China is a continent, and high-speed rail is the answer
China is roughly 3,100 miles (5,000 km) from the eastern coast to the western border and runs on a single time zone the whole way. Beijing to Shanghai is 819 miles (1,318 km), about the distance from Paris to Rome. Most first itineraries treat those legs as if they were day trips, and then the trip
Plan my China trip Read the complete guide
- Best time to go
- April to May, September to November
- How many days
- 12 to 16
- Entry
- Rules change often
- Getting around
- High-speed rail, with one or two flights
The reason a tailor made China trip works now is the rail. The high-speed network is the largest in the world, well over 25,000 miles (40,000 km) of it, and it turns the distances into something you can plan around rather than fight. Beijing to Xi’an is under five hours. Beijing to Shanghai is about four and a half. You leave a city centre and arrive in a city centre.
Every China trip we build is written by Asaf Zamshtein, our Southeast Asia and China specialist and the person who runs our China desk, with Mai Est, our Head of Consulting.
Why plan China with us
Long-standing local partners, and we will be straight about that. Our own offices are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. China is not one of them. We run it through Chinese partner teams we have worked with for years, in Beijing, in Chengdu and in Kunming, whose people meet you, drive you and answer the phone at two in the morning. We would rather name who is actually on the ground than imply an office we do not have.
We solve the payments, VPN and apps problem before you fly. This is the single thing that catches visitors out in China, and it is entirely fixable. We set it up with you and test it, so your phone behaves in China the way it does at home. See the note below.
A named specialist, not a queue. One person owns your file from the first email until you are home.
The first proposal is free and it is not a template. Actual hotels, actual train numbers and seat classes, and the reasoning behind the order of the days. Our rating is 4.9 from 93 reviews.
The thing nobody warns you about: payments and apps
China went from cash to phone in about six years and skipped the card. Foreign credit cards work in international hotel chains and at the airport and often nowhere else. Cash is legal and increasingly awkward: small vendors may not have change, and some will wave you away.
The fix is to have Alipay or WeChat Pay working, with an international card linked, before you land. It takes twenty minutes at home and it is close to impossible to sort out on day one in a Beijing taxi queue. We walk you through it, with screenshots, at the booking stage.
The same applies to what does and does not open on your phone inside the mainland. Several of the map, search and messaging services you use daily are blocked on a local connection, including WhatsApp. We solve that the way we solve the payments: we set up a working VPN on your phone before you fly and check it with you, so your usual apps behave normally in China. Your travel group then runs on WhatsApp exactly as it does everywhere else, and we open a WeChat group alongside it if you would rather have a local fallback.
The short answers
| Question | Short answer | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Best time to go | April to May, September to November | The two national holiday weeks are the ones to avoid, and we plan around them. |
| How many days | 12 to 16 | Ten days is one circuit. Three weeks reaches the southwest or the Silk Road. |
| Entry | Rules change often | Visa-free and transit schemes have expanded and shifted repeatedly. We confirm the current rule for your passport and dates in writing. |
| Getting around | High-speed rail, with one or two flights | You need your passport to buy a ticket and to board. We hold the bookings. |
| Typical budget | $130 to $620 per person per day | Land only, excluding international flights. |
The full breakdown is in our complete guide →
The classic circuit, and three better alternatives
Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai is the standard first trip. It is a good trip: the Great Wall, the Terracotta Army and the Bund are famous for reasons that hold up. We build it often and we are happy to.
But if you have travelled before, or you have more than twelve days, there are three routes we would rather send you on. Yunnan, in the far southwest, for old towns, tea mountains, gorges and the eastern edge of the Himalaya. Sichuan and its western rim, for Chengdu, the Tibetan grassland towns and some of the best food in Asia. Guizhou and Guangxi, for the Miao and Dong villages, the Longji terraces and the karst rivers around Yangshuo. Each of them is quieter, stranger and more memorable than the standard circuit, and each is set out below.
Eight ways to travel China
- Classic China in 12 days: Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin and Shanghai
- China with children, 11 days: three hotel changes, pandas and a wall
- Trekking Yunnan, 15 days: Tiger Leaping Gorge and the Yubeng valley
- Romantic China, 10 days: Yangshuo, Hangzhou and a quiet Suzhou courtyard
- China food and culture, 13 days: Chengdu, Xi’an, Beijing, Shanghai
- Boutique China, 12 days: courtyards, a bamboo forest, a karst valley
- China’s Silk Road in 14 days: Xi’an, Dunhuang, Turpan and Kashgar
- Deep China in 21 days: Beijing, Pingyao, the Yangtze, Sichuan and Yunnan
China in the magazine
What two weeks in China really costs · China month by month · Paying for things in China · How Chinese high-speed rail actually works · Beijing in four days · Yunnan, the trek and the tea
China itineraries
Every one of these is a starting point, not a fixed departure. We change the length, the pace and the hotels to fit you.
Classic China in 12 days: Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin and Shanghai
The standard first China trip is Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai. It is a good trip and we build it constantly. The three cities give…
China with children in 11 days: Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai
China is better with children than most parents expect. The trains are quiet, comfortable and short. The cities are safe in a way that…
Trekking Yunnan in 15 days: the gorge, the valley and Meili
Yunnan is where China stops looking like China and starts looking like the eastern edge of the Himalaya, because that is what it is.…
Romantic China in 10 days: Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Yangshuo
Nobody's first thought about China is romance, and that is largely because the standard itinerary is built around imperial scale and crowds. Move the…
China food and culture in 13 days: Chengdu, Xi’an, Beijing and Shanghai
There is no such thing as Chinese food, in the same way there is no such thing as European food. The four cities on…
Boutique China in 12 days: courtyards, a bamboo forest and a karst valley
China does five-star international hotels extremely well and they are, almost without exception, the least interesting places to sleep in the country. The tower…
China’s Silk Road in 14 days
The fourteen days that most first-time visitors do not consider, and the one we recommend to anyone who has already done Beijing and Shanghai…
Deep China: 21 days
Three weeks is where China stops being a set of famous sights and starts being a country. This route runs the classic north because…
What is in every China trip we build
- A day-by-day document with rail times and station names, not just city names
- Payment and connectivity set up before you fly, so the counter is never a problem
- Licensed English-speaking guides on the days the context changes what you see
- Timed entries booked in advance where they cap numbers, including the Mogao caves
- Hotels chosen for the district, with the trade-offs written out
- A VPN and payment apps set up and tested before you fly, so your phone works normally
Planning China, in detail
Yunnan on foot: Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shaxi and the Yubeng valley
Yunnan is where China stops looking like China and starts looking like the eastern edge of the Himalaya, which is exactly what…
What we would skip in China
Every China itinerary is a subtraction problem. The country is too big and too full for two weeks, so the useful work…
What to eat in China, region by region
There is no such thing as Chinese food. There are at least eight major regional cuisines, they disagree with each other about…
How many days do you need in China?
The honest answer is twelve to sixteen, and the reason is arithmetic rather than taste. China is about 3,100 miles (5,000 km)…
How much does two weeks in China really cost?
The cost of two weeks in China is harder to research than almost any country in Asia, because the honest answer has…
How Chinese high-speed rail actually works
China is roughly 3,100 miles (5,000 km) from the eastern coast to the western border and runs on a single time zone…
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a visa for China?
Is the air quality really a problem?
Is it hard to travel in China without Mandarin?
How far ahead should we book?
Can we combine China with another country?
Tell us roughly what you want. We will tell you honestly what works.
A named consultant in Tel Aviv, our own people on the ground, and a written plan you can argue with before you commit to anything.