China Itinerary: 9 Days in Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai
Nine days links China’s three great chapters: imperial Beijing and its Wall, Xi’an — the 2,200-year-old capital guarding the Terracotta Army — and Shanghai, where the country’s future gets prototyped, all stitched together by 300 km/h trains.
China ranked #12 worldwide with 30.5 million international arrivals (2024 foreign arrivals; published tallies range from roughly 27 to 32 million). Last reviewed 2026-07-29.
China · 9 days Beijing → Xi’an → Shanghai
Best time: September to October is the sweet spot — clear, dry, golden.
Beijing: Forbidden CityDay 1
🏛️9:00 AMForbidden City
980 buildings and 24 emperors behind ten-meter walls. Real-name tickets (passport required) are released seven days ahead at 8 PM Beijing time and sell out fast; closed Mondays. Enter at the Meridian Gate and exit north.
🚶 ~22 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.8 mi
🖼️1:30 PMNational Museum of China
One of the world’s most visited museums, free on Tiananmen Square’s east flank — ritual bronzes, jade burial suits, and 5,000 years in chronological order. Reserve with your passport.
🚗 ~8 min · 2.2 mi
🌆6:00 PMNanluoguxiang and the Houhai hutongs
The lake-and-lane quarter of old Beijing — best in the evening, when lanterns come on around Houhai and locals ballroom-dance on the banks.
Beijing: Great Wall at MutianyuDay 2
🏛️9:00 AMGreat Wall at Mutianyu
A restored Ming stretch 70 km northeast, its crenellated towers riding forested ridges — cable car up, toboggan down, and far thinner crowds than Badaling. Leave at nine and you are back in the city by early afternoon.
🚗 day trip · 36 mi
🥾1:30 PMJingshan Park
The artificial hill piled from the palace moat’s spoil — five pavilions and the definitive overhead view of the Forbidden City’s golden roofs.
🚶 ~29 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.1 mi
🎟️6:00 PMHutong evening food walk
A guided graze through the lanes — jianbing, zhajiangmian, Peking duck done properly — with the etiquette and history you cannot taste on your own.
Beijing: Temple of HeavenDay 3
🏛️9:00 AMTemple of Heaven
The triple-roofed Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, built without a single nail, where emperors bargained with heaven for the rice crop. Come early for the park’s tai chi and ribbon dancers.
🚗 ~15 min · 4.3 mi
🖼️1:30 PMCapital Museum
Beijing’s own story told well — hutong life, opera, and courtyard rituals in a striking modern building. Free with reservation and rarely crowded.
🚗 ~11 min · 3.2 mi
🌆6:00 PMQianmen and Dashilar
The Ming-era shopping streets south of Tiananmen, restored century-old facades and all — silk, tea, and cloth-shoe shops that have traded for generations.
Beijing: Summer PalaceDay 4
🏛️9:00 AMSummer Palace
The Qing court’s lakeside retreat — the 728-meter painted Long Corridor, Kunming Lake full of dragon boats, and Empress Dowager Cixi’s marble boat folly.
🚗 ~27 min · 7.6 mi
🥾1:30 PMBeihai Park
An imperial lake garden a millennium old, with the white Tibetan-style dagoba on its island — rent a pedal boat like the locals.
🚗 ~8 min · 2.2 mi
🎟️6:00 PMPeking opera or acrobatics evening show
An hour of painted faces and falsetto, or plate-spinning defiance of physics — either is a fine window on performance traditions the city has staged for centuries.
Arrive in Xi’anDay 5
🚄8:30 AMHigh-speed rail to Xi’an
Beijing West to Xi’an North in about 4.5 hours on G-class trains (fastest around 4h10), running many times a day at up to 350 km/h. Book with your passport a few days ahead.
🚄 ~4h30 · 566 mi
🚇 Metro hop
🏛️2:00 PMXi’an City Wall
The most complete city wall in China — a 14-kilometer Ming rectangle, 12 meters high and wide enough to cycle. Rent a bicycle on top at the South Gate and ride the full loop in two unhurried hours; late-afternoon light is best.
🚶 ~29 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.1 mi
🌆6:00 PMMuslim Quarter
The Hui community’s lantern-lit warren behind the Drum Tower — lamb skewers, biangbiang noodles, and persimmon cakes from stalls run by the same families for generations. Peak Xi’an after dark.
Xi’an: Terracotta ArmyDay 6
🏛️9:00 AMTerracotta Army
Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s 8,000-strong buried garrison, every face different, guarding his tomb since 210 BC — about an hour east of the city. Book the official timed ticket, go out in the morning, and see Pits 2 and 3 before the crowds pack Pit 1.
🚗 ~76 min · 22 mi
🖼️1:30 PMShaanxi History Museum
One of China’s great museums — Tang gold, Silk Road treasure, and the context for everything at the pits. Free timed tickets vanish days ahead; book the moment your dates fix.
🚶 ~32 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.2 mi
🎟️6:00 PMTang-dynasty dinner show
Xi’an’s signature evening: a dumpling banquet of a dozen-plus shapes followed by a costumed music-and-dance recreation of the Tang court at its height.
Arrive in ShanghaiDay 7
🚄8:30 AMHigh-speed rail to Shanghai
Xi’an North to Shanghai Hongqiao in 5½ to 6 hours direct — or fly in 2 hours if you would rather trade legroom for time. The train lands you straight on the metro; no airport transfers.
🚄 ~6h · 757 mi
🚇 Metro hop
🏛️2:00 PMThe Bund
The colonial banking front — 52 stone facades, most raised in the 1920s and 30s, facing Pudong’s towers across the Huangpu. Walk it twice: once by day, once after dark when both skylines switch on.
🚗 ~14 min · 3.9 mi
🌆6:00 PMFormer French Concession
Plane-tree avenues, 1920s villas, and Wukang Road’s café crowd — the best aimless-walking neighborhood in urban China.
Shanghai: Yu Garden and the Old TownDay 8
🏛️9:00 AMYu Garden and the Old Town
A Ming official’s classical garden of rockeries, carp ponds, and zigzag bridges, wrapped in the old town’s temple bazaar. Be at the gate at opening; by mid-morning the lanes are shoulder to shoulder.
🚶 ~27 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.0 mi
🖼️1:30 PMShanghai Museum
China’s finest classical collection — bronzes, ceramics, and literati painting — free with a reservation, split between People’s Square and the new East building in Pudong.
🚶 ~34 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.2 mi
🎟️6:00 PMHuangpu River night cruise
The Bund’s stone canyon on one bank, Pudong’s light show on the other — fifty minutes on the water is the definitive Shanghai postcard.
Shanghai: Shanghai Tower observation deckDay 9
🏛️9:00 AMShanghai Tower observation deck
China’s tallest building and the world’s third-tallest at 632 meters, with an observatory on the 118th floor reached by some of the fastest elevators ever built. Go on a clear day, obviously.
🚗 ~18 min · 5.2 mi
🥾1:30 PMWest Bund riverside
Kilometers of post-industrial Huangpu waterfront turned promenade — climbing walls, skate ramps, and art spaces in converted aircraft factories.
🚗 ~12 min · 3.5 mi
🌆6:00 PMXintiandi
Shikumen stone-gate lanehouses rebuilt as an open-air dining quarter — polished, yes, but the place to understand the housing style most of old Shanghai lived in.
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Best time to goSeptember to October is the sweet spot — clear, dry, golden. April to May is the runner-up. Avoid the first week of October (Golden Week) and Chinese New Year, when the entire country travels at once.
Recommended splitBeijing 4d · Xi’an 2d · Shanghai 3d
Local tip: Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with your foreign card before landing — even street stalls are cashless — and carry your passport daily; it is your ticket ID everywhere. Citizens of 55 countries can currently transit visa-free for up to 240 hours; check the official list for your passport before booking.
Beijing — 4 days
Beijing has been the seat of the Middle Kingdom for most of seven centuries, and it does imperial scale like nowhere else — the world’s largest palace, its most famous wall, and hutong lanes where the old city still plays chess outside. Book everything ahead: the big sights run on real-name timed tickets.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inNanluoguxiang and the Houhai hutongs. The lake-and-lane quarter of old Beijing — best in the evening, when lanterns come on around Houhai and locals ballroom-dance on the banks.Qianmen and Dashilar. The Ming-era shopping streets south of Tiananmen, restored century-old facades and all — silk, tea, and cloth-shoe shops that have traded for generations.798 Art District. A Mao-era, East German-built factory complex turned contemporary-art city — galleries and studios under the Bauhaus sawtooth roofs.
LandmarksForbidden City. 980 buildings and 24 emperors behind ten-meter walls. Real-name tickets (passport required) are released seven days ahead at 8 PM Beijing time and sell out fast; closed Mondays. Enter at the Meridian Gate and exit north.Great Wall at Mutianyu. A restored Ming stretch 70 km northeast, its crenellated towers riding forested ridges — cable car up, toboggan down, and far thinner crowds than Badaling. Leave at nine and you are back in the city by early afternoon.Temple of Heaven. The triple-roofed Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, built without a single nail, where emperors bargained with heaven for the rice crop. Come early for the park’s tai chi and ribbon dancers.Summer Palace. The Qing court’s lakeside retreat — the 728-meter painted Long Corridor, Kunming Lake full of dragon boats, and Empress Dowager Cixi’s marble boat folly.
Nature and outdoorsJingshan Park. The artificial hill piled from the palace moat’s spoil — five pavilions and the definitive overhead view of the Forbidden City’s golden roofs.Beihai Park. An imperial lake garden a millennium old, with the white Tibetan-style dagoba on its island — rent a pedal boat like the locals.
MuseumsNational Museum of China. One of the world’s most visited museums, free on Tiananmen Square’s east flank — ritual bronzes, jade burial suits, and 5,000 years in chronological order. Reserve with your passport.Capital Museum. Beijing’s own story told well — hutong life, opera, and courtyard rituals in a striking modern building. Free with reservation and rarely crowded.
Worth a guided tourHutong evening food walk. A guided graze through the lanes — jianbing, zhajiangmian, Peking duck done properly — with the etiquette and history you cannot taste on your own.Peking opera or acrobatics evening show. An hour of painted faces and falsetto, or plate-spinning defiance of physics — either is a fine window on performance traditions the city has staged for centuries.
Getting around BeijingThe subway is vast, bilingual, and a few yuan a ride — there are X-ray checks at every station, so pack light. Ride-hailing apps fill the gaps; surface traffic is best avoided at rush hour.
Xi’an — 2 days
Getting here: High-speed rail — Beijing West to Xi’an North in about 4.5 hours on G-class trains (fastest around 4h10), running many times a day at up to 350 km/h. Book with your passport a few days ahead.
Xi’an — ancient Chang’an — was capital to 13 dynasties and the eastern end of the Silk Road; a millennium before Beijing mattered, this was the largest city on earth. It packs the Terracotta Army, an intact Ming wall, and China’s best street food into two days.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inMuslim Quarter. The Hui community’s lantern-lit warren behind the Drum Tower — lamb skewers, biangbiang noodles, and persimmon cakes from stalls run by the same families for generations. Peak Xi’an after dark.Shuyuanmen. The calligraphy street inside the South Gate — brush shops, ink-stone carvers, and paper sellers along a restored Qing-style lane.
LandmarksXi’an City Wall. The most complete city wall in China — a 14-kilometer Ming rectangle, 12 meters high and wide enough to cycle. Rent a bicycle on top at the South Gate and ride the full loop in two unhurried hours; late-afternoon light is best.Terracotta Army. Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s 8,000-strong buried garrison, every face different, guarding his tomb since 210 BC — about an hour east of the city. Book the official timed ticket, go out in the morning, and see Pits 2 and 3 before the crowds pack Pit 1.Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. The 7th-century brick tower built to hold the sutras the monk Xuanzang carried back from India — the journey that became one of Chinese literature’s founding legends.
Nature and outdoorsDaming Palace National Heritage Park. The grass-grown footprint of the Tang dynasty’s vast palace, now open parkland of reconstructed gates and excavated foundations — kite-flyers where emperors once held court.
MuseumsShaanxi History Museum. One of China’s great museums — Tang gold, Silk Road treasure, and the context for everything at the pits. Free timed tickets vanish days ahead; book the moment your dates fix.
Worth a guided tourTang-dynasty dinner show. Xi’an’s signature evening: a dumpling banquet of a dozen-plus shapes followed by a costumed music-and-dance recreation of the Tang court at its height.
Getting around Xi’anMetro lines link the wall, the pagoda, and both rail stations; the Terracotta Army is a metro-plus-bus or taxi run east. Inside the wall, walk.
Shanghai — 3 days
Getting here: High-speed rail — Xi’an North to Shanghai Hongqiao in 5½ to 6 hours direct — or fly in 2 hours if you would rather trade legroom for time. The train lands you straight on the metro; no airport transfers.
Shanghai is China at full velocity — a fishing town that became the Paris of the East in the 1920s and the country’s financial engine today. The colonial Bund faces the Pudong skyline across the river: one city, two centuries, one photograph.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inFormer French Concession. Plane-tree avenues, 1920s villas, and Wukang Road’s café crowd — the best aimless-walking neighborhood in urban China.Xintiandi. Shikumen stone-gate lanehouses rebuilt as an open-air dining quarter — polished, yes, but the place to understand the housing style most of old Shanghai lived in.
LandmarksThe Bund. The colonial banking front — 52 stone facades, most raised in the 1920s and 30s, facing Pudong’s towers across the Huangpu. Walk it twice: once by day, once after dark when both skylines switch on.Yu Garden and the Old Town. A Ming official’s classical garden of rockeries, carp ponds, and zigzag bridges, wrapped in the old town’s temple bazaar. Be at the gate at opening; by mid-morning the lanes are shoulder to shoulder.Shanghai Tower observation deck. China’s tallest building and the world’s third-tallest at 632 meters, with an observatory on the 118th floor reached by some of the fastest elevators ever built. Go on a clear day, obviously.
Nature and outdoorsWest Bund riverside. Kilometers of post-industrial Huangpu waterfront turned promenade — climbing walls, skate ramps, and art spaces in converted aircraft factories.Fuxing Park. The French-built park where the Concession wakes up — ballroom dancers, water calligraphers, and card sharks under the plane trees every morning.
MuseumsShanghai Museum. China’s finest classical collection — bronzes, ceramics, and literati painting — free with a reservation, split between People’s Square and the new East building in Pudong.
Worth a guided tourHuangpu River night cruise. The Bund’s stone canyon on one bank, Pudong’s light show on the other — fifty minutes on the water is the definitive Shanghai postcard.Zhujiajiao water town half-day trip. A 1,700-year-old canal town at the metro’s far western end — Ming bridges, gondola-style boats, and rice-wine shops along the water.
Getting around ShanghaiThe world’s largest metro system, bilingual and a few yuan a ride, reaches everything including both airports; the Maglev from Pudong airport touches 300 km/h. Electric scooters are silent — look twice at every curb.
The full plan as text
The same day-by-day plan, expandable day by day. Times are starting points, not homework.
Day 1: Beijing: Forbidden City
9:00 AMForbidden City
980 buildings and 24 emperors behind ten-meter walls. Real-name tickets (passport required) are released seven days ahead at 8 PM Beijing time and sell out fast; closed Mondays. Enter at the Meridian Gate and exit north.
1:30 PMNational Museum of China
One of the world’s most visited museums, free on Tiananmen Square’s east flank — ritual bronzes, jade burial suits, and 5,000 years in chronological order. Reserve with your passport.
6:00 PMNanluoguxiang and the Houhai hutongs
The lake-and-lane quarter of old Beijing — best in the evening, when lanterns come on around Houhai and locals ballroom-dance on the banks.
Day 2: Beijing: Great Wall at Mutianyu
9:00 AMGreat Wall at Mutianyu
A restored Ming stretch 70 km northeast, its crenellated towers riding forested ridges — cable car up, toboggan down, and far thinner crowds than Badaling. Leave at nine and you are back in the city by early afternoon.
1:30 PMJingshan Park
The artificial hill piled from the palace moat’s spoil — five pavilions and the definitive overhead view of the Forbidden City’s golden roofs.
6:00 PMHutong evening food walk
A guided graze through the lanes — jianbing, zhajiangmian, Peking duck done properly — with the etiquette and history you cannot taste on your own.
Day 3: Beijing: Temple of Heaven
9:00 AMTemple of Heaven
The triple-roofed Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, built without a single nail, where emperors bargained with heaven for the rice crop. Come early for the park’s tai chi and ribbon dancers.
1:30 PMCapital Museum
Beijing’s own story told well — hutong life, opera, and courtyard rituals in a striking modern building. Free with reservation and rarely crowded.
6:00 PMQianmen and Dashilar
The Ming-era shopping streets south of Tiananmen, restored century-old facades and all — silk, tea, and cloth-shoe shops that have traded for generations.
Day 4: Beijing: Summer Palace
9:00 AMSummer Palace
The Qing court’s lakeside retreat — the 728-meter painted Long Corridor, Kunming Lake full of dragon boats, and Empress Dowager Cixi’s marble boat folly.
1:30 PMBeihai Park
An imperial lake garden a millennium old, with the white Tibetan-style dagoba on its island — rent a pedal boat like the locals.
6:00 PMPeking opera or acrobatics evening show
An hour of painted faces and falsetto, or plate-spinning defiance of physics — either is a fine window on performance traditions the city has staged for centuries.
Day 5: Arrive in Xi’an
8:30 AMHigh-speed rail to Xi’an
Beijing West to Xi’an North in about 4.5 hours on G-class trains (fastest around 4h10), running many times a day at up to 350 km/h. Book with your passport a few days ahead.
2:00 PMXi’an City Wall
The most complete city wall in China — a 14-kilometer Ming rectangle, 12 meters high and wide enough to cycle. Rent a bicycle on top at the South Gate and ride the full loop in two unhurried hours; late-afternoon light is best.
6:00 PMMuslim Quarter
The Hui community’s lantern-lit warren behind the Drum Tower — lamb skewers, biangbiang noodles, and persimmon cakes from stalls run by the same families for generations. Peak Xi’an after dark.
Day 6: Xi’an: Terracotta Army
9:00 AMTerracotta Army
Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s 8,000-strong buried garrison, every face different, guarding his tomb since 210 BC — about an hour east of the city. Book the official timed ticket, go out in the morning, and see Pits 2 and 3 before the crowds pack Pit 1.
1:30 PMShaanxi History Museum
One of China’s great museums — Tang gold, Silk Road treasure, and the context for everything at the pits. Free timed tickets vanish days ahead; book the moment your dates fix.
6:00 PMTang-dynasty dinner show
Xi’an’s signature evening: a dumpling banquet of a dozen-plus shapes followed by a costumed music-and-dance recreation of the Tang court at its height.
Day 7: Arrive in Shanghai
8:30 AMHigh-speed rail to Shanghai
Xi’an North to Shanghai Hongqiao in 5½ to 6 hours direct — or fly in 2 hours if you would rather trade legroom for time. The train lands you straight on the metro; no airport transfers.
2:00 PMThe Bund
The colonial banking front — 52 stone facades, most raised in the 1920s and 30s, facing Pudong’s towers across the Huangpu. Walk it twice: once by day, once after dark when both skylines switch on.
6:00 PMFormer French Concession
Plane-tree avenues, 1920s villas, and Wukang Road’s café crowd — the best aimless-walking neighborhood in urban China.
Day 8: Shanghai: Yu Garden and the Old Town
9:00 AMYu Garden and the Old Town
A Ming official’s classical garden of rockeries, carp ponds, and zigzag bridges, wrapped in the old town’s temple bazaar. Be at the gate at opening; by mid-morning the lanes are shoulder to shoulder.
1:30 PMShanghai Museum
China’s finest classical collection — bronzes, ceramics, and literati painting — free with a reservation, split between People’s Square and the new East building in Pudong.
6:00 PMHuangpu River night cruise
The Bund’s stone canyon on one bank, Pudong’s light show on the other — fifty minutes on the water is the definitive Shanghai postcard.
Day 9: Shanghai: Shanghai Tower observation deck
9:00 AMShanghai Tower observation deck
China’s tallest building and the world’s third-tallest at 632 meters, with an observatory on the 118th floor reached by some of the fastest elevators ever built. Go on a clear day, obviously.
1:30 PMWest Bund riverside
Kilometers of post-industrial Huangpu waterfront turned promenade — climbing walls, skate ramps, and art spaces in converted aircraft factories.
6:00 PMXintiandi
Shikumen stone-gate lanehouses rebuilt as an open-air dining quarter — polished, yes, but the place to understand the housing style most of old Shanghai lived in.
Make this China trip yours
Forward your real booking confirmations to Petrel and it builds this exact day-by-day view for you: flights, hotels, reservations, live flight status, and the travel time between stops. Under a minute.
Start your free tripFirst trip free. No account, no credit card.