China Travel Advice

Q: I had bought a return ticket to Hangzhou to go to Yiwu for 5 days, specifically for a business trip..but suddenly i need to go to Guangzhou and Shenzen within the 5 days..can u advise me how should i plan my trip(using bus,train & flight) so that I will not be missing my flight at Hangzhou.i hope u can also state the estimated cost so that i can plan in advance.

There are direct flights between Guangzhou and Yiwu. Suppose you have not made firm trip plans, you can enter China through Guangzhou. You arrive in Guangzhou,do whatever you need to do over there; you then fly from Guangzhou to Yiwu to take care of your business; once you're done in Yiwu, you fly back to Guangzhou to go home.

If you cannot change your existing itinerary and have to land in Hangzhou, you can either fly from Hangzhou or Yiwu to Guangzhou. For example, you can book a round trip tickets between Hangzhou and Guangzhou. As soon as you arrive in Hangzhou, you fly to Guangzhou. You then fly back to Hangzhou to make your trip to Yiwu. You can, of course, also make your Guangzhou trip from Hangzhou after you have visited Yiwu. If it does not make a difference whether you visit Guangzhou before or after your trip to Yiwu, you may want to visit Guangzhou first as Yiwu is close to Hangzhou, which makes it less likely for you to miss your flight from Hangzhou back home.

As indicated above, you can also fly from Yiwu to Guangzhou. China Southern Airlines operates daily flights from Yiwu to Guangzhou. There seem to be four flights departing from Yiwu to go to Guangzhou, from noon time to 10:00 pm.

If you book your tickets right, it should be slightly cheaper to fly from Hangzhou to Guangzhou than to fly from Yiwu to Guangzhou. One-way ticket from Hangzhou to Guangzhou costs anywhere from ¥400 to ¥600. One-way plane fare from Yiwu to Guangzhou is in the range of ¥550-700; round trip flights double the cost. There are also many more flights between Hangzhou and Guangzhou than between Yiwu and Guangzhou, operated by a number of airlines (China Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Shanghai Airline...). Flight time is about two hours.

If you travel by train between Hangzhou and Guangzhou, the travel time for the fastest train is 15 hours or so. This does not seem to be practical for you since you have only 5 days in China, not to mention you may not be able to get your train tickets in a timely fashion. A sleeping berth train ticket costs about ¥300 one way, so it is not much cheaper than a plane ticket either.

You may be able to catch a long distance bus to Guangzhou in Hangzhou or Yiwu. The trip is still going to be time consuming. By rail, the distance between Hangzhou and Guangzhou is approximately 1,500 km. By high way, the distance between Guangzhou and Yiwu is about 1,300 km. This means a bus trip that lasts at least 10 hours (a rather tiring journey at that).