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Shanghai Arrivals · Shenzhen Departures
14 Days & 13 Nights — Private · Custom Itinerary
Moderate. The heaviest day is the Forbidden City morning followed by the climb to the Jingshan viewpoint. The Great Wall ascent is by cable car or open chairlift rather than on foot, and the Yulong River countryside day can be taken by bicycle, by electric bike or by vehicle, at your own choice.
A first trip to China usually gets planned as a list. This one is planned as an arc: east, then north, then west, then south, ending in the youngest city in the country. Shanghai opens on the water. Beijing hands you the palace and the wall. Xi'an puts an army in front of you. Chengdu takes an afternoon back. The Li River drops the middle of the trip to the speed of a boat. Shenzhen finishes it in a market where a phone gets built floor by floor. Somewhere around the last morning you'll stop asking which one of them is the real China.
— LyrikTrip travel designers
Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates, who is coming and which airport you fly home from, because on this route the way you leave Shenzhen shapes the last two days. First reply within four hours; a clear price for your dates within one business day. On this route we will also tell you plainly where the river passage, the two open nights and stand, before you are asked for anything.
Your driver meets your flight, whatever time it comes in. The first day asks nothing of you.
Shanghai is introduced oldest first and newest last, all in one day. By dark, you can date the buildings on both banks yourself.
The morning is the version of this city nobody photographs. The afternoon puts you on a train that leaves one climate and arrives in another.
A single straight line through five centuries of palace. Then a hill that shows you the line you just walked.
One thing today, and it takes the whole day. You arrive at the watchtowers with your legs still fresh.
Square, temple, museum, in that order, because that is the order the arguments were made in. By the afternoon you can leave Beijing without a gap in the story.
One site, one morning, and no second stop competing with it. This is the day the scale of Chinese history stops being a number in a book.
The other half of Xi'an is not military at all. In the afternoon the window does the work.
The morning is the one everyone pictures before they come. The afternoon is the one they talk about after.
Chengdu shows you its commercial face and its neighbourhood face in the same day. Then the country tilts south.
Today the way you travel and the thing you have come to see are one and the same. You arrive in Yangshuo by water.
Nothing packs today and nothing moves cities. This is the slowest day of the fourteen, and it is outdoors from morning to tea.
A morning on the train and an afternoon four decades ahead of it. Today is where the two ends of this trip meet.
Two stops on the last morning, both of them about the same question. Then the airport.
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A few things on this route follow the calendar, the season, a supplier's confirmation or a river's water level. Here they are, told straight.
Fewer than fourteen days?
The arc comes apart cleanly at the joints. Shanghai and Beijing stand on their own as the first week; the Chengdu and Yangshuo stretch is the part that slows the trip down; Shenzhen is the closing argument rather than a stop you have to make. Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we cut stops rather than cutting the pace.
Private China Route Concierge
“A bilingual planning desk for tailor-made China journeys.”
Our China team tailors the pacing, hotels and local hosts to suit each route style.
Step 01
Not your dates and budget — your curiosity. Where have you always wanted to go? What do you want to feel? We start there.
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First concept delivered
Step 02
Your specialist builds the itinerary from scratch — routes, hosts, hotels, and experiences you won't find anywhere else.
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Step 03
When the plan feels right, a 10% deposit holds your entire trip. Balance due 30 days before departure.
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Step 04
Your Trip Pack arrives before you fly. On the road, your concierge is one message away — for the expected and everything you didn't plan for.
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