---
title: "What Each City Is For"
description: "14 days from the Forbidden City to a components floor asking what each city is for"
type: "tour"
route_id: "china-six-cities-14-days"
total_days: 14
price: 5030
highlights: ["Beijing", "Xi'an", "Chengdu", "Shanghai", "Shenzhen", "Guangzhou"]
url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-six-cities-14-days"
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---

# What Each City Is For

14 days from the Forbidden City to a components floor asking what each city is for

Six cities, one line. Mutianyu, the Terracotta Warriors, pandas, a waterworks from the third century BC and the Bund, with English-speaking guides city by city.

- Moderate walking every touring day, with two light days built into the middle. Lift equipment inside scenic areas, including the Mutianyu cable car, is not in the base price: the Great Wall climb is on foot unless you add it, quoted separately.

## Overview

Five cities in one country, and no two of them are for the same thing. Beijing keeps a court's floor plan, and you walk one axis of it. Xi'an still wears the wall it was defended behind, and you ride along the top of it. Chengdu is the one that asks you to sit down, so the middle of this trip slows on purpose. Shanghai put its trade on both banks of a river and lit both of them. Shenzhen makes things, and you climb through a building where that happens tray by tray. You will stop calling all of it China and start telling the cities apart.

— LyrikTrip travel designers

Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates, who is coming and which passports you hold. 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 day-count balance, the departure-day routing and the US market position stand, before you are asked for anything, and we will not take a deposit until this route opens.

## Summary

- Route ID: china-six-cities-14-days
- Duration: 14 days / 13 nights
- Starting price: $5,030
- Status: active
- Highlights: Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou
- Cover image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fIXPI7sI.webp

## Hero tags

- private
- From 1 guest
- Max: no fixed limit

## Highlight notes

- Six cities, one line. Mutianyu, the Terracotta Warriors, pandas, a waterworks from the third century BC and the Bund, with English-speaking guides city by city.
- 14 days from the Forbidden City to a floor of loose components. Understand what each city is for.

## Selling points

- Walk one axis of the Forbidden City, out through the north gate, and then climb the hill standing directly across the street: from the pavilion on top, the golden roofs you just walked between line up in rows and the Beijing Central Axis runs straight through them.
- Ride along the top of the Xi'an City Wall on a rented bicycle, one of the most complete surviving city walls in China, on a flat brick road wide enough to ride two abreast around the whole old city.
- Sit an afternoon in a People's Park teahouse with a gaiwan that keeps getting refilled as long as you stay: cards at the next table, the ear cleaner working the row behind you, and nowhere you are due next.
- Stand at the mouth of the Dujiangyan waterworks and watch the river being divided the way it has been divided since the third century BC, on the day trip out of Chengdu.
- End an evening on the Bund with your guide beside you: the old waterfront buildings on one bank, the Pudong towers on the other, one city looking at itself across the water.
- Walk Huaqiangbei floor by floor with a guide who reads the trade for you: loose components on one level, prototypes above them, finished machines above that, and the buying chain that connects the three.
- Unpack once for three nights each in Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu: nine of the fourteen days run out of three hotels, and no morning starts with a suitcase.

## City highlights

- Beijing (3 days): Land, and do nothing
  - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/kHztMzgu.webp
- Xi'an (3 days): The square, the altar, the bronzes, then a train
  - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aJBFntMT.webp
- Chengdu (3 days): A pagoda, then the mountains
  - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bNKuO8jn.webp
- Shanghai (2 days): Three lanes, a mask, and a plane
  - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/wb808Na7.webp
- Shenzhen (2 days): Plane trees, a commuter ferry, then south
  - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/09971fb8ed55.jpg
- Guangzhou (1 days): Dim sum first, then the water
  - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d8f9c06c5230.jpg

## Experiences

Six cities, one line. Mutianyu, the Terracotta Warriors, pandas, a waterworks from the third century BC and the Bund, with English-speaking guides city by city.

- Forbidden City (Beijing): The Forbidden City brings travelers into the ceremonial center 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 travelers 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
- 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 polished 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
- Tian'anmen Square (Beijing): Tian'anmen Square introduces the scale and symbolism of modern Chinese public space.
  - Subtitle: Beijing's monumental civic landmark
  - Tags: Landmark
  - Host: Beijing, Beijing Lens — Imperial capital and Great Wall
  - Access: A central orientation stop before or after the Forbidden City.
  - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b6a275c3e50d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e544ca01550e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b85b763e11cd.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a724165b0cc6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/410246e2d66a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/600867e7a2ef.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/cd9c3a758365.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/86b6ca981b8d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/50c2c4037905.jpg
- Temple of Heaven (Beijing): Temple of Heaven combines Ming dynasty ritual architecture with Beijing's lively park culture.
  - Subtitle: An imperial ritual site with local life
  - Tags: Culture
  - Host: Beijing, Beijing Lens — Imperial capital and Great Wall
  - Access: Pairs grand ceremonial architecture with everyday local morning activity.
  - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0d9ea5fe76e1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/db9b46f1b9cf.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c545d9594e74.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dc39cfe33b0d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/359ba00d37d0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b538bb2aa834.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6d40f9e82d6b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/212c0e2ea8c8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7bbec6cd7e80.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/cd8da061f42b.jpg
- NMC: One Room for Nine Days (Beijing): the national collection on the east side of the square: bronzes, ceramics, Buddhist figures, calligraphy. Two hours here puts the objects behind the last nine days into one room, which is why it sits on the day you leave Beijing. Entry is by timed reservation and the system sits poorly with overseas mobile numbers, so your quote states in writing who books it and by when. Admission is in the base price; audio guides and guides hired inside are not.
  - Subtitle: the national collection on the east side of the square: bronzes, ceramics, Buddhist figures, calligraphy.
  - Tags: Museum
  - Host: Beijing, Beijing Lens — Imperial capital and Great Wall
  - Access: the national collection on the east side of the square: bronzes, ceramics, Buddhist figures, calligraphy. Two hours here puts the objects behind the last nine days into one room, which is why it sits on the day you leave Beijing. Entry is by timed reservation and the system sits poorly with overseas mobile numbers, so your quote states in writing who books it and by when. Admission is in the base price; audio guides and guides hired inside are not.
  - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1cf05dc82e49.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d076400ad86d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/55ab6f174707.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dcce08639678.jpg
- Terracotta Army: Scale and Ambition (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, armor 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 recognized 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 Ancient City Wall Cycling (Xi'an): You go up and ride — gray brick under the wheels, the old grid inside the wall on one hand, the modern city outside it on the other. The full circuit is about 14 km; ride the whole loop, a stretch, or walk part of it. You set your own pace — the gates have ramps, the surface is brick, and there is no traffic on top. The hire time counted in and any charge past it are stated in writing in your quote. This is the longest unsheltered section on the route, and it converts to a walked section when weather or stamina calls for it; November and December departures have the cold-weather arrangement written into the quote. It is also the clearest lesson in Chinese city planning you will get on this trip — old lanes inside the wall, towers without.
  - Subtitle: one of the most complete surviving ancient city walls in China, wide enough on top to cycle two abreast, still ringed around the old center. Admission and bike hire are in the base price.
  - Tags: Cycling
  - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital
  - Access: Active heritage experience on one of China's best-preserved city walls.
  - Images: https://ak-d.tripcdn.com/images/0353012000p9q9h7p45A9_C_1080_540_Q80.jpg_.webp?_fr=wc, 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/1170df991f6f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ad143f00bca6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dabb4f7b21b8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6c4bc5467067.jpg
- Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (Xi'an): Giant Wild Goose Pagoda reflects Xi'an's role as a Buddhist and Silk Road cultural center.
  - 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
- Bell and Drum Tower square and the Muslim Quarter by night (Xi'an): After dark, Bell and Drum Towers face off over smoky food lanes. Pulled noodles, persimmon cakes, roujiamo, and naan ovens line the Hui quarter. Your guide explains what to eat and how—walking included, tower entry extra, snacks cheap and self-paid. Centuries of Silk Road history stay edible here tonight.
  - Subtitle: At dusk, the timekeeping Bell and Drum Towers face off across the old center, while behind them the Hui quarter's lanes come alive. Your guide walks you through, decoding each stall—what's worth it, what's for tourists, how to eat. About two hours; tower entry extra, snacks self-paid and cheap.
  - Tags: City
  - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital
  - Access: the two towers that once kept the city's time, and behind them the lanes of the Hui neighborhood after dark, at the hour they are actually busy. Your guide walks it with you and reads the food stalls: what is worth stopping for, what is a tourist item, and how each thing is eaten. Climbing the Bell Tower or the Drum Tower is a separate on-site ticket and is not in your price; food is on your own account.
  - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/be2d09d79b66.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/02e10943b0b8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a89c8581e5c7.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/281d43f0922e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/467e9f21253b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/be17d6a5ce49.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2be0c598ad8d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/cc45951bdee2.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/68851d1cd2f1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/40f5c954821f.jpg
- Chengdu Panda Base (Chengdu): the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, visited in the morning: that is when pandas eat, climb and actually move. 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: flood water 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 tunes 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 organized 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 organized 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 in your month, and whether it sits inside 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 neighborhood built around three parallel lanes, and the newer quarter beside it, walked on foot with your guide and with no ticketed venue involved. Both are commercial and busy, and 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; the guide's time is in your price and anything you buy is on your account.
  - Subtitle: a historic neighborhood built around three parallel lanes, and the newer quarter beside it, walked on foot with your guide and with no ticketed venue involved.
  - Tags: City
  - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture
  - Access: a historic neighborhood 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
- Community Opera Theater (Chengdu): a neighborhood Sichuan Opera troupe rather than a big commercial stage. You meet the people behind the performance and learn how roles, costumes, makeup and stage technique pass from one generation to the next; when the troupe's schedule allows, you watch the backstage preparations up close.
  - Subtitle: a neighborhood Sichuan Opera troupe rather than a big commercial stage
  - Tags: Culture
  - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture
  - Access: You meet the people behind the performance and learn how roles, costumes, makeup and stage technique pass from one generation to the next; when the troupe's schedule allows, you watch the backstage preparations up close.
  - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/984b6ea21914.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/afed5eb50d48.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dbb9a4360aa6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/390a59811536.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9504e34cb716.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7fb9607dad55.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c7adcea03a38.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c084683a4ac6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7727dea96809.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/551fdba21a23.jpg
- 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 aging 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
- Wukang Road: A Loose Walk (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
- Huaqiangbei (Shenzhen): one of the world's best-known electronics districts. You walk floors and streets where components, prototypes and finished devices sell side by side, and the supply chain behind the world's gadgets stops being an abstraction: it has counters, prices and business cards. Your guide keeps the logic straight while you browse.
  - Subtitle: one of the world's best-known electronics districts
  - Tags: Tech
  - Host: Shenzhen, Shenzhen Lens — Drones and future mobility
  - Access: Your guide keeps the logic straight while you browse.
  - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f3ad2afbd3b2.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/200120e470fb.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/968fce5767a5.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/403ff3a81a73.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b0f4ce04c70d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/92c50a687090.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2c610df7011f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dd5d5cbe7e98.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2a799aaa4b8b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4576ade7ac05.jpg
- Haixinsha and Zhujiang New Town (Guangzhou): about 120 minutes on foot along the contemporary waterfront and through the towers of Guangzhou's newer center, public spaces, the river and the skyline the Greater Bay Area puts on its postcards. No ticket item.
  - Subtitle: about 120 minutes on foot along the contemporary waterfront and through the towers of Guangzhou's newer center, public spaces, the river and the skyline the Greater Bay Area puts on its postcards.
  - Tags: City
  - Host: Guangzhou, Guangzhou Lens — Trade history and southern city life
  - Access: about 120 minutes on foot along the contemporary waterfront and through the towers of Guangzhou's newer center, public spaces, the river and the skyline the Greater Bay Area puts on its postcards. No ticket item.
  - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1bca40b03bf3.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d02edcb53073.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b365687f933b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e5dadda275c9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8de205c488c4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5d49d29f76f1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/cfb77aaa5d36.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/db09cbf1ac4f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c1d66b265ace.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/245d78eac6d4.jpg
- Cantonese morning tea (Guangzhou): one seating per guest at a long-established teahouse on day five, in the base price. On the table: har gow, siu mai, cheung fun and char siu bao. Seasonal dim sum comes with whatever the kitchen has that week. This is a separate seating on top of your hotel breakfast, not a replacement for it. The house is named in your written confirmation, and which city it sits in is being finalized with our ground partner.
  - Subtitle: one seating per guest at a long-established teahouse on day five, in the base price.
  - Tags: Meal
  - Host: Guangzhou, Guangzhou Lens — Trade history and southern city life
  - Access: one seating per guest at a long-established teahouse on day five, in the base price. On the table: har gow, siu mai, cheung fun and char siu bao. Seasonal dim sum comes with whatever the kitchen has that week. This is a separate seating on top of your hotel breakfast, not a replacement for it. The house is named in your written confirmation, and which city it sits in is being finalized with our ground partner.
  - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7a614a04d484.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d322ea3473c4.jpg
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## Itinerary

### What Each City Is For - 14 days

Journey

#### Beijing (3 days)

- Subtitle: Land, and do nothing
- Recommendation: You land in Beijing and the day asks nothing of you. The trip starts tomorrow, at the gate of a palace.
- Transport: High-speed rail
- Transport mode: train

Arrival · Getting to the hotel · Evening

- Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/kHztMzgu.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/14h8ZnOb.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/17bdSgjF.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1bDq9gT4.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1cZHxWkg.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1vwu9mIQ.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1X29GyUB.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1xVI7jTc.webp
##### Day 1: Land, and do nothing

- (sight) — your flight comes into Beijing and tonight's hotel is already in your plan, the first of thirteen nights. Nothing is scheduled and nothing needs to be.
- (sight) — the arrival transfer is not part of the base price on this route. Whether your order carries an airport pickup is written into your quote before you pay, and if it does not, your guide sends you the taxi and metro instructions for your terminal in advance.
- (note) — nothing is scheduled. Your guide is reachable, and a place to eat near the hotel is recommended and booked for you on request, on your own account.
- (accommodation) Novotel Beijing Peace — Hotel stay in Beijing.

##### Day 2: One axis, then the hill that looks back

- (sight) — your reservation is timed, so the morning starts at a fixed hour. You take the ceremonial halls first, then the living quarters behind them, then the imperial garden, and your guide keeps the route on that one line instead of chasing side courts, with places to sit along the way.
- (sight) — you leave by the gate at the back of the palace, and the hill is straight across the street. The crossing is short enough that most people are still talking about the last hall when they start climbing.
- (sight) — stairs to the pavilion at the top, and from up there the roofs you have been walking between for three hours line up in rows with the Beijing Central Axis running through the middle. You will find yourself pointing rather than talking.

##### Day 3: The wall, a whole day of it

- (transport) — about a quarter of the day each way, north out of the city into the hills. Nothing else is scheduled today for exactly this reason.
- (sight) — a restored run of wall along the ridge with watchtowers you can walk between. The climb to the wall is on foot unless you have added the cable car or chairlift to your order, and your guide sets the pace to the slowest walker in your party.
- (sight) — you stand in a tower doorway and your guide reads the ground for you, where the beacon towers are, where the pass runs below, and why the wall turns where it turns. The ridge line goes on past where the restored section ends.

#### Xi'an (3 days)

- Subtitle: The square, the altar, the bronzes, then a train
- Recommendation: Beijing's public face in the morning, its shapes and its collection after. Leave the capital by rail, at the speed the country moves at now.
- Transport: High-speed rail
- Transport mode: train

Tian'anmen Square · The Temple of Heaven · The National Museum of China · High-speed rail to Xi'an

- Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aJBFntMT.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2IrwPATt.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/3DF4Fowd.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3G0oTlIq.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/56RpQD9k.webp
##### Day 4: The square, the altar, the bronzes, then a train

- (sight) — everyone goes through security screening to enter, and the queue is budgeted separately so the rest of the day does not slide. You walk the square itself, which is where most of China's twentieth century happened.
- (sight) — three structures on one line inside a walled park that the neighborhood still uses as a park. Your guide gives you the shape rule first, round for heaven and square for earth, and after that you can read the compound yourself.
- (sight) — bronzes, ceramics, sculpture and calligraphy, by timed reservation. Two hours here puts dates on the things you have been walking past outdoors for three days.
- (transport) — your guide walks you to the platform and hands you over at the door. The rail class for your order is written into your quote, and a guide meets your train at the Xi'an end.
- (accommodation) Somerset Xindicheng Xi'an — Hotel stay in Xian.

##### Day 5: Eight thousand faces, one at a time

- (sight) — about an hour on the road from the city, and your guide uses it to give you the ranks before you see them, so the first pit is not just a wall of soldiers.
- (sight) — you work through the pits one by one. Armor and hairstyle tell the generals from the crossbowmen from the infantry, and in the newer excavation areas you can still see traces of the original paint on the figures. The site holds an estimated eight thousand figures.
- (transport) — the front ranks are lit and the hall runs back into shadow, rank behind rank, further than the photographs ever show. You will lower your voice without deciding to.

##### Day 6: On top of the wall, then behind it

- (sight) — you go up at a gate tower and take a rented bicycle along the top, on flat brick wide enough to ride two abreast. The wall closes a full loop around the old center, so you can turn back whenever you like and still have ridden a side of the city.
- (sight) — on one side the lanes of the old town run away below you, on the other the towers of the new city stand behind the wall line. It is the clearest picture of the whole trip's argument, and it is free.
- (sight) — after dark, on foot with your guide. The two towers used to keep the city's time; the lanes behind them do the eating. Your guide tells you what each stall is selling before you buy anything, and what you buy is on your own account.

#### Chengdu (3 days)

- Subtitle: A pagoda, then the mountains
- Recommendation: A short morning before a long ride south. Cross the range that separates the two halves of China and arrive somewhere that eats differently.
- Transport: Flight
- Transport mode: airplane

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · High-speed rail through the Qinling · Into Chengdu

- Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bNKuO8jn.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/18sksaPz.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1BPFDek8.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2iDGv07g.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2sL1auf0.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/37Mf4mO1.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4BqwVBVY.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4mDgLfna.webp
##### Day 7: A pagoda, then the mountains

- (sight) — the brick pagoda and the temple compound around it, an hour and a half in the morning while the quarter is still quiet.
- (transport) — the line south runs through the Qinling mountains, the range that separates northern China from the south, most of it in tunnel and viaduct. You get off in a city that grows tea, not wheat.
- (sight) — a guide meets your train and you are at the hotel with the evening still in front of you. The next two days are the slowest of the fourteen, by design.
- (accommodation) Atour Hotel Chengdu Taikoo Li Chunxi Road Pedestrian Street — Hotel stay in Chengdu.

##### Day 8: Pandas while they are moving, then nowhere to be

- (sight) — you go early, because that is when they climb, eat and fight over the same length of bamboo. By mid-afternoon they are asleep, which is why this is not an afternoon item.
- (sight) — bamboo chairs under the trees, a gaiwan each, and the man with the kettle comes back as long as you are sitting there. Cards at the next table, the ear cleaner working the row behind you with his tuning fork.
- (sight) — nothing follows it. Your guide stays if you want the conversation and steps back if you do not. You will notice at some point that nobody has looked at a phone for an hour.

##### Day 9: A day trip to the works that waters this plain

- (transport) — about a quarter of a day each way, and your room in Chengdu stays yours. This is the fullest day of the fourteen, so it is placed between the two slowest.
- (sight) — you walk the head of the works and stand where the river is split. One arm goes back to the river, the other goes out to the plain. There is no wall holding the water back, and your guide shows you what does the work instead.
- (sight) — a working temple away from the front-gate crowds. The resident priest sits down with you and takes your questions, and then there is tai chi on the temple ground, done slowly enough that nobody has to be good at it.

#### Shanghai (2 days)

- Subtitle: Three lanes, a mask, and a plane
- Recommendation: Chengdu's shopfront in the morning and its neighborhood theater after lunch. Leave the city after the last face has changed.
- Transport: Flight
- Transport mode: airplane

Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li · Sichuan opera, community theater · Flight to Shanghai

- Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/wb808Na7.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/13x1KtnS.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1Q9afrZn.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1Riqjj0n.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1VrlDwIi.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1vYpI6NZ.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3PEjxTGx.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4EbDdFHb.webp
##### Day 10: Three lanes, a mask, and a plane

- (sight) — three parallel lanes of restored courtyard housing, and the contemporary quarter right beside them. The lanes are commercial now, tea shops and snack counters, and your guide says so rather than selling it as the old city.
- (sight) — you go backstage before the show and watch the faces go on. Then face-changing from close up, near enough that you still cannot see how it happens.
- (transport) — your guide takes you to the airport after the theater. The cabin for your order is written into your quote, and a guide meets you in Shanghai.
- (accommodation) Bellagio by MGM Shanghai on the Bund — Hotel stay in Shanghai.

##### Day 11: A garden, a collection, and two banks

- (sight) — pavilions, rockery, ponds and winding paths inside the oldest quarter of the city. It comes first because everything else you will see today was built to answer it.
- (sight) — bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, on a timed entry. Two hours, and your guide picks a route through it rather than starting at gallery one.
- (sight) — the old waterfront buildings behind you, lit; the Pudong towers across the water, also lit; the ferries and the barges going between them. Your guide is with you the whole evening.

#### Shenzhen (2 days)

- Subtitle: Plane trees, a commuter ferry, then south
- Recommendation: A low-rise morning to balance last night's skyline. Cross the river the way the city crosses it.
- Transport: Flight
- Transport mode: airplane

The former French Concession and Wukang Road · The Huangpu River ferry · Flight to Shenzhen

- Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/09971fb8ed55.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8AH70UD0.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/h4WopDz7.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/j3OhqX9B.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0540e86e5dd0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0cb198f8a49d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1dabf6d8d82e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4ba54eb84471.jpg
##### Day 12: Plane trees, a commuter ferry, then south

- (transport) — plane trees over narrow streets, historic housing, small independent shops. Nothing here is tall, which after last night is the point.
- (transport) — a few minutes across on the boat people take to work, standing at deck level with bicycles and commuters, the same water you looked at from above the night before.
- (transport) — the afternoon goes to the airport and the flight, and nothing is scheduled on arrival. This is the second of the two light days.
- (accommodation) Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen — Hotel stay in Shenzhen.

##### Day 13: Floor by floor

- (sight) — you climb through the market with your guide reading the trade as you go: trays of loose components on one floor, boards and prototypes above, finished machines above that, and the buyers moving between them with sample bags.
- (sight) — not the products but the chain. Who sources from whom, at what volume, and why a shop selling one kind of connector can stay in business on one square meter. You will find yourself doing arithmetic on the way down the escalator.
- (sight) — in final product review with our local partners. It is named in your written itinerary before you book, and until then it is not sold to you as part of the plan.

#### Guangzhou (1 days)

- Subtitle: Dim sum first, then the water
- Recommendation: The last morning goes to a tea table rather than a checklist. Leave from the newest waterfront on the route.
- Transport: Flight
- Transport mode: airplane

Cantonese yum cha · Haixinsha and Zhujiang New Town · Departure

- Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d8f9c06c5230.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5wcQq4Zx.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7rOa5eZw.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1983e458756c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1bca40b03bf3.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7a614a04d484.jpg
##### Day 14: Dim sum first, then the water

- (sight) — a long-established tea house on the way to Guangzhou. Shrimp dumplings, siu mai, rice rolls and char siu buns. Whatever is in season comes too, a few baskets at a time, tea kept coming. This is the one arranged meal of the fourteen days, and it is arranged for the pace of the table.
- (sight) — the contemporary waterfront of Guangzhou, towers and public space along the Pearl River. Fourteen days ago you were standing at a palace gate finished in 1420.
- (sight) — your flight home leaves from Guangzhou. The departure transfer is not part of the base price on this route, and whether your order carries it is written into your quote before you pay.

## Daily plan

### Day 1 — Land, and do nothing

You land in Beijing and the day asks nothing of you. The trip starts tomorrow, at the gate of a palace.

- Arrival: your flight comes into Beijing and tonight's hotel is already in your plan, the first of thirteen nights. Nothing is scheduled and nothing needs to be.
- Getting to the hotel: the arrival transfer is not part of the base price on this route. Whether your order carries an airport pickup is written into your quote before you pay, and if it does not, your guide sends you the taxi and metro instructions for your terminal in advance.
- Evening: nothing is scheduled. Your guide is reachable, and a place to eat near the hotel is recommended and booked for you on request, on your own account.
- Stay: Beijing
- Meals: None included today

### Day 2 — One axis, then the hill that looks back

You walk the palace along a single line and come out the back. Then you climb the hill facing that gate and see what you just walked through.

- The Forbidden City: your reservation is timed, so the morning starts at a fixed hour. You take the ceremonial halls first, then the living quarters behind them, then the imperial garden, and your guide keeps the route on that one line instead of chasing side courts, with places to sit along the way.
- Out through the north gate: you leave by the gate at the back of the palace, and the hill is straight across the street. The crossing is short enough that most people are still talking about the last hall when they start climbing.
- Jingshan Park: stairs to the pavilion at the top, and from up there the roofs you have been walking between for three hours line up in rows with the Beijing Central Axis running through the middle. You will find yourself pointing rather than talking.
- Stay: Beijing
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 3 — The wall, a whole day of it

The drive out is long, so the wall gets the day to itself. Read the wall instead of photographing it and leaving.

- The road out: about a quarter of the day each way, north out of the city into the hills. Nothing else is scheduled today for exactly this reason.
- Mutianyu Great Wall: a restored run of wall along the ridge with watchtowers you can walk between. The climb to the wall is on foot unless you have added the cable car or chairlift to your order, and your guide sets the pace to the slowest walker in your party.
- On the wall: you stand in a tower doorway and your guide reads the ground for you, where the beacon towers are, where the pass runs below, and why the wall turns where it turns. The ridge line goes on past where the restored section ends.
- Stay: Beijing
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 4 — The square, the altar, the bronzes, then a train

Beijing's public face in the morning, its shapes and its collection after. Leave the capital by rail, at the speed the country moves at now.

- Tian'anmen Square: everyone goes through security screening to enter, and the queue is budgeted separately so the rest of the day does not slide. You walk the square itself, which is where most of China's twentieth century happened.
- The Temple of Heaven: three structures on one line inside a walled park that the neighborhood still uses as a park. Your guide gives you the shape rule first, round for heaven and square for earth, and after that you can read the compound yourself.
- The National Museum of China: bronzes, ceramics, sculpture and calligraphy, by timed reservation. Two hours here puts dates on the things you have been walking past outdoors for three days.
- High-speed rail to Xi'an: your guide walks you to the platform and hands you over at the door. The rail class for your order is written into your quote, and a guide meets your train at the Xi'an end.
- Stay: Xi'an
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 5 — Eight thousand faces, one at a time

The whole day goes to one site, and it needs it. Learn to tell the ranks apart and the pits stop being a crowd.

- Out to the pits: about an hour on the road from the city, and your guide uses it to give you the ranks before you see them, so the first pit is not just a wall of soldiers.
- The Terracotta Army: you work through the pits one by one. Armor and hairstyle tell the generals from the crossbowmen from the infantry, and in the newer excavation areas you can still see traces of the original paint on the figures. The site holds an estimated eight thousand figures.
- Standing at the rail: the front ranks are lit and the hall runs back into shadow, rank behind rank, further than the photographs ever show. You will lower your voice without deciding to.
- Stay: Xi'an
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 6 — On top of the wall, then behind it

Ride the old city's outline in daylight and walk its food lanes after dark. One city at two hours of the day.

- Xi'an City Wall: you go up at a gate tower and take a rented bicycle along the top, on flat brick wide enough to ride two abreast. The wall closes a full loop around the old center, so you can turn back whenever you like and still have ridden a side of the city.
- From the parapet: on one side the lanes of the old town run away below you, on the other the towers of the new city stand behind the wall line. It is the clearest picture of the whole trip's argument, and it is free.
- The Bell and Drum Tower quarter and the Muslim Quarter: after dark, on foot with your guide. The two towers used to keep the city's time; the lanes behind them do the eating. Your guide tells you what each stall is selling before you buy anything, and what you buy is on your own account.
- Stay: Xi'an
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 7 — A pagoda, then the mountains

A short morning before a long ride south. Cross the range that separates the two halves of China and arrive somewhere that eats differently.

- Giant Wild Goose Pagoda: the brick pagoda and the temple compound around it, an hour and a half in the morning while the quarter is still quiet.
- High-speed rail through the Qinling: the line south runs through the Qinling mountains, the range that separates northern China from the south, most of it in tunnel and viaduct. You get off in a city that grows tea, not wheat.
- Into Chengdu: a guide meets your train and you are at the hotel with the evening still in front of you. The next two days are the slowest of the fourteen, by design.
- Stay: Chengdu
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 8 — Pandas while they are moving, then nowhere to be

The morning is the only hour the pandas are worth the trip. The afternoon has no task in it at all.

- Chengdu panda base: you go early, because that is when they climb, eat and fight over the same length of bamboo. By mid-afternoon they are asleep, which is why this is not an afternoon item.
- People's Park teahouse: bamboo chairs under the trees, a gaiwan each, and the man with the kettle comes back as long as you are sitting there. Cards at the next table, the ear cleaner working the row behind you with his tuning fork.
- The afternoon: nothing follows it. Your guide stays if you want the conversation and steps back if you do not. You will notice at some point that nobody has looked at a phone for an hour.
- Stay: Chengdu
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 9 — A day trip to the works that waters this plain

Out by rail in the morning, back to the same hotel at night. See what twenty-three centuries of maintenance looks like.

- Rail out to Dujiangyan: about a quarter of a day each way, and your room in Chengdu stays yours. This is the fullest day of the fourteen, so it is placed between the two slowest.
- Dujiangyan irrigation works: you walk the head of the works and stand where the river is split. One arm goes back to the river, the other goes out to the plain. There is no wall holding the water back, and your guide shows you what does the work instead.
- A small Taoist temple on Mount Qingcheng: a working temple away from the front-gate crowds. The resident priest sits down with you and takes your questions, and then there is tai chi on the temple ground, done slowly enough that nobody has to be good at it.
- Stay: Chengdu
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 10 — Three lanes, a mask, and a plane

Chengdu's shopfront in the morning and its neighborhood theater after lunch. Leave the city after the last face has changed.

- Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li: three parallel lanes of restored courtyard housing, and the contemporary quarter right beside them. The lanes are commercial now, tea shops and snack counters, and your guide says so rather than selling it as the old city.
- Sichuan opera, community theater: you go backstage before the show and watch the faces go on. Then face-changing from close up, near enough that you still cannot see how it happens.
- Flight to Shanghai: your guide takes you to the airport after the theater. The cabin for your order is written into your quote, and a guide meets you in Shanghai.
- Stay: Shanghai
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 11 — A garden, a collection, and two banks

Start in the oldest quarter and end at the water after dark. Watch a city look at itself across a river.

- Yu Garden and the old city: pavilions, rockery, ponds and winding paths inside the oldest quarter of the city. It comes first because everything else you will see today was built to answer it.
- Shanghai Museum: bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, on a timed entry. Two hours, and your guide picks a route through it rather than starting at gallery one.
- The Bund after dark: the old waterfront buildings behind you, lit; the Pudong towers across the water, also lit; the ferries and the barges going between them. Your guide is with you the whole evening.
- Stay: Shanghai
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 12 — Plane trees, a commuter ferry, then south

A low-rise morning to balance last night's skyline. Cross the river the way the city crosses it.

- The former French Concession and Wukang Road: plane trees over narrow streets, historic housing, small independent shops. Nothing here is tall, which after last night is the point.
- The Huangpu River ferry: a few minutes across on the boat people take to work, standing at deck level with bicycles and commuters, the same water you looked at from above the night before.
- Flight to Shenzhen: the afternoon goes to the airport and the flight, and nothing is scheduled on arrival. This is the second of the two light days.
- Stay: Shenzhen
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 13 — Floor by floor

Components, prototypes, finished machines, in that order and in that building. See what a city built for making actually looks like.

- Huaqiangbei: you climb through the market with your guide reading the trade as you go: trays of loose components on one floor, boards and prototypes above, finished machines above that, and the buyers moving between them with sample bags.
- What the guide adds: not the products but the chain. Who sources from whom, at what volume, and why a shop selling one kind of connector can stay in business on one square meter. You will find yourself doing arithmetic on the way down the escalator.
- The rest of the day: in final product review with our local partners. It is named in your written itinerary before you book, and until then it is not sold to you as part of the plan.
- Stay: Shenzhen
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel

### Day 14 — Dim sum first, then the water

The last morning goes to a tea table rather than a checklist. Leave from the newest waterfront on the route.

- Cantonese yum cha: a long-established tea house on the way to Guangzhou. Shrimp dumplings, siu mai, rice rolls and char siu buns. Whatever is in season comes too, a few baskets at a time, tea kept coming. This is the one arranged meal of the fourteen days, and it is arranged for the pace of the table.
- Haixinsha and Zhujiang New Town: the contemporary waterfront of Guangzhou, towers and public space along the Pearl River. Fourteen days ago you were standing at a palace gate finished in 1420.
- Departure: your flight home leaves from Guangzhou. The departure transfer is not part of the base price on this route, and whether your order carries it is written into your quote before you pay.
- Stay: Trip ends
- Meals: Breakfast at the hotel, plus the arranged yum cha

## 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

### Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast

- City: Beijing
- Description: International high-end hotel in Beijing, suitable for business and city stays.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bWOFYezP.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

### 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

### Atour Hotel Chengdu Taikoo Li Chunxi Road Pedestrian Street

- City: Chengdu
- Description: A simple Chengdu stay near Chunxi Road, good for travellers who want easy walks, food stops, and short city transfers.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bUOsDqAb.webp

### Shangri-La Hotel

- City: Xian
- Description: Shangri-La Hotel Xi'an: five-star luxury near the Terracotta Warriors, 35 minutes from the airport.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ldYT8r2G.webp

### Sheraton Xi'an North City Hotel

- City: Xian
- 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

### Bellagio by MGM Shanghai on the Bund

- City: Shanghai
- Description: A curated hotel option in Shanghai, used as the shared route hotel resource.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9u9jCkFL.webp

### Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen

- City: Shenzhen
- Description: A Nanshan hotel beside the Houhai commercial district, with easy access to Shenzhen's western business and cultural areas.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2mFLzVk5.webp

### 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 Beijing

- City: Beijing
- Description: Established international hotel in Beijing with reliable service and central access.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/jU1EgACp.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 Center.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ciHY2Qvs.webp

### The Temple House

- City: Chengdu
- Description: Boutique luxury hotel inside a restored Qing-dynasty courtyard near Taikoo Li with one of Chengdu's strongest design statements.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2Dh9ApbX.webp

### Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen

- City: Shenzhen
- Description: Located in Futian CBD, close to major landmarks and metro lines. Featuring 500+ elegant rooms and suites with exclusive Horizon Club services.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/lNzYq6FP.webp

### Conrad Guangzhou

- City: Guangzhou
- Description: A curated hotel option in Guangzhou, used as the shared route hotel resource.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/gAlT7wLC.webp

### Sofitel Beijing Central

- City: Beijing
- Description: Luxury international hotel in central Beijing with refined comfort and service.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/itT5uc1l.webp

### Atour S Hotel Shanghai Lujiazui Pudong Avenue

- City: Shanghai
- Description: Atour S Hotel Shanghai Lujiazui: a stylish stay in Pudong, minutes from the Bund, Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai Tower.
- Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/eFZcuG90.webp

## Included / Excluded

### What's Included

- Private vehicle: Air-conditioned private vehicle on all touring days in every city, including the full-day Mutianyu round trip on day three and the ground legs of the Dujiangyan day trip on day nine. Airport transfers are not part of this line: see Not Included
- Guide: Licensed English-speaking guide on all touring days in each city, including the Bund evening in Shanghai and the Huaqiangbei walk in Shenzhen
- Hotels: 13 nights at your chosen level, four-star, five-star or quality boutique, breakfast included: Beijing 3 · Xi'an 3 · Chengdu 3 · Shanghai 2 · Shenzhen 2. The arrival night in Beijing is one of the 13. Hotels named in your written confirmation
- Intercity transport: Six legs: day 4 Beijing to Xi'an by high-speed rail · day 7 Xi'an to Chengdu by high-speed rail · day 9 Chengdu to Dujiangyan and back by high-speed rail · day 10 Chengdu to Shanghai by air · day 12 Shanghai to Shenzhen by air · day 14 Shenzhen to Guangzhou by high-speed rail. The rail class and flight cabin for your order are written into your quote
- Tickets & experiences, Beijing: Tian'anmen Square · the Forbidden City with its timed entry reservation · Jingshan Park · Mutianyu Great Wall admission · the Temple of Heaven · the National Museum of China with its entry reservation
- Tickets & experiences, Xi'an: The Terracotta Army · Xi'an City Wall admission with the wall-top bicycle rental · Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · the Bell and Drum Tower quarter and the Muslim Quarter in the evening, a walking visit with your guide
- Tickets & experiences, Chengdu: Chengdu panda base in the morning · People's Park gaiwan teahouse with the tea seat paid · Kuanzhai Alley and the Taikoo Li quarter as a walking visit · community Sichuan opera with backstage access and a close-range face-changing demonstration
- Tickets & experiences, Dujiangyan: Dujiangyan irrigation works · a small Qingcheng Taoist temple visit with a conversation with a resident priest and a tai chi session
- Tickets & experiences, Shanghai: Yu Garden and the old city quarter · Shanghai Museum with its entry reservation · the former French Concession and Wukang Road as a walking visit · the Huangpu River ferry crossing · the Bund and the Pudong skyline in the evening, guide accompanied
- Experiences, Shenzhen & Guangzhou: Huaqiangbei with your guide explaining the sourcing chain floor by floor · Haixinsha and Zhujiang New Town
- Meals: 13 hotel breakfasts, days two through fourteen, plus one arranged Cantonese yum cha on the morning of day fourteen at a long-established tea house on the way to Guangzhou, tea seat and dim sum included

### Not Included

- International flights: Flights into Beijing and out of Guangzhou
- Visas: Visa fees and processing for any guest who needs a Chinese visa
- Airport transfers: Arrival pickup and departure drop-off are not in the base price on this route. The sourcing terms for these two transfers are not signed back yet, so we state them as excluded rather than implying them. Your quote states in writing whether your order carries them
- Lift equipment inside scenic areas: Three named places, all excluded on the same footing: the Mutianyu cable car, chairlift and toboggan · the Mount Qingcheng cable car and lake boat · the Dujiangyan scenic shuttle. Any of them can be asked for per order and is priced when you choose it
- Meals: All lunches and dinners other than the day-fourteen yum cha. Food bought in the Muslim Quarter and around Kuanzhai Alley is on your own account. Your guide recommends and books on request
- Travel insurance: The insurance term for this route is not signed back yet, so we state it as excluded. Please hold your own travel insurance covering medical care in China
- Optional add-ons: Priced separately when you choose them; nothing optional is added into the base plan by default
- Personal: Gratuities, single or extra-room difference, laundry, personal spending

### Special Notes

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

- Bookings are not open yet: this route is still inside its own internal review, and until that review closes we take no orders and no deposits. the remaining items have to be settled first. Three are design: the day-count balance of the fourteen days, the departure-day routing and the tea house's city, and a second item for the Shenzhen day. Two are commercial: Tell us your dates and we will write to you on the day it opens.
- The day-count balance: our own review found the current fourteen-day plan runs over once transfer time is counted, by something between one and two days. That is being rebalanced now, most likely by moving one or two of the day-four Beijing items onto another Beijing day. Until it balances we promise no daily timings to anyone, and the day-by-day above is a design in review rather than a confirmed schedule.
- Departure dates: no departures between October 1 and October 7. That is the national holiday week: four cities on this route run holiday-peak crowding and the Terracotta Army site is at its heaviest of the year. Dates are also 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 change places.
- Timed-entry reservations: three sites need a slot booked ahead, the Forbidden City at least seven days out, the National Museum of China, and Shanghai Museum. The admissions are in your base price. Who books each slot, us or you, is stated in writing in your quote, because that responsibility is still being settled internally and we would rather write it down per order than leave it vague.
- The day-fourteen tea house: it sits on the road between Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and the exact house is being fixed together with the departure-day routing against your outbound flight. That is why this page names no city for it. It is named in your written itinerary before you book.
- December departures: December falls in the cold season for Beijing and Xi'an, and both the wall day and the wall-top bicycle ride are outdoor days. Indoor alternatives for those two cities are being worked out on the design side and are not promised here. For a December departure we confirm that stretch against your exact dates before you pay.
- The Great Wall climb: the cable car, chairlift and toboggan at Mutianyu are all excluded from the base price, so unless you add one, the climb to the wall is on foot. We say this here rather than letting it surface on the day.
- US passports: the US is not on the 30-day visa-free list, and fourteen days is longer than the ten-day visa-free transit policy allows, so the only lawful path for a US guest on this route is a valid Chinese tourist or business visa. The compliance review of this market is still open on our side, so this route is not sold to US guests today and we take no US orders until that review is closed in writing. We would rather say that than sell you a route we have not finished checking.
- Visa window: the 30-day visa-free policy currently runs through December 31, 2026. Because this is a fourteen-day plan, departures on or before December 18, 2026 finish inside that window; later dates are quoted only after the official renewal is announced.
- Guests already in China on transit-policy entry: fourteen days is longer than the ten-day transit policy permits, so this route cannot be taken on that entry. We say so before payment, and we do not look for workarounds.
- Intercity timetables: the six legs are in your base price, but the 2026 Q4 timetables are still being verified, so the day-to-day sequencing is confirmed order by order rather than promised on this page.
- Group: Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
- Confirmation and changes: the confirmation-time commitment and the change and refund terms are being finalized with our ground partners. Until they are settled, each quote states in writing its own confirmation deadline and its change and refund conditions. Worth knowing why it matters here: this route holds two internal flights and four rail legs, so a date change touches four inventories at once, air, rail, hotels and timed-entry slots.

## Is Fourteen Days Your Length?

Fewer than fourteen days?

### Fewer than fourteen days?

The six stops come apart cleanly. Beijing and Xi'an stand together as the classic pair, Chengdu can go or shorten, and the Shanghai to Guangzhou stretch works on its own as a shorter modern-China line. Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we cut stops rather than compress the days that are left.

## Good to Know

- Group: Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
- Pace: Six cities plus one day trip in 14 days: Beijing 3 nights, Xi'an 3, Chengdu 3, Shanghai 2, Shenzhen 2. Two light days built into the middle, and the Dujiangyan day trip between them is the fullest day of the trip
- Effort: Moderate walking on every touring day. The Great Wall climb is on foot unless you add the cable car, chairlift or toboggan, all of which are excluded and priced separately. Jingshan is stairs to the top; the city wall ride is flat
- Ports: Beijing in, Guangzhou out. Airport transfers at both ends are not in the base price on this route
- Visas: Visa-free entry for days: UK · France · Germany · the Netherlands · Belgium · most of the rest of Europe · Canada · Australia · New Zealand. Checked order by order against your dates. This route is not sold to US passport holders at present
- 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. December departures fall in the cold season for Beijing and Xi'an and are confirmed against your exact dates

## 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 tunes pacing, hotels and local hosts around 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 traveler 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 traveler.

## Before You Book

Everything worth knowing before you book.

### Six cities in fourteen days. Is this a bus tour with better hotels?

No, and the nights are how you check. Nine of the fourteen days run out of three hotels, three nights each in Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu, so the first two thirds of the trip has no packing in it. Two days in the middle are deliberately slow, one of them an afternoon in a park teahouse with nothing after it. The moving happens on four rail legs and two flights, and each of those days carries a short morning rather than a full one.

### Why is the trip not open for booking?

Because our own review has not closed. In plain terms: the fourteen-day plan currently runs over on time once transfers are counted, the departure-day routing and the tea house's city are not fixed, the Shenzhen day needs a second confirmed item, Until those close we take no orders and no deposits. What you can do now is send us your dates: we will hold nothing, promise nothing and write to you the day it opens.

### Can we ride one of the driverless taxis in Shenzhen?

It can be arranged, as an optional add-on priced separately, and it is deliberately not part of the plan. The service runs on a commercial operator's own network, so its availability is not ours to promise: we book it against your date and reconfirm after you land, and if the operator is not running that day the ride does not happen and nothing is charged for it. That is exactly why it is not in your base price and not on the highlight list. What day thirteen gives you either way is Huaqiangbei, floor by floor, with a guide who reads the sourcing chain for you.

### Do we need a visa?

Most guests on this route do not. Most European passports enter visa-free for stays days, and so do Canadian, Australian and New Zealand ones; the named list is in Good to Know. We check your fourteen days plus any other days you spend in China against that window before you pay. The current policy runs through December 31, 2026, so departures on or before December 18, 2026 finish inside it. US passports are the exception and this route is not sold to US guests at present: the US is not on that list, fourteen days is longer than the ten-day transit policy allows, and our compliance review of that market is still open.

### How much walking is there really?

Every touring day is moderate walking on mostly flat ground, with two exceptions worth planning for. Jingshan on day two is stairs to the top, about an hour, and it is optional on the day if anyone would rather wait at the bottom. Mutianyu on day three is the real one: the cable car, chairlift and toboggan are all excluded from the base price, so without an add-on the climb to the wall is on foot. Tell us your party's walking range when you write, and we will tell you which of the two to add before you pay rather than after.