accept that that is part of the Chinese vegetarian tradition and give them a try. I understand that Western vegetarians are not trying to pretend to be eating meat, but the Chinese Buddhists apparently were, and the mock-meat vary from not being like meat at all to being pretty amazing facsimiles.

For example, the mock shrimp I%26#39;ve had are an utter failure as shrimp, but fairly tasty nonetheless. In any case, I think it can be interesting experience if approached with an open mind.

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