Online travel sites are not the best here in China. The two market leaders, Ctrip and eLong, are okay for booking hotels, but the flight selection is difficult. Most of the time, it's easier just to go to a travel agency in person to buy the ticket and pay in cash. Also, for some technical reasons, local mom-and-pop travel agents can often give you lower prices.
For international flights, I have resorted to using Kayak at times, since it's less complicated than visiting a travel agent to browse flights. Even if I don't purchase the tickets through Kayak, it can at least tell me what flights are available. However, I was using it recently to check out flights from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur (I know it's not a very popular flight segment). Here was one of my suggested itineraries:
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|
| This flight leaves and arrives on different dates. |  | American Airlines
Flight 7958
Operated by EVA Corporation | Departs: 11:55p
Taoyuan Intl (TPE) |
| Arrives: 7:40p
Los Angeles (LAX) | |
| [ Layover in Los Angeles, CA (LAX) for 16h 05m ] | | | American Airlines
Flight 169 | Departs: 11:45a
Los Angeles (LAX) |
| Arrives: 4:40p
Narita (NRT) | |
| [ Layover in Tokyo, Japan (NRT) for 21h 00m ] | | | American Airlines
Flight 5838
Operated by Japan Airlines | Departs: 1:40p
Narita (NRT) |
| Arrives: 8:20p
Kuala Lumpur Intl (KUL) | |
|
| Airfare | Taxes & Fees | Total Cost |
|
|
|---|
| American Airlines | $2125.00 | $81.30 | $2206.30 | select |
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I'll do the math for you: 68 hours and 25 minutes to travel 2000 miles. That's an average of 29 miles per hour. I could probably rent a speedboat and get there faster. Surprisingly, it's also slower than the Taipei-Hong Kong-Shanghai route. Needless to say, I think I'll look elsewhere for a ticket.
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