First-trip itineraries, with the payment situation noted
Most China itineraries assume every payment just works. These three are built around the constraint that actually shapes a trip: where your card clears, and where you need cash in your pocket.
- 7 days — Beijing & Shanghai
- 10 days — add Xi'an
- 14 days — add Chengdu or Guilin
Last updated: 5 September 2026
Three itineraries for a first trip, built around the constraint that actually shapes them: how much of China you can see without spending your evenings fixing payment problems. Every leg below notes what the money situation is like, because that is the part generic itineraries leave out and the part that decides whether a day goes smoothly.
Each itinerary assumes you arrive in and depart from the same city, that you have one working payment app, and that you are carrying a few hundred yuan in cash as backup. Days are full but not frantic. Swap cities freely — the structure matters more than the names.
7 days · Beijing and Shanghai
The classic first trip and still the right one. Two cities that could not be more different, linked by a four-and-a-half-hour train, with enough in each to fill three days without rushing.
| Day | Where | Payment situation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrive Beijing, easy afternoon near the hotel | Hotel deposit check Have a second card ready |
| 2 | Forbidden City, Tiananmen, hutongs | Fine Book tickets online, pay at gate |
| 3 | Great Wall (Mutianyu), evening train or rest | Cash backup Small vendors at the base |
| 4 | Train to Shanghai, the Bund at night | Fine Book the train in an app, not at the station |
| 5 | Yu Garden, Old City, French Concession | Cash for street food Individual codes dominate |
| 6 | Museums, shopping, a day trip to Suzhou or Hangzhou | Fine Trains and shops all business codes |
| 7 | Departure, tax refund if you bought anything large | See cash & refunds |
Why it works: two bases, one internal train, no airports after you land. The trade-off: you see China's two biggest cities and almost none of its middle.
10 days · Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai
Adds the one city that changes what people think China is. Xi'an is where the Terracotta Army is, but it is also the easiest place in the country to eat well for very little money — and almost all of that eating happens at individual-code stalls.
| Day | Where | Payment situation |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Beijing as above | Fine Same as the 7-day plan |
| 4 | Train to Xi'an, city walls by bike | Fine Wall ticket is a business code |
| 5 | Terracotta Army, return for the Muslim Quarter | Cash essential The food streets are all individual codes |
| 6 | Shaanxi History Museum, fly or train to Shanghai | Book ahead Museum reservations fill up |
| 7–9 | Shanghai, with a Suzhou or Hangzhou day | Fine Same as the 7-day plan |
| 10 | Departure | Refunds Allow time at the airport |
Why it works: the single best ratio of variety to travel time for a first visit. The trade-off: Xi'an is the leg where your wallet will fail you most, so it is also the leg where cash matters most.
14 days · Add Chengdu or Guilin
With two weeks you can leave the Beijing–Shanghai corridor, and you should. Two options, and they are genuinely different trips:
Chengdu — food, pandas, pace
Slower, warmer, and the best food city in the country. Panda base, teahouses, and hotpot. Three days is right. Payment is the same pattern as everywhere: restaurants fine, street food cash.
Guilin and Yangshuo — landscape
The karst scenery on the back of the twenty-yuan note. Li River cruise, cycling, and the countryside China that first-time visitors do not expect. More rural, so more cash — assume individual codes and limited banking outside Guilin city.
Either way, keep Beijing and Shanghai at three or four days each and give the third place the remaining three or four. Resist adding a fourth: China punishes itineraries that treat it as a list.
What to book before you fly
- Trains between cities. Popular departures sell out — book in English. See the train guide.
- The Great Wall day. Mutianyu is the usual pick for a first trip and is bookable in English.
- Panda base or major museum slots. Reservation systems want real-name details a visitor often cannot supply at the gate.
- Accommodation for the first two nights. Arriving with a booked bed removes the one thing that goes worst when payment fails — hotels and airport transfers can both be arranged before you fly.
What not to do
- Do not try to see six cities in ten days. You will see train stations.
- Do not book internal flights for short hops. Under five hours, trains win on door-to-door time.
- Do not plan your first morning tightly. Jet lag and hotel deposits both happen on day one.
- Do not rely on your card for street food anywhere. It is not a bug in your setup; it is how those stalls are paid.
Every itinerary above assumes your payment app actually works. Find out in ten seconds with a real ¥1 QR payment — and if you have a card we do not have data on yet, add your result so the next person knows.