I'm rather ashamed to say that i still haven't had the chance to visit mainland China for more than a small day trip of the southern province. My parents took a tour of China last year. Starting from Beijing, they then travelled to Xian, Shanghai, Guilin, before ending their trip at HK. There is a very well known Chinese saying along the lines of "Bu dao Changcheng fei hao han" and it is not my intention to satisfy it