The trip lasted a total of 10 days, where we covered Shenyang 沈阳, Wusong Island 雾凇岛, Changbaishan 长白山 and Harbin 哈尔滨.
Itinerary
1 Jan - Guangzhou / Singapore, Beijing, Shenyang
2 Jan - Shenyang
3 Jan - Shenyang, Jilin
4 Jan - Wusong Island
5 Jan - Wusong Island, Changbaishan
6 Jan - Changbaishan
7 Jan - Changbaishan, Harbin
8 Jan - Harbin
9 Jan - Harbin, Beijing
10 Jan - Beijing, Guangzhou / Singapore
In retrospect and after learning from people whom we met in Dongbei, we could have saved money had we changed our trip flow, covering instead Harbin -> Snow Country -> Changbaishan -> Wusong Island -> Shenyang -> Beijing.
Being geographers and people from the equator who were scared of the cold, doing the trip our way allowed us to slowly acclimatise, as we gradually moved north. But that meant spending quite a bit more money.
Here's a short comparison
Travel cost incurred per pax
Train ticket from Beijing to Shenyang: RMB 206 (5 hrs)
Train ticket from Shenyang to Jilin: RMB 176 (2.5 hrs)
Car ride from Jilin to Wusong Island: RMB 50 (1 hr)
Car ride from Wusong Island to Changchun airport: RMB 150 (2.5 hrs)
Air ticket from Changchun airport to Changbaishan airport: RMB 1090 (30 mins)
Air ticket from Changbaishan to Harbin: RMB 551 (1.5 hrs, budget airline)
Air ticket from Harbin to Beijing: RMB 515 (2 hrs)
Travel cost per pax that we would have incurred had we changed our itinerary
Air tickets from Beijing to Harbin: ~RMB 550 (2 hrs)
Car ride from Harbin to Snow Country: RMB 250 (6 hrs)
Car ride from Snow Country to Changbaishan (Erdaobaihe): RMB 250 (6 hrs)
Car ride from Changbaishan (Erdaobaihe) to Wusong Island: RMB 250 (6 hrs)
Car ride form Wusong Island to Jilin: RMB 50 (1 hr)
Train ticket from Jilin to Shenyang: RMB 176 (2.5 hrs)
Train ticket from Shenyang to Beijing: RMB 206 (5 hrs)
We had no intention of going to Snow Country, so we wouldn't have taken the recommended itinerary anyways. Moreover, we don't quite fancy long car rides. Nonetheless, it was good to know!
Accommodation cost
Shenyang
Sheraton Shenyang South City Hotel (we managed to claim free nights)
We do not recommend staying here because of its location - it was some 18km away from the city centre and some taxi drivers do not wish to send passengers to somewhere so far away. But taxi drivers in Shenyang were friendly in general so we didn't face much problem. However, one of them commented that where we were staying was really rural, and suggested that we changed hotels the next night.
Wusong Island
付家客栈 Fu family's Motel
It costs RMB 100 per night per pax, inclusive of 3 meals. We stayed in a kang room 炕房, which was a bed heated with coal. Note that there wasn't much cushioning on the bed. Only one of us enjoyed the hardness of the bed; the other two weren't too pleased. The bathroom consisted of a squatting toilet, a sink and a shower head. It was a rather small bathroom, comparable to what you get in hostels in Hong Kong.
But we enjoyed our stay as our hosts were really friendly. The room was also well heated, which is an important consideration where average temperatures were around minus 20 degrees!
Changbaishan (CBS)
Sheraton Changbaishan Resort (we managed to claim free nights)
We stayed at the resort area of CBS. Travellers to CBS either stay at Erdaobaihe 二道白河, where there is a concentration of budget accommodation, or at the resort area. We opted for the resort area as we could claim free nights. The resort are was a 20 min coach ride (complimentary) from the airport, 30 min car ride from the West Slope 西坡, and 2 hours car ride to the North Slope 北坡.
Harbin
勃莱梅假日酒店 Bremen Holiday Hotel
We paid RMB 720 per night for a 3 bedder "European Room" 欧陆特色房, without breakfast.
The heating was good, shower head water pressure was good and all 3 of us liked our beds. The person who liked hard beds had a hard bed, while the 2 others who preferred softer beds got soft beds too, so it was perfect.
But we had a smoking room, and the hotel was not very well kept (it was built in 1995, but the century old Imperial Hotel in Tokyo felt much newer than it). Also, the shower room had a perfectly flat floor with no door cordoning off the shower area, so the floor was very wet after every shower session. Considering the fact that Holiday Inn located some 700m away from us cost about S$350-400 a night for a double room, I guess there's nothing much to complain.
Beijing
桔子水晶酒店 (北京崇文门店) Crystal Orange Hotel
We paid RMB 589 per night for a "Deluxe Tatami Big Bed Room" 精选榻榻米大床房.
The bed was very small, the smallest among all the rooms that we lived in. Moreover, the heating did not work that night, and we were all freezing. On hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise that the bed was small, so that we could all hug each other. Also, luckily we came from places with average temperatures of minus 10 to 25 degrees Celsius, so we could still withstand Beijing weather. Nonetheless, one of us wore a down jacket to sleep while the other two wore fleece. Finally, the bathroom was perpetually flooded (worse than Bremen), despite a door that cordoned off the shower area.
However, we had nothing to pick on for the service rendered by the hotel. They offered us an extra set of shower robes, towel, slippers, toothbrush etc, as there were 3 of us. One of us had gastroenteritis that night, and the hotel staff was helpful - they called a cab for us in the middle of night, and made us an extra room card when we came back, so that we didn't have to wake up the other person sleeping in the room.
Also, they came by to soak up the water in the flooded toilet without us asking them to.
The next few posts detail our travels.
Disclaimer - there are quite a number of Ctrip links above as we booked our trip almost exclusively via Ctrip, and it's easier to refer to websites that we have visited before. In no way does this post endorse Ctrip as a service provider.
