--- title: "One Country, Three Clocks" description: "9 days from a clay army to a floor of circuit boards crossing the whole span" type: "tour" route_id: "china-three-clocks-9-days" total_days: 9 price: 3150 highlights: ["Beijing", "Xi'an", "Shenzhen"] url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days" canonical_url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days" locale: "en-US" alternates: {"en-US":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days","en-GB":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days","zh-CN":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-CN/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days","zh-TW":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-TW/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days","de-DE":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/de-DE/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days","fr-FR":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/fr-FR/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days","es-ES":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/es-ES/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days","it-IT":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/it-IT/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days","x-default":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/tours/china-three-clocks-9-days"} --- # One Country, Three Clocks 9 days from a clay army to a floor of circuit boards crossing the whole span Two capitals and a delta, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, a city wall you ride. English-speaking guides city by city. - Moderate. The climb to the Great Wall is done by cable car or open chairlift, the Xi'an city wall is ridden rather than walked, and the two travel days each carry half a day of sightseeing at most. ## Overview Three cities, and each one keeps time differently. Beijing has a palace finished in 1420 and a wall built to be looked out from. Xi'an has an estimated eight thousand clay soldiers, still standing in their ranks. Shenzhen has a market where components arrive in trays on one floor and leave as finished machines from another. The route runs them in that order and gives Beijing and Xi'an three nights each, so nine days hold only two travel legs. You are here on a clock, a ten-day transit permission or a thirty-day stamp, and we compute it against your actual flights before you pay. By the last morning you'll notice you have stopped calling them two different countries. — LyrikTrip travel designers Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates, which passport each traveler holds, and what time your inbound flight lands. 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 entry review, the cabin classes and the named hotels stand, before you are asked for anything. ## Summary - Route ID: china-three-clocks-9-days - Duration: 9 days / 8 nights - Starting price: $3,150 - Status: active - Highlights: Beijing, Xi'an, Shenzhen - Cover image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d712e1982dc0.jpg ## Hero tags - private - From 1 guest - Max: no fixed limit ## Highlight notes - Two capitals and a delta, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, a city wall you ride. English-speaking guides city by city. - 9 days from a clay army to a floor of circuit boards. See the whole span. ## Selling points - Walk one axis through the Forbidden City in the morning, then climb the hill directly behind it: the thing you spent three hours inside turns into a plan you can take in at one glance. - Ride up to the Great Wall instead of climbing to it, so the morning goes on walking the watchtowers rather than recovering from the steps. - Stand at the rail above the pits at the Terracotta Warriors with a guide who stays the whole visit: by the second pit you are picking out generals from crossbowmen by their armor. - Ride a bicycle along the top of the Xi'an city wall, one of the most complete still standing in China, with the old street grid on one side of you and the new city on the other. - Climb Huaqiangbei floor by floor with a guide who reads the trade out loud: loose components low down, prototype boards above them, finished machines above that, and the buying chain that ties the three together. - Give the city's own exhibition an hour to explain how it got from farmland to this in one working lifetime: the evidence is on the wall, not in an anecdote. - Unpack three times in nine days, not six: three nights in Beijing, three in Xi'an, and one train leg and one flight leg that each get their own half day. ## City highlights - Beijing (3 days): Land, and let the clock start - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aCf7CHXe.webp - Xi'an (3 days): The axis, the collection, the train - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5oh4kpMp.webp - Shenzhen (3 days): A pagoda, then two thousand kilometers of afternoon - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/09971fb8ed55.jpg ## Experiences Two capitals and a delta, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, a city wall you ride. English-speaking guides city by city. - 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 - 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 - 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 - High-speed rail, Beijing to Xi'an (Beijing to Xi'an): an afternoon aboard China's high-speed railway, roughly 1,100 kilometers of the North China Plain going past the window at speed. Station transfers at both ends are by your own vehicle and your guide hands you over at the gate. In the base price. Cabin class is being finalized, so your quote states in writing the class booked for your order. - Subtitle: an afternoon aboard China's high-speed railway, roughly 1,100 kilometers of the North China Plain going past the window at speed. - Tags: Transport - Host: Guangzhou, Guangzhou Lens — Trade history and southern city life - Access: an afternoon aboard China's high-speed railway, roughly 1,100 kilometers of the North China Plain going past the window at speed. Station transfers at both ends are by your own vehicle and your guide hands you over at the gate. In the base price. Cabin class is being finalized, so your quote states in writing the class booked for your order. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fb93d232554d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7781d5ce0818.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/657532699f1f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5612dfe51dad.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a97eca2cd5ca.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bd925cf52a58.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2a591fe89642.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e7adeb642885.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ec5b8ff6b5da.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dc80c6b7f8e4.jpg - Terracotta Warriors: Reading the Pits (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: History - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital - Access: Why it rewards a slow visit: the scale reads in one glance, the craftsmanship only up close. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/de05241524fb.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/788c1d294602.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/70bc50b897e9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f58fac3efc36.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dcbc4615cebd.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a379bf924cf3.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4cd4eb7405cc.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3d63338ab682.jpg - City Wall Ride: Old and New (Xi'an): one of the most complete surviving city walls in China, wide enough on top to ride side by side, and it still runs a full circuit around the old center. You go up onto it and ride: gray brick under the wheels, the old grid inside the wall on one hand, the modern city outside it on the other. Admission and bike hire are both included. - Subtitle: one of the most complete surviving city walls in China, wide enough on top to ride side by side, and it still runs a full circuit around the old center. - Tags: Active - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital - Access: one of the most complete surviving city walls in China, wide enough on top to ride side by side, and it still runs a full circuit around the old center. You go up onto it and ride: gray brick under the wheels, the old grid inside the wall on one hand, the modern city outside it on the other. Admission and bike hire are both included. - Images: 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/7f28b2b76b1b.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/edaa94b8ae9a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6c4bc5467067.jpg - Giant Wild Goose Pagoda scenic area (Xi'an): the pagoda and the cultural area around it, walked in the morning. Scenic area admission is in the base price. Climbing the pagoda itself is a separate ticket sold on site and is not included, and your guide tells you what the climb is and is not worth on the day. About an hour and a half. - Subtitle: the pagoda and the cultural area around it, walked in the morning. - Tags: Heritage - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital - Access: the pagoda and the cultural area around it, walked in the morning. Scenic area admission is in the base price. Climbing the pagoda itself is a separate ticket sold on site and is not included, and your guide tells you what the climb is and is not worth on the day. About an hour and a half. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/eb70bbcc8abb.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2be95bfc5748.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/23767f72ed4f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f1e0cd6ae0d1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/94916373f524.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4269d987bac0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/542e4f255e79.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7d1e365a232d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/18de0aedb419.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2f0b6d04d98d.jpg - Bell and Drum Tower square and the Muslim Quarter by night (Xi'an): After dark, Bell and Drum Towers face off over smoky food lanes. Pulled noodles, persimmon cakes, roujiamo, and naan ovens line the Hui quarter. Your guide explains what to eat and how—walking included, tower entry extra, snacks cheap and self-paid. Centuries of Silk Road history stay edible here tonight. - Subtitle: At dusk, the timekeeping Bell and Drum Towers face off across the old center, while behind them the Hui quarter's lanes come alive. Your guide walks you through, decoding each stall—what's worth it, what's for tourists, how to eat. About two hours; tower entry extra, snacks self-paid and cheap. - Tags: City - Host: Xi'an, Xi'an Lens — Warriors and ancient capital - Access: the two towers that once kept the city's time, and behind them the lanes of the Hui neighborhood after dark, at the hour they are actually busy. Your guide walks it with you and reads the food stalls: what is worth stopping for, what is a tourist item, and how each thing is eaten. Climbing the Bell Tower or the Drum Tower is a separate on-site ticket and is not in your price; food is on your own account. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/be2d09d79b66.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/02e10943b0b8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a89c8581e5c7.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/281d43f0922e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/467e9f21253b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/be17d6a5ce49.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2be0c598ad8d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/cc45951bdee2.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/68851d1cd2f1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/40f5c954821f.jpg - Domestic flight, Xi'an to Shenzhen (Xi'an to Shenzhen): the afternoon leg that takes you from the loess country to the delta in one sitting. In the base price, with the cabin class for your order stated in writing in your quote. Your Xi'an guide hands you over at the terminal door and your Shenzhen driver is waiting at the other end. - Subtitle: the afternoon leg that takes you from the loess country to the delta in one sitting. - Tags: Transport - Host: Guangzhou, Guangzhou Lens — Trade history and southern city life - Access: the afternoon leg that takes you from the loess country to the delta in one sitting. In the base price, with the cabin class for your order stated in writing in your quote. Your Xi'an guide hands you over at the terminal door and your Shenzhen driver is waiting at the other end. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d712e1982dc0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6e3af4cfd0bf.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/72802d0bbecf.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2afdbad5be5a.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0b63c672bd2d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/21a863e8cba1.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/e142579b719f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8cd57b420cf9.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/ba1b0f9300a8.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/783f9d0fe378.jpg - Huaqiangbei (Shenzhen): one of the world's best-known electronics districts. You walk floors and streets where components, prototypes and finished devices sell side by side, and the supply chain behind the world's gadgets stops being an abstraction: it has counters, prices and business cards. Your guide keeps the logic straight while you browse. - Subtitle: one of the world's best-known electronics districts - Tags: Tech - Host: Shenzhen, Shenzhen Lens — Drones and future mobility - Access: Your guide keeps the logic straight while you browse. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f3ad2afbd3b2.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/200120e470fb.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/968fce5767a5.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/403ff3a81a73.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b0f4ce04c70d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/92c50a687090.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2c610df7011f.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dd5d5cbe7e98.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2a799aaa4b8b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4576ade7ac05.jpg - Shenzhen urban planning and industry exhibition (Shenzhen): the city's own account of how it went from farmland to this, told in models, plans and dated photographs rather than in an anecdote at dinner. Admission and the guide are in the base price. The venue for your order is named in your written confirmation. About two hours. - Subtitle: the city's own account of how it went from farmland to this, told in models, plans and dated photographs rather than in an anecdote at dinner. - Tags: Museum - Host: Shenzhen, Shenzhen Lens — Drones and future mobility - Access: the city's own account of how it went from farmland to this, told in models, plans and dated photographs rather than in an anecdote at dinner. Admission and the guide are in the base price. The venue for your order is named in your written confirmation. About two hours. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/99d5f2fb8f33.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/adefc6caea58.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a6874a21eb49.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b0f4ce04c70d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/f76fb233d39d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/850e604d29dd.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/968dd623286b.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6247cf0a0d83.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6ddf0bbfc8f7.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a7613fe4218e.jpg - A driverless taxi ride (Shenzhen): `Conditional item 条件式项目`: about an hour in a self-driving taxi hailed on a screen, running on a commercial operator's live service lines rather than on a demonstration track. Sensors and cameras read the street and the steering wheel turns on its own. The service belongs to the operator, so whether it runs on your date is not ours to promise: it is booked by date before you arrive and reconfirmed after you land. Where it is not running, that time goes to a longer Huaqiangbei visit with your guide and your price does not change. Both outcomes are stated to you before you pay. This ride is not counted as an inclusion and is never sold as a reason to come. - Subtitle: `Conditional item 条件式项目`: about an hour in a self-driving taxi hailed on a screen, running on a commercial operator's live service lines rather than on a demonstration track. - Tags: Tech - Host: Shenzhen, Shenzhen Lens — Drones and future mobility - Access: `Conditional item 条件式项目`: about an hour in a self-driving taxi hailed on a screen, running on a commercial operator's live service lines rather than on a demonstration track. Sensors and cameras read the street and the steering wheel turns on its own. The service belongs to the operator, so whether it runs on your date is not ours to promise: it is booked by date before you arrive and reconfirmed after you land. Where it is not running, that time goes to a longer Huaqiangbei visit with your guide and your price does not change. Both outcomes are stated to you before you pay. This ride is not counted as an inclusion and is never sold as a reason to come. - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/664627200a07.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a2c22647c007.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 ### One Country, Three Clocks - 9 days Journey #### Beijing (3 days) - Subtitle: Land, and let the clock start - Recommendation: Your driver meets your flight, whatever time it lands. Nothing else is asked of anyone today. - Transport: High-speed rail - Transport mode: train The border · Beijing through the window · Evening - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/aCf7CHXe.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/14h8ZnOb.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/17bdSgjF.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1bDq9gT4.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1cZHxWkg.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1vwu9mIQ.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1X29GyUB.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1xVI7jTc.webp ##### Day 1: Land, and let the clock start - (sight) — on the transit path this is where your onward ticket out of the mainland is looked at, which is why you buy and hold it before you fly. Your driver waits landside with your name and your flight number, and the wait is planned for the queue rather than for the schedule. - (sight) — ring roads first, then poplars and lit shopfronts along a city street. The country you flew this far for is outside the glass before you have opened a bag. - (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) Novotel Beijing Peace — Hotel stay in Beijing. ##### Day 2: One axis, then the hill behind it - (sight) — your timed slot is booked ahead with your details, so you walk in on the hour it says. Inside you follow one line: the ceremonial halls where the court did its business, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden at the end. Stand in the middle of the main courtyard and look back through the gates you came in by, one inside another, all the way out to the square. - (sight) — the palace gate opens onto the street, and Jingshan is directly across it. The route is deliberately short here, because the walk you have just done through the halls is long and the hill still has steps in it. - (sight) — a few minutes of steps to the pavilion at the top, and then the whole palace is below you: gold roofs in ranks, and the central axis running away north and south, the line this city was laid out along. Up at the rail you'll find you have stopped talking and started counting roofs. ##### Day 3: The wall, without the climb - (transport) — the run north out of the city takes a good part of the morning, which is exactly why nothing else is on the plan today. The vehicle stays with you all day. - (sight) — one uphill ride, in your price, and you step off onto a restored stretch of wall with watchtowers running away along the ridge in both directions. Your guide points out the pass below and reads the sightlines for you: where a beacon tower could see the next one, and what that meant for how fast news moved. - (sight) — the restored section connects tower to tower, so you keep going as long as you want to and turn back when you have had enough. Look along the ridge with the towers stepping down it one after another: that is the fifteen seconds worth filming. - (dining) — not in your price today. Your guide books a table near the foot of the wall on your account, and the timing is set so nobody comes off the ridge hungry. #### Xi'an (3 days) - Subtitle: The axis, the collection, the train - Recommendation: The fullest morning of the nine days, then an afternoon sitting still. Put the whole country in order before you go to where its first empire began. - Transport: Flight - Transport mode: airplane Tian'anmen Square · National Museum of China · Temple of Heaven · Afternoon train to Xi'an - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/5oh4kpMp.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2IrwPATt.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2SYFFac8.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/2z6MDkku.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/34qxDxFA.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3DF4Fowd.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/3G0oTlIq.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/56RpQD9k.webp ##### Day 4: The axis, the collection, the train - (sight) — you cross the ceremonial center of modern China on foot, early, when the light is still low across it. Screening comes first and takes its own half hour to an hour, so it sits in the day's budget separately; your guide walks the party to the nearest screening entrance rather than around the long side. - (sight) — the collection sits on the east side of the square, so it costs you no transfer. Your guide takes four rooms rather than forty: bronzes, ceramics, sculpture, calligraphy. This is the hour that makes tomorrow's train worth taking, because everything Xi'an is about to show you starts here in a case. - (sight) — three groups of buildings on one line, and one idea holding them together: round belongs to heaven, square belongs to earth. Stand at the center of the Circular Mound Altar and look out: everything around you is arranged in circles, and it is not decoration. - (transport) — your guide sees you onto the platform in Beijing and a Xi'an guide meets the train at the other end. You sit still for the afternoon while the north China plain runs past: wheat, wind turbines, then the loess country starting to fold the ground up. Somewhere in the second hour you'll notice you have stopped checking how much longer there is. - (accommodation) Somerset Xindicheng Xi'an — Hotel stay in Xian. ##### Day 5: Eight thousand of them, in ranks - (transport) — the site is out of town toward the mountains, and the day is timed against the crowd rather than against the clock, because this is the one place on the route where the queue changes what you get. - (sight) — an estimated eight thousand figures, dug out where they stood and looked at from railings above. Your guide stays with you the whole visit. By the second pit you are telling generals from crossbowmen by armor and by how the hair is tied, and in the newer excavation areas there is still pigment on the clay, the color the whole army was painted in before the air got to it. Ten minutes at the rail and you'll catch yourself looking at faces rather than at numbers. - (sight) — about three and a half hours including the drive, with the rest of the day left open. After a morning like this, most guests want an afternoon that asks nothing. ##### Day 6: On the wall, then under the towers - (sight) — admission and the bicycle are both in your price. You ride along the top, wide enough to go two abreast, with the old street grid inside the line and the new city outside it. Stop at a gate tower and look both ways down the wall: the parapet runs off in a straight line until it turns a corner you cannot see the end of. - (sight) — open. The wall is the only fixed thing before the evening, and your guide holds the time rather than filling it. - (sight) — the two towers stand lit at the crossing of the old grid, and the eating lanes run off them at their busiest. You walk at street level with your guide: bread stamped and slapped onto the oven wall, whole spices in open sacks, meat turning over coals, queues at the windows worth queuing at. Your guide tells you what each counter is making and you decide what to try. What you eat is on your own account. #### Shenzhen (3 days) - Subtitle: A pagoda, then two thousand kilometers of afternoon - Recommendation: A short morning on purpose, because the afternoon belongs to a flight. Change centuries between lunch and dinner. - Transport: Private vehicle - Transport mode: car Giant Wild Goose Pagoda scenic area · To the airport · Into Shenzhen · Evening - Images: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/09971fb8ed55.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/8AH70UD0.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/h4WopDz7.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/j3OhqX9B.webp, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0540e86e5dd0.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0cb198f8a49d.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1dabf6d8d82e.jpg, https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/4ba54eb84471.jpg ##### Day 7: A pagoda, then two thousand kilometers of afternoon - (sight) — the pagoda and the cultural area around it, walked in the morning with your guide while the square in front of it is still quiet. Scenic area admission is in your price. Climbing the pagoda is a ticket sold on site, and your guide tells you on the day what the stairs are and are not worth. - (transport) — your Xi'an guide takes you from the hotel to the terminal and hands you over at the door. The flight number, time and cabin class for your order are written into your quote. - (sight) — the ground under the wing changes from folded loess to a delta of water, bridges and container yards, and the light is different by the time you are on the ground. Your Shenzhen driver is waiting. - (note) — nothing is scheduled. Two nights here, and the bags stay mostly shut. - (accommodation) Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen — Hotel stay in Shenzhen. ##### Day 8: The market, floor by floor - (sight) — you climb the market with your guide reading the trade as you go. Trays of loose components at the bottom, prototype boards and half-built machines above them, finished products above that. The order is not an accident: it is the supply chain, laid out as a staircase. Stand at a counter while a seller tests a board in front of a buyer, hands it back and the buyer walks out with it. Halfway up you'll realize you have been listening to the trade rather than looking at it. - (sight) — anything you buy inside is yours to pay for, and so is any shipping or customs cost it brings. The visit is a visit, not a shopping allowance. - (sight) — booked by date before you arrive and reconfirmed after you land. You hail it on a screen, the sensors and cameras read the street, and the wheel turns with nobody's hands on it. The service is the operator's, not ours, so where it is not running that day the time goes to a longer walk through the market with your guide and your price does not change. You are told which of the two you are getting before you pay. ##### Day 9: Forty years on the wall, then the border - (sight) — models, plans and dated photographs of the same ground at intervals, which is the only way this particular story is worth telling. Stand at the model and find the block your hotel is in, then find the same block in the earliest photograph on the wall. The venue for your order is named in your written confirmation. - (sight) — your vehicle runs from the hotel to the border crossing and your guide walks you to the departure hall. From there Hong Kong West Kowloon is about 30 minutes by high-speed rail. The onward ticket is the one you have been holding since before you entered. - (sight) — at the crossing. Hong Kong hotels, transfers, meals and sightseeing are yours to arrange, and your international flight out of Hong Kong is booked for that evening or later. ## Daily plan ### Day 1 — Land, and let the clock start Your driver meets your flight, whatever time it lands. Nothing else is asked of anyone today. - The border: on the transit path this is where your onward ticket out of the mainland is looked at, which is why you buy and hold it before you fly. Your driver waits landside with your name and your flight number, and the wait is planned for the queue rather than for the schedule. - Beijing through the window: ring roads first, then poplars and lit shopfronts along a city street. The country you flew this far for is outside the glass before you have opened a bag. - Evening: nothing is scheduled. Your guide is reachable, and dinner near the hotel is recommended and booked for you if you want it, on your own account. - Stay: Beijing - Meals: None included today ### Day 2 — One axis, then the hill behind it Everyone photographs the roofs from inside. Standing above them is the reason today is arranged in this order. - The Forbidden City: your timed slot is booked ahead with your details, so you walk in on the hour it says. Inside you follow one line: the ceremonial halls where the court did its business, the living quarters behind them, the imperial garden at the end. Stand in the middle of the main courtyard and look back through the gates you came in by, one inside another, all the way out to the square. - Out through the north gate: the palace gate opens onto the street, and Jingshan is directly across it. The route is deliberately short here, because the walk you have just done through the halls is long and the hill still has steps in it. - Jingshan Park: a few minutes of steps to the pavilion at the top, and then the whole palace is below you: gold roofs in ranks, and the central axis running away north and south, the line this city was laid out along. Up at the rail you'll find you have stopped talking and started counting roofs. - Stay: Beijing - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 3 — The wall, without the climb A cable car does the climbing and the whole morning goes on the ridge. Walk the towers instead of the steps. - Drive out to Mutianyu: the run north out of the city takes a good part of the morning, which is exactly why nothing else is on the plan today. The vehicle stays with you all day. - Cable car up: one uphill ride, in your price, and you step off onto a restored stretch of wall with watchtowers running away along the ridge in both directions. Your guide points out the pass below and reads the sightlines for you: where a beacon tower could see the next one, and what that meant for how fast news moved. - Walking the towers: the restored section connects tower to tower, so you keep going as long as you want to and turn back when you have had enough. Look along the ridge with the towers stepping down it one after another: that is the fifteen seconds worth filming. - Lunch: not in your price today. Your guide books a table near the foot of the wall on your account, and the timing is set so nobody comes off the ridge hungry. - Stay: Beijing - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 4 — The axis, the collection, the train The fullest morning of the nine days, then an afternoon sitting still. Put the whole country in order before you go to where its first empire began. - Tian'anmen Square: you cross the ceremonial center of modern China on foot, early, when the light is still low across it. Screening comes first and takes its own half hour to an hour, so it sits in the day's budget separately; your guide walks the party to the nearest screening entrance rather than around the long side. - National Museum of China: the collection sits on the east side of the square, so it costs you no transfer. Your guide takes four rooms rather than forty: bronzes, ceramics, sculpture, calligraphy. This is the hour that makes tomorrow's train worth taking, because everything Xi'an is about to show you starts here in a case. - Temple of Heaven: three groups of buildings on one line, and one idea holding them together: round belongs to heaven, square belongs to earth. Stand at the center of the Circular Mound Altar and look out: everything around you is arranged in circles, and it is not decoration. - Afternoon train to Xi'an: your guide sees you onto the platform in Beijing and a Xi'an guide meets the train at the other end. You sit still for the afternoon while the north China plain runs past: wheat, wind turbines, then the loess country starting to fold the ground up. Somewhere in the second hour you'll notice you have stopped checking how much longer there is. - Stay: Xi'an - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 5 — Eight thousand of them, in ranks One site, one day, one guide who does not leave. Learn to read an army instead of photographing it. - Drive out to the pits: the site is out of town toward the mountains, and the day is timed against the crowd rather than against the clock, because this is the one place on the route where the queue changes what you get. - The pits: an estimated eight thousand figures, dug out where they stood and looked at from railings above. Your guide stays with you the whole visit. By the second pit you are telling generals from crossbowmen by armor and by how the hair is tied, and in the newer excavation areas there is still pigment on the clay, the color the whole army was painted in before the air got to it. Ten minutes at the rail and you'll catch yourself looking at faces rather than at numbers. - Pace: about three and a half hours including the drive, with the rest of the day left open. After a morning like this, most guests want an afternoon that asks nothing. - Stay: Xi'an - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 6 — On the wall, then under the towers Two hours on top of a city wall, and an evening in the lanes below it. See a whole city from its own edge. - Xi'an City Wall by bike: admission and the bicycle are both in your price. You ride along the top, wide enough to go two abreast, with the old street grid inside the line and the new city outside it. Stop at a gate tower and look both ways down the wall: the parapet runs off in a straight line until it turns a corner you cannot see the end of. - The rest of the afternoon: open. The wall is the only fixed thing before the evening, and your guide holds the time rather than filling it. - The Bell and Drum Tower quarter after dark: the two towers stand lit at the crossing of the old grid, and the eating lanes run off them at their busiest. You walk at street level with your guide: bread stamped and slapped onto the oven wall, whole spices in open sacks, meat turning over coals, queues at the windows worth queuing at. Your guide tells you what each counter is making and you decide what to try. What you eat is on your own account. - Stay: Xi'an - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 7 — A pagoda, then two thousand kilometers of afternoon A short morning on purpose, because the afternoon belongs to a flight. Change centuries between lunch and dinner. - Giant Wild Goose Pagoda scenic area: the pagoda and the cultural area around it, walked in the morning with your guide while the square in front of it is still quiet. Scenic area admission is in your price. Climbing the pagoda is a ticket sold on site, and your guide tells you on the day what the stairs are and are not worth. - To the airport: your Xi'an guide takes you from the hotel to the terminal and hands you over at the door. The flight number, time and cabin class for your order are written into your quote. - Into Shenzhen: the ground under the wing changes from folded loess to a delta of water, bridges and container yards, and the light is different by the time you are on the ground. Your Shenzhen driver is waiting. - Evening: nothing is scheduled. Two nights here, and the bags stay mostly shut. - Stay: Shenzhen - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 8 — The market, floor by floor One building, several floors, and a whole industry stacked in order. Watch a design turn into an object while you stand there. - Huaqiangbei: you climb the market with your guide reading the trade as you go. Trays of loose components at the bottom, prototype boards and half-built machines above them, finished products above that. The order is not an accident: it is the supply chain, laid out as a staircase. Stand at a counter while a seller tests a board in front of a buyer, hands it back and the buyer walks out with it. Halfway up you'll realize you have been listening to the trade rather than looking at it. - Buying: anything you buy inside is yours to pay for, and so is any shipping or customs cost it brings. The visit is a visit, not a shopping allowance. - A driverless taxi ride: booked by date before you arrive and reconfirmed after you land. You hail it on a screen, the sensors and cameras read the street, and the wheel turns with nobody's hands on it. The service is the operator's, not ours, so where it is not running that day the time goes to a longer walk through the market with your guide and your price does not change. You are told which of the two you are getting before you pay. - Stay: Shenzhen - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ### Day 9 — Forty years on the wall, then the border The city explains itself in one room, and then you walk out of the mainland on foot. Leave with the evidence, not the impression. - Shenzhen urban planning and industry exhibition: models, plans and dated photographs of the same ground at intervals, which is the only way this particular story is worth telling. Stand at the model and find the block your hotel is in, then find the same block in the earliest photograph on the wall. The venue for your order is named in your written confirmation. - To the Futian crossing: your vehicle runs from the hotel to the border crossing and your guide walks you to the departure hall. From there Hong Kong West Kowloon is about 30 minutes by high-speed rail. The onward ticket is the one you have been holding since before you entered. - Where our service ends: at the crossing. Hong Kong hotels, transfers, meals and sightseeing are yours to arrange, and your international flight out of Hong Kong is booked for that evening or later. - Stay: Trip ends at the crossing - Meals: Breakfast at the hotel ## Hotels ### Atour Hotel (Beijing West Railway Station South Square) - City: Beijing - Description: Upscale local hotel near Beijing West Railway Station South Square. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/dHqyz391.webp ### Atour Hotel, Liuliqiao, Beijing West Railway Station - City: Beijing - Description: Upscale local hotel near Beijing West Railway Station and Liuliqiao. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/gLxP4Hxa.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 ### 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 ### Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen - City: Shenzhen - Description: Located in Futian CBD, close to major landmarks and metro lines. Featuring 500+ elegant rooms and suites with exclusive Horizon Club services. - Image: https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/lNzYq6FP.webp ### 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 ## Included / Excluded ### What's Included - Private vehicle: Air-conditioned private vehicle for all listed touring in Beijing, Xi'an and Shenzhen; airport pickup on day 1 in Beijing; hotel to station on day 4 and hotel to airport on day 7; the full-day round trip to Mutianyu on day 3; the day 9 transfer from the Shenzhen hotel to the Futian border crossing - Guide: Licensed English-speaking guide on every touring day, days 2 through 9, including the Huaqiangbei walk and the evening walk in Xi'an - High-speed rail, Beijing to Xi'an: One high-speed rail leg on the afternoon of day 4, in the base price. The cabin class for your order is stated in writing in your quote - Domestic flight, Xi'an to Shenzhen: One domestic flight on the afternoon of day 7, in the base price. The cabin class for your order is stated in writing in your quote - Hotels: 8 nights at your chosen level, four-star, five-star or quality boutique, breakfast included: Beijing 3 · Xi'an 3 · Shenzhen 2. Hotels named in your written confirmation - Meals: 8 hotel breakfasts, days 2 through 9. No lunch or dinner is in the base price - Tickets and experiences, Beijing: The Forbidden City with the timed reservation booked by us · Jingshan Park · Mutianyu Great Wall with one uphill cable car or open chairlift ride · Tian'anmen Square with the guide accompanying the security screening · Temple of Heaven · the National Museum of China with the reservation booked by us - Tickets and experiences, Xi'an: The Terracotta Warriors with the guide throughout · Xi'an City Wall admission with the bicycle rental on the wall · Giant Wild Goose Pagoda scenic area admission · the Bell and Drum Tower quarter and the night food lanes with the guide - Tickets and experiences, Shenzhen: The Huaqiangbei walk with the guide, no ticket needed · the Shenzhen urban planning and industry exhibition with the guide, venue named in your written confirmation - Insurance: Travel accident insurance ### Not Included - International flights: Flights into Beijing and flights out of Hong Kong - The onward ticket out of the mainland: The Hong Kong onward ticket from the Futian crossing, by rail or cross-border coach, is bought and held by you. It is checked at the inbound border, not at the exit, which is why you hold it before you fly - Everything in Hong Kong: Hotel, transfers, meals and sightseeing in Hong Kong. Our service on day 9 ends at the Futian border crossing - Visas: Visa fees and processing for guests who take the visa path rather than the transit path - Meals: Beyond the 8 breakfasts: lunches and dinners are recommended and booked by your guide, on your own account, including whatever you eat in the night food lanes on day 6 - Climbs and rides sold on site: The Mutianyu downhill cable car · climbing the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda · climbing the Bell Tower or the Drum Tower. Each is paid on site at the posted fare and chosen on the day; nothing optional is added by default - Purchases: Anything bought at Huaqiangbei or elsewhere, and any shipping, customs or tax-refund cost it brings - Personal: Gratuities, single or extra-room difference, personal spending ### Special Notes A few things on this route follow the calendar, the border rule or a supplier's confirmation. Here they are, told straight. - Bookings are not open yet: three things close first. One, the entry and exit review for this route, because the plan is designed on the transit path and leaves the mainland at a land crossing that is not yet in our own port records. Two, the cabin class on the train leg and the flight leg. Three, the named hotels and the named exhibition venue in Shenzhen. Until all three close we take no orders and no deposits. Tell us your dates and we will write to you on the day it opens. - The ten-day window is computed, not assumed: nine days sits inside the ten-day transit window with roughly two days of margin on paper. Paper margin is not the test. Before any payment we compute the stay from your actual landing time to your actual exit time and check it against the policy window. An itinerary that runs past it, or that leaves no margin for a delayed inbound flight, is not sold on this path. - The onward ticket: the transit policy requires a confirmed onward ticket with date and seat, leaving the mainland inside the window. On this route that is your Hong Kong ticket from the Futian crossing. You buy and hold it before entering the mainland, because it is checked at the inbound border rather than at the exit. We check it per order before payment. - Permitted stay area: Beijing, Xi'an and Shenzhen all sit inside the areas the transit policy permits, and every activity on this plan stays inside them. Once you leave at the Futian crossing you do not return on the same permission. - The 30-day visa-free markets: the current policy runs through December 31, 2026. Departures on or before December 22, 2026 finish inside that window; later departures are quoted only after the official renewal announcement. Per order we confirm your 9 days plus any extra days in the mainland all fit within 30 days. - Departure calendar: no departures October 1 to 7, the national holiday week, when crowd levels at the Terracotta Warriors run far above normal. Dates are set so that day 2 never falls on a Monday, when the Forbidden City closes; where a requested date would do that, days 2 and 3 change places. The closing days of the other reserved venues are checked against your departure date before your order is written. - Late-season operations: for November and December departures the operating schedule of the uphill cable car at Mutianyu is confirmed with the operator against your dates before you pay, and we tell you either way. On the Xi'an city wall, cold or wind on the day turns the ride into a walk on the same stretch, and nothing else about that afternoon changes. - The driverless taxi is a conditional item: it runs on a commercial operator's live service and the service is not ours to promise. It is booked by date before you arrive and reconfirmed after you land. Where it is not running on your date, that time goes to a longer Huaqiangbei visit with your guide and your price does not change. Both outcomes are stated to you before payment, and the ride is not counted as an inclusion. - Security screening at the square: everyone is screened to enter Tian'anmen Square. The queue takes half an hour to an hour and it is budgeted separately, on top of your time on the square, so the museum reservation still lands on time. - Day 4 is the fullest day: three sites in the morning and a train in the afternoon. They sit on one line geographically, square to museum to temple to station, which is why they fit; it is still an early start and we say so rather than let you find out. - Hong Kong flight timing: international flights out of Hong Kong are booked for the evening of day 9 or later. Where your flight is earlier than the crossing and rail transfer allow, we say so before payment. A night in Hong Kong is not included. - Confirmation and changes: the confirmation-time commitment and the change and refund terms are being finalized with our ground partners. Until they are settled, each quote states in writing its own confirmation deadline and its change and refund conditions. Worth knowing for this route: it holds one rail leg, one flight leg and a land border crossing on the exit day, so a date change touches rail inventory, flight inventory, hotel inventory and the window computation all at once. ## Is Nine Days Your Length? Fewer than nine days? ### Fewer than nine days? The three cities come apart cleanly. Beijing and Xi'an stand on their own as a six-day pair on the train, and Shenzhen with the land exit can be dropped for an air exit out of Xi'an or Beijing. Tell us your dates and which passport you hold, and we cut days rather than cut the guide. ## Good to Know - Group: Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size. - Pace: Three cities in 9 days: Beijing 3 nights, Xi'an 3, Shenzhen 2. Two travel legs, each taking half a day. Day 1 carries no sightseeing and day 9 ends at the border - Effort: Moderate. Cable car or open chairlift up to the Great Wall, bicycles on the Xi'an city wall with walking as the alternative, and a stepped climb of a few minutes at Jingshan. Huaqiangbei is walked over several floors - Ports: Beijing in; out of the mainland on foot at the Futian land crossing in Shenzhen, with Hong Kong West Kowloon about 30 minutes further by high-speed rail. Airport pickup on day 1; our service ends at the crossing on day 9 - Visas: Visa-free for stays days: UK · French · German · Dutch · Belgian · Italian · Spanish · Portuguese · Greek · Nordic · Central European · Irish · Canadian · Australian · New Zealand passports. US passports run this route on the 10-day visa-free transit policy, with the onward ticket held before entry, or on a Chinese tourist or business visa. Checked order by order before payment - Language: Licensed English-speaking local guides throughout, city by city - Payment: When this route opens for booking: From 1 guest. A 10% deposit (minimum $399) locks your dates. The balance is due 14 days before departure. "Or similar" never means a quiet downgrade - Season: Selling window October to December 2026. No departures October 1 to 7. November and December departures have the Mutianyu cable car schedule confirmed against your dates, and the city wall ride turns into a walk in cold or wind ## 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. ### I hold a US passport. Do I need a visa for this? Not necessarily, and that is what this route is built around. The US is not on the 30-day visa-free list, so you run it either on the 10-day visa-free transit policy or on a Chinese tourist or business visa, including a 10-year multiple-entry one. The transit path is why the plan is 9 days and why it leaves the mainland at a land crossing into Hong Kong: it needs a confirmed onward ticket with date and seat, held before you enter, and every activity has to stay inside the areas the policy permits, which Beijing, Xi'an and Shenzhen all do. Before any payment we compute your actual landing and exit times against the window and fix the path in writing. If your flights do not leave enough margin, we say so instead of selling. ### Why do we walk out at a land border instead of just flying home? Because the exit is what makes the 9 days work. The transit policy is counted from entry to exit and it needs you to leave the mainland for a third country or region inside the window. Shenzhen's Futian crossing puts Hong Kong about 30 minutes away by high-speed rail, which is the shortest and most predictable exit on the map for a plan that enters at Beijing. Our vehicle takes you from the hotel to the crossing and your guide sees you to the departure hall. From there Hong Kong is yours: hotel, meals and your international flight home, booked for that evening or later. ### Is the driverless taxi guaranteed? No, and we will not pretend otherwise. It runs on a commercial operator's live service lines, so the operator decides whether it runs on your date. We book it by date before you arrive and reconfirm it after you land. Where it is not running, that time goes to a longer walk through Huaqiangbei with your guide and your price does not change, and you are told which of the two you are getting before you pay. What holds either way: the day is about how this city makes things, and the market and the exhibition carry that on their own. The ride is a bonus, never the reason to come. ### Nine days and three cities. Are we just moving the whole time? There are exactly two travel legs in nine days: a train on the afternoon of day 4 and a flight on the afternoon of day 7. Each takes half a day and neither is stacked on top of a full day of sightseeing. You get three nights in Beijing, three in Xi'an and two in Shenzhen, so you unpack three times rather than six. Day 1 carries no sightseeing at all, and day 9 is one exhibition and the border. The one dense day is day 4, and we flag it rather than bury it. ### What is October to December actually like on this route? Beijing and Xi'an are dry and clear through autumn and cold by December, so this is the season the wall and the wall-top ride are most comfortable to be outdoors on; Shenzhen stays mild the whole window. Two things follow the calendar and we put both in writing before you pay: the Mutianyu uphill cable car schedule is confirmed with the operator for November and December dates, and cold or wind on the Xi'an wall turns the bicycle ride into a walk along the same stretch. We also do not depart between October 1 and 7, the national holiday week, because the crowds at the Terracotta Warriors that week change what you get for your day.