Kids: Big Sister 6y10m, twins 4y5m
Flights: Hong Kong - Beijing and Shanghai - Hong Kong on CX (Beijing - Hangzhou - Shanghai per train)
Booked through: myself / directly (except train tickets; airline tickets on redeemed points)
Although husband and myself had been to both Beijing and Shanghai, we were looking forward to coming back and bring the kids. They were particularly excited about the "Great Wall of China". Even more so, about visiting their great friends friends in Shanghai, fellow twins, who had recently moved from Hong Kong to China.
Via Tripadvisor I stumbled upon the Park Plaza Hotel in Beijing (you can check my review as well), which had raving reviews and a great price tag. I booked on their website, got a great deal since we booked 4 nights, and 2 (connecting) rooms ended up costing less than HK$2000 a night. The hotel is fairly new and well located, close to Wangfujing Street (lots of shopping, albeit slightly touristy). There is a subway / metro stop around the corner, a few restaurants in the neighborhood including Starbucks. A great dinner option which is super close by is a very good duck restaurant, called Dadong, in a small luxurious mall less than 5 minutes away, just across the street. The kids loved it, very child friendly and they have high chairs too from what I recall. We did book in advance through the hotel as it's very popular. The restaurant has various locations throughout the city but this one is by far the closest.
There is so much to do and see in Beijing, I would recommend at least 3 days, but you could easily stay longer. We visited Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Panjiayuan Antique Market and various neighborhoods including a cyclo ride through the hutongs. We also hired a driver for a private transfer to and from the Great Wall of China (we chose Mutianyu which is far less crowded than Badaling, but still not too far outside the city, it took us about 1 1/2 hours), it's an excellent section and the kids loved it. We took the cable car up, walked around (going left is far less busy than going right to the toboggan which most people tend to take down but we didn't want to considering the kids). Total transfer cost for the day was about US$50 (don't recall exact amount), the guy was super friendly, a safe driver, his English wasn't great, but he spoke Japanese and I happen to speak that a little too!
Lunch locations:
* Vinyard Cafe in Dongcheng, easy Western food, got very busy.
* Element Fresh in North Chaoyang, also easy Western food and outdoor seating (mall / shopping area)
* Hutong Pizza in Xicheng, the cyclo driver dropped us off, nice pizza.
Dinner locations:
* Din Tai Fung, our kids' favorite, the Taiwanese dim sum chain
* Dadong, for tasty Peking Duck (see above)
* Dali Courtyard, Yunnan cuisine in a courtyard of a restored hutong house. There is no menu, and the chef decides the 5 to 6 dishes for dinner. It was very nice, but I would only recommend this place to non-picky eaters. It may too adventurous for some, especially children.
The last night we ate in the hotel prior to our departure to Hangzhou by night train. The train ride took about 12-13 hours from Beijing South station which was absolutely spot less (like a modern airport terminal). We had booked a 4-bed sleeping cabin via China Tripadvisor. The twins shared a bed as they were technically free (below a certain length, in this case 120 cm) but I booked one bed for the two of them, and the three of us had our own bed (that way we had our own cabin in the D-train soft sleeper which has 4 beds in total). The kids loved it, twin B spent hours peaking outside into the darkness. The train was much cleaner, newer and nicer than I expected, even the toilets and washing areas were much better than most airplanes, although I still tried to limit my visits. I brought the kids' fold able potty (with bags) so they could just use that instead of peeing all over their feet, in a Chinese style toilet. The train tickets were delivered by courier at the hotel we stayed in, smooth and easy. We decided to bring our own snacks, drinks, etc. on the train, although they do sell items and they have a restaurant wagon as well. We didn't need much anyway during the night.
In Hangzhou we booked one night at the Hyatt at the famous West Lake. We were slightly unlucky with the weather but were still able to do boat tours, a trip around the lake, have a swim in the hotel pool and enjoy the area, which is lovely. The hotel is slightly outdated but the location cannot be beaten. Also through some research I found out that Hyatt has a "family plan rate" (HYFMPL) which allowed me to book the kids' room for 50% of our room rate. So definitely worth asking, although they had to dig it up. We had lunch in the hotel, dinner in a place the hotel recommended (it was raining terribly) but I would not recommend it at all. Should have done more research in terms of dinner options, my mistake.
Around mid-day we left Hangzhou for our final destination, Shanghai, per high speed train in slightly more than an hour as we chose to go to Shanghai Central which is closer to our friends in Pudong. Most trains however go to Hongqiao Station on the opposite side of the city. The train goes well over 300 km per hour, and the ride is super smooth and the seats are spacious. I can definitely recommend using the train in China, at least the more luxurious and high speed trains, although safety horror stories keep going round.
In Shanghai we mostly enjoyed time with our friends, the kids had an opportunity to play together, search for Easter eggs, but we did do a day trip to Suzhou together to see some wonderful gardens (although the kids thought they all looked the same). We had trouble finding a restaurant for lunch so ended up at McDonalds, always the last resort anywhere in the world, and the kids were happy with that. We also visited the city and had lunch at House of Roosevelt, outside on the terrace, on the Bund. Kids were in a horrible mood, one of these fairly rare (luckily) moments but the setting is lovely, food fairly pricey but good quality. They didn't have a kids' menu so we had the kids share some dishes, which is fine for slightly older kids I would say. But there is always bread and butter!
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