--- title: "The Wall Comes Last" description: "14 days from a southern teahouse to the Great Wall seeing how China fits together" type: "tour" route_id: "china-south-to-north-14-days" total_days: 14 price: 4870 highlights: ["Guangzhou", "Shanghai", "Chengdu", "Xi'an", "Beijing"] url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days" canonical_url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days" locale: "en-US" alternates: {"en-US":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days","en-GB":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days","zh-CN":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-CN/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days","zh-TW":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-TW/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days","de-DE":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/de-DE/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days","fr-FR":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/fr-FR/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days","es-ES":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/es-ES/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days","it-IT":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/it-IT/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days","x-default":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-south-to-north-14-days"} --- # The Wall Comes Last 14 days from a southern teahouse to the Great Wall seeing how China fits together Five cities, no backtracking. Wing Chun, pandas, a Qin-era irrigation system and the Terracotta Warriors, with English-speaking guides city by city. - Moderate. The Great Wall ascent is by cable car or open chairlift rather than steps, the wall-top cycling section in Xi'an converts to a walked stretch of the wall when weather or stamina calls for it, and the two heaviest sites in Beijing sit on separate days. ## Overview Most first trips to China open in Beijing, with the Forbidden City on day two. This one opens in the south, in a city busy being modern, and works north without doubling back: a temple courtyard in Foshan, two skylines facing each other across a Shanghai river, an afternoon in a Chengdu teahouse nobody has to organize, an irrigation system from the 3rd century BC that is still running, then the first emperor's army, then the palace, then the wall. Three nights each in Chengdu, Xi'an and Beijing hold the second half slow. By the time the wall turns up on day thirteen, you'll find you already know what you are looking at. — 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 ground confirmations and the departure calendar stand, before you are asked for anything. ## Summary - Route ID: china-south-to-north-14-days - Duration: 14 days / 13 nights - Starting price: $4,870 - Status: active - Highlights: Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an, Beijing - Cover image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7Dv1R2xT.webp ## Hero tags - private - From 1 guest - Max: no fixed limit ## Highlight notes - Five cities, no backtracking. Wing Chun, pandas, a Qin-era irrigation system and the Terracotta Warriors, with English-speaking guides city by city. - 14 days from a southern teahouse to the Great Wall. See how China fits together. ## Selling points - Take your first stance from a local Wing Chun practitioner on your first full day, in the town whose temple grounds still stage lion dance and martial arts: you spend day two doing something with your hands rather than looking at things through a lens. - Stand on the Bund after dark with a hundred years of banking houses behind you and the Pudong towers in front: one city looking at itself across the water, and the first time on this trip that two Chinas share a frame. - Give an afternoon to a bamboo chair in People's Park with a gaiwan that keeps getting refilled: by the second refill nobody in your party has asked what happens next. - Walk out onto an irrigation system built in the 3rd century BC and still working, then spend the rest of that day on a quiet Taoist mountain: old and working stop being opposites somewhere between the two. - Ride the top of the Xi'an City Wall on a bicycle, above a modern city on one side and the old grid on the other: the one hour in fourteen days where you set your own speed. - Reach Mutianyu on day thirteen by cable car or open chairlift, with the watchtowers stepping away along the ridge: eleven days of context arrive at the one picture you already had in your head. - Unpack once each in Chengdu, Xi'an and Beijing, three nights apiece: the second half of this trip has one hotel per city and no morning in which the bags have to be closed by eight. ## City highlights - Guangzhou (2 days): Land in the south - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d8f9c06c5230.jpg - Shanghai (2 days): Tea in the morning, towers by noon - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fZTcQLS6.webp - Chengdu (3 days): Low-rise, then a working boat - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1BPFDek8.webp - Xi'an (3 days): Two lanes and a backstage, then north - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2IrwPATt.webp - Beijing (4 days): The city after the emperor - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/14h8ZnOb.webp ## Experiences Five cities, no backtracking. Wing Chun, pandas, a Qin-era irrigation system and the Terracotta Warriors, with English-speaking guides city by city. - Foshan Ancestral Temple (Foshan): admission to the old temple complex that Foshan's religious life, its martial arts and its neighborhood life all grew around. Inside are courtyards, decorative architecture and cultural displays. Admission is in the base price. - Subtitle: admission to the old temple complex that Foshan's religious life, its martial arts and its neighborhood life all grew around. - Tags: Heritage - Host: Foshan, Foshan Lens — Martial arts, temple traditions and Lingnan streets - Access: admission to the old temple complex that Foshan's religious life, its martial arts and its neighborhood life all grew around. Inside are courtyards, decorative architecture and cultural displays. Admission is in the base price. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e63decabec6c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4060f37c2872.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/76c15ba6ae4d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2da36a0b81c8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4a4e86a40460.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ecf9904580d9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3f7f3e0940a4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c8982f41d30d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9925807ca62a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/46457618859d.jpg - Lion dance and martial arts in the temple grounds (Foshan): a traditional lion dance and a martial arts set, performed in the temple's own courtyard rather than on a hotel stage, about forty-five minutes. Two people run one lion, one at the head and one at the tail, and the drum sets the pace for both. Watch the footwork under the cloth rather than the head: that is where the martial arts part is. In the base price. - Subtitle: a traditional lion dance and a martial arts set, performed in the temple's own courtyard rather than on a hotel stage, about forty-five minutes. - Tags: Stage - Host: Foshan, Foshan Lens — Martial arts, temple traditions and Lingnan streets - Access: a traditional lion dance and a martial arts set, performed in the temple's own courtyard rather than on a hotel stage, about forty-five minutes. Two people run one lion, one at the head and one at the tail, and the drum sets the pace for both. Watch the footwork under the cloth rather than the head: that is where the martial arts part is. In the base price. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ce602709993e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/00a0f32ba0ae.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ff98e78a9f8a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8ef35c48dacf.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/09c5c90e9e5f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4f62f1d18cec.jpg - Wing Chun session (Foshan): led by a local practitioner who starts with where the style comes from and what it is built on, close range, straight lines, economy of movement, and then puts you into the basic stance and moves your hands and feet until the shape is right. It sits in the temple that Foshan's martial arts tradition is attached to, which is why this is the place to try it rather than a hotel function room. No fitness required, nothing to bring. In the base price. - Subtitle: led by a local practitioner who starts with where the style comes from and what it is built on, close range, straight lines, economy of movement, and then puts you into the basic stance and moves your hands and feet until the shape is right. - Tags: Folk - Host: Foshan, Foshan Lens — Martial arts, temple traditions and Lingnan streets - Access: led by a local practitioner who starts with where the style comes from and what it is built on, close range, straight lines, economy of movement, and then puts you into the basic stance and moves your hands and feet until the shape is right. It sits in the temple that Foshan's martial arts tradition is attached to, which is why this is the place to try it rather than a hotel function room. No fitness required, nothing to bring. In the base price. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/979bc77425de.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9e35927f723c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f23a3a708cda.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 - 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 - Yu Garden: Older than the Skyline (Shanghai): A classical garden of pavilions, rockery, ponds and paths that never run straight, sitting inside the oldest quarter of Shanghai. It is the one place in the city that predates everything the skyline is famous for. A short, level visit — two hours, all of it flat — and it is the last thing on the trip, sized to fit before an afternoon flight. Admission is in your base price. - Subtitle: A classical garden of pavilions, rockery, ponds and paths that never run straight in the oldest quarter of Shanghai, and the one place that predates everything its skyline is famous for. - Tags: Heritage - Host: Shanghai, Shanghai Lens — Skyline and riverfront culture - Access: a classical garden of pavilions, rockery, ponds and paths that never run straight, sitting inside the oldest quarter of Shanghai. Two hours, all of it flat. It is the one place in the city that predates everything the skyline is famous for. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7c5e906b378e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/07b39b023295.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/075884fd7738.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3623b2d6ff22.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/793d4d9ec24d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a1dac8269a5f.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 by Night: Two Banks, a Century Apart (Shanghai): the row of trading-house and bank buildings on one bank of the Huangpu, the Pudong towers on the other, and a hundred years between them, facing each other across the water. About an hour and a half. Your guide is with you for the whole evening, which also settles the practical question: the tea-house and language-practice approaches that work this waterfront are a known scam, and with a guide you never have to decide alone whether a stranger's invitation is genuine. In the base price. - Subtitle: the row of trading-house and bank buildings on one bank of the Huangpu, the Pudong towers on the other, and a hundred years between them. Your guide is with you for the whole evening; it is in the base price. - Tags: City - Host: Shanghai, Shanghai Lens — Skyline and riverfront culture - Access: the row of trading-house and bank buildings on one bank of the Huangpu, the Pudong towers on the other, and a hundred years between them. Your guide is with you for the whole evening, which is also how we deal with the tea-house and language-practice approaches that work this waterfront: nobody has to decide alone whether a stranger's invitation is genuine. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/44b4c59711e7.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/819f854bed70.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/25f3fbf391b7.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ab3be6b19c59.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/520402ec044f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/eed1a59d8207.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8851a6617c7b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2e92d8293a47.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b3c382b7f98f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d9f1a5421f27.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 - Huangpu Commuter Ferry (Shanghai): the commuter crossing, not a sightseeing cruise: a few minutes at the rail with people going to work and their scooters, the same water the Bund was built to face. Cheap and short, the last thing the route does before the airport, and the far bank arrives quickly. In the base price. - Subtitle: the commuter crossing, not a sightseeing cruise: a few minutes at the rail with commuters and their scooters, the same water the Bund was built to face. In the base price. - Tags: City - Host: Shanghai, Shanghai Lens — Skyline and riverfront culture - Access: the commuter crossing, not a sightseeing cruise: a few minutes at the rail with people going to work and their scooters, the same water the Bund was built to face. Cheap, short, and the last thing the route does before the airport. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/77334b45911c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3035dd70ef19.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c5ed3afb6c7c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/31ab98f95965.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/c1a4fff775c6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/29527e0c5132.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dde04b2f55e4.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b511339a7702.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ab1024d4f1e7.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/35255aa13b0d.jpg - Chengdu panda base in the morning (Chengdu): the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, a research and breeding center on the edge of the city. The visit is set for the morning, the hours when the pandas are generally more active; later in the day you mostly watch them sleep. About three hours on flat, shaded paths. Whether the internal shuttle inside the base is in your base price is stated in writing in your quote. Admission is in the base price. - Subtitle: the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, a research and breeding center on the edge of the city. - Tags: Nature - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture - Access: the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, a research and breeding center on the edge of the city. The visit is set for the morning, the hours when the pandas are generally more active; later in the day you mostly watch them sleep. About three hours on flat, shaded paths. Whether the internal shuttle inside the base is in your base price is stated in writing in your quote. Admission is in the base price. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/080ea132dcfb.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2b0a902d7e00.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0aca84995114.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/cdab22c7bcf5.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bcdc08962f93.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/555afb7cf137.jpg - Teahouse sitting in People's Park (Chengdu): an open-air teahouse in a public park in the middle of Chengdu, bamboo chairs at low tables under the trees. You sit down and stay: the table and one gaiwan per guest, the lidded cup China brews in, are in your price, and the kettle comes back as long as you are in the chair. Around you the park does what it does on a weekday, cards at the next table, a tuning fork ringing as an ear cleaner works his way between the tables. Roughly three hours are set aside, because sitting is the content here rather than a pause on the way somewhere. The ear cleaning and anything you eat or drink beyond that one gaiwan are on your own account. - Subtitle: an open-air teahouse in a public park in the middle of Chengdu, bamboo chairs at low tables under the trees, keep your seat and the tea keeps coming. - Tags: City - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture - Access: bamboo chairs under the trees and a gaiwan each, the lidded cup China brews in, refilled by a man with a long-spouted kettle for as long as you keep the seat. Around you: neighbors playing cards, an ear cleaner working the next table with a tuning fork. Your seat and the refills are in the base price; the snacks and the ear cleaner are your own account. A full afternoon is set aside, because sitting is the content here rather than a pause on the way somewhere. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/77584e962219.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2bff65c653e6.png, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/34f6c86b2f9f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a4c2127aee55.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6a74f063db8f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a27d0f4e6224.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/89eb340e5ae2.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/43f5d1ab4117.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/12ed3c8b6eac.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/54273121005d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4e4bd21b9b97.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9d549716c30b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9cf32f1b02e8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d57a819a2152.jpg - Dujiangyan River Control and Irrigation (Dujiangyan): a river-control system begun in the third century BC and still in service, splitting the river into an inner stream for the fields and an outer one for the flood. It splits the river in two without a dam, sends one part onto the plain and one part downstream, and the farmland it waters is the reason Chengdu could become the city it is. You walk the divide and the spillway and look down on the water doing now what it was designed to do then; your guide shows you where each part does its job. About two and a half hours, with steps and bridges. Whether the site shuttle is operating in your month, and whether it sits inside your price, is stated in writing in your quote; any in-park transport is not included. Most visitors photograph the river and leave; understanding what it is doing is why this gets a full day rather than a stop. - Subtitle: a river-control system begun in the third century BC and still in service, splitting the river into an inner stream for the fields and an outer one for the flood. Admission included; reached by high-speed rail from Chengdu and back the same day. - Tags: Heritage - Host: Guangzhou, Guangzhou Lens — Trade history and southern city life - Access: a river-control system begun in the third century BC and still in service, splitting the river into an inner stream for the fields and an outer one for the flood. You walk the levee between the two flows and your guide shows you where each part does its job. About two and a half hours, with steps and bridges. Whether the site shuttle is operating in your month, and whether it sits inside your price, is stated in writing in your quote. It is worth the day out because almost nothing else on a first trip to China is both this old and still on duty. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b973a332521c.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9d9a43ba2c4d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b9a766ee65f9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/93a75b616069.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3d2f86879c96.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/630985f2347a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9ebdb09b564e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/73712e678adf.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d204564d5198.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0ee050a0ef26.jpg - Mount Qingcheng Taoist temple (Mount Qingcheng): 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: Guangzhou, Guangzhou Lens — Trade history and southern city life - Access: 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. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/9143314f4af5.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0b714d59f119.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/560fd7cb58d3.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ce595a251ee1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6ec0b0263867.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/59b2b63005a8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/477ad628a9ca.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/70b569772455.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6c462ceaa624.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0160d2eb08a5.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 Sichuan opera (Chengdu): a neighborhood theater rather than a hotel ballroom show. You go backstage before it starts, watch the performers put their faces on, and then see face-changing from close range: the painted mask becomes another one in the time it takes the performer to swing his head. The ticket, the backstage visit and the face-changing piece are in the base price as listed by the theater; if the theater's program for your date turns out to run differently, your quote says so before you pay. Named performer, exact length and time slot are confirmed for your departure rather than promised here. About two hours, seated. - Subtitle: a neighborhood theater rather than a hotel ballroom show. - Tags: Stage - Host: Chengdu, Chengdu Lens — Pandas and Sichuan culture - Access: a neighborhood theater rather than a hotel ballroom show. You go backstage before it starts, watch the performers put their faces on, and then see face-changing from close range: the painted mask becomes another one in the time it takes the performer to swing his head. The ticket, the backstage visit and the face-changing piece are in the base price as listed by the theater; if the theater's program for your date turns out to run differently, your quote says so before you pay. About two hours, seated. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/984b6ea21914.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/41a954b10a49.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/64ef87441097.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/00bbe0d6022a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7727dea96809.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/551fdba21a23.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 - 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 - 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 - The Forbidden City (Beijing): the palace the Ming and Qing courts ran the country from, finished in 1420 and lived in for five centuries. You walk one axis: the ceremonial halls, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden, then out through the north gate to Jingshan. Entry is by timed reservation and the booking system sits poorly with overseas mobile numbers, so your quote states in writing who books your slot and by when. The admission itself is in the base price. Audio guides and guides hired inside the palace are not. Guests regularly find the site tiring, so the route is cut to that single line with places to sit, and no departure puts this day on a Monday, when the palace closes. - Subtitle: the palace the Ming and Qing courts ran the country from, finished in 1420 and lived in for five centuries. - Tags: Heritage - Host: Beijing, Beijing Lens — Imperial capital and Great Wall - Access: the palace the Ming and Qing courts ran the country from, finished in 1420 and lived in for five centuries. You walk one axis: the ceremonial halls, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden, then out through the north gate to Jingshan. Entry is by timed reservation and the booking system sits poorly with overseas mobile numbers, so your quote states in writing who books your slot and by when. The admission itself is in the base price. Audio guides and guides hired inside the palace are not. Guests regularly find the site tiring, so the route is cut to that single line with places to sit, and no departure puts this day on a Monday, when the palace closes. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7f313a6dab74.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8a6cdb9ca2b9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/de8d1138706b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/cb45218f2b95.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/08a2b46a7206.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/43c9d4d18be6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/49598606918a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/17cfe569ced7.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aff552490ca6.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/db0255c2930c.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 ### Capture banner - Label: Save this itinerary - Title: Send the full route to your inbox - Subtitle: We will include the latest hotels, hosts and pacing notes. - Placeholder: Email address - CTA: Send route - Sent label: Sent ## Itinerary ### The Wall Comes Last - 14 days Journey #### Guangzhou (2 days) - Subtitle: Land in the south - Recommendation: Your driver meets your flight, whatever time it lands. Nothing is asked of you today. - Transport: Flight - Transport mode: airplane Airport pickup · Guangzhou through the window · Evening - 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 1: Land in the south - (transport) — your driver and vehicle are waiting for the flight number on your confirmation, and the run into the city is yours to sleep through. - (sight) — elevated roads, then banyan trees and lit shopfronts along a subtropical street. The China you flew to shows up before you have unpacked anything, and it is warmer and louder than the one in the photographs. - (note) — 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. - (accommodation) Conrad Guangzhou — Hotel stay in Guangzhou. ##### Day 2: Out of the city, into the trade - (transport) — a road round trip out of Guangzhou, with both of tonight's and last night's beds staying where they are, so nothing gets packed. The start and return times for your departure are written into your quote. - (sight) — courtyards, carved roof ridges and the cultural displays inside a temple complex that has been the neighborhood's meeting point for centuries. Stand under the main roof and look up at the ridge: it is crowded with small ceramic figures, a whole theater company's worth of them, up where nobody can see them properly from the ground. - (sight) — two people inside one lion, one working the head and one the tail, and a drum keeping both of them honest. Watch the feet rather than the face: the lion is a martial arts form wearing a costume, and the drummer is the one telling it where to go. - (sight) — your practitioner starts with where the style comes from and the idea it runs on, close range and economy of movement, then puts you into the basic stance and the first hand positions. You are corrected within a minute of trying it, which is the point. - (note) — this is the first full day after a long-haul flight, so it holds three things and no more, and each of them shortens if the party is still on the wrong clock. #### Shanghai (2 days) - Subtitle: Tea in the morning, towers by noon - Recommendation: The south says goodbye twice, once at a tea table and once from a river island. Then the country's first jump north. - Transport: Flight - Transport mode: airplane Cantonese morning tea · Haixinsha and Zhujiang New Town · Fly Guangzhou to Shanghai · Evening - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fZTcQLS6.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 3: Tea in the morning, towers by noon - (dining) — steamer baskets keep arriving at a shared table while the tea gets poured: shrimp dumplings you can see through, siu mai, rice noodle rolls, barbecue pork buns. The tables around you are three generations of a family doing what they do every Sunday, at volume. Point at the trolley rather than the menu. - (sight) — an island park with the tower district standing over it, glass and steel and open plaza. You were in a courtyard temple two hours ago. Stand with your back to the river and look up the axis of towers: both of these places are the same city, and both are working days. - (transport) — your own driver runs both airport ends and your guide hands you over at the door. The sequence of this morning and the check-in margin it leaves for the flight are written into your quote before you book; the flight number, time and class for your order are written in as well. - (note) — you land in the afternoon and nothing is scheduled tonight. The riverfront waits for tomorrow, with your guide, and your quote carries the local contact number for this evening. - (accommodation) Bellagio by MGM Shanghai on the Bund — Hotel stay in Shanghai. ##### Day 4: A garden, a collection, two skylines - (sight) — pavilions, rockery, ponds and a path that refuses to run straight, set inside the oldest quarter of the city. Walk the loop once without stopping to read anything: the garden is designed to withhold the far end of the pond until you have turned the corner. - (sight) — bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, arranged by material rather than by dynasty. Give the bronzes the first half hour: they are three thousand years older than anything else you will stand next to this fortnight, and the casting seams are visible if you get close. - (sight) — the old banking houses hold one bank of the river and the Pudong towers hold the other, a century apart and looking straight at each other across the water. Your guide stays with you through the evening. Stand at the rail with the old buildings behind you and the towers in front: that is the fifteen seconds worth filming. #### Chengdu (3 days) - Subtitle: Low-rise, then a working boat - Recommendation: The morning is the version of Shanghai that people actually live in. The afternoon moves you a long way inland. - Transport: High-speed rail - Transport mode: train The former French Concession and Wukang Road · Huangpu River commuter ferry · Fly Shanghai to Chengdu · Evening - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1BPFDek8.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/18sksaPz.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, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4XAZDbS7.webp ##### Day 5: Low-rise, then a working boat - (transport) — plane trees closing over the street, three-story houses behind low walls, small shops that sell one thing each. Look up at the balconies with the laundry out: these are apartments, not a preserved district, and somebody is having their morning above your head. - (transport) — the boat people take to get to work, a few minutes across, with scooters wheeled on at the front and the same two skylines from last night arriving at deck height in daylight. - (transport) — driver at both ends, guide handing over at the door, flight number, time and class for your order written into your quote. The land under the wing goes from delta to basin before the wheels are down. - (note) — check in and stop. Nothing is scheduled, and dinner near the hotel is recommended and booked for you if you want it, on your own account. - (accommodation) Atour Hotel Chengdu Taikoo Li Chunxi Road Pedestrian Street — Hotel stay in Chengdu. ##### Day 6: Pandas early, then nowhere to be - (sight) — you are there in the active hours: eating, climbing down off things, dropping back to sleep in the fork of a tree. Flat shaded paths, benches, about three hours to use as you like. Get to an enclosure fence early and wait: the animal comes over on its own schedule or not at all. - (sight) — bamboo chairs under the trees, a gaiwan each, and someone with a long-spouted kettle topping it up for as long as you stay. Cards at the next table, an ear cleaner working two tables over with a tuning fork. An hour in, you'll notice you have stopped checking how long this is taking. - (note) — two things and a whole afternoon, on purpose. Chengdu is where the second half of this trip changes speed. ##### Day 7: A machine from the 3rd century BC, then a mountain - (transport) — a short run out of the city and back the same day, so nothing is packed and tonight's bed is the same one. Your guide and vehicle work both ends of the rail. - (sight) — an irrigation system built in the 3rd century BC and still in operation. Stand where the water divides and watch it take both channels: one of them runs onto the plain this province farms, and it has been doing that without interruption for over two thousand years. Your guide draws the mechanism before you look at it, which takes about four minutes and changes what you see. - (sight) — hill paths on foot to a quiet working temple rather than the busiest hall on the mountain, where a resident Taoist talks with you through your guide, followed by an introduction to tai chi on the temple ground. The form is slow because the idea is to move with a force instead of against it. Halfway through the first sequence you'll find you have dropped your voice without being asked to. - (sight) — the return train puts you back in the city in the evening, in the hotel you left this morning. #### Xi'an (3 days) - Subtitle: Two lanes and a backstage, then north - Recommendation: The last Chengdu morning holds the city's most photographed lanes and its least polished theater. The afternoon train takes you out of the basin. - Transport: High-speed rail - Transport mode: train Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li · Community Sichuan opera house · Rail Chengdu to Xi'an - Images: 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, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/59fYoC02.webp ##### Day 8: Two lanes and a backstage, then north - (sight) — three parallel lanes of courtyard houses, and the shopping district beside them. It is busy and thoroughly commercial, and worth an hour and a half for the building form alone: look through any open doorway at the courtyard behind it, and the plan of a Chinese city house is right there. - (sight) — a neighborhood theater, not a hotel ballroom. You go backstage before the performance, watch a painted face being built up in layers, then sit close enough to fail to catch the change: the mask becomes another mask in the time it takes the performer to swing his head. - (transport) — the afternoon train runs north out of the basin and through the mountains that close it off. The seat class for your order is written into your quote, and your guide meets you at the Xi'an end. - (accommodation) Somerset Xindicheng Xi'an — Hotel stay in Xian. ##### Day 9: Eight thousand faces - (sight) — an estimated 8,000 figures buried with the first emperor of unified China, standing in the pits they came out of. Walk the length of the main pit first without stopping, then come back: the ranks separate out by armor and hairstyle once you know what to look at, and no two faces were modeled the same. - (sight) — in the more recently excavated areas, traces of the original paint are still on some figures. Ask your guide to point out a surviving patch: it is the one detail that makes the army stop looking like stone and start looking like a crowd. - (sight) — about three and a half hours on site, most of it walking and standing, and this is the only thing on today. The site runs at its heaviest visitor load in holiday weeks, which is why no departure on this route sits inside the national holiday week. ##### Day 10: On top of the wall, then behind it - (sight) — you ride a section of the top, wide enough for two abreast, with the modern city on one side and the old street grid on the other. The bicycle is included for that section. Stop at a corner tower, put both feet down and look inward: the grid below you is the old city's street plan, and the traffic is still following it. - (sight) — this is the longest stretch of unsheltered outdoor time on the route. When the weather or the legs say otherwise, the same stretch is walked instead of ridden, and you stand in exactly the same place. - (sight) — the two towers at the center of the old city, then the lanes behind them, where Chinese Muslim families have lived, cooked and traded for generations. You walk it with your guide past hand-pulled noodle counters, persimmon cakes on a griddle and roujiamo stalls, crisp-baked bread packed with slow-braised meat. Somewhere in the third lane you'll notice you have stopped photographing and started just looking. #### Beijing (4 days) - Subtitle: The city after the emperor - Recommendation: A morning at the landmark of Xi'an's second life, then the last of the three trains. Two dynasties in one city, and you have now stood in both. - Transport: Flight - Transport mode: airplane Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · Rail Xi'an to Beijing · Evening - Images: 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, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/24XUDb3f.webp ##### Day 11: The city after the emperor - (sight) — a tall brick pagoda in its own temple compound, with the cultural quarter that grew up around it. Stand at the base and look up the taper: the storeys shorten as they rise, which is what makes the thing look taller than it is. This is the part of Xi'an that is not Qin, and the reason the city kept mattering for another thousand years. - (transport) — the afternoon train runs across the north China plain to the capital. The seat class for your order is written into your quote, and your Beijing guide takes over at the station. - (note) — nothing is scheduled. Three nights start here, and the bags stay open until the fourteenth. - (accommodation) Novotel Beijing Peace — Hotel stay in Beijing. ##### Day 12: One axis through the palace - (sight) — your timed slot is arranged ahead, so you walk in on schedule. Inside, one axis: the ceremonial halls where the court did its business, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden at the end, then out through the north gate. Stand in the middle of the main courtyard and look back through the gates you came in by: they line up, one inside another, all the way out. - (sight) — the palace is large and guests often report it as tiring, so the route stops at the seats we know about and the garden at the end is unhurried. This day is never set on a Monday, when the palace closes. - (sight) — out of the north gate and up the hill, about an hour including the climb. From the pavilion at the top the palace roofs read as one continuous field of gold, and the Beijing Central Axis runs straight out through them, north and south. That axis is how the whole old city was set out, and it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2024. ##### Day 13: The wall, on day thirteen - (transport) — the run north out of the city takes a good part of the morning, which is why the wall gets the whole day and no other heavy site sits beside it. The vehicle stays with you all day. - (sight) — the climbing is done for you, and the ascent is included. You step off onto a restored stretch of wall with watchtowers running away along the ridge in both directions. - (sight) — your guide reads the wall to you at the top: the beacon towers, the pass below, why the sightlines run where they do, and what a garrison up here actually did all day. Walk out to the second tower and turn around: the wall behind you is doing the same thing over the next ridge, and the one after that. ##### Day 14: Cut to your flight - (sight) — if your flight leaves before noon, there is no touring and you go straight to the airport. If it leaves between noon and 6 p.m., one low-intensity item runs, either Temple of Heaven or Tian'anmen Square, chosen with you when we quote. If it leaves after 6 p.m., the National Museum of China is added and its reservation is made on that basis. Your written quote states which items your day fourteen actually runs, before any deposit. - (sight) — three structures on one line, where the emperor made the annual sacrifice for the harvest. Round for heaven, square for earth: once you hold that, the ground plan reads itself. The park around it is where the neighborhood does its morning, so you are walking through other people's routine rather than a monument. - (sight) — the ceremonial center of modern China, crossed on foot. Everyone is screened to enter, and 30 to 45 minutes is held for that queue on top of your time on the square, so the airport run is never the thing that absorbs the delay. - (sight) — bronzes, ceramics, Buddhist sculpture and calligraphy on the east side of the square, and a closing bracket on a route that opened in a temple courtyard in the south. It runs on late departures only, because its timed reservation cannot be released at short notice. - (transport) — your driver takes you to Beijing airport with room to spare against your flight. ## Daily plan ### Day 1 — Land in the south Your driver meets your flight, whatever time it lands. Nothing is asked of you today. - Airport pickup: your driver and vehicle are waiting for the flight number on your confirmation, and the run into the city is yours to sleep through. - Guangzhou through the window: elevated roads, then banyan trees and lit shopfronts along a subtropical street. The China you flew to shows up before you have unpacked anything, and it is warmer and louder than the one in the photographs. - 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. - Stay: Guangzhou - Meals: None included today ### Day 2 — Out of the city, into the trade An easy first full day, spent out in a temple town rather than in traffic. Today you use your hands before you use your camera. - Road out to Foshan: a road round trip out of Guangzhou, with both of tonight's and last night's beds staying where they are, so nothing gets packed. The start and return times for your departure are written into your quote. - Foshan Ancestral Temple: courtyards, carved roof ridges and the cultural displays inside a temple complex that has been the neighborhood's meeting point for centuries. Stand under the main roof and look up at the ridge: it is crowded with small ceramic figures, a whole theater company's worth of them, up where nobody can see them properly from the ground. - Lion dance and martial arts in the temple grounds: two people inside one lion, one working the head and one the tail, and a drum keeping both of them honest. Watch the feet rather than the face: the lion is a martial arts form wearing a costume, and the drummer is the one telling it where to go. - Wing Chun session: your practitioner starts with where the style comes from and the idea it runs on, close range and economy of movement, then puts you into the basic stance and the first hand positions. You are corrected within a minute of trying it, which is the point. - Easy day: this is the first full day after a long-haul flight, so it holds three things and no more, and each of them shortens if the party is still on the wrong clock. - Stay: Guangzhou - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 3 — Tea in the morning, towers by noon The south says goodbye twice, once at a tea table and once from a river island. Then the country's first jump north. - Cantonese morning tea: steamer baskets keep arriving at a shared table while the tea gets poured: shrimp dumplings you can see through, siu mai, rice noodle rolls, barbecue pork buns. The tables around you are three generations of a family doing what they do every Sunday, at volume. Point at the trolley rather than the menu. - Haixinsha and Zhujiang New Town: an island park with the tower district standing over it, glass and steel and open plaza. You were in a courtyard temple two hours ago. Stand with your back to the river and look up the axis of towers: both of these places are the same city, and both are working days. - Fly Guangzhou to Shanghai: your own driver runs both airport ends and your guide hands you over at the door. The sequence of this morning and the check-in margin it leaves for the flight are written into your quote before you book; the flight number, time and class for your order are written in as well. - Evening: you land in the afternoon and nothing is scheduled tonight. The riverfront waits for tomorrow, with your guide, and your quote carries the local contact number for this evening. - Stay: Shanghai - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 4 — A garden, a collection, two skylines Shanghai in the order it was built: the old city first, then the objects, then the water it all grew along. Tonight the trip gets its first full frame. - Yu Garden and the old city: pavilions, rockery, ponds and a path that refuses to run straight, set inside the oldest quarter of the city. Walk the loop once without stopping to read anything: the garden is designed to withhold the far end of the pond until you have turned the corner. - Shanghai Museum: bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, arranged by material rather than by dynasty. Give the bronzes the first half hour: they are three thousand years older than anything else you will stand next to this fortnight, and the casting seams are visible if you get close. - The Bund and the Pudong skyline after dark: the old banking houses hold one bank of the river and the Pudong towers hold the other, a century apart and looking straight at each other across the water. Your guide stays with you through the evening. Stand at the rail with the old buildings behind you and the towers in front: that is the fifteen seconds worth filming. - Stay: Shanghai - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 5 — Low-rise, then a working boat The morning is the version of Shanghai that people actually live in. The afternoon moves you a long way inland. - The former French Concession and Wukang Road: plane trees closing over the street, three-story houses behind low walls, small shops that sell one thing each. Look up at the balconies with the laundry out: these are apartments, not a preserved district, and somebody is having their morning above your head. - Huangpu River commuter ferry: the boat people take to get to work, a few minutes across, with scooters wheeled on at the front and the same two skylines from last night arriving at deck height in daylight. - Fly Shanghai to Chengdu: driver at both ends, guide handing over at the door, flight number, time and class for your order written into your quote. The land under the wing goes from delta to basin before the wheels are down. - Evening: check in and stop. Nothing is scheduled, and dinner near the hotel is recommended and booked for you if you want it, on your own account. - Stay: Chengdu - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 6 — Pandas early, then nowhere to be The morning is the one everybody books this city for. The afternoon is the one they end up talking about. - Chengdu panda base in the morning: you are there in the active hours: eating, climbing down off things, dropping back to sleep in the fork of a tree. Flat shaded paths, benches, about three hours to use as you like. Get to an enclosure fence early and wait: the animal comes over on its own schedule or not at all. - People's Park teahouse: bamboo chairs under the trees, a gaiwan each, and someone with a long-spouted kettle topping it up for as long as you stay. Cards at the next table, an ear cleaner working two tables over with a tuning fork. An hour in, you'll notice you have stopped checking how long this is taking. - Easy day: two things and a whole afternoon, on purpose. Chengdu is where the second half of this trip changes speed. - Stay: Chengdu - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 7 — A machine from the 3rd century BC, then a mountain Out and back by high-speed rail, with your Chengdu room untouched. Today is where old stops meaning finished. - Rail out to Dujiangyan: a short run out of the city and back the same day, so nothing is packed and tonight's bed is the same one. Your guide and vehicle work both ends of the rail. - Dujiangyan irrigation works: an irrigation system built in the 3rd century BC and still in operation. Stand where the water divides and watch it take both channels: one of them runs onto the plain this province farms, and it has been doing that without interruption for over two thousand years. Your guide draws the mechanism before you look at it, which takes about four minutes and changes what you see. - Mount Qingcheng Taoist temple: hill paths on foot to a quiet working temple rather than the busiest hall on the mountain, where a resident Taoist talks with you through your guide, followed by an introduction to tai chi on the temple ground. The form is slow because the idea is to move with a force instead of against it. Halfway through the first sequence you'll find you have dropped your voice without being asked to. - Back to Chengdu: the return train puts you back in the city in the evening, in the hotel you left this morning. - Stay: Chengdu - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 8 — Two lanes and a backstage, then north The last Chengdu morning holds the city's most photographed lanes and its least polished theater. The afternoon train takes you out of the basin. - Kuanzhai Alley and Taikoo Li: three parallel lanes of courtyard houses, and the shopping district beside them. It is busy and thoroughly commercial, and worth an hour and a half for the building form alone: look through any open doorway at the courtyard behind it, and the plan of a Chinese city house is right there. - Community Sichuan opera house: a neighborhood theater, not a hotel ballroom. You go backstage before the performance, watch a painted face being built up in layers, then sit close enough to fail to catch the change: the mask becomes another mask in the time it takes the performer to swing his head. - Rail Chengdu to Xi'an: the afternoon train runs north out of the basin and through the mountains that close it off. The seat class for your order is written into your quote, and your guide meets you at the Xi'an end. - Stay: Xi'an - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 9 — Eight thousand faces One site, one whole day, no second stop. This is the day the scale of the first empire becomes a physical fact. - The Terracotta Warriors: an estimated 8,000 figures buried with the first emperor of unified China, standing in the pits they came out of. Walk the length of the main pit first without stopping, then come back: the ranks separate out by armor and hairstyle once you know what to look at, and no two faces were modeled the same. - The color that is left: in the more recently excavated areas, traces of the original paint are still on some figures. Ask your guide to point out a surviving patch: it is the one detail that makes the army stop looking like stone and start looking like a crowd. - Pace: about three and a half hours on site, most of it walking and standing, and this is the only thing on today. The site runs at its heaviest visitor load in holiday weeks, which is why no departure on this route sits inside the national holiday week. - Stay: Xi'an - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 10 — On top of the wall, then behind it An hour where you set your own speed, and an evening in the quarter the old city eats in. Today Xi'an stops being a museum and starts being a town. - Xi'an City Wall with the wall-top cycling section: you ride a section of the top, wide enough for two abreast, with the modern city on one side and the old street grid on the other. The bicycle is included for that section. Stop at a corner tower, put both feet down and look inward: the grid below you is the old city's street plan, and the traffic is still following it. - Weather and stamina: this is the longest stretch of unsheltered outdoor time on the route. When the weather or the legs say otherwise, the same stretch is walked instead of ridden, and you stand in exactly the same place. - Bell and Drum Tower quarter and the Muslim Quarter by night: the two towers at the center of the old city, then the lanes behind them, where Chinese Muslim families have lived, cooked and traded for generations. You walk it with your guide past hand-pulled noodle counters, persimmon cakes on a griddle and roujiamo stalls, crisp-baked bread packed with slow-braised meat. Somewhere in the third lane you'll notice you have stopped photographing and started just looking. - Stay: Xi'an - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 11 — The city after the emperor A morning at the landmark of Xi'an's second life, then the last of the three trains. Two dynasties in one city, and you have now stood in both. - Giant Wild Goose Pagoda: a tall brick pagoda in its own temple compound, with the cultural quarter that grew up around it. Stand at the base and look up the taper: the storeys shorten as they rise, which is what makes the thing look taller than it is. This is the part of Xi'an that is not Qin, and the reason the city kept mattering for another thousand years. - Rail Xi'an to Beijing: the afternoon train runs across the north China plain to the capital. The seat class for your order is written into your quote, and your Beijing guide takes over at the station. - Evening: nothing is scheduled. Three nights start here, and the bags stay open until the fourteenth. - Stay: Beijing - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 12 — One axis through the palace Five centuries in a single straight line, then the hill that lets you see the line. The last empire, seen from inside and then from above. - The Forbidden City: your timed slot is arranged ahead, so you walk in on schedule. Inside, one axis: the ceremonial halls where the court did its business, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden at the end, then out through the north gate. Stand in the middle of the main courtyard and look back through the gates you came in by: they line up, one inside another, all the way out. - Pace: the palace is large and guests often report it as tiring, so the route stops at the seats we know about and the garden at the end is unhurried. This day is never set on a Monday, when the palace closes. - Jingshan Park: out of the north gate and up the hill, about an hour including the climb. From the pavilion at the top the palace roofs read as one continuous field of gold, and the Beijing Central Axis runs straight out through them, north and south. That axis is how the whole old city was set out, and it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2024. - Stay: Beijing - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 13 — The wall, on day thirteen The one picture you already had, arriving with eleven days of context behind it. Nothing else is scheduled today, and nothing else needs to be. - Drive out to Mutianyu: the run north out of the city takes a good part of the morning, which is why the wall gets the whole day and no other heavy site sits beside it. The vehicle stays with you all day. - Cable car or open chairlift up: the climbing is done for you, and the ascent is included. You step off onto a restored stretch of wall with watchtowers running away along the ridge in both directions. - Walking the towers: your guide reads the wall to you at the top: the beacon towers, the pass below, why the sightlines run where they do, and what a garrison up here actually did all day. Walk out to the second tower and turn around: the wall behind you is doing the same thing over the next ridge, and the one after that. - Stay: Beijing - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 14 — Cut to your flight The last day is built backward from your departure time, in a fixed order everyone can see in advance. Whatever it holds, you leave with a driver and no hurry. - How the day is cut: if your flight leaves before noon, there is no touring and you go straight to the airport. If it leaves between noon and 6 p.m., one low-intensity item runs, either Temple of Heaven or Tian'anmen Square, chosen with you when we quote. If it leaves after 6 p.m., the National Museum of China is added and its reservation is made on that basis. Your written quote states which items your day fourteen actually runs, before any deposit. - Temple of Heaven: three structures on one line, where the emperor made the annual sacrifice for the harvest. Round for heaven, square for earth: once you hold that, the ground plan reads itself. The park around it is where the neighborhood does its morning, so you are walking through other people's routine rather than a monument. - Tian'anmen Square: the ceremonial center of modern China, crossed on foot. Everyone is screened to enter, and 30 to 45 minutes is held for that queue on top of your time on the square, so the airport run is never the thing that absorbs the delay. - National Museum of China: bronzes, ceramics, Buddhist sculpture and calligraphy on the east side of the square, and a closing bracket on a route that opened in a temple courtyard in the south. It runs on late departures only, because its timed reservation cannot be released at short notice. - Airport drop-off: your driver takes you to Beijing airport with room to spare against your flight. - Stay: Trip ends - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ## 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 ### 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 ### 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 ### 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 ### Mandarin Oriental, Guangzhou - City: Guangzhou - Description: Mandarin Oriental, Guangzhou. A selected stay in Guangzhou. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8a41f79830b6.jpg ### DoubleTree by Hilton Beijing East Third Ring Road - City: Beijing - Description: International upscale hotel in Beijing, suitable for business and leisure stays. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/kkFJOiOe.webp ### Atour S Hotel Shanghai Hongqiao Centre Aegean - City: Shanghai - Description: Atour S Hotel in Hongqiao: steps from Aegean Place and Metro Line 10, six km from the National Exhibition and Convention Center. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ciHY2Qvs.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 ### 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 ### Guangzhou Marriott Hotel Tianhe - City: Guangzhou - Description: Guangzhou Marriott Hotel Tianhe. A selected stay in Guangzhou. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fed425e7b60a.jpg ## Included / Excluded ### What's Included - Intercity transport: Five movements: two domestic flights, Guangzhou to Shanghai on day three and Shanghai to Chengdu on day five; three high-speed rail movements, the Dujiangyan round trip on day seven, Chengdu to Xi'an on day eight and Xi'an to Beijing on day eleven. The cabin class and seat class for your order are stated in writing in your quote - Private vehicle: Air-conditioned private vehicle with driver for all listed touring in all five cities, the Foshan road round trip on day two and the morning of day three, the Dujiangyan and Mount Qingcheng day and the full-day Mutianyu round trip; airport transfers at both ends of the two flights; station transfers for the three rail movements; airport pickup in Guangzhou on day one and drop-off in Beijing on day fourteen - Hotels: 13 nights at your chosen level, four-star, five-star or quality boutique, breakfast included: Guangzhou 2 · Shanghai 2 · Chengdu 3 · Xi'an 3 · Beijing 3 - Guide: Licensed English-speaking guide on every touring day in each of the five cities, the Foshan day included, and accompanying the Bund evening in Shanghai and the Muslim Quarter evening in Xi'an - Tickets & experiences, Guangzhou and Foshan: Foshan Ancestral Temple · the lion dance and martial arts in the temple grounds · the Wing Chun session with a local practitioner · Cantonese morning tea at a long-established tea house, table and tea service included · Haixinsha and Zhujiang New Town - Tickets & experiences, Shanghai: Yu Garden with the old city · Shanghai Museum · the Bund and the Pudong skyline after dark, guide accompanied · the former French Concession and Wukang Road on foot · the Huangpu River commuter ferry crossing - Tickets & experiences, Chengdu: The panda base on a morning visit · the gaiwan teahouse sitting in People's Park, seat and refills included · Kuanzhai Alley with Taikoo Li · the community Sichuan opera house with the backstage visit and face-changing up close - Tickets & experiences, Dujiangyan: The Dujiangyan irrigation works · the quiet Mount Qingcheng Taoist temple with the conversation with a resident Taoist and the tai chi introduction - Tickets & experiences, Xi'an: The Terracotta Warriors · the Xi'an City Wall with the wall-top cycling section and the bicycle for it · the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · the Bell and Drum Tower quarter with the Muslim Quarter at night, on foot with the guide - Tickets & experiences, Beijing: The Forbidden City and Jingshan Park on day twelve · Mutianyu Great Wall on day thirteen with the cable car or open chairlift ascent · and on the departure day, per the flight-time rule in Special Notes: Tian'anmen Square · Temple of Heaven · the National Museum of China - Meals: 13 hotel breakfasts, one per morning on days two through fourteen. The tea house sittings in Foshan and Chengdu are seated experiences with the tea included rather than meals - Insurance: Travel accident insurance ### Not Included - International flights: Flights into Guangzhou and out of Beijing, and any connecting sector you need at either end, together with any hub-city night a connection forces - Visas: Visa fees and processing for guests who need a Chinese visa, including every US guest on this route - Lunches and dinners: No lunch or dinner is in the base price on this route. Your guide recommends and books; the bill is your own. The tasting stalls on the Muslim Quarter walk and anything you order to eat at the People's Park teahouse are on the same basis - Climbing the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower: The Xi'an evening is the quarter on foot. Admission to climb either tower is a separately priced add-on - In-park transport and in-venue spending: The site shuttles at the Terracotta Warriors, the panda base and Dujiangyan, the cableway and lake boat at Mount Qingcheng, and the audio guides and hired guides inside the museums and the palace: each is stated in writing in your quote rather than assumed - Optional add-ons: Priced separately when you choose them; no optional item is added into the base plan - Personal: Gratuities to guides and drivers, single-room or extra-room difference, laundry, shopping, all personal spending ### Special Notes A few things on this route follow the calendar, the 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, the day plan and the transfer timing are re-cut and re-checked. Two, Three, hotel allocation, guide and vehicle supply, air and rail ticketing and the timed museum reservations are confirmed with our partners on the ground for the October to December 2026 season. Four, the departure calendar below is signed off commercially. 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. - Nothing is sold before it lands: this route is built from elements already in our own library rather than bought in as a package. Everything in What's Included is confirmed for your order in writing before you pay, and nothing that has not landed is written here as an inclusion or as a highlight. - The departure day: day fourteen is cut to your flight time on the fixed sequence printed in Day 14 above, and your written quote states which items your order actually runs before any deposit is taken. This sequence is an interim arrangement while the day plan is re-cut; the direction of travel is to move the National Museum of China a day earlier. - Departure dates: no departures between October 1 and October 7, the national holiday week: the Terracotta Warriors site runs at its heaviest visitor load that week and every city on this route sits inside its no-go window. Dates are also set so that day twelve never falls on a Monday, when the Forbidden City closes; if your dates would put it there, days twelve and thirteen swap and the Great Wall day moves to day twelve. - November and December departures: three points on this route move with the weather. The Mutianyu ascent runs on a cableway and an open chairlift, and snow or ice closes both. The wall-top cycling section in Xi'an is the longest unsheltered stretch on the route and converts to a walked section of the wall. The hill paths at Mount Qingcheng are the third. For a departure in those two months, your quote states the arrangement for all three in writing before you pay. - The three timed reservations: the Forbidden City, the National Museum of China and Shanghai Museum all require a timed reservation, and their systems sit poorly with overseas mobile numbers. The Forbidden City releases slots on a seven-day lead. Your quote states in writing who books each of the three and by when. The admission itself is in the base price either way. - The personal encounters: the Wing Chun session in Foshan, the conversation with a resident Taoist and the tai chi introduction at Mount Qingcheng, and the backstage visit and face-changing in Chengdu are all in the base price. Until each is re-confirmed with our partners on the ground for your selling season, we name no individual, promise no fixed duration and hold no fixed time slot for any of the three. - Foshan and the day three margin: day two and the first item of day three sit in Foshan on a road round trip out of Guangzhou, and both nights stay in Guangzhou. The flight to Shanghai leaves Guangzhou that afternoon, so your quote states the day three morning sequence and the airport check-in margin in writing. - Your first evening in Shanghai: day three lands in the afternoon and nothing is scheduled that evening; the Bund is on day four with your guide. Street approaches around the riverfront target new arrivals, so your quote carries the briefing we send before arrival and the local contact number for that evening. - Shanghai Museum branch: which branch your day four visit uses is named in writing in your quote. - Class of travel: two domestic flights and three rail movements. Your quote states the class of each one in writing, and the 2026 fourth-quarter air and rail timetables are re-checked for your dates before your confirmation is issued, because the airline season changes at the end of October. - 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 18, 2026 finish inside that window; later departures 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 ten-year multiple-entry one. Allow processing time before your departure date. We confirm visa status before any payment. Guests who entered China under the transit policy cannot take this trip, and we say so rather than working around it. - Connections at both ends: Guangzhou on the entry side and Beijing on the exit side are both served nonstop from the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the US and Canada. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek guests meet a thin nonstop side at both ends; Nordic, Central European and Irish guests on the entry side; Australian and New Zealand guests on the exit side. Any connecting sector is an international flight outside the base price, as is any hub-city night it forces. We check your full inbound and outbound itinerary before your order is taken and state each connection in writing. - Confirmation and changes: the confirmation-time commitment and the change and refund terms are being finalized with our partners on the ground. Until they are settled, each quote states in writing its own confirmation deadline and its change and refund conditions. This route holds two domestic flights, three rail movements and three timed reservations, so a date change touches air, rail and reservation inventory at once. ## Is Fourteen Days Your Length? Fewer than fourteen days? ### Fewer than fourteen days? The five cities come apart cleanly. Guangzhou and Foshan can go, which turns this into a Shanghai entry; Chengdu with the Dujiangyan day stands on its own; Xi'an and Beijing are the pair that has to stay together for the sequence to mean anything. Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we cut cities rather than cut the pace. ## Good to Know - Group: Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size. - Pace: Five cities in 14 days, south to north, no backtracking. Guangzhou 2 nights, Shanghai 2, Chengdu 3, Xi'an 3, Beijing 3. Two easy days, on day two and day six, and two same-day round trips that leave your bags in the hotel - Effort: Moderate. The Great Wall ascent is by cable car or open chairlift, the Xi'an wall-top section can be walked instead of ridden, and the two heaviest Beijing sites are on separate days. The longest single site day is the Terracotta Warriors, about three and a half hours mostly on your feet - Ports: Guangzhou in, Beijing out, open jaw; airport pickup on day one and drop-off on day fourteen - Intercity: Two domestic flights and three high-speed rail movements, all in the base price. Class stated in writing per order - Visas: British, most European, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand passports enter visa-free for days, checked order by order against your dates. US passports need a Chinese tourist or business visa for this route - Language: Licensed English-speaking local guides throughout, city by city - Meals: 13 hotel breakfasts. Lunches and dinners are recommended and booked by your guide, 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. No departures October 1 to 7. November and December departures have the three weather-linked points written into the quote ## 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. ### Why does the Great Wall come on day thirteen? Because it is the last piece, not the first. Put it on day two and it stays the picture you already had before you booked. Put it on day thirteen and you reach it having stood in a Foshan temple courtyard, on the Bund between two skylines, at an irrigation system from the 3rd century BC that is still running, and in front of the first emperor's army, so the wall arrives as an answer rather than a photograph. The practical side works out the same way: the round trip from the city takes most of a day, so the wall gets a day of its own with nothing heavy beside it. ### Fourteen days, five cities, five intercity movements. How much of that is travel? Less than the numbers suggest, because none of it doubles back. The two flights sit in the afternoon of days three and five, each with a morning of sightseeing before it. Two of the three rail movements are afternoon departures on days eight and eleven, again after a morning out. The third is a same-day round trip on day seven that leaves your Chengdu room untouched. Your own driver runs both ends of every movement and your guide hands you over at the door. What that buys you is the second half: three nights each in Chengdu, Xi'an and Beijing, one hotel per city. ### We're traveling in November. What actually changes? Three things on this route move with the weather. The Mutianyu ascent runs on a cableway and an open chairlift, and snow or ice closes both. The wall-top cycling section in Xi'an is the longest unsheltered stretch on the route. The hill paths at Mount Qingcheng are the third. We cannot promise any of the three against a forecast, and we will not pretend otherwise: your quote states in writing what is arranged for your exact dates. What holds regardless: the wall day is yours either way and the section is walked when it is not ridden, so you stand on the same wall and in the same place on the ramparts, and the two indoor anchors of the trip, the palace and the army, are unaffected by weather. ### Do we need a visa? Most guests on this route do not. British, French, German, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Nordic, Central European, Irish, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand passports currently enter visa-free for stays days, and we check your 14 days plus any extra days 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 different: the US is not on that list, and 14 days is longer than the 10-day visa-free transit policy allows, so US guests hold a Chinese tourist or business visa, applied for in person the first time. We confirm visa status before any payment, and if the dates do not fit, we say so instead of selling. ### Can we book this today? Not yet, and we would rather say so than take a deposit on it. Four things are still being settled: the day plan and transfer timing are being re-cut, Until those items are done we take no orders and no deposits. What you can do now is send us your dates and passports, and we will write to you the day this route opens.