China Itinerary: Sample Plans
By the China for Travelers editorial team · Published 2026-05-15 · Updated 2026-05-20
7-Day China Itinerary: Beijing, Xi'an & Shanghai
7 daysBeijing · Xi'an · Shanghai
The tightest credible first trip — a highlight reel of the three icons with no slack. Take this only if a week is genuinely all you have; 10 days is a much better fit.
10-Day China Itinerary: Beijing, Xi'an & Shanghai
10 daysBeijing · Xi'an · Shanghai
The default first-timer route: the Great Wall and Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army, and the Bund — three cities, all connected by high-speed rail, no domestic flights.
2 Weeks in China: 14-Day Itinerary (+ Chengdu Pandas)
14 daysBeijing · Xi'an · Chengdu · Shanghai
The classic route plus the Chengdu panda base — the most-requested 'add pandas to the icons' two-week plan, still all by high-speed rail until the long Chengdu→Shanghai hop.
21-Day China: Pandas, Chongqing & a Yangtze Cruise
21 daysBeijing · Xi'an · Chengdu · Chongqing · Yangtze River · Shanghai
The deep three weeks: the classic icons, then the moat — Chengdu pandas, the editor's home city Chongqing, and a downstream Yangtze cruise through the Three Gorges to Shanghai.
Decide the shape of the trip first
How these are built. The day-by-day plans are editorial. Inter-city legs pull duration, price and daily-train counts live from our 12306-sampled rail dataset (not estimated). Sourcing per itinerary is disclosed on each plan’s page — the Chengdu, Chongqing and Yangtze-cruise legs of the longer plans are first-hand (editor based in Chongqing since 2018); the Beijing / Xi’an / Shanghai legs are editorial-aggregated. Last reviewed 2026-05-20.