Overview

Most first trips to China run Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Shanghai, and stop there. This one breaks in the middle and goes up. On day eight a train climbs from about 500 meters to about 2,000, and that day carries nothing else: no sights, no plan waiting at the other end. Two days later you come back down and the country turns into a city again. Beijing gives you an axis and a wall. Xi'an gives you an army, and a wall you ride around instead of look at. Chengdu gives you an afternoon nobody organizes. Shanghai sends you home from the water. By the time you land in Shanghai, you'll defend that empty day to anyone who asks what you did with it.

— 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 where the shuttle pricing, the hotels and the departure window stand before you are asked for anything, because this route is not on sale yet and we would rather say that first than last.

Why you'll love this trip

  • The classics, plus altitude. The Terracotta Warriors, pandas, high speed trains and the Bund, with English speaking guides city by city.
  • 14 days from the Forbidden City to lakes at 3,000 meters. See both Chinas.
  • Walk one axis through the Forbidden City, out the north gate, and straight up Jingshan Park to look back down on the roofs you just spent the morning under.
  • Ride the top of the Xi'an City Wall on a bicycle instead of walking a section of it: the bicycle is in your price, the wall is flat, and the city sits below you on both sides the whole way.
  • Sit an afternoon in the People's Park teahouse with a gaiwan, the lidded cup China brews in, refilled as long as you stay.
  • Give a whole day to one valley of water at 2,000 to 3,100 meters, and finish it in the early afternoon rather than at closing time.
  • See pandas in the mountain forest they come from, at the Jiawuhai Panda Center up on the plateau, a day after you saw them in the research base outside Chengdu.
  • End on the Bund after dark with your guide beside you: the old waterfront on one bank, the Pudong towers on the other, one city looking at itself across the water.
  • Take the ascent day as an ascent day: nothing scheduled on the way up, two nights at the same altitude before the valley day, and a full travel day again on the way back down.
Tour route mapTour route: Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou, ShanghaiBeijing · ArrivalsD1–D3Xi'anD4–D5ChengduD6–D7JiuzhaigouD8–D10Shanghai · DeparturesD11–D13
Things to do
We are loading the host-led experiences for the second half of the page.

Itinerary

Beijing · Day 1 - Day 3

Beijing
Beijing
Beijing

Day 1 · Land, and do nothing

Your driver meets your flight, whatever time it lands. Nothing is asked of you today.

Airport pickup Your driver and vehicle are waiting for the flight number on your confirmation, and the run into the city is yours to sleep through.
Beijing through the window Ring roads first, then poplars and lit shopfronts along an ordinary city street. The country you flew this far for shows up 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 axis, then the hill behind it

Five centuries in one straight line, walked at ground level. Then you go up and see the whole thing at once.

The Forbidden City Your timed slot is booked ahead by us, so you walk in on schedule. Inside, one axis: the ceremonial halls where the court did its business, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden at the end. 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 square.
Out the north gate to Jingshan Park The palace's back gate opens onto a hill built from the earth dug out of the moats, and the climb to the pavilion on top takes about twenty minutes. From the rail you look straight back down the way you came: golden roofs in ranks, and the city's central axis running out through them to the north and to the south. It takes a second up there to work out that the small courtyards below are the ones you were standing in an hour ago.
Pace The palace is large and guests often find it tiring, so the route stops at the seats we know about, and this day is never set on a Monday, when the palace is closed. If your dates would put it there, this day and the Great Wall day swap places.

Day 3 · A wall with the country on both sides

North out of the city for most of the morning, for a ridge you can walk along. Today is one thing, done properly.

Drive out to Mutianyu The run north takes a good part of the morning, which is why nothing else is on today; the vehicle stays with you all day.
Up to the wall The cable car, the open chairlift and the toboggan are sold at the gate and paid on site, and the stepped path is the alternative. Your guide tells you which line is moving before you choose. Admission and the walk on top are already yours.
The restored section You walk between watchtowers along the ridge, and your guide reads the wall out loud: what a beacon tower did, where the pass below sits, why the sightlines run the way they do. Look along the ridge with the towers stepping down it one after another: that is the fifteen seconds worth filming.
High-speed rail

Xi'an · Day 4 - Day 5

Xi'an
Xi'an
Xi'an

Day 4 · Three rooms of the same argument, then a train

A square, a temple and a museum in one morning, in that order for a reason. The afternoon belongs to the railway.

Tian'anmen Square You cross the ceremonial center of modern China on foot. Everyone is screened to enter and the queue takes its own half hour to an hour, so it sits in the day's budget separately; your guide walks you to the nearest screening entrance rather than the long way around.
Temple of Heaven Three buildings on one line, where the emperor came twice a year to ask for the harvest. Your guide gives you the code at the first terrace and then lets you find it yourself: round is heaven, square is earth, and after that you cannot stop reading the shapes. Come through the park gate rather than the front: the neighborhood is out doing its morning here.
National Museum of China On the east side of the square, and the one place on this route where bronzes, ceramics, sculpture and calligraphy stand in a single chronological line. Your reservation is booked by us. This is the visit that flexes on the day: your guide sizes it to the time left before the train rather than cutting the train fine.
Afternoon train to Xi'an About five hours on China's high speed railway, station transfers at both ends in your own vehicle. The north flattens out and then starts to fold; you arrive in a city with a wall around its middle.

Day 5 · Eight thousand faces, then a street that eats

The army in the morning, while the pits are still quiet. The old center after dark, while it is working.

Terracotta Warriors An estimated eight thousand figures, found in 1974 by farmers digging a well. Your guide teaches you to read rank before you look: armor, hairstyle, stance, and suddenly the rows are a general, crossbowmen, foot soldiers rather than a crowd. In the more recently excavated area, some figures still hold traces of their original paint. Stand at the end of Pit 1 and look down the length of it. You'll lower your voice without deciding to.
Back into the city The site sits about an hour east of Xi'an, and the afternoon is left open on purpose so the evening is not a rush.
Bell Tower, Drum Tower and the Muslim Quarter Two towers at the center of the old grid, one that rang the day open and one that closed it, and behind them the lanes where the city's Hui community has cooked and traded for centuries. Your guide walks the evening with you and tells you what each stall is making before you commit to it. Food here is bought by the piece, on your own account.
High-speed rail

Chengdu · Day 6 - Day 7

Chengdu
Chengdu
Chengdu

Day 6 · Ride the wall, then move

A flat 14 kilometers on top of a rampart, at whatever speed you like. Then the second train of the trip.

Xi'an City Wall by bicycle You ride up onto one of the most complete surviving city walls in China and go around the top of it. Your bicycle is in the price. On your left the old grid of roofs, on your right the towers of the new city; both are at your shoulder, neither is in your way. Turn back whenever you have had enough, or walk a section instead.
Room to spare The ride is set in the morning so the afternoon train is not compressed, and the hotel holds your bags after check out.
Afternoon train to Chengdu About four hours on the line that goes under the Qinling mountains, the range that divides northern China from southern. You leave a dry city with a wall and arrive in a wet one with tea shops open at ten at night.

Day 7 · Pandas in the morning, nowhere to be after lunch

The one animal everyone came to see, at the hour it is awake. Then an afternoon with no next thing.

Chengdu panda base 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 an enclosure fence early and wait: the animal comes over on its own schedule, not on yours.
Teahouse sitting in People's Park Bamboo chairs under the trees, a gaiwan each, the lidded cup China brews in, and a man with a long spouted kettle who refills it as long as you stay. Cards at the next table, an ear cleaner working with a tuning fork two tables over. About three hours are set aside, which is the point rather than an accident. An hour in, you'll notice you have stopped checking what time it is.
High-speed rail

Jiuzhaigou · Day 8 - Day 10

Jiuzhaigou
Jiuzhaigou
Jiuzhaigou

Day 8 · The day that goes up

A train climbs from about 500 meters to about 2,000, and that is the entire day. Nothing is waiting for you at the top.

Train to Jiuzhaigou Around three and a half hours on the line that runs northwest out of the Sichuan basin. The window does the work: rice country, then gorges, then bare rock and the first prayer flags, then a plateau that stays wide and open the rest of the way.
Arrival at about 2,000 meters Your driver takes you to the hotel and the afternoon is yours to do nothing with. Thin air is worth taking seriously on the first day: walk slowly, drink more water than you want to, and let your body catch up.
Why the day is empty This is the design, not a gap. We decline requests to add sightseeing here or to make the round trip in a single day, because the valley day tomorrow is what the altitude was spent on.

Day 9 · A whole day of water

Lake after lake between about 2,000 and 3,100 meters, at the pace the shuttle sets. You finish early on purpose.

Into the valley Your park admission is in your price; the shuttle ticket is bought at the gate on your own account, and the whole valley is toured on that shuttle system, because the lake groups are too far apart to walk in a day. Your guide picks the loop on the morning itself, by season and by how many people are in the park.
Five Flower Lake Shallow, and clear enough that the trees which fell into it long ago are still visible lying on the bottom, whole. Stand on the boardwalk above the narrow end and look straight down rather than across.
Nuorilang Falls Wide rather than tall, a curtain of water coming off a terrace of travertine several hundred meters across. The sound arrives before the view does.
Pace at altitude Everything today is walked slowly and sat down often, and the visit closes in the early afternoon so that nobody is chasing the last shuttle.

Day 10 · Pandas where they are from

The same animal you met outside Chengdu, three days later and 1,500 meters higher. Today is the light one.

Jiawuhai Panda Center Pandas up here in the kind of mountain forest the species comes from, rather than in a city enclosure. About three hours, and the contrast with the research base outside Chengdu is the reason both are on this route: one is where the science happens, this is where the animal belongs.
A second day at altitude The rest of the day carries nothing, which is deliberate: it is your second night at about 2,000 meters and your last one before you go back down.
The valley in the evening The light goes off the ridge early up here and the temperature drops with it. Bring the layer you have been carrying since Beijing.
High-speed rail

Chengdu · Day 11

Chengdu
Chengdu
Chengdu

Day 11 · Back down

The morning is free, the afternoon is the train, and by evening you are at 500 meters again.

A free morning Nothing is scheduled before the train. It is the same descent day the ascent day was, run in reverse and given the same room.
Afternoon train to Chengdu The same three and a half hours back through the gorges, with your driver at both ends. The plateau closes behind you and the basin opens up green and hazy.
Chengdu, one night This stop exists because the round trip requires it, and we do not dress it up as a stay. Check in, eat somewhere your guide points you to, sleep at 500 meters.
Flight

Shanghai · Day 12 - Day 14

Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai

Day 12 · Two Chengdus, then a plane

Old lanes and new glass in the morning, a painted face in the afternoon, the coast by night.

Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li Three parallel lanes of gray brick courtyards, restored and full of teahouses and shops, and then the low glass blocks of a modern retail district built around a Song dynasty temple. Both are busy and commercial; you go for the two of them side by side, and for what is sold on the street.
Community Sichuan opera A neighborhood house rather than a hotel ballroom. You go backstage before it starts and watch the paint go on, then sit close enough to face changing to fail to catch it anyway: the mask becomes another mask in the time it takes the performer to swing his head.
Evening flight to Shanghai About two and a half hours in the air, your own driver at both ends, and your Shanghai guide taking over at the hotel door. You went up a mountain on Monday and you land at sea level on Friday.

Day 13 · The city that faces itself

A garden, a museum and a waterfront, in the order that makes the last one land.

Yu Garden and the old city Pavilions, rockery, ponds and a path that never runs straight, dropped inside the oldest quarter of the city. A Ming dynasty official built it for his father, which is why the scale is domestic. Flat the whole way; the lanes outside the wall are where the neighborhood still shops.
Shanghai Museum Your reservation is booked by us. The collection is arranged by material rather than by dynasty, so you can stand in one room and watch three thousand years of one craft change in front of you. After eleven days of buildings, this is where the objects finally get their own room.
The Bund after dark The old banking houses hold one bank of the Huangpu River, the Pudong towers hold the other, a century apart and looking straight at each other across the water. Your guide is with you the whole evening, which also settles the strangers who approach visitors here about English practice or a tea ceremony. Stand at the rail with the old buildings behind you and the towers in front: the fourteen days close up into one picture.

Day 14 · Plane trees, a ferry, home

The slowest two hours of the trip, then a river crossing, then the airport.

Former French Concession and Wukang Road Plane tree streets and 1920s and 1930s houses with small independent shops in their ground floors, ending at the flatiron shaped apartment building the whole street points at. Flat, unhurried, and the one part of Shanghai that is not about the skyline.
Huangpu River ferry You cross the river on the boat people take to get to work, standing at the rail with commuters and their scooters, not on a sightseeing deck. Half an hour end to end, and it is the last thing on the plan for a reason: the trip started on a paved axis and it finishes on moving water.
Airport drop-off Your driver takes you to the airport with room to spare rather than to the minute. The morning is sized to your flight time, and if your flight is early, both stops move to day thirteen.
Departures

Free PDF

Read it on your own time

We'll send this itinerary guide to your inbox for free.

No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime.

Hotels
Hotel pairings continue loading right after the upper journey sections.

Included / Excluded

What's Included

  • Private vehicleAir conditioned private vehicle with driver for all listed touring in all five cities; airport pickup on day one and drop off on day fourteen; station and airport transfers at both ends of every intercity segment, the Jiuzhaigou round trip included; fuel, tolls, parking and the driver's service allowance
  • GuideLicensed English speaking guide on every listed touring day in each city, including the Muslim Quarter evening in Xi'an and the Bund evening in Shanghai
  • Hotels13 nights at the level you choose, four star, five star, boutique or quality local accommodation, breakfast included: Beijing 3 · Xi'an 2 · Chengdu 2 · Jiuzhaigou 2 · Chengdu 1 · Shanghai 3
  • Tickets & experiences, BeijingTian'anmen Square, with screening time allowed for in that day's plan · the Forbidden City, with the timed reservation booked by us · Jingshan Park, entered from the palace north gate · Mutianyu Great Wall, admission and the walk along the restored watchtower section · Temple of Heaven · the National Museum of China, with the reservation booked by us
  • Tickets & experiences, Xi'anThe Terracotta Warriors · Xi'an City Wall cycling, bicycle rental included, or walking a section instead if you prefer · Bell Tower, Drum Tower and the Muslim Quarter in the evening, guide accompanied
  • Tickets & experiences, ChengduThe panda base on a morning visit · gaiwan tea sitting at People's Park, for as long as you like · Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li · the community Sichuan opera theater, with a backstage visit and face changing close up
  • Tickets & experiences, JiuzhaigouJiuzhaigou Valley admission, with the loop set by your guide on the day and the visit closing in the early afternoon · the Jiawuhai Panda Center
  • Tickets & experiences, ShanghaiYu Garden and the old city · the Shanghai Museum, with the reservation booked by us · the Bund and the Pudong skyline in the evening, guide accompanied · the former French Concession and Wukang Road · the Huangpu River ferry
  • ReservationsThe Forbidden City, the National Museum of China and the Shanghai Museum each need a timed reservation and their systems are hard to use from an overseas phone number. We book all three, on the lead time each venue requires
  • Meals13 hotel breakfasts, one on each of days two through fourteen
  • OtherBottled water on scheduled touring days; travel accident insurance for the duration of the journey

Not Included

  • International flightsFlights into Beijing and out of Shanghai
  • Intercity transport, five segmentsThe four high speed rail segments and the one domestic flight: Beijing to Xi'an · Xi'an to Chengdu · Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou · Jiuzhaigou to Chengdu · Chengdu to Shanghai. The station and airport transfers at both ends of each segment are included, as above. Whether these five are folded into the base price is a commercial decision still open, and until it is made your quote prices them separately
  • In park transportThe Jiuzhaigou park shuttle, the Mutianyu cable car or chairlift, and the Mutianyu toboggan descent. All three are bought on site at your own cost
  • VisasVisa fees and processing for guests who need a Chinese visa, including every US guest on this route
  • Lunches and dinnersEvery lunch and every dinner on all fourteen days, the two days in the Jiuzhaigou area included. Your guide recommends and books, on your account
  • Sightseeing not listed aboveAny attraction, venue, performance or workshop not named in the included lists, and anything added locally
  • Spending inside venuesFood, drinks, souvenirs and paid services inside any venue, including tea or ear cleaning ordered beyond the included tea sitting, photography services at either panda site, and anything bought inside the Jiuzhaigou area
  • Altitude related medical careOxygen supply, altitude medication, altitude related treatment. Evacuation and any insurance top up for high altitude travel
  • Extra nightsAny night before day one or after day fourteen. Guests who prefer to land a day early are quoted for that night and the matching airport pickup separately
  • PersonalGratuities for guides and drivers, single or extra room difference. Laundry, minibar and personal shopping

Special Notes

A few things on this route follow the calendar, the season, an altitude profile or a supplier's confirmation. Here they are, told straight.

  • Bookings are not open yetthe remaining items have to be settled first, and none of them is close enough to sell on. A price for the Jiuzhaigou park shuttle. A decision on whether the five intercity segments sit inside the base price, and the class of travel for each. At least one contracted hotel per stop. A A confirmed departure window against the plateau season. And a re-review of the route itself, which is still open. Until those items are closed we take no orders and no deposits. Tell us your dates and we will write to you on the day it opens.
  • Departure dates this quarterno departure whose travel days touch October 1 to 7, the national holiday week, when the Jiuzhaigou area and the Terracotta Warriors site carry their heaviest visitor numbers of the year and the valley runs a visitor cap. November and December departures are held closed until the winter arrangement for the Jiuzhaigou section is settled: the valley's window closes from November through March, and days eight to eleven are the whole reason this route differs from the same trip without a plateau section, so we will not assume a substitute. For October to December 2026 that leaves one open window: October 8 to October 31.
  • Mondaysdates are set so that day two never falls on a Monday, when the Forbidden City closes. If your dates would put it there, day two and the Great Wall day swap places.
  • Altitudethis is a planned sequence, not an incident of the route. Day eight climbs from about 500 meters to about 2,000 and carries no sightseeing at all; day nine runs inside the valley between about 2,000 and 3,100; day eleven returns to about 500. Both nights at altitude are spent at about 2,000 meters. Requests to compress the round trip into one day, or to add sightseeing to the ascent day, are declined on this route. Your quote states the altitude range in writing before you pay, and guests with heart or lung conditions or a previous altitude reaction should take medical advice before booking. Altitude related medical care, oxygen, evacuation and insurance top up are not included.
  • The two plateau rail segmentsthe day eight and day eleven trains are booked as one pair, and an order is confirmed only when both are held. Both are checked against the operating timetable for your actual dates before the order is confirmed.
  • In park transportthe Jiuzhaigou park shuttle, the Mutianyu cable car or chairlift, and the Mutianyu toboggan are bought on site and are not in your base price. The valley is toured on that shuttle system, so plan for it. We are pricing all three with our partners; if any moves into the base price, your quote says so in writing.
  • Security screening at the squareeveryone is screened to enter Tian'anmen Square. The queue takes half an hour to an hour and it is budgeted separately, on top of your time on the square, so the rest of that day and the afternoon train still land on time.
  • Visa windowthe 30 day visa free policy currently runs through December 31, 2026. Because this is a 14 day plan, departures on or before December 17, 2026 finish inside that window; later departures are quoted only after the official renewal is announced.
  • US passportsthe US is not on the 30 day visa free list, and the 10 day visa free transit policy fails this route twice over, once on length and once on area, because the Jiuzhaigou section lies outside the region that policy allows a traveler to enter. Every US guest on this route holds a valid Chinese tourist or business visa, the ten year multiple entry visa included. Fees and processing are the guest's own, processing time has to be allowed for, and we confirm visa status before any payment. Guests already in China on the transit policy cannot join this trip, and we say so rather than look for a way around it.
  • Confirmation and changesthe confirmation time commitment and the change and refund terms are being settled with our on the ground partner. Until they are, each quote states in writing its own confirmation deadline and its change and refund conditions. Note what a date change touches on this route: four rail segments, one domestic flight, hotel inventory, and the plateau season window, all at once.

Is Fourteen Days Your Length?

Fewer than fourteen days?

Fewer than fourteen days?

The route comes apart at the plateau. Take the plateau section out and what is left is the classic Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Shanghai run at ten days, with the same pace in each city. Take the cities down instead and the plateau stays. What we will not do is keep the plateau and cut its travel days, because that is the part that makes it safe and slow. Tell us your dates and who is coming.

Good to Know

Group
Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
Pace
Five stops in 14 days: Beijing 3 nights, Xi'an 2, Chengdu 2, Jiuzhaigou 2, one more Chengdu night on the way back, Shanghai 3. Four high speed rail segments and one domestic flight. Two of the fourteen days are travel days with nothing else on them
Effort
Long walking days in Beijing and Xi'an, the Great Wall day among them. Days eight to eleven run at altitude, two nights at about 2,000 meters and one valley day between about 2,000 and 3,100. The ascent day carries no sightseeing
Ports
Beijing in, Shanghai out; airport pickup on day one and drop off on day fourteen
Visas
UK, French, German, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Nordic, Central European, Irish, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand passports enter visa free for days, checked order by order against your dates. US passports need a Chinese tourist or business visa for this route
Language
Licensed English speaking local guides throughout, city by city
Meals
13 hotel breakfasts. No lunch and no dinner is included on any day, the two Jiuzhaigou days included; your guide recommends and books, on your account
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 season October to December 2026, with one open window in it: October 8 to October 31. No departures touching October 1 to 7; November and December are held closed while the Jiuzhaigou section's winter arrangement is settled

Your Private Concierge

LT

Jason Hu

Private China Route Concierge

A bilingual planning desk for tailor-made China journeys.

Our China team tunes pacing, hotels and local hosts around each route style.

20+
Years
300+
Trips Designed
24/7
On-Trip Care

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
Guest Reviews
Verified reviews are loading now.
China Ready
Travel prep guidance is loading now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common planning answers are loading now.
Our operations partner works with national tourism boards including

Ready when you are.

No pressure. Browse our trips, or talk to a real person. Either way, your inbox stays clean.