Open ChinaTravel · 2026

Itinerary · 14 days

Five cities, one country, one ticket type.

Your passport is your train ticket. This two-week loop covers the imperial north, the Silk Road, panda country, the karst landscapes, and finishes on the Bund.

The route

Beijing → Xi'an → Chengdu → Guilin/Yangshuo → Shanghai. Fly into PEK, out of PVG (open-jaw is cheaper than a round trip). Every connection is HSR except Guilin → Shanghai, where the flight is faster.

DayCityHighlights
1–3BeijingForbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Mutianyu Great Wall, Peking duck, hutong evening.
4Beijing → Xi'anMorning HSR (4.5 hrs, $80). Evening: Muslim Quarter food street.
5Xi'anTerracotta Warriors (half day, $25). City Wall bike ride at sunset.
6Xi'an → ChengduHSR 3 hours through mountain tunnels. Settle in at a tea-house in People's Park.
7ChengduPandas at sunrise (Dujiangyan Base, not the tourist one). Sichuan hot pot — Shu Jiu Xiang.
8Chengdu → GuilinDirect HSR (~7 hrs, scenic) or fly (90 min). Arrive Yangshuo.
9–10Yangshuo (Guilin)Li River bamboo raft, bike through karst peaks, Yulong River sunrise.
11Guilin → ShanghaiMorning flight (~2 hrs, $80) — HSR is 10 hrs, skip it. Evening: the Bund.
12ShanghaiYu Garden, French Concession, Shanghai Museum, Xintiandi.
13Suzhou day trip25 min HSR. Classical gardens. Return for rooftop drinks.
14Shanghai → homeLast brunch in the Concession, Maglev to PVG, fly out.

Estimated budget (per person, mid-range)

  • Hotels (13 nights, 4-star): ~$1,100
  • Food (you cannot spend much here): ~$400
  • HSR + 1 internal flight: ~$300
  • Sights, drivers, guides: ~$300
  • Total ex-international flights: roughly $2,100

The same trip in Japan or Korea would cost 2–3× more — see the comparison.

Variants

  • Skip Xi'an, add Hong Kong — easier visa logistics if you want a soft landing.
  • Swap Guilin for Zhangjiajie — Avatar mountains; better in October.
  • Skip Chengdu, add Yunnan (Dali + Lijiang) — old-town vibes, mountains, way fewer tourists.

Book in this order

  1. Visa check — most countries are now visa-free for 30 days.
  2. Open-jaw flight: PEK in, PVG out.
  3. All 5 hotels on Trip.com — see how foreigners book hotels.
  4. HSR legs on Trip.com ~10 days out.
  5. Alipay + eSIM before you fly.

Doing this in one week instead? See the 7-day version.