The Road to Luzhou

[ghostrider]

Here's the skinny:

 

My wife lives in Luzhou. I have very little money to my name. I'm trying to plan a trip to be with her for February.

 

Last year I flew to Chengdu then took a bus to Luzhou. This year, that same trip would be about $400 more. This is money I don't have.

 

Flying to Guangzhou seems to be the cheapest route. But how do I get to Luzhou? I'll take a plane, train or bus. I don't care. I just need a good price and to get there before the 8th (for the New Year).

 

It seems like everyone here has an SO that lives in a big city that's easy to get to by plane.

 

I'm not that fortunate. So, any help would be appreciated.

 

Anyone?

 

Thanks.

 

Michael

[kfman]

Hey there Mike, I am heading to china in Feb also.. flying from JFK to shanghai.. When are you going and where will you fly from?

Just curious..

[ghostrider]

I haven't figured all that out yet.

 

All I know is that I need to be there before the 8th. So, I guess I'll have to head out the first couple days of February.

 

And I'm leaving out of Miami.

 

You know any good travel agencies/websites I can check out? I've been all over the place trying to plan this trip but it's been a nightmare.

 

I'm trying to find a way to go straight to Luzhou from anywhere in China, but I can't get flight schedules or prices from anybody.

 

I called two China travel agencies (in America) and neither one of them knew Luzhou even had an airport.

 

This isn't fun.

[pkfops]

Have your SO check things on the local level.

 

Local travel is much cheaper if you buy in China.

 

I've traveled on the "hard seat" train before.

 

SFO to Shanghai is one of the cheapest flights.

 

Good Luck.

 

Call FLYCHINA.COM as they are based in Flordia.

 

Check this page out from CTRIP:

http://english.ctrip.com/supermarket/flight/flight.asp

 

Going for the Chinese New Year?

 

If you are, you better go a week before.

All of China will be on the road at that time.

 

It is a commute that is beyond western comprehension.

[lele]

From where you are: to save money, I would do the following:

 

1. take the train from FL to NYC

2. take the direct air china flight from NYC to Beijing

3. get on a hard seat train from Beijing West Train Station to Chengdu

4. take a bus to LuZhou

 

Slow, but the cheapest way you can manage it.

[kfman]

Yes, dont forget the Chinese New Year. We will have our chinese wedding on the 8th of Feb... my Lao Po tells me everything will be closed down.. hmmmm... seems like all would be open to accomidate the travel of all tourist...

[oregonknl]

Check out flights on NWA.com (Northwest airlines just won several routes directly to China, and is offering introductory discounts) Check either CAN or HKG ...

 

If its Hong Kong, take the train to GZ .... subway to the main GZ train station.... If its Canton, no problem ~!

 

Book a hard bed ---- NOT A SEAT ---- this trip will be much too long for that!!! Still, it will be cheap. Probably will have to connect to Luzho through ChongQing...

[johns]

I and my honey are living in Yangshuo (south of Guilin). About 3 hours by bus from luzhou.

 

My suggestion is fly to Guangzhou. Then take a sleeper bus direct to Luzhou or train to Guilin then local bus to Luzhou. Your honey should be able to help you with the details from Guangzhou.

 

Other suggestion pick up a lonely planet China book (backpackers bible).

Helped me alot before I could speak.

 

The trip should cost depending on what you take about 300 yuan. I included the 15 percent price increase for the festival.

 

I have done the trip from gz many times and was fairly easy.

 

I would suggest you do this before the 8th. Like the 3rd or 4th the latest. China will be a travel nitemare if you wait to travel on the 8th or during the next few days after.

 

good luck

[oregonknl]

Woooow ~!

 

We may have a miscommunication going on here!

 

... the Luzhou I'm refering to is SW from ChongQing, and much longer than a 3 hour bus ride from Yangshuo......

[n_c]

Try to you get all the flight , train and bus tickets as soon as possible.The traffic will be very crowded in Feb because of spring festival in china.it might be hard for you to get a ticket when u get here.In some cities,like shanghai,poeple have already booked Feb tickets...so,hurry up..

[Mengxin]

This isn't fun.

Hi Micheal, I'm Doug. 1st thing were going to need you to do here is run down to the store, grab a 40 and dime bag. It will be OK. 2nd thing is kick back and throw some Bob Marley in the 8 track. Your volume is about a 9 and a half. If you can you turn it down to about a 6 or 7 that would be be great. Techinically New Years isn't until the 9th. It lasts for about a week. So you have some flexibility there. Ok Micheal? Your already married, so what's all the fuss about? ahhh I get it. The cheetos are almost out. I hate when that happens. Buttons getting a little sticky on the keyboard huh?

 

With about 5 minutes of searching I could see that there is a airport in Luzhou. Civilain too, not Military. That's a good thing.

luzhou-airport

 

Ok enough of my sarcastic sense of humor. (I'll get back to it in a minute.)

You want to go from Miami, FL - International (MIA)

To Luzhou, China (LZO) That's only a measily 9000 MILES!

You will need to fly into Guangzhou, China (CAN) 1st and then get a domestic hop over to LZO or DMZ ...where ever. You'll need to switch carriers. Normally it's not a problem. Not too expensive either.

 

Here's the deal. I can give you the # for my Travel agent. Very nice Chinese lady. She can work unbelievable magic. Your looking at about 900 to 1100 bones though. Here's what I saw...

http://www.orbitz.com - forget them, you don't want to know.

 

On www.flychina.com about $900

 

Round-Trip from Miami FL (MIA) to Guangzhou China (CAN)

for travel on Feb 07 Departure and Feb 14 Return

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northwest

$884 USD per adult

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air China

$902 USD per adult

connecting in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Beijing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

China Southern

$985 USD per adult

connecting in Los Angeles

 

Call the travel agent back again and explain to them this is what needs to happen. Internationally you need to go from A to B switch planes Domestically over to C.

A. Miami, FL - International (MIA)

B* via Guangzhou (CAN)

C. Luzhou, China (LZO)

 

B* Beijing, China (PEK) can also be a point for a layover.

 

You can do it my brother. (unless you ain't got the cash, then your screwed.) Hope I was able to help.

 

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons6/67.gifPeace out!!

 

I was going to write some more stupid stuff in here but it took me too long already. I like your humor. Cracks me up.http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons6/24.gif

[sawadee]

I have been to Luzhou 10+ years ago. I was studying in the college that time, so my budget is tight. I had trip in my summer vacation, first to innermongolia, then to Sichuan via Beijing. I took train+bus the whole journey. On the trip from Chengdu to Luzhou(i can only take a bus, no train ROUTE), We had to climb a moutain (Er-lang Mt.) It is a huge mt, very high, took us almost half day to get over. Now they build a tunnel so no long have to travel half day in the mountain.

The best solution may be flying out of FL to GZ/Chengdu. I would advise you to be very very careful, Luzhou is on the edge of Qinghai-Tibet plateau, so it is very cold esp in winter times. The road condition could also be a little treacherous, when there are snows. So get ready earlier, and give yourself a few more days margin if possible. I know it is a little bit inconvenient to visit a small place.

Pls dont assum it is a warm place just because it is located in the south, it is located on a plateau, very cold weather. I was frozen there in July!

[lele]

I have been to Luzhou 10+ years ago.  I was studying in the college that time, so my budget is tight. I had trip in my summer vacation, first to innermongolia, then to Sichuan via Beijing.  I took train+bus the whole journey. On the trip from Chengdu to Luzhou(i can only take a bus, no train ROUTE), We had to climb a moutain (Er-lang Mt.) It is a huge mt, very high, took us almost half day to get over. Now they build a tunnel so no long have to travel half day in the mountain.

The best solution may be flying out of FL to GZ/Chengdu. I would advise you to be very very careful, Luzhou is on the edge of Qinghai-Tibet plateau, so it is very cold esp in winter times. The road condition could also be a little treacherous, when there are snows. So get ready earlier, and give yourself a few more days margin if possible. I know it is a little bit inconvenient to visit a small place.

Pls dont assum it is a warm place just because it is located in the south, it is located on a plateau, very cold weather. I was frozen there in July!

I was in that area too.

 

It is beautiful, but the elevation is more than 5000m high! There are glaciers even in June when I passed through.

 

However, to go through GZ is silly! The costs are too high.

 

If he wants to minimize the cost, take the train from FL to a major city which flys directly to China. This means that you *must* go to NYC, as it is far closer than the others.

 

From NYC, the cheapest way to go to China is the *direct* flight to Beijing. I have priced this many times.

 

From Beijing to Chengdu, there are many hard seats available to Chengdu, including the direct to Chengdu train, the to Kunming Train, and in parts via the to Xian and then onto Chengdu/Kunming train (where Kunming is past Chengdu).

 

Then take the bus to Kangding. This is that last Han city along the trip. This takes 5 hours.

 

Then take a bus the *same* day to Litang. This leg currently takes about 8 hours in the summer where only the pass at 5500m is still likely to have snow (I only traveled it in the summer).

 

From here, there is only one bus a day west to where you are wanting to go, so you have to catch the bus whenever it comes. Maybe it is possible for *her* to meet you in Litang (the last city), or better yet in Kangding (since the average elevation in Litang is at 4800m, and you will get altitude sickness if you miss the bus and have not had a week or so to adjust).

 

Good luck!

 

ps. to those quoting going through GZ or flying to LZ, you can not! You are talking about the *wrong* LZ! This one does not even have a train station, never the less an airport! If you were ethnic chinese or could speak very well, you could take the backdoor road through XiZhang, but there are many police there, and unless you can convince them that you are Chinese, they will arrest you and turn you back. If you are fluent and look Chinese, send me a PM and I can tell you about this option to travel there.

 

Trust me on this, take the train in the US, it will save you cash...

[egolessvegan]

There is a non stop flight from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles. After a 2 hour layover there is a non stop flight to Guangzhou. Total time about 23 hours. This is via Delta and China Southern.

Ken

[ghostrider]

Just wanted to give a big THANK YOU to everyone that's posted helpful info for my desperate cry for help.

 

I sincerely appreciate it.

 

Doug, can you PM me the phone number for your travel agent? By the way, my sense of humor has been finely honed through years and years of a life of suffering (and watching Mystery Science Theater 3000).

 

Just to be clear, the problem that I'm having is finding out info for domestic flights in China. I mean, I think I can get tickets online to Shanghai/Beijing/Guangzhou for about $700 - $800.

 

But I cannot (so far) get info about the Chinese domestic flights. I haven't found anyone yet who can tell me flight schedules or prices. And, like I said before, it didn't help that Chinese travel agents I called and websites didn't even know Luzhou had an airport.

 

So, for me to plan this trip, obviously I need to know what flights go to Luzhou, what times they fly, how much do they cost and if there are any seats left. Whether it's from Beijing or Guangzhou or Shanghai or even Hong Kong. That's the information that I haven't been able to get so far.

 

And, yes, it looks like I'll have to head out the first day or two of February to beat the Chinese New Year travel rush. I may not have a lot of money but at least I have time, so I'm lucky for that much.

 

Anywho...

 

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to reply and help me out.

 

Michael