--- title: "Newest First" description: "12 days from the Pudong skyline to a palace axis reading the timeline backward" type: "tour" route_id: "china-newest-first-12-days" total_days: 12 price: 4090 highlights: ["Shanghai", "Chengdu", "Xi'an", "Beijing"] url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/tours/china-newest-first-12-days" canonical_url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/tours/china-newest-first-12-days" locale: "en-GB" alternates: {"en-US":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-newest-first-12-days","en-GB":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/tours/china-newest-first-12-days","zh-CN":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-CN/tours/china-newest-first-12-days","zh-TW":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-TW/tours/china-newest-first-12-days","de-DE":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/de-DE/tours/china-newest-first-12-days","fr-FR":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/fr-FR/tours/china-newest-first-12-days","es-ES":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/es-ES/tours/china-newest-first-12-days","it-IT":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/it-IT/tours/china-newest-first-12-days","x-default":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-newest-first-12-days"} --- # Newest First 12 days from the Pudong skyline to a palace axis, reading the timeline backwards The classics in reverse order. Yu Garden, pandas, a Taoist mountain, the Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall, with English-speaking guides city by city. - Full touring days with one easy day built into Shanghai. The two longest days on foot are the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. The uphill and downhill transport at Mutianyu is not included in your price, so plan on walking that climb unless your quote states otherwise. ## Overview Most first trips to China begin at the oldest thing on the itinerary and work forward. This one runs the other way. You land in Shanghai, where the skyline across the water is younger than you are, and you finish eleven days later inside a palace completed in 1420. Chengdu sits in the middle at the pace the country actually lives at, and one day out from it stands a waterworks cut in the third century BC that is still watering the plain below it. Three nights each in Shanghai, Chengdu and Xi'an, two in Beijing, three half-day moves, and an arrival day that asks nothing of anyone. By Beijing you'll catch yourself reading a roof line the way you read the first one, and the order is the reason. — LyrikTrip travel designers Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we shape the twelve days around them. 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 four open items stand, the transport class, the fourth-quarter answers on three outdoor items, the holiday week and, before you are asked for anything. ## Summary - Route ID: china-newest-first-12-days - Duration: 12 days / 11 nights - Starting price: $4,090 - Status: active - Highlights: Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an, Beijing - Cover image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/gQx7f1JF.webp ## Hero tags - private - From 1 guest - Max: no fixed limit ## Highlight notes - The classics in reverse order. Yu Garden, pandas, a Taoist mountain, the Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall, with English-speaking guides city by city. - 12 days from the Pudong skyline to a palace axis. See the whole timeline. ## Selling points - Stand on the Bund after dark on your first full evening, your guide beside you: a century of stone banking halls holds one side of the river and the Pudong towers hold the other, and the trip hands you both ends of its timeline before it has properly started. - Get to the Chengdu panda base in the morning, the hours when the animals are generally moving rather than sleeping: whatever else the twelve days do to you, this is the morning your phone fills up. - Settle into a bamboo chair in People's Park with a gaiwan that's refilled as long as you stay: a whole afternoon with nowhere else to be, deliberately savoured rather than simply left over. - Walk a waterworks cut in the third century BC that still waters the plain below it, then sit down with a resident Taoist priest on the mountain above it: the oldest day of the trip lands in the middle and quietly rearranges everything after it. - Stand at the rail above the pits at the Terracotta Warriors while your guide reads the ranks out for you: you leave able to tell a general from a crossbowman by his armour and the knot of his hair, which is a better souvenir than a photograph. - Give a whole day to the wall at Mutianyu, watchtower to watchtower along the ridge, with your vehicle waiting below and nothing else on the day: the drive out is long, and that is exactly why the day carries one thing only. - Finish on the hill facing the Forbidden City: the field of golden roofs you spent the morning walking through lies below you, the axis runs off in both directions, and the twelve days line up in a single view. ## City highlights - Shanghai (3 days): Shanghai - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6fBOXSWS.webp - Chengdu (3 days): 成都 - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5zaqnUda.webp - Xi'an (3 days): Xi'an - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ggo1yYnD.webp - Beijing (3 days): Beijing - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1cZHxWkg.webp ## Experiences The classics in reverse order. Yu Garden, pandas, a Taoist mountain, the Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall, with English-speaking guides city by city. - Yu Garden & the Old City (Shanghai): pavilions, ponds, rockeries and covered corridors, laid out in the Ming dynasty as a private family garden: "Yu" means peace, chosen by the official who built it for his elderly father. A Chinese garden works like a scroll painting: you walk it one framed scene at a time. The lanes around it keep an earlier Shanghai of small shops and food stalls. - Subtitle: pavilions, ponds, rockeries and covered corridors, laid out in the Ming dynasty - Tags: Heritage - Host: Shanghai, Shanghai Lens — Skyline and riverfront culture - Access: The lanes around it keep an earlier Shanghai of small shops and food stalls. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/58b0b1f762b9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3640847367f4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aa7e4b7f18cb.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c3f4af921585.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7bc088a35094.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b4ff42f10f39.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8ab6fa3c88e9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/23b0b99117fe.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4c38a3352564.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/793d4d9ec24d.jpg - Shanghai Museum (Shanghai): bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, arranged so you can walk one material through three thousand years. About two hours. Entry is by timed reservation with limited English in the booking system, so your quote states in writing who books it and by when, and which branch your visit uses. Admission is in the base price. - Subtitle: bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, arranged so you can walk one material through three thousand years. - Tags: Museum - Host: Shanghai, Shanghai Lens — Skyline and riverfront culture - Access: bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, arranged so you can walk one material through three thousand years. About two hours. Entry is by timed reservation with limited English in the booking system, so your quote states in writing who books it and by when, and which branch your visit uses. Admission is in the base price. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/553f9e5daffa.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/463009b942cf.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/09ed444fa597.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f449d01924e3.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1c391e422dd6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3062838f53d8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5fe4f8f934ce.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1ff4b8a733b8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1c6a0e2a66d2.jpg - The Bund (Shanghai): The Bund frames Shanghai's historic banks and modern Pudong skyline in one clear view. - Subtitle: Shanghai's iconic riverfront skyline - Tags: Riverfront - Host: Shanghai, Shanghai Lens — Skyline and riverfront culture - Access: A signature Shanghai orientation stop for architecture and city contrast. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/59b1d2774a93.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/819f854bed70.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/494cee6c7aae.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/45251ad66040.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/eed1a59d8207.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/334c0bdef4be.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a2a8d5aca0bf.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2e92d8293a47.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/eb8770c3dfbd.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5d861058a1f8.jpg - Former French Concession and Wukang Road (Shanghai): plane-tree streets, walled houses from the concession decades, and the independent shops that have taken over their ground floors. You walk it at street speed, and it is the loosest hour of the route — the low, relaxed counterweight to the skyline you looked at the night before: no ticket, no queue, no gate. About two hours on flat pavement. In the base price. - Subtitle: plane-tree streets, walled houses from the concession decades, and the independent shops in their ground floors — the loose, low-rise counterweight to the skyline. About two hours, no ticket, no queue, no gate. - Tags: City - Host: Shanghai, Shanghai Lens — Skyline and riverfront culture - Access: plane-tree streets, walled houses from the concession decades, and the independent shops that have taken over their ground floors. You walk it at street speed, and it is the loosest hour of the route: no ticket, no queue, no gate. About two hours. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a469e3c35b36.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ff2e7b6f2ffc.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/769ee0838cac.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/664544b5b738.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/be6f02f8c66f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b1c8a477961a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/738425c31d43.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b5ee2850407d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dc30a72b34d4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7e7256ca585e.jpg - The Bund & the Huangpu Ferry (Shanghai): Shanghai's riverfront row of early-twentieth-century banking halls faces Pudong's towers across the water; the public ferry crosses between them, the same boats locals commute on, and mid-river is the one spot that holds both skylines at once. Walked at dusk on day two, and on arrival evening when time allows. - Subtitle: Shanghai's riverfront row of early-twentieth-century banking halls faces Pudong's towers across - Tags: City - Host: Shanghai, Shanghai Lens — Skyline and riverfront culture - Access: Walked at dusk on day two, and on arrival evening when time allows. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e342e5515e52.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/94ac919c3f33.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b3b5bb6e77be.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c6c85a3776e5.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/32d19f0a4d35.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a2a8d5aca0bf.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2bed2bf82423.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8b2b6a2b8939.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b74ea5dc32d6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2b6fbcc1c8fa.jpg - Chengdu Panda Base (Chengdu): the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, visited in the morning: that is when pandas eat, climb and are actually active. You watch them at close range and hear how breeding research and conservation work here. - Subtitle: the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, visited in the morning - Tags: Nature - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture - Access: You watch them at close range and hear how breeding research and conservation work here. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8e596b76ae58.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/201ef19af23f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c910f00284ac.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fb8f2b170763.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f84d52332ce8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3e8e1eba78b6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/106d08f5e8be.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/df22c3d68f08.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/cdab22c7bcf5.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bcdc08962f93.jpg - People's Park Tea (Chengdu): the day's landing place: a chair in the park, a gaiwan, the lidded cup China brews in, and residents all around you chatting, playing cards and spending their evening the Chengdu way. Nothing else is scheduled after it; you stay as long as the tea keeps coming. Why it closes the Chengdu day: after pandas, tuk-tuks and opera, this is where the city shows you what it does with free time. - Subtitle: the day's landing place: a chair in the park, a gaiwan, the - Tags: City - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture - Access: Why it closes the Chengdu day: after pandas, tuk-tuks and opera, this is where the city shows you what it does with free time. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/77584e962219.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/34f6c86b2f9f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a27d0f4e6224.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3b775398e844.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b33e34d550fa.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3cbc8f748897.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aa9f96490a8c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bb9ce7deea94.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1ea505e390f1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/221e3aa47210.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8f2cd09b7914.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2e09c831a6a1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/62048183e783.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9d549716c30b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/54b87e0ee67b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/46bb3f1c4d8b.jpg - Dujiangyan Irrigation System (Dujiangyan): built more than 2,000 years ago and still working, the system manages the Min River without a conventional dam. You walk the main sections and see how the current is split: floodwater one way, irrigation the other, feeding farmland across the Chengdu Plain. The short version of why it matters: the meals you eat all week start in this water. - Subtitle: built more than 2,000 years ago and still working, the system manages - Tags: Heritage - Host: Dujiangyan Local Host, Dujiangyan culture and logistics specialist — A local host who tailors the Dujiangyan chapter around access, timing and food. - Access: The short version of why it matters: the meals you eat all week start in this water. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9d9a43ba2c4d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b973a332521c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ce3d6d1ff035.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ce25c7e954f6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f12326d3279b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d3b5715456fc.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ca6aac1736b0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/271e2d47194f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d3cfbed4c2ec.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d204564d5198.jpg - Mount Qingcheng Taoist temple and conversation (Chengdu): a quiet working temple on one of the mountains where Taoism took shape as an organised religion, chosen over the busy front-gate halls. You sit down with a resident Taoist for a conversation your guide interprets, and get an introduction to tai chi in the courtyard. About four hours including the travel on the mountain. This is a person-to-person arrangement rather than a ticket, so we name no individual, no fixed length and no fixed time slot for it. The mountain cableway and the lake boat are separate site services: whether each is running in your month, and whether it sits inside your price, is stated in writing in your quote. - Subtitle: a quiet working temple on one of the mountains where Taoism took shape as an organised religion, chosen over the busy front-gate halls. - Tags: heritage - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture - Access: The mountain cableway and the lake boat are separate site services: whether each is running during your month, and whether it is included in your price, is stated in writing in your quote. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bcd4261c461c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/052c634fb90a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4e9c7e28a215.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c5469e0896d4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/15fc02c89c86.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4814e6191d4c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f9477edd7aa3.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f11891ed345b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1a09b60c06fc.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/480f1ef460a1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/532f896321c0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fec9f8ac6882.jpg - Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li (Chengdu): a historic neighbourhood built around three parallel lanes, restored and now as much a shopping street as a quarter of old Chengdu; we say that plainly rather than sell it as the last of the old city. Next to it, Taikoo Li shows you what the same city spends its money on today. About two and a half hours on foot with your guide. - Subtitle: a historic neighbourhood built around three parallel lanes, restored and now as much a shopping street as a quarter of old Chengdu; we say that plainly rather than sell it as the last of the old city. - Tags: City - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture - Access: a historic neighbourhood built around three parallel lanes, restored and now as much a shopping street as a quarter of old Chengdu; we say that plainly rather than sell it as the last of the old city. Next to it, Taikoo Li shows you what the same city spends its money on today. About two and a half hours on foot with your guide. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/32a4dc46e28f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/61859314af60.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/cc98f04d1142.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aa2e718f79ba.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/53c7fdc344a2.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/07f3ceea8440.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/813e0ad5e32f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3f12a2960f0c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c3d25d0d0bc4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7d46557f3072.jpg - Terracotta Warriors (Xi'an): the excavation halls outside Xi'an holding the underground army of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, and one of the country's most significant archaeological finds. You look down into the pits at ranked columns of soldiers: individual faces, armour by rank, formations still legible after two millennia of burial. Your guide teaches you to read them: which are officers, which are archers, what the formation was for. Why it rewards a slow visit: the scale reads in one glance, the craftsmanship only up close. - Subtitle: the excavation halls outside Xi'an holding the underground army of Qin Shi - Tags: Heritage - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital - Access: Essential Xi'an access to one of China's most renowned archaeological sites. - Images: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1528866310106-4459b39622ed?q=80&w=2064&auto=format&fit=crop&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/70bc50b897e9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/788c1d294602.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d1bf545bf0ba.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8ff4c8890b77.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9b2f4e2d90b4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ed2c5f141848.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4cd4eb7405cc.jpg - Xi'an City Wall (Xi'an): the Ming-era rampart that still rings the old city, broad enough on top to walk or cycle. You go up in the late afternoon and take it at your pace: a stretch on foot, or a longer run by bike, with the gate towers ahead of you and the moat below. Why it earns its hour: from up here the city explains itself, old streets inside the wall, tower blocks beyond it. - Subtitle: the Ming-era rampart that still encircles the old city, broad enough on - Tags: Active - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital - Access: Why it earns its hour: from up here the city explains itself, old streets inside the wall, tower blocks beyond it. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/daf832e303d0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8f7c7a922b33.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f864b69ac4b1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9c4dc5e6e575.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b69829f31585.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ad143f00bca6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dabb4f7b21b8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e3a18a929d13.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6c4bc5467067.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2a992375c8dd.jpg - Bell and Drum Tower quarter by night (Xi'an): two towers standing at the crossing point of the old street grid, and the eating lanes that run off them, at their busiest after dark. You walk the area at street level with your guide, past the grills, the bread ovens and the noodle counters, and the guide tells you what each stall is making before you decide whether to try it. The walk is in the base price. What you eat along it is on your own account: ask your guide about roujiamo, crisp-baked bread packed with slow-braised pork. - Subtitle: two towers standing at the crossing point of the old street grid, and the eating lanes that run off them, at their busiest after dark. - Tags: city - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital - Access: What you eat along the way is on your own account: ask your guide about roujiamo, crisp-baked bread packed with slow-braised pork. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/be17d6a5ce49.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2be0c598ad8d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/51969f27fcde.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/eb6479ce2db9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/459051d48e01.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/db3514adee28.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e57e1793b04c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bafd604e0dff.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ed200117aca3.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7f12dbe38bcc.jpg - Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (Xi'an): Giant Wild Goose Pagoda reflects Xi'an's role as a Buddhist and Silk Road cultural centre. - Subtitle: A Tang dynasty Buddhist landmark - Tags: Pagoda - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital - Access: A classic Tang-era landmark connected to ancient Chang'an history. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2be95bfc5748.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/eb70bbcc8abb.jpg, https://ak-d.tripcdn.com/images/0HJ2z12000qfv3id4A253_W_1440_810_Q80.webp?proc=source%2ftrip, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f1e0cd6ae0d1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/94916373f524.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4269d987bac0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/542e4f255e79.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7d1e365a232d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/18de0aedb419.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2f0b6d04d98d.jpg - Mutianyu Great Wall (Beijing): A well-restored Great Wall section with open views and easier walking conditions for first-time visitors. - Subtitle: A classic Great Wall section near Beijing - Tags: Great Wall - Host: Beijing, Beijing Lens — Imperial capital and Great Wall - Access: A refined Great Wall experience with flexible cable car or walking options. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f6c07b2f8772.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3a661e194c2f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1b0f83ddd1e5.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7207d6532c2f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e88879531691.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/926d916b9408.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/91465599744f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a720fb1678e6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/608cdc21a04d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9b968ec44131.jpg - Forbidden City (Beijing): The Forbidden City takes visitors into the ceremonial heart of China's Ming and Qing dynasties. - Subtitle: China's imperial palace at the heart of Beijing - Tags: Heritage - Host: Beijing, Beijing Lens — Imperial capital and Great Wall - Access: Core imperial Beijing access with palace courtyards and historic halls. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/03a0a4e882e0.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8a6cdb9ca2b9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7f313a6dab74.jpg, https://dimg04.c-ctrip.com/images/0102h1200087d62rxDD6F.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/de8d1138706b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/936bacaf5cc5.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ff6c2e542310.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/05488de4902e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bab6e6596202.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/85f10b61d841.jpg - Jingshan Park (Beijing): Jingshan Park offers one of the best classic views across the Forbidden City rooftops. - Subtitle: A hilltop view over imperial Beijing - Tags: Viewpoint - Host: Beijing, Beijing Lens — Imperial capital and Great Wall - Access: A short climb rewards travellers with a strong city overview. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/408fc381c4b4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7f313a6dab74.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6a3ff539ffc8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2c700baa4e73.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/00decb026e42.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/51ec43ea0513.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9604ef61c628.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7dc03e9310a1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/964e96f11238.jpg ### Capture banner - Label: Save this itinerary - Title: Send the full route to your inbox - Subtitle: We will include the latest hotels, hosts and pacing notes. - Placeholder: Email address - CTA: Send route - Sent label: Sent ## Itinerary ### Newest First - 12 days Journey #### Shanghai (3 days) - Subtitle: Shanghai - Recommendation: Your driver meets your flight, whatever time it lands. Shanghai is the gentlest place in this country to arrive jet-lagged, and the first day asks nothing of you. - Transport: Flight - Transport mode: airplane Airport pickup · Shanghai through the window · Evening - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6fBOXSWS.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4EbDdFHb.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1Riqjj0n.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/13x1KtnS.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1Q9afrZn.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1VrlDwIi.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1vYpI6NZ.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3PEjxTGx.webp ##### Day 1: Land in the newest city - (transport) — your driver and vehicle will wait for the flight number on your confirmation, and the journey into the city is yours to sleep through. - (sight) — elevated roads, then a wall of towers with their tops in the haze, then plane trees and lit shopfronts at street level. Nothing here looks like the China on the cover of the guidebook, which is the point of starting here. - (note) — nothing is scheduled. Your guide is available, and dinner near the hotel is recommended and can be booked for you if you wish, at your own expense. - (accommodation) Bellagio by MGM Shanghai on the Bund — Hotel stay in Shanghai. ##### Day 2: A garden, a vocabulary, a skyline - (sight) — pavilions, rockery, ponds and a path that never runs straight, dropped inside the oldest quarter of the city. Stand on the zigzag bridge and look up past the roof tiles: the towers of the newest quarter finish the view. Send anyone ahead around the rockery, the path is a loop and it brings them back. - (sight) — your timed slot is booked in advance by us on a mainland number, so you walk in on schedule. Inside: bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, the decorative arts. Your guide selects a handful of objects rather than the whole floor, and every one of them comes from a place you are going: a Sichuan bronze, a Shaanxi tomb figure, a Beijing court hand. - (sight) — the historic bank buildings hold the near bank, the Pudong towers hold the far one, a hundred years apart and looking straight at each other across the water. Your guide stays with you for the whole evening. Stand at the parapet with the ferry crossing behind the light: that is the fifteen seconds worth filming on day two. ##### Day 3: The easy day - (transport) — You walk streets roofed by plane trees, past historic houses and the small shops that have taken over their ground floors. Nothing here is on a list. Look up at the corner building where the two streets meet: everyone on the pavement is photographing the same thing and you will want to as well. - (transport) — you cross the river on the boat people take to work, standing at the rail with commuters and their scooters instead of on a sightseeing deck. The ride is short and the far bank arrives fast. Halfway across, with the towers coming up on one side and the old bank halls going down on the other, you'll feel the twelve days settle into an order. - (sight) — this is the one easy day of the twelve. Both stops shorten if you would rather spend the afternoon on the hotel side of the river. #### Chengdu (3 days) - Subtitle: 成都 - Recommendation: A flight day, and only a flight day. You leave the newest city in the country and land in the one that lives at its own speed. - Transport: High-speed rail - Transport mode: train Transfer and flight · The country changing under the wing · Evening - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5zaqnUda.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/37Mf4mO1.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4BqwVBVY.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1BPFDek8.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2iDGv07g.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4mDgLfna.webp ##### Day 4: Shanghai to Chengdu - (transport) — Hotel to airport, the flight, then airport to hotel, with your own vehicle at both ends and your guide handing you over at the door. The flight number, time and cabin class for your order are written into your quote before you pay. - (sight) — The delta gives way to the Sichuan basin, green and hazy, before the wheels touch down. A window seat is worth asking for. - (note) — Check in and stop. Nothing is scheduled; dinner near the hotel is recommended and can be booked for you if you wish, at your own expense. - (accommodation) Atour Hotel Chengdu Taikoo Li Chunxi Road Pedestrian Street — Hotel stay in Chengdu. ##### Day 5: Pandas, then nowhere to be - (sight) — you are there in the morning, the hours when the pandas are generally moving: eating, climbing down off things, dropping back to sleep in the fork of a tree. Flat shaded paths and about three hours to use as you like. Get to the enclosure fence early and wait: the animal comes over on its own schedule. - (sight) — bamboo chairs under the trees, a gaiwan each, and someone with a long-spouted kettle topping it up for as long as you sit there. Cards at the next table, an ear cleaner two tables over working with a tuning fork. An hour in, you'll notice you've stopped asking what happens next. - (sight) — three hours of it, on the plan. Chengdu is the middle of the trip and the middle is where the pace is set, so the afternoon is not a gap between two better things. ##### Day 6: The oldest day, in the middle - (sight) — A river split in two by hand in the third century BC, still performing the task it was carved for: the plain you drove across this morning is the plain it waters. Stand where the divide is made and follow the two channels with your eyes, one leading to the flood, the other to the fields. - (sight) — forest and stone steps above the works, one of the important Taoist mountains in the country. It is quiet in a specific way: the water noise stops and the birds take over. - (sight) — you sit down with a resident Taoist priest, your guide translating: how a working monastery spends its day, what the mountain is for, and what he makes of the people who come up it. This is the arranged part of the visit and it is included in your price. - (sight) — The return journey is included and you stay in the same hotel as last night. Bags stay packed. #### Xi'an (3 days) - Subtitle: Xi'an - Recommendation: A commercial morning we are not going to pretend is anything else, then a high-speed train through the Qinling range. You go to bed in a much older city than you woke up in. - Transport: High-speed rail - Transport mode: train Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li · High-speed rail to Xi'an · Arrival in Xi'an - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ggo1yYnD.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2IrwPATt.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3DF4Fowd.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2SYFFac8.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2z6MDkku.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/34qxDxFA.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3G0oTlIq.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/56RpQD9k.webp ##### Day 7: Three lanes, then north - (sight) — three parallel lanes of a historic neighbourhood, and next to them the newest shopping quarter in the city, built around a restored temple. Both are commercial and busy. Walk them anyway with your guide: this is where the same city sets a price on its past and its present within a few hundred metres of each other. - (transport) — the afternoon train runs north through the Qinling range, the divide between southern and northern China, and comes out the other side in dry countryside. Take a seat on the right and watch the vegetation change: bamboo and wet green go to bare rock and loess in a couple of hours. The seat class for your order is written into your quotation. - (transport) — the private vehicle takes you from the station to the hotel. Nothing is scheduled tonight. - (accommodation) Somerset Xindicheng Xi'an — Hotel stay in Xian. ##### Day 8: The buried army - (sight) — You stand at the rail above the pits, an estimated eight thousand figures in formation below and around you. Your guide reads the ranks: armour and hairstyle separate the generals from the crossbowmen and the foot soldiers, and in the more recently excavated ground there are patches where the original paint survives. - (sight) — visitor numbers here run very high in peak season, and the site is a long way out of the city. Your guide chooses the hall order around the crowd rather than the map. - (sight) — get close to one face on the front rank and stay with it a while. No two of them were made to look the same, and it is the individual faces, rather than the number, that people remember. ##### Day 9: On top of the wall, then under the towers - (sight) — you go up onto one of the most complete surviving city walls in China and walk a stretch of it, the parapet at shoulder height on both sides. Look down on one side, then the other: modern blocks on the outside, grey-tiled roofs on the inside, and you standing on the line that separates them. Wall-top access is in your price; bicycle hire is not, and your quote states in writing what is on offer on your date. - (sight) — the two towers stand lit in the middle of the traffic, and behind them the food streets of the Muslim Quarter run for blocks: bread slapped onto the inside of a drum oven, whole spices ground in the doorway, meat turned over coals. Your guide reads the signboards and tells you what is in front of you before you buy it. - (sight) — your guide points and you choose; what you eat and drink is on your own account. Go in hungry and eat in small amounts across several stalls rather than sitting down once. #### Beijing (3 days) - Subtitle: Beijing - Recommendation: A working religious site in the morning, a high-speed train in the afternoon, and the last city of the trip by evening. From here on, everything is imperial. - Transport: Flight - Transport mode: airplane Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · High-speed rail to Beijing · Evening - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1cZHxWkg.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/14h8ZnOb.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/17bdSgjF.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/PHYYdt4F.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1bDq9gT4.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1vwu9mIQ.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1X29GyUB.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1xVI7jTc.webp ##### Day 10: The pagoda, then the capital - (sight) — The pagoda stands within a walled compound that remains in religious use, with the cultural area arranged around it. You stroll the grounds rather than the tower: climbing the pagoda is ticketed separately and is not included in your price. Stand back far enough to capture the whole tower in a single frame and you will also take in the square, the plane trees and the people making use of both. - (transport) — the afternoon train runs north across the loess country and the North China Plain. The seat class for your order is written into your quote, and the private vehicle meets you at the Beijing end. - (note) — Nothing is scheduled. Two nights here, and both of the next two days are full. - (accommodation) Novotel Beijing Peace — Hotel stay in Beijing. ##### Day 11: A whole day on the wall - (transport) — the run north out of the city is long, and the vehicle stays with you all day, so the return time is set by you rather than by a bus. - (sight) — you climb up on foot to a restored stretch with watchtowers running away along the ridge in both directions. Your guide reads it as you walk: beacon towers, the pass below, why the sightlines fall where they do. The chairlift, the cable car and the toboggan here are separately ticketed and are not in your price, so plan on the climb on foot unless your quote says otherwise in writing. - (sight) — walk out to the far tower of the restored section and look back along the ridge with the towers stepping down it. That is fifteen seconds' worth of filming, and it needs the whole day you've just given it. ##### Day 12: One axis, then the hill - (sight) — your timed slot is reserved in advance by us on a mainland number, so you walk straight in on schedule. Inside, one axis: the ceremonial halls where the court conducted its business, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden at the far end, then out through the north gate. Stand in the middle of the main courtyard and look back through the gates you came in by: they line up, one inside another, all the way out to the street. - (sight) — the palace is large and guests often find it tiring, so the route follows that single line and stops at the seats we know. - (sight) — straight out of the north gate and up the stepped path to the pavilion on top. - (transport) — your driver takes you to the airport with time to spare. If your flight is late in the day, tell us and we plan the gap around your check-out rather than around a schedule. ## Hotels ### Shanghai Royal Garden Hotel (Shanghai International Resort) - City: Shanghai - Description: Shanghai Royal Garden Hotel: a luxury garden hotel near Pudong Airport and Disneyland, with free shuttle service to both. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a07e8f886100.jpg ### Atour Hotel (Beijing West Railway Station South Square) - City: Beijing - Description: Upscale local hotel near Beijing West Railway Station South Square. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dHqyz391.webp ### Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast - City: Beijing - Description: International luxury hotel in Beijing, ideal for business trips and city breaks. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bWOFYezP.jpg ### Pullman Shanghai Zhongganghui Hotel - City: Shanghai - Description: Pullman Shanghai Zhongganghui Hotel, in Dapuqiao near Tianzifang, steps from Metro Line 9 and the Expo site. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5xOD9FRB.webp ### Hilton Chengdu Chenghua - City: Chengdu - Description: A practical Chengdu base for travellers who want easy city access, relaxed days out, and a comfortable return after sightseeing. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3pup59R7.webp ### Sheraton Xi'an North City Hotel - City: Xi'an - Description: Sheraton Xi'an North City: five-star luxury five minutes from the Daming Palace, with an indoor pool and wellness centre. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/k01OUBYw.jpg ### DoubleTree by Hilton Beijing East Third Ring Road - City: Beijing - Description: International upscale hotel in Beijing, suitable for business and leisure stays. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/kkFJOiOe.webp ### Atour S Hotel Shanghai Hongqiao Centre Aegean - City: Shanghai - Description: Atour S Hotel in Hongqiao: steps from Aegean Place and Metro Line 10, six km from the National Exhibition and Convention Centre. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ciHY2Qvs.webp ### The Temple House - City: Chengdu - Description: Boutique luxury hotel set within a restored Qing-dynasty courtyard near Taikoo Li, boasting one of Chengdu's most striking design statements. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2Dh9ApbX.webp ## Included / Excluded ### What's Included - Hotels: 11 nights at your chosen level, four-star, five-star or quality boutique, breakfast included: Shanghai 3 · Chengdu 3 · Xi'an 3 · Beijing 2. Hotels are named in your written confirmation - Breakfasts: 11 hotel breakfasts, one on each of days two through twelve - Airport pickup and drop-off: Private vehicle transfers: Shanghai airport pickup on day one with meet-and-greet on arrival, and Beijing airport drop-off on day twelve. - Intercity transport: One domestic flight, Shanghai to Chengdu on day four, and two high-speed rail legs, Chengdu to Xi'an on day seven and Xi'an to Beijing on day ten. All three are included in the base price. Cabin and seat class are being finalised, so your quote states in writing the class for your booking. - Station and hotel transfers: Private vehicle between hotel and airport or rail station for all three intercity legs - Private vehicle: Air-conditioned private vehicle with driver on every touring day in all four cities, including the full-day Great Wall round trip and the day out to Dujiangyan and Mount Qingcheng, returning to Chengdu the same evening - Guide: Licensed English-speaking local guide on every touring day in each city, including the Bund evening on day two and the Bell and Drum Towers quarter evening on day nine - Tickets and experiences, Shanghai: Yu Garden and the old city · Shanghai Museum with the timed reservation booked by us on a mainland number · the Bund and the Pudong skyline in the evening, guide accompanied · the Former French Concession and Wukang Road walk · the Huangpu River ferry ticket - Tickets and experiences, Chengdu: The panda base in the morning · one gaiwan tea seat per guest with refills in People's Park · the Dujiangyan irrigation system · Mount Qingcheng with the arranged conversation with a resident Taoist priest · the Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li walk - Tickets and experiences, Xi'an: The Terracotta Warriors with on-site commentary by your guide · wall-top access to the Xi'an City Wall · the pagoda grounds and cultural area at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · the guided Bell and Drum Towers quarter evening walk - Tickets and experiences, Beijing: Mutianyu Great Wall scenic-area entrance with the full-day private vehicle from central London and back · the Forbidden City with the timed reservation booked by us on a mainland number · Jingshan Park - Insurance: Travel accident insurance for every guest ### Not Included - International flights: Flights into Shanghai and out of Beijing - Visas: Visa fees and processing for guests who require a Chinese visa, including all US guests on this route - Lunches and dinners: All lunches and dinners are on your own account. Your guide recommends and books on request - Separately ticketed items inside sites: Cable cars · open chairlifts · toboggan rides · shuttle buggies inside a park · climbing a pagoda or tower · special exhibitions · audio-guide hire. None of these is included on this route unless it is named above, which means the way up and down at Mutianyu and climbing the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda are on your own account - Bicycle hire on the city wall: Access to the top of the wall is included; the bicycle itself is not. - Optional add-ons: No priced optional add-on is offered on this route in this release, and nothing outside the included list is folded into your base plan - Personal: Gratuities, single or extra-room difference, laundry, communications, personal spending ### Special Notes A few things on this route follow the calendar, the season or a partner's written answer. Here they are, told straight. - Bookings are not open yet: four things have to be written down first. One, the class of the day-four flight and the two rail legs, booked against the actual fourth-quarter timetable. Two, a written answer from our ground partners on the three fourth-quarter items below. Three, whether this route runs during the national holiday week. Four, Until those items are settled we take no orders and no deposits. Tell us your dates and we will write to you the day it opens. - Going up and down at Mutianyu: The scenic-area ticket and the full-day private vehicle are included in your price. The open chairlift, the cable car and the toboggan are separately ticketed, are not included in your price, and are not guaranteed, as their November and December operating hours and stop conditions have not been confirmed with us in writing. Each quote states the uphill and downhill arrangement for that departure date. Plan on walking. - Bicycles on the Xi'an City Wall: Wall-top access is included in your price. Whether bicycles are available for hire on your date is confirmed in writing per booking, and walking a section is the standard alternative, as specified in this itinerary. - The tai chi session on Mount Qingcheng: The mountain ticket and the conversation with the resident priest are included in your price. Whether the tai chi session takes place outdoors or indoors on your date is being finalised with our partners for the fourth quarter and is stated in writing in your quote. The mountain is damp and cold in late autumn and winter. - Departure dates: no departures between 1 and 7 October, the national holiday week, until the holiday decision is settled: crowd levels and advance ticket locks at the Terracotta Warriors and the Forbidden City are not resolved for that week. Thursday departures are not accepted either, because day twelve would then fall on a Monday, when the Forbidden City closes; if you are set on a Thursday, days eleven and twelve swap places. - Two timed reservations: the Forbidden City and the Shanghai Museum both admit by timed slot and both booking systems are difficult on a non-mainland phone number, so we book both on a mainland number using your confirmation details. The Shanghai Museum's own published closing calendar is checked against your dates when the departure is set. Our own booking capability for these two is still being confirmed internally, and we will tell you where it stands before you are asked for anything. - Day twelve is a departure day: the Forbidden City sits in the city centre and its reservation slot is set against your flight time, so this day is cut to fit rather than run to a fixed plan. If your flight is early, the palace route shortens to the main axis and Jingshan comes off. - Evenings on the Bund: Strangers on the waterfront who open with an invitation to practise English or to see a tea ceremony are running a bill scam on visitors. Your guide is with you for that whole evening, which is why it is arranged for your first full night rather than left to you. - Intercity transport: one flight and two rail legs, so a date change touches transport inventory as well as hotel and reservation inventory. The class for your order is written into your quote, and the fourth-quarter timetable on all three legs is confirmed for your dates before anything is charged. - Visa window: the 30-day visa-free policy currently runs through December 31, 2026. Because this is a 12-day plan, departures on or before December 20, 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, and 12 days is longer than the 10-day visa-free transit policy allows, so every US guest on this route holds a Chinese tourist or business visa, including a ten-year multiple-entry one. The fee and the appointment are the guest's own and processing time has to be allowed before departure. This route's US position is still in compliance review, and no US order is accepted before that review is finished. - Entering under the transit policy: guests who entered China under the 10-day visa-free transit policy cannot take this trip, because 12 days is longer than that policy allows. We say so before payment and we do not work around it. - 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 own change and refund conditions. ## Is Twelve Days Your Length? Fewer than twelve days? ### Fewer than twelve days? The four cities come apart cleanly, and the order is the part worth keeping. Shanghai plus Beijing makes a short version that still runs newest to oldest; dropping Xi'an costs you the buried army; dropping Chengdu costs you the middle of the trip, which is where the pace lives. Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we cut cities rather than cut nights: three nights in one place is the thing this plan is built on. ## Good to Know - Group: Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size. - Pace: Four cities in 12 days: three nights each in Shanghai, Chengdu and Xi'an, two in Beijing, with one easy day and three half-day travel days - Effort: Full touring days. The two longest on foot are the Great Wall day and the Forbidden City day; the wall's uphill transport is not included in your price, so plan on the climb on foot unless your quote states otherwise. The city wall in Xi'an is walked rather than ridden in this plan. - Ports: Shanghai in, Beijing out; airport pickup on day one and drop-off on day twelve - Visas: UK · French · German · Dutch · Belgian · Italian · Spanish · Portuguese · Greek · Nordic · Central European · Irish · Canadian · Australian · New Zealand passports currently enter visa-free for stays days, checked order by order against your dates. US passports need a Chinese visa for this route, and the US market position on this route is still in compliance review - Language: Licensed English-speaking local guides throughout, city by city - Payment: When this route opens for booking: 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 - Season: Selling window October to December 2026. No departures October 1 to 7 while the holiday decision is open; no Thursday departures, because day twelve would fall on a Monday when the Forbidden City closes; departures after December 20, 2026 are quoted only after the visa-free renewal is announced - Weather: October is the mildest month of the three in all four cities. November and December are cold and dry in Xi'an and Beijing, damp and cold on Mount Qingcheng, and the outdoor days are the ones to dress for ## Your Private Concierge - Name: Jason Hu - Title: Private China Route Concierge - Tagline: A bilingual planning desk for tailor-made China journeys. - Bio: Our China team tailors the pacing, hotels and local hosts to suit each route style. - Avatar image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c0TBypRh.png ### Stats - 20+ Years - 300+ Trips designed - 24/7 On-trip care ### The Conversation Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates and who's coming — and if this length isn't right for you, we'll say so and shape a shorter arc. First reply within four hours; a clear price for your dates within one business day. - CTA: Start the conversation ### Step 01: Tell us what excites you Not your dates and budget — your curiosity. Where have you always wanted to go? What do you want to feel? We start there. - 24h: First concept delivered ### Step 02: We design it around you Your specialist builds the itinerary from scratch — routes, hosts, hotels, and experiences you won't find anywhere else. - 100%: Bespoke, never off-the-shelf ### Step 03: Lock it in with 10% When the plan feels right, a 10% deposit holds your entire trip. Balance due 30 days before departure. - 10%: Deposit to secure everything ### Step 04: Travel. We handle the rest. 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. - 24/7: Support throughout your journey - Free cancellation up to 30 days - English-speaking concierge - Secure payment via Stripe - CTA: Talk to Us ## Guest Reviews - Overall rating: 4.9 - Total reviews: 523 - Count label: from 523 verified reviews 4.9 / 5 ### Platforms - google: 4.9 (312 reviews) - tripadvisor: 5.0 (211 reviews) - Filter tabs: All, Google, TripAdvisor - Emily Carter (🇺🇸 Seattle, USA · 5★ · May 2026 · google): Perfect for couples - My partner and I had an amazing time in China. Everything was arranged for us — transfers, hotels, guides. No stress at all. - Claire Brooks (🇬🇧 London, UK · 5★ · Apr 2026 · tripadvisor): Great for families - Traveled with my two kids and had zero issues. The team made sure the pace wasn't too rushed and included things the kids would enjoy. Communication was easy throughout. Will definitely use them again for our next Asia trip. - Laura Bennett (🇨🇦 Toronto, Canada · 5★ · Mar 2026 · google): Alisa made the whole experience easy - Alisa was our point of contact throughout and she was brilliant — patient, knowledgeable, and always quick to reply. The trip itself was wonderful. Beijing and Guilin were highlights. - Mark Henderson (🇺🇸 Denver, USA · 4★ · Feb 2026 · tripadvisor): Good service, minor hiccup but sorted quickly - Really good service. There was a small mix-up with one of our restaurant bookings but it got sorted quickly. The rest of the trip was seamless. - Rebecca Miller (🇺🇸 Boston, USA · 5★ · Jan 2026 · google): Really listened to what we wanted - Really helpful team. They listened to what we wanted and delivered. Beijing and Xi'an were incredible. ## China Ready We've solved the hard parts. Here's everything a first-time Western traveller needs to know before arriving. ### VPN & Internet Access - Badge: Do this before you fly - What's blocked: Google, Gmail, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and most Western news sites are inaccessible in China without a VPN. - Download before you leave: It's nearly impossible to download a VPN once inside China. Install and test at home. Recommended: Astrill (most reliable), Mullvad, ExpressVPN — subscribe to at least two in case one stops working. - Hotel Wi-Fi tip: Some hotels block VPN connections on their Wi-Fi. Use your phone's mobile data as a hotspot if the VPN drops. - Good news: WhatsApp works perfectly through a VPN, so your messaging stays unchanged. Apple iMessage and Signal also work. ### Paying in China - Badge: Your concierge sets this up on Day 1 - China is cashless: Alipay and WeChat Pay are used for almost everything — restaurants, taxis, markets, tickets. Cash is rarely accepted in cities. - International cards now work: Foreign Visa/Mastercard can now link directly to Alipay (set up in minutes, $5,000 single transaction limit). Your concierge walks you through the setup on your first morning. - Carry some cash: We recommend ¥500–800 RMB in cash for the rare vendor that won't accept digital payment, and for small towns. - Booking this trip: Your deposit and balance are charged via Stripe — the same trusted platform used by Airbnb and Booking.com. USD billing, no surprise conversion fees. ### Visa & Entry - Badge: We handle the paperwork - Do you need a visa?: Most US, UK, EU, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand passport holders need a tourist (L) visa for stays over 10 days. We provide a visa invitation letter with every booking — it significantly speeds up approval. - 240-hour visa-free transit: Citizens of 55+ countries (including USA, UK, most of EU, AUS, NZ, Canada) can enter China visa-free for up to 10 days if transiting through eligible ports. This covers our 12-day itinerary only if you have a confirmed onward flight. - Processing time: Apply 4–6 weeks before departure. Standard processing: 4–7 business days. Express (3 days) and same-day options available at most Chinese consulates. - What we provide: Visa invitation letter, hotel confirmation for all nights, suggested itinerary document — everything the consulate needs, formatted correctly. ### Safety & Practical Tips - Badge: Our responsibility, always - Is China safe?: China consistently ranks among the safest countries for foreign tourists. Violent crime against visitors is extremely rare. Cities have extensive CCTV coverage and a visible police presence. - Emergency numbers: Police: 110. Ambulance: 120. Your concierge is your first call for any non-emergency situation — she has local contacts for every city on the itinerary. - Health & medications: Bring a full supply of any prescription medication. International pharmacies exist in major cities but may not carry your brand. Travel insurance is required — we can recommend policies that cover China specifically. - Language: English fluency outside hotels and tourist sites is limited. Your guides all speak English. We provide a printed pocket card with essential Chinese phrases and emergency contacts for every traveller. ## Before You Book Everything worth knowing before you book. ### Why start in Shanghai? Doesn't China start in Beijing? Most plans do start there, and this one deliberately does not. Beijing gives you a palace finished in 1420 on day one, before you have any idea what you are looking at; the objects, the roof lines and the axis all arrive at once. Run it the other way and each city is older than the last, so every stop explains the one before it: the skyline, then the city that lives at its own speed, then the buried army and the wall, then the palace and the hill facing it. Practically, it also lands you in the country's easiest city to arrive jet-lagged, and it puts the Great Wall on day eleven rather than the last day, where weather or an early flight could take it away. ### How do we get up the Great Wall? On foot, as this plan is written. Mutianyu has an open chairlift, a cable car and a toboggan, and all three are separately ticketed: they are not in your price and we do not promise them, because their November and December operating hours and stop conditions have not been confirmed with us in writing. We would rather tell you that than sell you a ride that is closed on your date. What you do get either way is the scenic-area ticket, the full-day private vehicle from central Beijing and back, your guide for the whole day, and a day that carries nothing else, so the pace on the steps is yours. Your quote states in writing the uphill and downhill arrangement for your departure date. ### Two nights in Beijing. Is that enough for the Great Wall and the Forbidden City? It is enough for those two and nothing more, which is the trade this plan makes on purpose. Day eleven is the wall, all day, because the drive out is long. Day twelve is the palace on one axis and then the hill facing it, cut to fit your flight. What Beijing does not get here is a third day for the parks, the hutongs and the temples. If you want that day, tell us: the honest way to buy it is to take it off Chengdu, and we will say which day that costs you. ### Do we need a visa? Most guests on this route do not. UK · French · German · Dutch · Belgian · Italian · Spanish · Portuguese · Greek · Nordic · Central European · Irish · Canadian · Australian · New Zealand passports currently enter visa-free for stays days, and before you pay we check your 12 days plus any other days in China against that window. The current policy runs through December 31, 2026, so departures on or before December 20, 2026 finish inside it. US passports are different: the US is not on that list, and 12 days is longer than the 10-day transit policy allows, so US guests hold a Chinese tourist or business visa, with the fee and the appointment their own. This route's US position is still in compliance review and we are not taking US orders until it is finished. If the dates do not fit, we say so instead of selling. ### Can we book today? Not yet, and we will not take a deposit to hold a plan whose terms are not finished. the remaining items have to be settled: the class of the flight and the two rail legs, the fourth-quarter answers on the three outdoor items above, whether this route runs during the national holiday week, and with its What you can do now is tell us your dates and who is coming. We will hold your dates in the queue, tell you where each of the four stands, and write to you the day the route opens.