2012 China – Intro

Travelogue of a 2000 km tour through China in May-June 2012. Due to a business stay I had some days to travel around in China with starting point Dalian. The question arose at the beginning, where to go and what is feasible in which time. Originally the route was supposed to run further west, but was discarded due to lack of time. A detour to inner Mongolia was also rejected, as the return would have to take place on the same route. So I decided for maximum day trips of about 300 – 500 km with the destination Shanghai in nine days.

I wanted to avoid Beijing, because I didn’t hope to see anything interesting there. Instead, the route via Tianjin should go further south and then, depending on the time, the best route should be chosen. As always, it is difficult to choose destinations where you have never been before. As it is difficult and expensive to rent a car in China, not to mention the traffic risk, the tour was exclusively by train. The route finally ran from Dalian via Xingcheng, Tianjin, Jinan, Nanjing, Suzhou to Shanghai.

To the first day…