7-Day China Itinerary: Beijing, Xi'an & Shanghai
By the China for Travelers editorial team · Published 2026-05-15 · Updated 2026-07-18 · 7 days · Beijing · Xi'an · Shanghai
Compiled by our Chongqing-based editorial team. This day-by-day plan draws on aggregated 2024–2026 r/travelchina trip reports, official attraction information, and published Audley / ChinaHighlights itineraries. The high-speed-rail leg times and prices below are pulled live from our 12306-sampled rail dataset, not estimated.
Budget. Budget roughly US$120–200 per person per day excluding international flights — a week this dense front-loads cost into tickets and transfers. The two HSR legs together run about ¥1,100–1,400 second class. See our China trip-cost guide for a per-day breakdown by travel style. Full cost breakdown →
Day by day
Day 1Beijing
Arrive Beijing
- Transfer to a central hotel (Wangfujing / Qianmen — walkable to the core sights)
- Set up Alipay / WeChat Pay + an eSIM tonight; a short Qianmen / hutong walk to fight jet lag
Getting around · Amap-verified
- MetroAirport (PEK / PKX) → Central Beijing1h–1h20mAirport Express + one metro transfer — see the PEK and PKX airport guides
- CarAirport (PEK / PKX) → Central Beijing50m–1h20mPrivate transfer — easiest with luggage after a long-haul flightBook a private airport transfer →
Book this day
Day 2Beijing
Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Jingshan
- Tiananmen Square early, then the Forbidden City south-to-north on a pre-booked timed ticket (passport at the gate)
- Jingshan hill behind it for the rooftop panorama
- Wangfujing or a hutong courtyard dinner
Getting around · Amap-verified
- WalkForbidden City (north gate) → Jingshan Park≈9 min700 m across Jingshan Front Street — the climb is the panorama the day is built around
Book this day
Day 3Beijing
Great Wall day trip (Mutianyu)
- Full day at Mutianyu — cable car up, toboggan down, fewer crowds than Badaling
- Back in the city for an early night before the Xi'an leg
Getting around · Amap-verified
- CarCentral Beijing → Mutianyu Great Wall1h30m–2h≈72 km; Amap off-peak drive 1h32m, tour coaches budget 2h each way
Book this day
Day 4Xi'an
Temple of Heaven, midday HSR to Xi'an, Muslim Quarter
Beijing → Xi'an by high-speed rail4h 10m · ¥515 – ¥578 2nd class · 32 trains/day
- Temple of Heaven at opening (skip the Summer Palace — there is no time on a 7-day plan)
- Midday high-speed train Beijing → Xi'an
- Evening in the Muslim Quarter — Xi'an's signature food street
What to know before you go
Summer Palace 颐和园
- Booking
- Required — opens the daily quota is released the evening before through the park’s own channel; in practice a weekday slot is still there on the day.
- Last entry
- 19:00 in summer, 18:00 in winter — an hour before the gates close
- Ticket
- through-ticket ¥60 1 April–31 October / ¥50 in winter; park-gate only ¥30 / ¥20
- On a passport
- Passport at the gate. The through-ticket bundles the four ticketed inner sites; bought one by one on top of the park gate they come to more than it costs.
- Getting in
- Line 4 to Beigongmen for the north gate, or Xiyuan for the east gate — the two ends of a park you cannot cross quickly.
Temple of Heaven 天坛公园
- Last entry
- park 21:00; monuments 17:30 summer, 16:30 winter — the monuments’ clock is the one that decides the visit
- Ticket
- through-ticket ¥34 1 April–31 October / ¥28 in winter; park-gate only ¥15 / ¥10
- On a passport
- Passport at the gate. Buying the cheap park ticket to save money is the classic mistake here — it covers the trees and not the Hall of Prayer.
- Getting in
- Tiantan East Gate on Line 5 puts you at the gate nearest the Hall of Prayer, which is the end most people want to start from.
Getting around · Amap-verified
- MetroXi'an North Railway Station → City centre (Bell Tower)≈30 minMetro Line 2, direct, ≈13 km — the HSR arrives at Xi'an North, not the old central station
Day 5Xi'an
Terracotta Army + City Wall
- Terracotta Army at opening (the single most crowded sight on the route)
- Afternoon: cycle the City Wall, then the Bell/Drum Tower after dark
What to know before you go
Terracotta Army 秦始皇兵马俑
- Booking
- Required — opens Peak-season slots open 7 days ahead on the official channels. Sources disagree on the off-season and public-holiday variants, so treat 7 days as the number to plan around and check the channel for a longer holiday window.. The site is capped at 65,000 visitors a day and stops selling when it fills. That is not theoretical: the museum's own August 2026 bulletin records seven consecutive days at or near 60,000, three of them over 65,000, and on 11 August the entire day's online allocation was gone by 12:30. In the summer holidays and over Golden Week, book the moment your date enters the window; the morning slots go first.
- Last entry
- Peak season (16 Mar – 15 Nov) last admission 17:00; off season (16 Nov – 15 Mar) 16:30. ⭐ The cutoff is the same at BOTH parks — the museum's own notice says so in as many words — so arriving at the pit halls at 16:45 does not buy you Lishan Park as well. The halls themselves stay open about ninety minutes past the cutoff. ⭐⭐ The number that actually strands people is earlier still: the last free inter-park shuttle leaves around 16:50, so leave the pit halls by 16:20.
- Ticket
- ¥120 flat, all year — one ticket (一票制) covering both parks
- On a passport
- Real-name, passport required, booked online — there are no on-site ticket windows. The museum's own site (bmy.com.cn) accepts a passport directly, and a passport is one of the ID documents the gate scanners accept, so a foreign visitor can do this without WeChat or a Chinese phone number. The two WeChat official accounts are the other two sanctioned channels. ⛔ The museum states it has never authorised any third-party platform to sell its admission ticket, so a listing offering "the ticket itself" is not what it claims; a tour operator booking on your behalf in your own name is a different thing.
- Getting in
- 华旅观光巴士兵马俑线 — a 21-line tourist-coach network running direct from named city-centre pickup points (Bell Tower / 钟楼饭店, 北大街, 朱雀门, 建国门, 永兴坊, 新城广场 and others) to the museum, about 40 km with no or few intermediate stops. ⚠️ Outbound coaches run 08:00–13:30 ONLY — there is no afternoon departure out of the city, so this option disappears after lunch.
Getting around · Amap-verified
- CoachCentral Xi'an (Bell Tower) → Terracotta Army1h–1h15m≈40 km each way; tourist coach (游5 / 306) or Metro Line 9 + a shuttle — leave a half-day for it
Book this day
Day 6Shanghai
Morning HSR to Shanghai, the Bund
Xi'an → Shanghai by high-speed rail5h 39m · ¥688 – ¥787 2nd class · 28 trains/day
- Morning high-speed train Xi'an → Shanghai (the long leg — see the rail card for the exact time)
- Evening arrival: the Bund waterfront for the Pudong skyline at night
Book this day
Day 7Shanghai
Yu Garden, French Concession, depart
- Yu Garden + bazaar early, then a fast French Concession walk (Wukang Road)
- Transfer to PVG (Maglev from Longyang Road) or SHA for the flight home
What to know before you go
Yu Garden 豫园
- Last entry
- 16:00 — the 16:30 figure is when the garden is cleared, not when you can still get in
- Ticket
- ¥40 in peak season (1 April to 30 June and 1 September to 30 November) and ¥30 in the low season (1 July to 31 August and 1 December to 31 March)
- On a passport
- a passport works at the window. ⚠️ The garden is small and the bazaar is not — budget an hour inside the walls and treat the rest of the block as a separate, free, much later-opening thing.
- Getting in
- Metro Lines 10 and 14 stop at 豫园. ⚠️ The station is named for the bazaar it sits under, not for the garden gate — the ticketed garden is a few hundred metres further in, past the crowds most visitors mistake for it.
The former French Concession 上海法租界
- Hours
- the streets are open at every hour; shops and cafés set their own, and the lanes are at their best late morning to early evening
- Ticket
- Free — it is a district of streets, and nothing about walking it is ticketed
- On a passport
- the plane trees are the attraction and they cost nothing. ⭐ The value here is a whole afternoon of walking rather than any single address, which is why it survives a rainy day better than the towers do.
- Getting in
- Tianzifang is beside 打浦桥 on Line 9. ⭐ But the Concession is better entered on foot from the east and walked west — the point is the streets between the landmarks, not the landmarks.
Getting around · Amap-verified
- MetroYu Garden → French Concession (Wukang Rd)≈40 minMetro Line 10 or 14 + a short hop
- MaglevLongyang Road → Pudong Airport (PVG)≈25 minThe Shanghai Maglev covers the 30 km in ≈8 min at a capped 300 km/h (its record 431 km/h has been suspended since 2021)
- CarCentral Shanghai → Pudong Airport (PVG)45m–1h10mDoor-to-door private transfer with luggage — alternative to the MaglevBook a private airport transfer →
Book this day
FAQ
- Is 7 days enough for China?
- Just barely, for the three icons. A week covers Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai as a highlight reel with two HSR legs and zero buffer. If anything slips (a delayed flight, a sold-out ticket) the plan has no slack. Ten days is the version we actually recommend — see the 10-day itinerary.
- Should I drop Xi'an to make a week less rushed?
- Only if the Terracotta Army isn't a priority. Dropping Xi'an gives you a relaxed Beijing + Shanghai week (one HSR leg), which many travelers prefer over a frantic three-city sprint. The trade-off is skipping one of China's three signature sights.
- Train or fly between the cities on a 7-day trip?
- Train. Even on a tight week, Beijing–Xi'an and Xi'an–Shanghai high-speed rail beats flying once you count airport time, and the stations are central. Each leg's rail card below shows the real duration, price and frequency from our 12306-sampled dataset.
- How long does the Terracotta Army day trip take from central Xi'an?
- Allow a half-day. The Terracotta Army is about 40 km east of central Xi'an — roughly 1h to 1h15m each way by tourist coach (the 游5 / 306) or by Metro Line 9 plus a shuttle (Amap-verified, May 2026). It is the single most crowded sight on this itinerary, so go at opening and treat the transfer as fixed time, not a quick hop.
- How much does a 7-day China trip cost?
- Roughly US$120–200 per person per day excluding international flights — a denser week pushes more spend into tickets and transfers. See our China trip-cost guide for a full breakdown by budget / mid-range / comfort.
Adapt this plan
Method. Inter-city rail figures (duration, price, trains/day) are pulled live from our 12306-sampled rail dataset and link to the full route page — they are not estimated or duplicated here. The within-day “getting around” times — airport runs, the Great Wall / Terracotta Army / Panda Base day trips, and the marked walking legs — are derived from Amap (高德地图) routing sampled in May 2026 and baked in at build time. The day-by-day editorial plan’s sourcing is disclosed in the note above the fold. Tour inventory, ticket prices and opening policies change — verify specifics before you commit. Last reviewed 2026-07-18.