The initial planning stages

One of the most exciting parts of a vacation is coming up with your first rough plan. No real details are finalized, but your mind starts to think about all of the interesting places to see. Despite knowing that I would be doing a China trip in the fall this year, I had not really done any planning towards it.

Last night, that changed. Here's the rough draft (and I emphasize rough) of my itinerary:


The basic idea is to fly into Beijing, but leave right away. This would give me about a week to see North/North Eastern China before meeting up with Amy, back in Beijing. I'd like to see Dalian, Qingdao, Harbin and maybe Shenyang (but not sure yet). I have Tianjin listed of the map but after talking about it at work today, I may want to skip it.

Other highlights - Pandas & Food in Chengdu (but not Pandas as food), Terracotta warriors in Xi'an, a Yangtze river cruise near Chongqing, and possibly seeing some of the Shanghai expo near the end. Last but not least, is a stop in Taipei for several days. I had a layover there on my flight home from Australia in 2008, but missed out on the opportunity to see the city (and country). Taiwan will require some extra research on my part!

What am I missing? Am I cramming too much into 4 weeks? Any tips for maximizing my exposure to Mandarin on the trip?

PS. A Heisig update - after studying today, I'm at 556 characters complete, 944 to go. 37% of the way through book one.