Can I book this trip today?

Not yet, and we would rather tell you than take your money. the remaining items have to be settled: this route's internal review has to be re-run and cleared, at least one hotel has to be under contract at each of the six stops, three specifications have to be settled in writing (class of travel, the Li River boat class, the Yangshuo riding difference), and Until then we take no orders and no deposits. What you can do now is send us your dates: we will write to you the day it opens, and if your dates turn out not to work we will say so instead of selling.

Four hours on a boat. Is that too long?

It is the point of the day, not the cost of it. The road from Guilin to Yangshuo takes ninety minutes and we chose the four-hour sailing instead, so nothing else is scheduled at either end. You are on deck the whole way, with limestone peaks, bamboo, water buffalo and fishing rafts going past, and one reach of the river is the picture on the back of China's 20-yuan banknote. Most guests run out of photographs in the second hour and spend the rest of it just looking, which is the part they describe at home.

We want to travel in December. Is that possible?

Not on this route as it stands. The Li River sailing and the Yulong raft both meet low water and low temperatures in December, and the winter replacement for those two days is not decided, so we hold December dates closed rather than sell a plan we would have to change on you. October and November are open, subject to the national holiday week, and if December is your only window we will either tell you when the winter arrangement is settled or point you at a route whose December version is already fixed.

Six places in fourteen days. Is that a lot of moving?

It is four ticketed transfers plus one that is a boat ride. Beijing and Xi'an get three nights each and Yangshuo two, so the bags stay shut for most of the trip; the two short stops are Guilin, which is one night before the morning sailing, and Chengdu, which is two. Day twelve is given entirely to getting from Yangshuo to Shanghai with nothing else on it. If you want fewer moves, the Guilin and Yangshuo stretch is the part that lifts out cleanly and the first nine days stand on their own.

Most guests on this route do not. UK and most European passports enter visa-free for stays days, and so do Canadian, Australian and New Zealand ones. Before you pay we check your 14 days plus any other days in China against that window. The current policy runs through December 31, 2026, so departures on or before December 17, 2026 finish inside it. US passports are different: the US is not on that list, and 14 days is longer than the 10-day transit policy allows, so every US guest on this route holds a Chinese tourist or business visa and needs to allow processing time. We confirm visa status before any payment.

Where the Lines Stop

Overview

This is a first trip to China with a second half that stops moving. Beijing and Xi'an take three nights each: an empire's wall, then a city's own wall, which you ride around the top of. Chengdu takes the schedule away for two days. Then the plan goes south and the transfer becomes the day itself, four hours of river between Guilin and Yangshuo. Shanghai sends you home from a bank of water with two centuries facing each other across it. Somewhere on that river you'll notice you have stopped asking what comes next. What you carry home is a sense of how far apart these six places actually are.

— LyrikTrip travel designers

Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates, who is coming and whether the landscape half matters more to you than the imperial half. 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 hotels, the winter water days and the opening date stand, before you are asked for anything.

Why you'll love this trip

The classics, plus the water. Terracotta warriors, a city wall you ride, pandas and the Bund, with English-speaking guides city by city.
14 days from the Great Wall to a bamboo raft. See the whole country.

Ride up to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and take the toboggan back down: you arrive on the ridge with your legs still fresh, and the descent is the part you describe first at home.
Stand close enough to the Terracotta Army to tell a general from a crossbowman: after ten minutes you are reading the ranks yourself instead of being told what to look at.
Cycle the top of the Xi'an city wall on an included bicycle: for one hour the whole city sits below you on both sides at once, inside and outside the line.
Sit an afternoon in People's Park with a gaiwan refilled as long as you stay: the first day in two weeks with nowhere you have to be by a certain hour.
Spend four hours on the Li River instead of ninety minutes on the road: the transfer to Yangshuo is the day, and nothing is scheduled around it.
Push off from the bank on a bamboo raft on the Yulong River, at water level, with the karst peaks going past your shoulder rather than your windshield.
End on the Bund after dark with your guide beside you: one bank built by a treaty port, the other built in thirty years, and the water between them doing the arguing.

Things to do

We are loading the host-led experiences for the second half of the page.

Itinerary

Arrivals

Beijing · Day 1 - Day 3

Day 1 · Land, and do nothing

Your driver meets your flight, whatever time it lands. Day one asks nothing of you.

Airport pickup Your driver and vehicle are waiting for the flight number on your confirmation, and the run into Beijing 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 opened a bag.

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 own account.

Day 2 · One axis, then the hill behind it

The palace from the inside, then the same palace from above. This is the morning the scale of the place stops being a number.

The Forbidden City Your timed slot is booked seven days ahead, so you walk in on schedule. Inside you follow one axis and nothing else: 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 street.

Pace The palace is large and guests regularly find it more tiring than they expected, so the route stops at the seats we know about and the garden at the end is unhurried.

Jingshan Park You leave through the palace's north gate and the park entrance is directly across the street, so the afternoon costs no transfer. Fifteen minutes of steps puts you at the hilltop pavilion, facing back south over the golden roofs you were standing between an hour ago, with the city's central axis running out of sight in both directions.

Day 3 · The wall, without the climb

A cable car takes you up and a sled brings you down. The wall gets a whole day because it is an hour and a half from anywhere.

Drive out to Mutianyu The run north out of Beijing takes a good part of the morning, which is why nothing else is on today; the vehicle stays with you all day.

Cable car or chairlift up The climbing is done for you. You step off onto a restored stretch of wall with watchtowers running away along the ridge in both directions, and your guide reads it: the beacon towers, the pass down below, and why the sightlines run where they do. Look along the ridge with the towers stepping down it, one after another, until the last one is a smudge.

Walk a section The restored towers connect, so you can keep walking as long as you feel like it and turn back at any tower. Nothing later today depends on how far you get.

Toboggan down A seated sled on a metal track through the trees, your own hand on the brake, and you are back at the foot of the hill without walking a step downhill.

High-speed rail

Xi'an · Day 4 - Day 6

Day 4 · Three rooms, then a train

The square, the ritual axis and the national collection, all before the platform. Beijing hands you the vocabulary you will need in Xi'an this evening.

Tian'anmen Square You cross the ceremonial center of modern China on foot. Screening comes first and takes its own half hour to an hour, so it sits in today's plan separately from your time on the square; your guide walks you to the nearest screening entrance.

Temple of Heaven Three ritual buildings on one line, and one rule that explains all of them: round stands for heaven, square stands for earth. Once your guide says it out loud you start noticing it in the paving, the terraces and the roofs, and you will notice it again in Xi'an tomorrow.

National Museum of China On the east side of the square, so it costs no crossing. Four rooms rather than forty: bronzes, ceramics, sculpture, calligraphy. Your reservation is booked ahead by us.

High-speed train to Xi'an The afternoon service south, roughly five hours across the North China Plain at high speed, arriving in Xi'an for the evening. Your driver takes you to the station and a driver meets the train at the other end. Class of travel for your order is written into your quote.

Day 5 · Eight thousand of them

A whole day for one site, because this is the one you will be asked about. By lunchtime you are telling ranks apart without help.

The Terracotta Army An estimated eight thousand figures, buried east of Xi'an as the first emperor's guard, standing in the pits where farmers found them. Your guide starts you at the section where the ranks are clearest, and after ten minutes you are doing it yourself: armor and hairstyle separate a general from a crossbowman from a foot soldier.

The colors In the more recently excavated areas, patches of the original paint are still on the figures. Stand at the rail and look for the ones with pigment left; that is what the whole army looked like on the day it was buried.

Crowds This site runs heavy in peak season, so your guide sets the order of the three pits by the flow on the day rather than walking them in numerical order.

Day 6 · Ride the line, then cross it

Morning on top of the wall, evening in the lanes behind the Drum Tower. Today the city shows you its edge and then its middle.

Xi'an city wall cycling You collect a bicycle at the gate, ride up onto one of the most complete surviving ancient city walls in China, and set off along the top. The parapet is wide enough to ride abreast, and it closes a full loop, so you can go around or turn back at any gate. Inside the line: the old street grid and the two towers. Outside it: the twenty-first century, standing at the same height as your handlebars. Halfway around you'll find you have stopped pedaling and are simply looking sideways.

The easier version If the weather or your energy says otherwise, you walk a stretch of the parapet instead and keep the same view.

Bell Tower and Drum Tower The two timekeeping towers at the crossing of the old city's axes, seen lit from the street on the way into the quarter behind them.

The Muslim Quarter in the evening The lanes belonging to Xi'an's Hui community, at their busiest after dark. Bread gets stamped and slapped onto the wall of an oven, meat turns, sesame goes under a stone roller, and your guide tells you what each stall is making before you decide whether you want it.

High-speed rail

Chengdu · Day 7 - Day 8

Day 7 · A pagoda, then the ride to Sichuan

One close-in stop, then a train through the mountains. The last day of the imperial half of this trip.

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda The pagoda that names this part of Xi'an, standing above its temple grounds with the cultural district laid out at its foot. You walk the compound with your guide, who gives the building its history where it stands, then the square around it before you head to the station.

High-speed train to Chengdu The afternoon service crosses the Qinling range, roughly three to four hours from the dry north into the Sichuan basin, most of it in tunnel and out again. Sit on the right-hand side and watch the vegetation change every time the train comes back into daylight.

Arrival A driver meets the train and the evening is left open; dinner near the hotel is recommended and booked for you if you want it, on your own account.

Day 8 · Pandas, then nowhere to be

The morning has an appointment. The afternoon deliberately has none.

Chengdu panda base You are there in the morning, the hours when the animals are generally moving: eating, coming down off a platform, 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 early and wait rather than walking the loop twice; the animal comes to the fence on its own schedule.

Gaiwan tea sitting at People's Park Bamboo chairs under the trees, a gaiwan each, the lidded cup China brews in, and someone with a long-spouted kettle refilling it as long as you stay. Cards at the next table, an ear cleaner two tables over working with a tuning fork. The afternoon is set aside for exactly this and nothing after it. An hour in, you'll notice you have stopped checking how much of the day is left.

Anything extra Tea beyond the included sitting, and ear cleaning if you want to try it, are ordered on the spot on your own account.

Flight

Guilin · Day 9

Day 9 · Two economies, then a flight south

Chengdu's restored lanes and its glass retail district sit one walk apart. By nightfall you are in karst country.

Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li Three parallel lanes restored into a busy commercial street, and next to them a modern retail district with a Tang-era temple standing in the middle of it. We keep both because they put the city's two economies within sight of each other, and we say plainly that the lanes are a restored streetscape rather than a working one.

Community Sichuan opera theater A neighborhood theater, not a hotel ballroom. You go backstage while the performers are still painting their faces, then take a seat close to the front for the face changing: the painted mask becomes a different one in the time it takes him to turn his head, and from three rows back you still cannot see how.

Flight to Guilin The airport run leaves after the theater, and you land in Guilin in the evening. Your driver meets the flight and takes you to the hotel; the flight number, time and class of travel for your order are written into your quote.

Evening Nothing is scheduled tonight. The night in Guilin exists so that the boat can leave in the morning with you already at the river.

Li River cruise

Yangshuo · Day 10 - Day 11

Day 10 · Four hours, one direction

The transfer is the day. You board in Guilin and get off in Yangshuo, and nothing is scheduled at either end.

The full Li River cruise You board at Guilin in the morning and the boat turns downstream. From here to Yangshuo is about four hours on the water, and there is no road version of this day on the plan.

What goes past Limestone peaks standing in the water rather than behind it, bamboo along the banks, water buffalo in the shallows, fishing rafts crossing the wake. One reach of this river is the picture on the back of China's 20-yuan banknote; your guide tells you when it is coming so you can be on the right side of the deck.

Nothing to do There is no stop, no site and no queue between the two towns. Four hours is long enough that you run out of photographs and start just watching, which is the reason the boat is on this plan instead of the ninety-minute road.

Arrival in Yangshuo You step off at the town's landing and your driver takes you to the hotel, where you unpack once for two nights.

Day 11 · Water level, then a table by it

One raft, one flat ride and one pot of tea, in that order. The slowest day of the fourteen, and the one you will describe as a whole day rather than a list.

Yulong River bamboo raft A drift down a chosen section of the Yulong, a tributary with no motor traffic on it, on a raft poled from the stern. You sit a hand's width above the surface, so the peaks come at eye level and the sound is the pole knocking and the water over the shallows.

Yulong River riding Flat lanes along the river through rice fields and farmhouses, with the peaks standing behind them the whole way. Your bicycle is included; an electric bicycle or a vehicle is available for anyone who would rather not pedal, chosen on the day, and the difference is quoted at that point.

Riverside afternoon tea Mid-afternoon, a table by the water with mountains on three sides. It runs about an hour and it is the seam between the raft and the end of the day, not a meal; lunch and dinner are your own on this route.

Flight

Shanghai · Day 12 - Day 14

Day 12 · Yangshuo to Shanghai

A travel day and only a travel day. Door to door this one runs most of the daylight.

Road to Guilin airport Your driver takes you back out of the karst country the fast way, on the road the boat replaced two days ago.

Flight to Shanghai The flight east, then a driver at the other end. The flight number, time and class of travel for your order are written into your quote.

Nothing else today No sightseeing is scheduled, and the evening is left open; dinner near the hotel is recommended and booked for you if you want it, on your own account.

Day 13 · A garden, a collection, a riverbank

Shanghai in three scales: a walled garden, a museum of materials, and a waterfront with two centuries facing each other. Tonight is where the fourteen days add up.

Yu Garden and the old city A classical garden of pavilions, rockery, ponds and winding paths inside Shanghai's oldest quarter. Nothing in it is meant to be seen all at once: every few steps a rock or a wall takes the view away and hands back a different one. About two hours, all flat.

Shanghai Museum Bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, applied crafts, arranged by material rather than dynasty. Coming here after Beijing and Xi'an is the point: you have already met these objects in the ground, and this is where they get sorted. Your guide translates as you walk, since the English signage is limited; the timed entry is booked by us.

The Bund and the Pudong skyline in the evening You walk the waterfront after dark with your guide beside you. On one bank, the trading and bank houses a treaty port left behind; on the other, towers that went up inside thirty years. Stand at the rail with the water between the two and you can see the whole argument at once. Looking across at the far bank, you'll feel the fourteen days close up behind you into a single stretch of time.

Company The waterfront is where visitors get invited to tea or to practice English by strangers; your guide stays with you for the whole evening, so the question never comes up.

Day 14 · Plane trees, then the water, then home

One loose morning, deliberately not a finale. You leave from the same river you spent last night looking at.

Former French Concession and Wukang Road Plane-tree streets, historic residences and small independent shops. Two or three streets rather than a list of addresses, and the pace is set by your flight time rather than by a plan.

Huangpu River ferry The public crossing the city uses to get to the other side, a few minutes on a working boat. It gives you the Bund from the water: the angle none of last night's photographs have.

Airport drop-off Your driver takes you out with margin for your flight. If the flight is late in the day and leaves you a long gap, tell us and we will plan that gap around your check-out time rather than filling it.

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 for all listed touring at all six stops; airport pickup on day one and drop-off on day fourteen; station and airport transfers for the four ticketed intercity segments; fuel, tolls, parking and the driver's service allowance
Intercity transportFour ticketed segments: Beijing to Xi'an by high-speed train on day four · Xi'an to Chengdu by high-speed train on day seven · Chengdu to Guilin by air on day nine · Yangshuo to Shanghai on day twelve, by road to Guilin airport then by air. The fifth segment, Guilin to Yangshuo on day ten, is the Li River sailing below. Class of travel for your order is stated in writing in your quote
BaggageStandard checked baggage allowance under the policy of the airline or rail operator carrying that segment
Hotels13 nights at your chosen level, four-star, five-star or quality boutique, breakfast included: Beijing 3 · Xi'an 3 · Chengdu 2 · Guilin 1 · Yangshuo 2 · Shanghai 2
GuideLicensed English-speaking local guide on every listed touring day in each city, including the evening in the Muslim Quarter in Xi'an and the whole Bund evening in Shanghai
Tickets & experiences, BeijingTian'anmen Square, with screening time allowed for in that day's plan · the Forbidden City, timed reservation booked by us · Jingshan Park, entered from the Forbidden City north gate · Mutianyu Great Wall, cable car or chairlift up and toboggan down, both in the base price · Temple of Heaven · National Museum of China, reservation booked by us
Tickets & experiences, Xi'anThe Terracotta Army · Xi'an city wall cycling, bicycle rental in the base price, walking a section instead if the weather or your energy calls for it · Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · Bell Tower and Drum Tower with the Muslim Quarter in the evening
Tickets & experiences, ChengduThe panda base in the morning · gaiwan tea sitting at People's Park, refilled as long as you stay · Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li · the community Sichuan opera theater with a backstage visit and face changing seen close up
Guilin & YangshuoThe full Li River cruise, Guilin down to Yangshuo, about four hours on the water, which is both the transfer and that day's main item · Yulong River bamboo raft · Yulong River riding, bicycle rental in the base price · riverside afternoon tea
Tickets & experiences, ShanghaiYu Garden and the old city · Shanghai Museum, reservation booked by us · the Bund and the Pudong skyline in the evening, guide accompanied · Former French Concession and Wukang Road · Huangpu River ferry
ReservationsThe Forbidden City, the National Museum of China and the Shanghai Museum all 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. The riverside afternoon tea on day eleven is an experience item, not a meal
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
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. Your guide recommends and books, on your own account
Sightseeing not listed aboveAny attraction, venue, performance or workshop not named in the included list, including anything added locally
Spending inside venuesFood, drinks, souvenirs and paid services inside any venue. This takes in tea or ear cleaning ordered beyond the included gaiwan tea sitting, and photography services at the panda base
Extra nightsAny night before day one or after day fourteen
Optional add-onsPriced separately at the time of choosing; nothing optional is folded into the base plan
PersonalGratuities for guides and drivers · single or extra-room difference · laundry · minibar · personal shopping
Beyond reasonable controlExtra costs arising from severe weather, transport delays, traffic control and any venue closure or schedule change

Special Notes

Several things on this route follow a calendar, a season or a supplier's confirmation. Here they are, told straight.

Bookings are not open yet — the remaining items have to be settled first. One, this route's internal review has to be re-run and cleared. Two, at least one contracted hotel at each of the six stops, named on this page. Three, the class of travel, the boat class on the Li River and the Yangshuo riding difference settled in writing. Four, Until those items are done we take no orders and no deposits. Tell us your dates and we will write to you on the day it opens.
December departures are closed — the Li River sailing and the Yulong River raft both run into low water and low temperatures in December, and the replacement arrangement for those two items is not decided. Those two items are the whole reason this route differs from a version without a landscape stretch, so we will not sell a December date on the assumption that they run as written. October and November departures are unaffected.
National holiday week — no departure whose travel days touch October 1 to 7. All six stops run at capacity that week, the Li River sailing is capped, and the Terracotta Army site is at its heaviest of the year.
Monday and the palace — departure dates are set so that day two never falls on a Monday, when the Forbidden City closes. If your dates would put it there, days two and three swap and the Great Wall day moves forward.
The Guilin flight and the sailing — the evening arrival into Guilin on day nine and the boat on day ten are booked as one pair, and an order is confirmed only when both the flight and that sailing are held.
The Guilin evening — nothing is scheduled on the evening of day nine. An evening cruise on the city's lakes exists as an idea for that slot, but it has no supply and no price in place, so it is not offered and it is not part of these fourteen days.
Three specifications still being set — the class of travel on the four ticketed segments, the boat class and sailing time on the Li River, and the price difference for the electric bicycle and vehicle options at Yangshuo. All three sit inside the base price or are chosen on the day; until they are settled here, every quote states that order's specification in writing, and no order is taken without it in writing.
Visa window — the 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 dates are quoted only after the official renewal is announced.
US passports — the US is not on the 30-day visa-free list, and 14 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 10-year multiple-entry one. Allow processing time before your departure date. We confirm visa status before any payment, and we never quote a US guest on a visa-free basis.
Already in China on the transit policy — guests who entered China under the 10-day visa-free transit policy cannot take this trip, because 14 days is longer than that policy permits. We say so before payment and we do not offer a workaround.
Confirmation and changes — the 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. Worth knowing while they are set: this route holds two domestic flights, two high-speed rail segments and one dated river sailing, so a date change touches four inventories at once.

Is Fourteen Days Your Length?

Fewer than fourteen days?

The route comes apart at the seam. Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu stand on their own as a nine-day first trip; the Guilin and Yangshuo stretch is the part that can be shortened or left for a second visit. Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we cut stops rather than cut the pace.

Good to Know

Group: Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
Pace: Six stops in 14 days: Beijing 3 nights, Xi'an 3, Chengdu 2, Guilin 1, Yangshuo 2, Shanghai 2. Four ticketed transfers, one river sailing that doubles as a transfer, and one full travel day with nothing scheduled
Effort: Moderate. The Great Wall climb is by cable car or chairlift with a toboggan back down; the Xi'an wall is ridden, or walked in part instead; the Yangshuo riding has an electric bicycle and a vehicle as easier options
Ports: Beijing in, Shanghai out. Airport pickup on day one and drop-off on day fourteen
Visas: UK and most European passports enter visa-free for stays days, and so do Canadian, Australian and New Zealand ones, 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. Museum labels are translated for you as you walk
Meals: 13 hotel breakfasts. No lunch or dinner is included on any day; your guide recommends and books, on your own 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 window October to December 2026, with two closures: no departure touching October 1 to 7, and December dates held closed until the winter arrangement for the two water days is settled