Ten Days in China: Chengdu or Guilin, Day by Day

Ten days buys the three-stop version of China: Beijing, Xi’an and either Chengdu or Guilin, with Shanghai at either end. Version A runs Beijing 3 nights, Xi’an 2, Chengdu 2 and Shanghai 3; Version B swaps Chengdu for Guilin and Yangshuo. Both use the same G-train corridor, so the extra days add content rather than travel.

Last verified: 29 October 2026 · Sources: National Immigration Administration (NIA), Forbidden City ticketing, China Railway 12306

Is ten days enough for a first trip to China?

Ten days is the shortest trip at which a first visit to China stops feeling like a transfer schedule: three bases and one detour, with two of the four moves made by high-speed train. Below, two versions share the first five days and diverge on day six, so you can choose the detour after you have seen the prices.

Why two versions instead of one: after Beijing (three nights) and Xi’an (two), you have three nights and one long hop before Shanghai. Version A spends them on Chengdu – pandas, teahouses, Sichuan food – and reaches Shanghai on a short flight. Version B spends them on Guilin and Yangshuo for the Li River landscape. If you cannot take the extra three days, the seven-day version of this route covers the same corridor; the itineraries hub compares it with the shorter alternatives.

Version A: Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu and Shanghai – what does each day look like?

Version A is the more complete first trip: imperial Beijing, the Terracotta Army, Chengdu’s pandas and teahouses, then Shanghai. The table below is the booking sheet – what to hold and when. The day sections after it carry the durations and the failure modes.

Day	Base (sleep)	Morning	Afternoon	Evening	Transport	Book by	Cost band
1	Beijing	Arrive, transfer	Hutong walk 2h	Dinner near Nanluoguxiang, 2h	Capital Airport Express CNY 25	Hotel only	Mid
2	Beijing	Forbidden City 3h	Jingshan Park 1h	Peking duck, 1.5h	Metro, 30 min	Forbidden City, 7 days ahead at 20:00	Mid
3	Beijing	Great Wall at Mutianyu 4h	Return drive 2h, rest	Olympic Park 1h	Car, 2h each way (editorial)	Wall ticket via channel	Mid
4	Xi’an	G-train 4h30-6h	City wall 1.5h	Muslim Quarter 2h	Beijing South to Xi’an North	Train once dates are fixed	Mid
5	Xi’an	Terracotta Army 4h	Big Wild Goose Pagoda 1h	Free	Bus, 1h each way	Terracotta, passport name	Mid
6	Chengdu	G-train, about 3h30	Jinli Street 1.5h	Hotpot, 2h	Xi’an to Chengdu	Train once dates are fixed	Mid
7	Chengdu	Panda Base 3h	People’s Park teahouse 1.5h	Free	Metro, 40 min	Panda Base ticket	Mid
8	Shanghai	Flight, about 2h30	Bund 1.5h	Nanjing Road 1h	Chengdu to Shanghai	Flight, 6-8 weeks ahead	Comfort
9	Shanghai	Yu Garden 1.5h	French Concession 2h	Huangpu cruise 1h	Metro, 30 min	Yu Garden timed slot	Mid
10	Depart	Shanghai Museum 2h	Departure	–	Line 2 to Longyang Road, maglev CNY 50	Museum slot	Mid

Every timing in this table other than the G-train legs is an editorial estimate from the routes as they ran in 2026, not an official schedule. The day sections below are the copyable version.

Day 1: Arrive Beijing · Airport Express CNY 25 · hutong walk 2h

Day 1 is a transfer day and should stay one: land, buy a transit card, walk two hours of hutong lanes near the hotel before dark. The Airport Express from Capital costs CNY 25 in 2026 and ends at Dongzhimen. Book nothing with a fixed start time on arrival day – a delayed flight is the most common way a plan breaks.

Day 2: Beijing · Forbidden City 3h · Jingshan 1h · Peking duck 1.5h

Day 2 belongs to the Forbidden City, and it only works if the ticket is already in your passport name. Three hours is the realistic minimum from Tiananmen gate to the north exit; add Jingshan Park for the view back over the roofs, and book the Treasure Gallery separately at CNY 10. The Monday closure is real, so check the date before you fix the day order – the Beijing guide lists what else is within walking distance.

Day 3: Beijing · Great Wall at Mutianyu 4h · Olympic Park 1h

Day 3 is the Great Wall, and for a ten-day trip the sensible section is Mutianyu: restored walk, short cable car, and a toboggan down. Budget four hours on the wall plus two hours each way in a car. The 09:00 departure that sounds relaxed puts you on the wall at noon in the crowds; leave the evening empty.

Day 4: Beijing → Xi’an (G-train 4h30-6h) · city wall 1.5h · Muslim Quarter 2h

Day 4 is the first long leg: Beijing South to Xi’an North runs four and a half to six hours depending on the service. Take a morning train, arrive after lunch, and use the late afternoon for the city wall, which you can cycle in about an hour and a half. Second class is comfortable and the cheapest seat on the train – the train guide covers passport registration and station timing.

Day 5: Xi’an · Terracotta Army 4h · Big Wild Goose Pagoda 1h

Day 5 is the Terracotta Army, an hour by road from the city and about four hours on site if you want pits 1 to 3 without rushing. Your passport is the ticket, and the verified booking channel is still an OTA rather than an official site, so book through a channel that will refund you. The pagoda fills the late afternoon; the Terracotta Warriors page has the pit-by-pit timings.

Day 6: Xi’an → Chengdu (G-train about 3h30) · Jinli Street 1.5h · hotpot 2h

Day 6 covers the Xi’an to Chengdu leg, roughly three and a half hours by G-train according to the timetable we checked in 2026 (editorial estimate – confirm on 12306). Chengdu is a slower city by design: the afternoon is Jinli Street, the evening is hotpot, and the point is not to over-schedule either one.

Day 7: Chengdu · Panda Base 3h · People’s Park teahouse 1.5h

Day 7 starts early for the Panda Base, where the animals are active before nine and asleep by eleven. Three hours there plus an hour at a teahouse in People’s Park is the honest pace; Wenshu Monastery is the spare stop if it rains. Skip the second panda venue – the first one is enough.

Day 8: Chengdu → Shanghai (flight about 2h30) · Bund 1.5h · Nanjing Road 1h

Day 8 is a flight day: Chengdu to Shanghai is about two and a half hours in the air (editorial estimate), and it eats the middle of the day once you allow for airport transfers at both ends. The Bund at dusk is the right first look at the city, and Nanjing Road is a five-minute walk from it if you want shops – the Shanghai guide has the evening alternatives.

Day 9: Shanghai · Yu Garden 1.5h · French Concession 2h · Huangpu cruise 1h

Day 9 is Shanghai’s old city and its concession streets: Yu Garden for an hour and a half, then the French Concession for two hours on foot. The garden needs a timed slot in peak season and the streets do not, which is why this day can absorb a late start after a flight. The river cruise is optional and best after dark.

Day 10: Shanghai · museum 2h · departure

Day 10 leaves room for one museum before the airport. The Shanghai Museum is free and needs a reservation; two hours covers the bronze gallery. Take metro Line 2 to Longyang Road and the maglev the last eight minutes to Pudong airport at CNY 50 one way – the whole run is under an hour from People’s Square.

Version B: swapping Chengdu for Guilin and Yangshuo – what changes?

Version B keeps the first five days and spends days six to eight in Guilin and Yangshuo, then flies to Shanghai for two nights. You trade Chengdu’s food and pandas for karst hills, a four-hour Li River cruise and a day on bicycles. It needs one more flight and better weather luck, and it belongs in the second half of the year less than Version A does.

Day	Base (sleep)	Morning	Afternoon	Evening	Transport	Book by	Cost band
1	Beijing	Arrive, transfer	Hutong walk 2h	Dinner, 2h	Airport Express CNY 25	Hotel only	Mid
2	Beijing	Forbidden City 3h	Jingshan 1h	Peking duck 1.5h	Metro, 30 min	Forbidden City, 7 days ahead	Mid
3	Beijing	Great Wall 4h	Return 2h	Free	Car, 2h each way	Wall ticket	Mid
4	Xi’an	G-train 4h30-6h	City wall 1.5h	Muslim Quarter 2h	Beijing South to Xi’an North	Train once dates fixed	Mid
5	Xi’an	Terracotta Army 4h	Pagoda 1h	Free	Bus, 1h each way	Terracotta, passport name	Mid
6	Guilin	Flight, about 2h15	Two Rivers and Four Lakes 1.5h	Free	Xi’an to Guilin	Flight, 6-8 weeks ahead	Comfort
7	Yangshuo	Li River cruise 4h	West Street 1h	Free	Boat, then 1h road transfer	Cruise, 3-7 days ahead	Mid
8	Yangshuo	Yulong River cycling 3h	Countryside walk 2h	Free	Bike hire	Nothing	Mid
9	Shanghai	Transfer, then flight	Bund 1.5h	Free	Guilin to Shanghai, about 2h30	Flight, 6-8 weeks ahead	Comfort
10	Depart	Yu Garden 1.5h	Departure	–	Maglev CNY 50	Garden slot	Mid

Should you take the Chengdu version or the Guilin version?

Take Version A if you are travelling with children, if you care about food, or if your dates fall in winter, when Guilin is cold and grey. Take Version B if you want landscape and cycling, if you are a couple or a group of adults, and if you can travel in April, May, September or October. Version B is the more photogenic trip and the one more exposed to weather.

What must you book, and by when?

Five things have hard or near-hard deadlines, and all five can be done from outside China before you fly. The Forbidden City is the only truly fixed one: tickets are released seven days ahead at 20:00 Beijing time and sell out in peak season within minutes. Everything else is a matter of price, not availability.

Tickets for the Palace Museum are real-name reservations: one ticket per ID per visiting day, released at 20:00 seven days before the visit date. Visitors must present the passport used for the booking. – Palace Museum ticketing notice at ticket.dpm.org.cn, checked 29 October 2026 (translated from Chinese).

• Forbidden City: 7 days ahead at 20:00 Beijing time, passport required, CNY 60 in peak season (1 April to 31 October 2026).
• G-trains: 12306 opens sales on a rolling window that has historically run about 15 days; treat that as a working assumption and confirm on the site (editorial).
• Internal flights, Chengdu to Shanghai or the Guilin legs: six to eight weeks ahead is the price sweet spot (editorial judgement, not a rule).
• Terracotta Army and Badaling: passport-based real-name tickets through OTA channels; refund terms matter more than the price.
• Yangshuo Li River cruise: three to seven days ahead in peak season (editorial estimate, not an official window), earlier in the first week of October.

What happens if a flight is cancelled?

Internal flights are the weak link in both versions, and the recovery is different. In Version A, a cancelled Chengdu to Shanghai flight can be replaced by a G-train the same evening, at the cost of a long day; that is why Chengdu sits before Shanghai and not between Beijing and Xi’an. In Version B, a cancelled Guilin flight leaves a nine-hour train as the fallback, so book the flight early in the day rather than the last one out.

Can you shorten this to nine days?

Yes, and the cut is obvious: drop the second Chengdu night (day 7 becomes panda morning and an afternoon flight) or drop the second Yangshuo night. Do not cut Xi’an – the Terracotta Army is the single stop people regret missing, and Xi’an between Beijing and Shanghai is what keeps the train legs moving in one direction.

What does ten days cost on each version?

At mid-range, budget roughly CNY 700 to 1,100 per person per day in 2026, which puts ten days at about CNY 7,000 to 11,000 before intercity transport and international flights (editorial estimate, built from hotel, food and ticket prices we checked). Version B is the more expensive of the two because of the extra flight and Yangshuo hotel rates in peak season.

Item	Version A (editorial)	Version B (editorial)
Daily spend, mid-range	CNY 700-1,100	CNY 800-1,300
Long-distance legs	2 G-trains, 1 flight	2 G-trains, 2 flights
Ten-day total per person	CNY 7,000-11,000	CNY 8,000-13,000

These are editorial estimates, not quotes: they exclude international flights, alcohol and shopping. The budget page breaks the same figures down by category, and the family tours page applies them to a group of four.