Nine days for three cities. Is that a rush?

It is three nights in Beijing, three in Xi'an and two in Shanghai, which means you unpack three times in nine days rather than every morning. Both intercity moves go in the afternoon, and each of those days carries a light morning ahead of it. The two heavy days, the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors, are given a whole day each with nothing else on them. What nine days will not give you is a fourth region: pandas and mountain scenery need more days, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a coach schedule.

Can you actually get us into the Forbidden City?

Yes, and here is exactly how it works. The palace is reservation only, the window opens seven days ahead, and the booking system is hard to use on a non-Chinese phone number, so we book your slot rather than leaving it to you. We cannot control how fast a given day sells out, so if your slot cannot be secured for day two, we move the palace within your Beijing nights instead of dropping it. You are told the position before you pay. Your dates are also set so that day two never lands on a Monday, when the palace closes.

We're traveling in October. Will the Terracotta Warriors be shoulder to shoulder?

In high season this site draws very heavy crowds, and in the October 1 to 7 holiday week the whole country is on the move. We do not promise you a quiet hall, because nobody can. What we do: set the visit early in the day, route you along the pits against the flow, and for holiday week departures verify reservation availability here and at the Forbidden City plus seats on both intercity legs before your order is confirmed. Either way your guide gets you to the rail on the long side of pit one, which is the view the site is famous for.

What is not included that we should budget for?

Lunches and dinners, all of them: your guide recommends and books, and you pay. That is a deliberate choice on a route that runs through the Muslim Quarter and the Bund. Also on your account: international flights, Chinese visa fees if your passport needs one, and a named list of separately ticketed items inside the sites. That list is the Tian'anmen rostrum · the special galleries inside the Forbidden City · climbing the pagoda body at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · climbing the Bell Tower or the Drum Tower · the electric shuttle inside the Terracotta Warriors site · the Qin Shi Huang mausoleum park. Each of those can be added and is priced separately when you choose it, and none of them is added by default.

Most guests on this route do not. UK, Irish and most European passports enter visa free for stays days. Canadian, Australian and New Zealand passports the same. Before you pay we check your 9 days plus any extra days in China against that window. The current policy runs through December 31, 2026, so departures on or before December 23, 2026 finish inside it. US passports are different: the US is not on that list, so every US guest on this route holds a Chinese tourist or business visa, including a 10 year multiple entry one. The fee and the appointment are on your own account. We confirm visa status before any payment, and if the dates do not fit, we say so instead of selling.

Four Lines, One Country

Overview

Three cities, and the country keeps drawing the same thing: a line. In Beijing you walk the axis the palace was built on, then climb the hill behind it and look straight back down that line. North of the city another line runs along a ridge, with watchtowers standing on it. In Xi'an the line closes into a ring, and you ride a bicycle around the top of it. In Shanghai the line is water, one century of buildings on one bank and this century on the other, with a working ferry crossing between them. Three nights in Beijing, three in Xi'an, two in Shanghai. You'll find you have stopped looking at pictures and started reading a plan.

— LyrikTrip travel designers

Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates and who is coming. First reply within four hours; a clear price for your dates within one business day. On this route we will also tell you plainly, before you are asked for anything, where the Forbidden City reservation and the two intercity legs stand for your exact dates.

Why you'll love this trip

The classic three, in order. Palace axis, Great Wall, city wall bicycles, the Bund, with English-speaking guides city by city.
9 days from the Terracotta Warriors to a commuter ferry. See how a country draws itself.

Stand at the pavilion on Jingshan and look back over the palace roofs: the gates, the halls and the courtyards line up beneath you in one straight run, and the city ceases to be a maze.
Ride the cable car up to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and take the toboggan back down: the whole morning goes to the wall itself, and nobody in your party climbs a step to get there.
Come out of the Terracotta Warriors able to tell a general from a crossbowman: after an hour with your guide, the ranks stop being a crowd of statues and become an army with jobs in it.
Ride a bicycle right around the top of the Xi'an City Wall, with the old city on one side and the new one on the other: this is the hour of the nine days when you forget what day it is.
Explore the Muslim Quarter after dark with your guide at your side, explaining what each stall is really up to: what you eat there is your own choice and on your own tab.
End a day on the Bund with your guide there for the whole evening: the old waterfront on one bank, the Pudong towers on the other, one city looking at itself across the water.
Leave China on the boat people take to work: the last thing you do here is a river crossing that costs the locals their morning change.

Things to do

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Itinerary

Arrivals

Beijing · Day 1 - Day 3

Day 1 · Land, and let the day go

Your driver is waiting at the airport your flight actually lands at, not the other one. The first day asks nothing of you.

Airport pickup Beijing has two airports, Capital and Daxing, and they are far apart and serve different airlines. Your pickup is arranged against the one you actually land at, which is why your flight number and arrival airport go into your confirmation before the driver is scheduled.

The drive in Ring roads first, then poplars and lit shopfronts along a city street. The country you flew this far to see shows up through the window before you have unpacked anything.

Evening Nothing is scheduled. Your guide is reachable, and dinner near the hotel is recommended and booked for you if you want it, on your account.

Day 2 · One line through the palace, then a look back down it

The palace in the morning, the hill that explains it after. Today the city stops being a maze and turns into a drawing.

The Forbidden City Your timed slot is booked ahead by us, so you walk in on schedule. Inside you follow one axis: the ceremonial halls where the court did its business, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden at the end, then out through the north gate. Stand in the middle of the great courtyard and look back through the gates you came in by, one inside another, lined up all the way out to the street.

Pace The palace is large and guests often say it wore them out, so the walk stops at the seats we know about and the garden at the end is unhurried.

Jingshan Park Across the street from the north gate, twenty minutes up at your own pace. From the pavilion at the top, the golden roofs step away below you in a straight run, and the axis carries on north and south past the edges of what you can see. Look down the line and count the gates: that is the fifteen seconds worth filming.

Day 3 · The wall, and no stairs to reach it

The road out of the city takes most of the morning, so nothing else is on today. The wall stops being a photograph the moment the cable car doors open.

Drive out to Mutianyu The drive north through the hills takes up a good part of the morning each way, and your vehicle stays with you all day, at the foot of the wall while you are up on it.

Cable car up The climbing is done for you. You step off onto a restored stretch with watchtowers running away along the ridge in both directions, and your guide reads the wall to you: the beacon towers, the pass below, why the towers stand exactly where they stand. Look along the ridge with the towers stepping down it, one after another, until the ridge takes them. You'll notice the group has gone quiet, and that nobody has suggested moving on yet.

Toboggan down A seated sled on a fixed metal track through the trees, and everyone reaches the bottom together with their knees intact.

Lunch This route does not include an arranged lunch. At the wall, your guide will choose the restaurant and order for you, and you will be responsible for the bill.

High-speed rail

Xi'an · Day 4 - Day 6

Day 4 · South down the axis, then out of town

Everything today sits on the same line, and the line ends at a railway station. You leave one old capital in the afternoon and walk out into another one in the evening.

Tiananmen Square You cross the ceremonial centre of modern China on foot, with your guide naming what stands on each side. Screening comes first and it takes its own half hour to an hour, so it sits in the day's budget separately; your reservation is booked by us and your guide walks the party to the nearest screening entrance.

National Museum of China On the east side of the square, one or two galleries rather than the whole building, because the train goes this afternoon. Bronzes first: the objects that were made when the walls and the tombs you are seeing this week were new.

Temple of Heaven Three structures on one line, and a grammar rather than a style. Round is heaven, square is earth, and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests sits on a square base under a round roof. Stand in the centre of the Circular Mound and look out: everything around you is arranged in rings, and you are standing on the point they are drawn from.

High-speed train to Xi'an Hotel to station, then a fast afternoon run across the North China plain, flat and cultivated to the horizon. Your seat class is stated in writing in your quote, and your Xi'an guide takes over at the station at the far end.

Day 5 · An army you learn to read

One site, one day, and it earns the day. You come out able to tell a general from a crossbowman at twenty paces.

Out to the pits The site is located outside the city, and your vehicle remains with you throughout the day. The visit is scheduled for early in the day, as the crowds are heavy during high season, and the early morning is the quieter part of the day.

Pit one You enter at the back of the hall, and the ranks stretch away from you beneath the roof, column after column, standing in the ground where they were discovered. Stand at the rail on the long side and film along the rows rather than across them.

Reading the ranks An estimated eight thousand figures, and armour and hair knots do the telling: a general's plate, a crossbowman's crouch, a foot soldier's plain tunic. Your guide walks you along until you are calling them out first. In the newer excavation areas, look for the traces of original paint that survive on some figures. You'll find you have stopped counting them and started looking at faces.

Day 6 · A ring you can ride

The old centre still has its wall all the way around, and bicycles are how you take it. Tonight the city works outdoors and you are inside that, not looking at it.

Xi'an City Wall by bicycle One of the most complete surviving ancient city walls in China, and the top is wide enough to ride two abreast. Your bicycle rental for the agreed riding slot is included in the price. The surface is brick, the gates have ramps, and nothing motorized is up there. The speed is entirely yours.

Bell and Drum Tower square The two towers stand facing each other across the square at the centre of the old city, the pair that used to keep the city's time, one for dawn and one for dusk. Climbing either tower is separately ticketed and is not included in your price.

The Muslim Quarter after dark The lanes behind the Drum Tower at full noise, with your guide beside you naming what is on each grill and in each vat. What you eat is your own choice and on your account, which is the point: you order what you liked the look of, not what was ordered for you.

Flight

Shanghai · Day 7 - Day 9

Day 7 · A courtyard, then air

A slow morning inside temple walls, and the afternoon belongs to the airport. This is the day the trip changes centuries.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda The brick pagoda stands in the grounds of the Da Ci'en Temple on the south side of the city, and admission to the grounds is included in your price. Walk to its foot and look straight up its face: the tower rises in stages, each one shorter than the one below, which makes it appear taller than it actually is. Climbing the pagoda itself is separately ticketed and is not included in your price.

A day with room in it This is the lightest day of the nine, with one stop before the airport, because the flight is in the afternoon and a rushed morning would put it at risk.

Flight to Shanghai Hotel to airport, the flight, then airport to hotel at the far end, with your Shanghai guide taking over at the door. The cabin class for your order is stated in writing in your quote.

Day 8 · The garden, the bronzes, and the water at night

A garden that will not let you see all of it, then two skylines that will not stop looking at each other. Today the trip closes the distance between old and current.

Yu Garden and the old city Pavilions, rockeries, ponds and a path that never runs straight, set in the oldest quarter of the city. The walk around it is included. Follow the path around one rockery and notice you cannot see where you came from: that is the design working, not you getting lost.

Shanghai Museum Your reservation is made by us, and admission is free of charge. Your guide takes you to the bronzes and puts them beside the ones you saw in Beijing four days ago, then across the ceramics and the calligraphy. Two collections, one long argument.

The Bund after dark The historic waterfront buildings hold one bank and the Pudong towers hold the other, a hundred years apart and looking straight at each other across the water. Your guide is with you for the whole evening, which also settles the approaches: this is where visitors get invited to practice English or to a tea sitting that arrives with a bill. Standing between the two banks, you'll feel the nine days close into a single picture.

Day 9 · The commuter boat, then home

Plane trees in the morning, a working ferry before the airport. The last thing you do in China is the thing people here do every morning.

Former French Concession and Wukang Road You walk plane tree streets past historic houses and small independent shops, low and shaded, with the whole thing running at about a third of the speed of the night before. Stand at the corner where Wukang Road splits and look up: the buildings come to a point like the bow of a ship.

Huangpu River ferry The fare is included in your price, and the boat is the one people take to get to work. You stand at the rail with commuters and their scooters, the deck vibrates, and both banks swing past at water level rather than from a viewing platform.

Airport drop-off This morning carries touring, so your flight time is checked against the plan before your quote is issued, and the drop-off is timed with room to spare rather than to the minute.

Departures

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Hotels

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Included / Excluded

What's Included

Private vehicle and transfersAir conditioned private vehicle for all listed touring in all three cities, including the full day Great Wall round trip; airport pickup in Beijing on day one and airport drop-off in Shanghai on day nine; hotel, station and airport transfers for both intercity legs
Intercity transportTwo legs: Beijing to Xi'an by high speed train on the afternoon of day four, Xi'an to Shanghai by domestic flight on the afternoon of day seven. The seat class and the cabin class for your order are stated in writing in your quote.
Hotels8 nights at your chosen level, four star, five star or quality boutique, breakfast included: Beijing 3 · Xi'an 3 · Shanghai 2
GuideLicensed English-speaking guide on every touring day in each of the three cities, including the Muslim Quarter evening walk in Xi'an and the whole Bund evening in Shanghai
Tickets and experiences, BeijingTiananmen Square, timed entry reserved by us, with guide commentary on the square · the Forbidden City central axis, timed entry reserved by us · Jingshan Park · Mutianyu Great Wall with cable car up and toboggan down, both included in the base price · Temple of Heaven through ticket, including the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Circular Mound Altar · National Museum of China, reservation made by us, admission free of charge
Tickets and experiences, Xi'anThe Terracotta Warriors · Xi'an City Wall with the wall-top bicycle rental for the agreed riding slot · Giant Wild Goose Pagoda scenic area, meaning the Da Ci'en Temple grounds · Bell and Drum Tower square area and the Muslim Quarter evening walk, guide accompanied
Tickets and experiences, ShanghaiYu Garden with the old city walk · Shanghai Museum, reservation booked by us, admission free of charge · Former French Concession and Wukang Road walk · Huangpu River ferry fare · the Bund in the evening, guide accompanied
In-park transportThree items only, all named above: the Mutianyu cable car and toboggan · the Xi'an City Wall bicycle · the Huangpu River ferry. No other shuttle, buggy or cable car is included
Meals8 hotel breakfasts, days two through nine. This route carries no arranged lunch and no arranged dinner
InsuranceTravel accident insurance

Not Included

International flightsFlights into Beijing and out of Shanghai. Connecting sectors through a third hub are also on your account
VisasVisa fees and processing for guests who require a Chinese visa, including all US guests on this route
Lunches and dinnersAll lunches and all dinners, recommended and booked by your guide, on your account. This includes the street food and the tea houses along the Muslim Quarter evening walk, and all dining along the Bund.
Separately ticketed items inside the sitesNamed one by one: climbing the Tian'anmen rostrum · the separately ticketed special galleries inside the Forbidden City · climbing the pagoda body at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · climbing the Bell Tower or the Drum Tower · the electric shuttle inside the Terracotta Warriors site · the Qin Shi Huang mausoleum park as a separate visit. Any of these can be added and is priced separately when you choose it
Extra nightsNights before day one and nights after day nine
PersonalGratuities · single or extra room difference · laundry · excess baggage · personal spending

Special Notes

A few things on this route follow the calendar, a reservation system or a supplier's confirmation. Here they are, told straight.

Two airports in Beijing — Beijing Capital and Beijing Daxing are far apart and serve different airlines, so your flight number and arrival airport are included in your confirmation before the pickup is scheduled.
Departure dates — Dates are set so that day two never falls on a Monday, when the Forbidden City is closed. If your preferred date would put it there, days two and three swap places.
Reservation booked sites — the Forbidden City takes reservations seven days ahead, and the National Museum of China and the Shanghai Museum are also reservation only, with booking systems that work poorly with overseas mobile numbers. All three are booked by us, and whether each reservation is secured is confirmed for your order before you pay.
The national holiday week — For departures in the October 1 to 7 holiday week, reservation availability at the Forbidden City and the Terracotta Warriors and seat availability on the two intercity legs are verified first, and your order is confirmed only after that check clears.
Crowds at the warriors — This site attracts very large crowds during the high season. The visit is scheduled early in the day, and your guide routes you along the pits accordingly. What we do not do is promise you a quiet hall.
Seat class and cabin class — The standing seat class on the train and cabin class on the flight are being finalised. Until they are settled, the seat class and cabin class for your order are stated in writing in your quote, and no order is taken without them.
Group — Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
Visa window — the 30 day visa free policy currently runs through December 31, 2026. Because this is a 9 day plan, departures on or before December 23, 2026 finish inside that window; later departure dates are quoted only after the official renewal is announced.
US passports — the US is not on the 30 day visa free list, so every US guest on this route holds a valid Chinese tourist or business visa, including a 10 year multiple entry one. The fee and the processing are your own, and we confirm visa status before any payment.
Arrivals from southern Europe, Australia and New Zealand — nonstop service into Beijing from these markets is thin, and part of it is seasonal. Southern Europe here means Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. For your dates we check the arrival time against the day one pickup before quoting. Where a connection through another hub is needed, that sector is booked by you, or by us on request with the ticket cost still on your account.
Departure day timing — Day nine includes a morning of touring, so your departure flight time is checked before quoting to ensure a clean drop-off window.
Confirmation and changes — The confirmation time commitment and the change and refund terms are being finalised with our ground partners. Until they are settled, each quote states in writing its own confirmation deadline and its change and refund conditions. This route holds one high-speed train leg and one domestic flight leg, so a date change touches rail and airline inventory as well as hotels and reservations.

Is Nine Days Your Length?

Fewer than nine days, or more?

The three cities come apart cleanly: Beijing and Xi'an each stand on their own, and Shanghai works as an exit city on its own two nights. Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we cut cities rather than compress days.

Good to Know

Group: Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
Pace: Three cities in 9 days: Beijing 3 nights, Xi'an 3, Shanghai 2. Two intercity moves, both in the afternoon, and both on days that carry a light morning
Effort: Moderate city walking with two long site days, the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors. The wall climb is by cable car and the descent by toboggan; the Xi'an City Wall is ridden. The Forbidden City is walked as one line with places to sit
Ports: Beijing in, Shanghai out. Airport pickup on day one, airport drop-off on day nine. Beijing has two airports and your pickup follows the one you actually land at
Visas: UK, Irish and most European passports enter visa free for stays days. Canadian, Australian and New Zealand passports the same, checked order by order against your dates. US passports need a Chinese visa for this route
Language: Licensed English-speaking local guides in all three cities, on every touring day
Season: Selling window October to December 2026. Departures in the October 1 to 7 holiday week are confirmed only after reservation and seat availability is verified
Payment: From 1 guest. A 10% deposit (minimum $399) locks your dates. The balance is due 14 days before departure. "Or similar" never means a quiet downgrade

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Four Lines, One Country

Overview

Why you'll love this trip