First Time China Itinerary: How Many Days, Which Cities and Which Route

For a first trip to China, plan on 7 to 10 days and two or three cities. Give each city at least two nights, and give Beijing three. The usual first route is Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai, joined by high-speed train. With ten days you can add Chengdu or Guilin, and with two weeks you can add a nature region such as Yunnan or Zhangjiajie. Take the train for legs of up to about five or six hours and fly anything longer. If you enter visa-free, your passport and the rules that apply to it decide the longest trip you can make, so check that before you book flights.

This page helps you choose how many days, which cities and what pace. Once you have decided, go to the itinerary that fits: the 7-day China itinerary, the 10-day China trip plan, the 2-week China itinerary, or the leg-by-leg Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai classic route.

How many days, and how many cities

Rule of thumb for a first trip, assuming you want to see the main sights without rushing every day:

Count your trip in nights, not days. Your arrival day and departure day are rarely full sightseeing days, especially after a long-haul flight. A "7-day trip" with flights in and out often has five real days of sightseeing in it.

Why not a new city every day

Every move between cities costs you about half a day, even when the train itself is fast. You check out of the hotel, cross the city to the station, wait, ride, then cross another city to your next hotel. With a foreign passport there is one more step: passport holders go through the staffed lane to have their ticket and ID checked, because the automatic gates do not read passports. That lane is usually quick, but it is one more queue.

If you change cities every day, you spend about half of your trip in transit, and you never get a calm morning to walk around. Two nights in one place gives you one full day without any luggage. Three nights gives you two full days, which is what a city like Beijing needs.

Why Beijing gets three nights

Beijing has the most sights that take a full day or need booking ahead. The Great Wall is a day trip on its own. The Forbidden City does not sell same-day tickets: booking opens at 20:00, seven days before your visit date, and you book with your passport. The palace is also closed every Monday except on public holidays, so a two-night stay that includes a Monday leaves you only one chance. If you only have two nights in Beijing, you will be choosing between the Wall and the palace and its neighbours. The Beijing travel guide lists what to book and when.

Xi'an works well with two nights: one day for the Terracotta Army, one for the city wall and Muslim Quarter. The Terracotta Army museum takes real-name bookings online, and foreign visitors book with their passport details and show the passport at the gate. Shanghai works with two or three nights; add a third if you want a day trip to Suzhou or a water town. The Xi'an travel guide and the Shanghai travel guide cover each city in detail.

Once you know your cities, plan each day around one big sight and one neighbourhood, not three sights. For working out metro routes and day plans inside each city, the WaysChina app has offline metro maps and a trip planner that keeps working when your mobile signal does not.

Which route fits you

Most first trips are built from the same pieces. Pick one base route, then decide whether to add anything. Each option below links to the page that plans it day by day.

Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai: the classic first trip

This is the right choice for most first-time visitors. You get imperial Beijing and the Great Wall, the Terracotta Army in Xi'an, and modern Shanghai, and each pair of cities is linked by high-speed rail. It works in 7 days if you keep a fast pace, and it is comfortable in 9 or 10. The classic route guide covers each leg: which station, how many trains, how long, and a sample fare. The 7-day itinerary shows what to cut when you only have one week.

Add Chengdu: pandas and Sichuan food

Add Chengdu if you want to see giant pandas and you like spicy food. It fits best between Xi'an and Shanghai, because the train from Xi'an North to Chengdu East takes about three and a half to four hours on most services on a sample day, with the fastest just over three hours. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding works on real-name online booking up to 14 days ahead, and a day can sell out; the ticket window only sells tickets that are left over, for visitors who cannot pay online. Visitors aged 60 and over and children under 6 or under 1.3 metres go in free without booking. Chengdu to Shanghai is a long way by rail, with the fastest train taking just over ten hours, so most travellers fly that leg (see the train-or-plane section below). This is the most popular way to stretch the classic route to ten days; the 10-day plan shows how the extra leg connects, and the Chengdu travel guide covers the city.

Add Guilin and Yangshuo: river and karst scenery

Add Guilin and Yangshuo if you want a break from big cities: limestone peaks, the Li River, and cycling on country roads. The main Li River cruise starts at Mopanshan or Zhujiang pier south of Guilin city, runs one way down to Yangshuo and takes about four hours, so it fills most of a day. Give the area three nights. Guilin is far from Beijing and Shanghai, so this add-on works best in a 10-day or 14-day trip; see the Guilin and Yangshuo guide for tickets and how many days.

Yunnan: a slower southwest trip

Yunnan suits travellers who prefer old towns, mountains and a slower pace over famous monuments. The usual line is Kunming, Dali and Lijiang, with Shangri-La as an option, and the trains between them are short: Kunming to Dali takes about two hours on the faster trains. Lijiang's old town area sits at about 2,400 metres, so plan an easy first day there. Yunnan works as the second week of a two-week trip or as a trip on its own; the Yunnan circuit plans it by train.

Shanghai and the Jiangnan water towns: a short, easy trip

If you have only five or six days, or you want very little travel, stay around Shanghai. Hangzhou is close: the fastest trains from Shanghai Hongqiao to Hangzhou East take about 45 minutes, and most take 50 to 60 minutes. Wuzhen, one of the canal towns, is reached via Tongxiang station, about 35 to 50 minutes from Hongqiao by train, then the K282 bus from Tongxiang station to Wuzhen bus station. The Jiangnan water towns route covers Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuzhen and Hangzhou in 5 to 7 days.

Two weeks: classic cities plus nature

With 14 days, spend the first week on the classic cities and the second on one region: Guilin and Yangshuo, Zhangjiajie's sandstone pillars, or Yunnan. Do not try to do all three. The 2-week China itinerary shows how to pace a fortnight and where a flight saves you a day.

Your visa decides how long you can stay

Before you decide on 10 or 14 days, check which entry rule applies to your passport. It can set the hard limit on your trip.

30-day visa-free entry

Ordinary passport holders from 50 countries can enter China without a visa for tourism, business, family visits or transit, and stay up to 30 days. The list includes the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and most EU countries, but not the United States. For 48 of these countries the policy runs until 31 December 2026; Russia's runs until the end of 2027, and Brunei's has no end date. If your trip runs into 2027, check the latest notice from the Chinese embassy in your country before you book. The 30 days are counted from the day after you arrive, so any trip in this guide fits easily. If you want to stay longer than 30 days, you need a visa before you travel.

240-hour visa-free transit

Citizens of 57 countries, including the United States, can use visa-free transit: up to 240 hours (10 days) in China, as long as they hold a confirmed onward ticket to a third country. You must enter through one of 65 designated ports of entry in 24 provinces, so check that your arrival airport is on the list. In practice that means flying in from one country and out to a different one, for example arriving from the US and leaving for Japan. The 240 hours start at midnight after the day you arrive, which gives you a trip of up to about ten nights.

The bigger limit for route planning is where you may go. Transit visitors may only travel in permitted areas of 24 provinces and cities, and some provinces only allow certain cities: in Sichuan it is 11 cities including Chengdu, in Guangxi 12 cities including Guilin, and in Yunnan 9 areas including Kunming, Dali and Lijiang. Shangri-La is not among those Yunnan areas, so leave it out of a transit trip. Check the permitted areas on the National Immigration Administration's transit policy page before you fix your route.

To check your own passport, read do you need a visa for China. The details of each rule are in China's 30-day visa-free entry and 240-hour visa-free transit.

Getting between cities: train or plane

High-speed rail is the main way to travel between Chinese cities, and for the classic route it is usually better than flying. Trains leave from stations inside or near the city, there is no check-in, and you can take your luggage on board. Our rule: take the train when the ride is up to about five or six hours, and fly when most trains take longer than that, or when there are only one or two direct trains a day.

How long the main legs take

Times below come from 12306, China Railway's official booking site, for one sample day (29 October 2026). Timetables change, so check the exact trains for your date.

• Beijing to Xi'an: Beijing West to Xi'an North had 17 high-speed trains, the fastest taking 4 hours 10 minutes and the typical one about 4 hours 25 minutes. Take the train.
• Beijing to Shanghai: Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao had 37 trains, the fastest 4 hours 18 minutes, with half of all trains taking between 4 hours 37 minutes and about 6 hours. Take the train. The line uses floating fares, so the price differs between trains and dates; on the sample day second class cost 553 to 661 yuan.
• Xi'an to Shanghai: Xi'an North to Shanghai Hongqiao had 20 trains, the fastest about 5 hours 50 minutes, but most took between 7 hours 10 minutes and 8 hours 26 minutes. Many travellers fly this leg instead; compare flight times on the day you book.
• Chengdu to Shanghai: the fastest train took 10 hours 6 minutes. Fly.

There are also overnight sleeper trains between Beijing and Shanghai, which take about 12 hours and save you a night in a hotel. They suit travellers who sleep well on trains. The classic route guide has the full table of trains, times and sample fares for each leg, including the sleepers.

Booking trains with a foreign passport

Chinese train tickets are sold under your real name. You buy with your ID, and staff check that the ticket, the ID and the person match when you board. A foreign passport is accepted on the 12306 website and app. Before you can buy online, your passport details have to pass 12306's identity check; you can upload a photo of your passport, or have it checked at a station ticket window. Do this a few days before you need your first ticket.

The booking window is 15 days including the day of travel, so tickets go on sale 14 days before your travel date. Each station sets its own sale time, so there is no single national release hour. For a trip that is more than two weeks away, book your flights and hotels first and add the trains once the sale window opens. You can use the 12306 English website directly or a booking agency; how to book China train tickets compares the two, and the high-speed train guide explains seat classes and boarding. For the legs you fly, see domestic flights in China.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons for most routes; the best time to visit China compares the regions month by month. The dates to avoid if you can are the Spring Festival travel rush (春运, chūnyùn), when much of the country travels home around Chinese New Year, and the first week of October (National Day "Golden Week"). In 2026 the travel rush ran from 2 February to 13 March; check the 2027 dates once they are announced. If your only free time falls in early October, read the Golden Week survival guide and book trains and tickets as early as the sale windows allow.

Three things to sort out before you fly

Set up mobile payment first: link your foreign card to Alipay or WeChat Pay before you leave, because most small shops and restaurants take QR code payments (see how to use Alipay with foreign cards). Arrange mobile data so your maps, translation and booking apps work from the airport; Google, WhatsApp and many other Western apps do not work on Chinese networks, and a roaming eSIM usually gets around that; a travel eSIM from Airalo installed at home is one easy way, and the SIM and eSIM guide compares the options. Install the apps you will need, from maps to translation, using the must-have apps list. For costs per day, see the China travel budget guide.

Summary

For a first trip, choose the number of nights first and then the cities: two or three cities in a week, three or four in ten days, four or five in two weeks, and at least two nights in each place. Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai is the safest first route; add Chengdu or Guilin with more time, and a nature region in a second week. Check your entry rule before booking flights, since it can cap your trip at 30 days or at 10 days on transit. Use trains for legs up to about five or six hours and fly the rest. Next step: open the itinerary that matches your days, the 7-day, 10-day or 2-week plan, and book the timed sights as soon as their booking windows open.

Last updated: October 2026