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Beijing Arrivals · Shanghai Departures
18 Days & 17 Nights — Private · Custom Itinerary
Moderate. The Great Wall climb is done by cable car and the descent by toboggan, the city wall in Xi'an is ridden rather than walked, and two days in the plan carry nothing but one place each.
China spent two thousand years building walls, and the same two thousand years building the things that cross them. This plan follows that argument in order rather than by map. Beijing gives you two kinds of wall, one that keeps people out of a palace and one that runs along a ridge to keep horses out of a country. Xi'an gives you the road that left the country, and a wall you ride around instead of standing on. Chengdu slows the middle down, and one morning outside it you stand on a water divide from the 3rd century BC that is still doing its job. Shanghai is where the water finally gets out. By the end you'll be able to explain this country to someone at your own kitchen table.
— LyrikTrip travel designers
Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates, who is coming and how many days you actually have. First reply within four hours; a clear price for your dates within one business day. On this route we will also tell you, before you are asked for anything, exactly where the river purchase stands, and whether a shorter version that stops at Dujiangyan serves you better than waiting.
The first day asks nothing of anyone. Beijing is outside the window and it keeps until tomorrow.
A palace built as one wall within another, walked in a single line. Today you experience both its interior and its form.
A cable car takes you up and a sled brings you down. What the wall was actually built to stop is the part worth staying for.
Round belongs to heaven, square belongs to earth. Today the country's lines are ceremonial rather than military.
Beijing's last gift is people rather than monuments. Then the country's newest infrastructure carries you to its oldest capital.
An estimated eight thousand figures, buried so that one emperor would not have to arrive anywhere alone. Today is about what one person's power looked like when it was total.
Beijing's walls kept you outside. This one you ride around, at your own pace, for as long as you like.
One pagoda built to hold what came back along the road. Then a train through the mountains, and the climate changes on you.
The pandas in the hours they are actually awake, then a chair you do not have to get up from. Today is the day the trip stops asking anything of you.
The oldest working thing you will stand on in China, and the centre of this whole route. You go out and come back the same day.
Two thousand years of reliable harvests bought Chengdu its temperament. Today you spend it.
A short train ride is what is real about today. What happens after you step off it is not bought.
The boarding day, in outline only. The ship it refers to has not been booked.
The narrowest and deepest part of the river, in outline only.
The day the same river is stopped. Which day it actually lands on is not settled.
A morning of moving and then, on your first evening here, the waterfront. The city is the answer to everything upstream.
A classical garden in the morning and, in the afternoon, the things you have spent seventeen days standing next to.
Plane trees in the morning, a working ferry at midday, then the airport. The last thing you do in China is cross the river on a boat nobody built for you.
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Several things on this route follow a purchase, a calendar or a season. Here they are, told straight.
Fewer than eighteen days?
The route comes apart along its own chapters. The wall chapter and the road chapter stand on their own; the wall, the road and the water as far as Dujiangyan still carry the whole argument, and that shorter shape avoids the river stretch that is holding this route back. We can plan it against your dates, priced when it is quoted. Tell us how many days you actually have, and we cut chapters rather than cut 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.
24h
First concept delivered
Step 02
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
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
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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Support throughout your journey





























































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