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Shenzhen Arrivals · Shanghai Departures
19 Days & 18 Nights — Private · Custom Itinerary
Walking days, not climbing days, with one exception: the Xianggong Hill sunrise on day 8 is a pre-dawn start up stone steps, on foot. Nothing on land uses a cable car or a shuttle cart. Four cities hold three or more nights each.
Most China routes open in Beijing. This one opens in a city where almost nothing you can see is older than forty years, and closes at the port that faces the sea. In between, two rivers do the moving. The Li River carries you into Yangshuo instead of a road, and the Yangtze carries you through the Three Gorges for three nights while the country goes past the window. Chengdu sits between the two waters as the flat part: pandas in the morning, an afternoon in a teahouse chair that nobody schedules. The plan gets slower as it goes, on purpose. By the ship days you will notice you have stopped asking what time you arrive.
— LyrikTrip travel designers
Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates and how many of you are coming, and we work backward from the sailing date, because on this route the ship sets the calendar and everything else follows it. 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 ship cabins and the Yangshuo hotel stand before you are asked for anything.
Nothing is scheduled today, whatever time your flight gets in. The country you are about to spend nineteen days on starts with its youngest forty years.
A market first, a museum second, in that order for a reason. See the trade running before you see the city explain itself.
One visit in the morning, and the rest of the day is yours. Shenzhen is a city better understood by walking it than by ticking it off.
A slow morning, then three hours of railway. The country changes shape through the window, and the second half of the trip begins here.
The whole day is the boat, and the boat is the transfer. Reach Yangshuo the way the town was reached before there was a road.
A half day along a small river, at whatever speed you choose. The countryside here is not scenery you look at, it is a distance you cross.
A light day, with the river taken twice, from a town and from the water. Hold up a banknote and find you are standing inside the picture.
Up in the dark, on foot, for one short window at the top. What the light does to these hills is the reason the alarm is worth it.
Nothing is scheduled today except getting to Chengdu. A travel day with room in it is how the next three days stay unhurried.
The pandas get the morning because that is when they move. The afternoon gets nothing, because that is what an afternoon in this city is for.
A market, a wok and a theater dressing room, all in one day. What this city is good at happens before the thing is served or performed.
Seventy-five minutes of railway between two cities built on different terms. See what a slope does to the way people live.
A morning on the slope, then the river takes over for four days. This is the point where you hand the pace to the water.
One shore stop in the morning, and after that the day is a deck. Nineteen days in, the schedule finally stops being yours to keep.
Two gorges from the deck and one green side valley by small boat. Stand outside for the passages, because the cliffs only do this once.
The ship's last morning is the dam, and the afternoon is a flight east. One river ends and a river mouth begins.
A garden inside the old walled quarter, then four collections in one museum. Shanghai keeps its beginning right under the towers.
Plane trees in the morning, a printing bench after lunch, a commuter ferry at dusk. The last full day is spent at street level.
The morning is yours and the trip ends where the water does. Nineteen days ago you were standing in a components market.
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Several things on this route follow a ship's calendar, a supplier's confirmation or a policy window. Here they are, told straight.
Fewer than nineteen days?
The route comes apart at the water. Shenzhen with Guilin and Yangshuo stands on its own, and so does Chengdu with the Yangtze and Shanghai. Tell us your dates and how many of you are coming, and we cut days rather than cut the pace.
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Our China team tunes pacing, hotels and local hosts around each route style.
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