Morning
Land at Beijing Capital (PEK)
The Airport Express train runs to Dongzhimen, where Subway Line 2 loops around the old city walls into Dongcheng.
Afternoon / Day
Check in: The Peninsula Beijing
8 Goldfish Lane, a hutong address one block off Wangfujing. Walking distance to the Forbidden City moat.
Set up mobile payment
Alipay and WeChat Pay both accept foreign cards and run almost everything here, from metro gates to street stalls. Do this before you need it.
Qianmen Street & Dashilan
The restored Qing-era shopping street south of Tiananmen, with the older Dashilan lanes running west off it. An easy jet-lagged first walk.
Evening
Peking duck at Quanjude
The Qianmen branch is the original house, roasting duck over fruitwood since 1864. Order the pancakes, scallion and sweet bean sauce.
Morning
Tiananmen Square
One of the largest public squares in the world, framed by the Great Hall of the People and the Monument to the Heroes. Entry is by advance reservation with your passport; there is no walk-up gate.
The Forbidden City
Twenty-four emperors ruled from here across the Ming and Qing. Entry is at the Meridian Gate only and needs a real-name reservation made in advance against a daily cap; the Treasure Gallery inside takes a separate ticket.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch on Nanchizi Street
The lane along the palace moat, a few minutes from the Donghua Gate exit. Courtyard cafes and noodle shops without the tourist markup.
Jingshan Park
The artificial hill built from the moat spoil, directly north of the palace. Climb to the Wanchun Pavilion for the view straight down the imperial axis.
Confucius Temple & Guozijian
North of Jingshan and far emptier than the palace. Stone stelae list every imperial exam graduate for six centuries; the Imperial College next door trained them.
Evening
Dinner in Nanluoguxiang
A Yuan-dynasty hutong grid north of Jingshan, now lined with courtyard restaurants. Duck into the side lanes rather than the main drag.
Morning
Temple of Heaven
The Ming emperors came here to pray for good harvests; the Hall of Prayer is built entirely without nails. The surrounding park fills with tai chi and card games.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch on Wudaoying Hutong
Subway Line 5 runs straight from Tiantandongmen to Yonghegong. Wudaoying is the cafe-and-noodle lane a block from the temple gate.
Lama Temple (Yonghegong)
A Qing prince's palace turned Tibetan Buddhist monastery, still active. The rear hall holds an 18-metre Maitreya carved from a single sandalwood trunk.
Bell & Drum Towers
A walk west from the Lama Temple to the two towers that kept the city's time for 600 years. They shut in the late afternoon, so climb them before you go looking for dinner.
Evening
Dinner at Houhai
The lake sits just west of the towers, ringed by courtyard restaurants. Take the lanes set back from the water rather than the bar strip on the shore.
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Morning
Drive to Mutianyu
About 90 minutes northeast into Huairou District. Leaving central Beijing early is what buys you an empty wall.
Great Wall at Mutianyu
A restored Ming stretch with 22 watchtowers and forest on both sides — greener and far less crowded than Badaling. Gondola up to Tower 14, out toward Tower 20 and back, then west along the wall to Tower 6 for the toboggan.
Afternoon / Day
Late lunch in Mutianyu village
The village at the base has courtyard kitchens doing trout, mountain vegetables and hand-pulled noodles.
Evening
Lamb hotpot at Donglaishun
Back in Wangfujing. Copper-pot Beijing hotpot — paper-thin lamb, plain broth, sesame dipping sauce. The house has been at it since 1903.
Morning
Summer Palace
The Qing court's lakeside retreat in the northwest suburbs. Follow the painted Long Corridor along Kunming Lake to Cixi's marble boat.
Afternoon / Day
G-train: Beijing West → Xi'an North
About 4 hr 30 min for 1,200 km, most of it across the North China Plain. Book an afternoon departure — the Summer Palace is an hour from Beijing West — and bring your passport, it is your ticket.
Evening
Check in: Sofitel Legend Xi'an
319 Dongxin Street, inside the Ming city walls. Opened as a 1953 state guesthouse; the Bell Tower is a short walk southwest.
Muslim Quarter food street
Beiyuanmen, the Hui neighbourhood behind the Drum Tower. Roujiamo, hand-ripped biang biang noodles, lamb skewers, persimmon cakes.
Bell Tower & Drum Tower lit up
The two Ming towers face each other across the old centre and are floodlit after dark. Ten minutes on foot from the Muslim Quarter.
Morning
Out to Lintong District
Tourist bus 5 (route 306) leaves from the east square of Xi'an Railway Station and takes about an hour to the site.
Terracotta Army
Around 8,000 life-sized soldiers buried to guard the first emperor, found by well-diggers in 1974. Entry needs a real-name reservation made in advance with your passport; once inside, see Pit 1 last — the other two set up the scale.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch in Lintong
Local kitchens near the museum gate do Shaanxi staples — cold liangpi noodles, stewed pork buns, sour soup dumplings.
Huaqing Palace & Mount Li
Imperial hot springs at the foot of Mount Li, a few minutes from the warriors. Tang emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei bathed here.
Evening
Yangrou paomo dinner
Back inside the walls. You crumble the flatbread into the bowl yourself before the mutton broth goes in — the crumbs should be pea-sized.
Morning
Cycle the Ming city wall
Fourteen kilometres of intact 14th-century rampart, wide enough to ride four abreast. Rent at the South Gate; a full circuit takes under two hours.
Afternoon / Day
Dumpling banquet at Defachang
On Bell Tower Square. Dozens of steamed dumplings shaped as the thing they are filled with, finished with a tiny hotpot.
Shaanxi History Museum
The best single account of dynastic China anywhere — Zhou bronzes through Tang gold, from the region that held the capital for thirteen dynasties. Admission is free but needs a real-name reservation with your passport, and the daily allocation goes fast.
Big Wild Goose Pagoda
Built in 652 to house the sutras Xuanzang carried back from India, and still the anchor of the Da Ci'en temple complex. A short walk from the museum.
Evening
Dinner on Datang Everbright City
The Tang-styled pedestrian boulevard running south from the pagoda, lit and busy after dark, with street performers and Shaanxi restaurants along it.
Morning
Great Mosque of Xi'an
Hidden in the lanes off Beiyuanmen and built as a Chinese temple — courtyards, a pagoda minaret, calligraphy instead of figurative art. Founded in the Tang.
Afternoon / Day
G-train: Xi'an North → Chengdu East
About 4 hours, tunnelling straight through the Qinling range that separates the north from Sichuan. Sit on the right for the mountain stretch.
Evening
Check in: The Temple House
81 Bitieshi Street, built around a restored Qing courtyard beside Daci Temple in Jinjiang District.
Taikoo Li after dark
The low grey roofs of Taikoo Li wrap around the walled compound of Daci Temple, the monastery where Xuanzang was ordained — it keeps daylight monastery hours, so you are walking the lit lanes around it. Ten minutes on foot from the hotel.
Sichuan hotpot
The mandarin-duck pot gives you a mild broth alongside the chilli-and-peppercorn one. Ask for weila if you want the numbing heat dialled down.
Morning
Chengdu Panda Base
A breeding and research centre in bamboo parkland north of the city. The pandas are active early and asleep by midday, so come early — entry is by real-name advance reservation with your passport.
Afternoon / Day
Mapo tofu for lunch
The dish was invented in Chengdu in the 1860s. Silken tofu, minced beef, fermented broad bean paste and enough Sichuan pepper to buzz.
Wuhou Shrine
A memorial to Zhuge Liang and the Shu Han kingdom, set in red-walled gardens. The Three Kingdoms story is Chinese cultural bedrock.
Jinli Ancient Street
A reconstructed Qing lane running off the shrine's east wall. Touristy, but the snack stalls are a fair survey of Sichuan street food.
Evening
Sichuan opera at Shufeng Yayun
A variety night in the old teahouse theatre — hand shadows, fire-breathing, and bianlian, the mask-changing act nobody has satisfactorily explained.
Morning
Heming Teahouse, People's Park
Bamboo chairs by the lake, covered cups of jasmine, endless refills, and the roaming ear-cleaners. The most Chengdu thing there is.
Kuanzhai Alley
Three parallel Qing lanes — Wide, Narrow and Well — restored into courtyard teahouses and shops. A ten-minute walk north of the park.
Afternoon / Day
Fly Chengdu → Shanghai Hongqiao
About 2 hr 45 min in the air; the rail alternative runs 11 hours and eats a day, which is why this leg flies. Shuangliu (CTU) is the closer Chengdu airport, and you land at Hongqiao — you will depart from Pudong, across the city, so factor that into the last day.
Evening
Check in: Fairmont Peace Hotel
20 Nanjing Road East, the 1929 Art Deco Sassoon House on the Bund. The jazz bar downstairs has been running since the 1980s.
The Bund after dark
Step out of the lobby onto the waterfront promenade — colonial banks and customs houses behind you, the Pudong skyline lit across the river.
Morning
Yu Garden
A Ming scholar-official's private garden from the 1550s — rockeries, dragon walls and the Exquisite Jade Rock. Small, dense, and best early.
Afternoon / Day
Nanxiang steamed buns
In the bazaar beside the garden gate. The crab-roe xiaolongbao are the reason for the queue; take the upstairs dining room to skip it.
Evening
Huangpu River ferry
The public commuter ferry crosses to Pudong for a few yuan and gives you the same view as the cruise boats, minus the soundtrack.
French Concession & Farewell
Morning
Wukang Road & the old Concession
Plane-tree streets and 1920s villas in Xuhui, anchored by the wedge-shaped Wukang Mansion. The quietest walking in the city.
Tianzifang lanes
A shikumen block off Taikang Road turned over to small studios — paper cuts, seal carving, tea and ceramics. Good for the last souvenirs.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch at Xintiandi
The same stone-gate housing type as Tianzifang, rebuilt as a restaurant quarter. Sit outside in the lane courtyards.
Jing'an Temple
A gilded Buddhist temple marooned among the towers of Nanjing West Road — on this site since 1216 and still the odd, quiet centre of the district.
Shanghai Museum East
The Pudong building on Century Avenue, where the bronze galleries now live — a summary of everything you have just walked through upcountry. It sits on the Line 2 corridor, so it is on the way out to Pudong airport.
Evening
Departure from Shanghai Pudong
The maglev from Longyang Road covers the airport run in about eight minutes; Metro Line 2 is slower but goes door to door.
