Guides
Discover Beijing, Shanghai & Xi’an: Your China Guide
At a glance
- Route: Beijing (4 nights, one is a Great Wall day) → high-speed rail to Xi'an (2 nights) → flight or rail to Shanghai (3 nights). Ten days on the ground, plus arrival and departure days.
- US State Department advisory for mainland China: Level 2, "Exercise Increased Caution," issued September 4, 2026 . Re-read it the week you leave.
- The same page says you generally must obtain a visa before arriving; visa-free entry applies only in very limited circumstances. A separate transit-exemption concept (often described as 144 or 240 hours) exists, but you must confirm current rules before booking.
- Passport: valid at least 6 months beyond arrival, with at least 2 blank pages (State Dept page, same stamp).
- Must book ahead: Palace Museum (Forbidden City) tickets are real-name and sell out; Terracotta Army and high-speed rail are real-name too.
- Pay with a mobile wallet linked to a foreign card, and carry a backup: a second card and some cash.
- Carry your passport at all times; hotels register you with police within 24 hours.
- The one thing most first-timers get wrong: arriving without payment apps working. Set them up at home, on Wi-Fi, before you fly.
When to go
April–May and September–October are commonly recommended: comfortable temperatures and less haze than winter. Summer is hot and humid in Shanghai and Xi'an and crowded everywhere. Chinese holiday weeks (Golden Week around October 1, Spring Festival, May 1) fill trains and sights; check the official holiday calendar of the State Council before choosing dates.
Where to stay by area
- Beijing: near the Forbidden City / Wangfujing for walking, or Sanlitun / Chaoyang for restaurants and subway lines. Hutong-area guesthouses are charming but check noise and bathrooms.
- Xi'an: inside or just beside the city wall (the Bell Tower area) so the Muslim Quarter and wall are walkable.
- Shanghai: the former French Concession for leafy lanes, or near People's Square / the Bund for subway convenience.
Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton and IHG all operate in China's big cities; confirm which hotel is in which area on each chain's own map, since this guide did not get a chain site to open.
Rough cost, three ways (fill your own numbers)
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Plan your budget
Your trip budget worksheet
Prices change daily, so we don’t quote them. Fill this in from the official fare pages.
Your trip budget worksheet Item Your amount Cash: flights hotels (10 nights × ) + rail food and sights Item 5 -
Plan your budget
Your trip budget worksheet
Prices change daily, so we don’t quote them. Fill this in from the official fare pages.
Your trip budget worksheet Item Your amount Points: award flights points taxes; hotel nights on points the rest paid cash - Mixed: points for the long-haul flight, cash for hotels and trains. Use the rail and sight pages named in the full guide to fill the cash lines.
Entry rules
The State Department's China page says you need a valid passport and generally a visa before arrival, with limited visa-free exceptions; most US citizens may apply for a 10-year multiple-entry tourist visa. Your visa's biographic data must match your passport exactly. Confirm the current policy on the Chinese Embassy's visa page before booking; rules changed several times in 2024–2026. If you plan to rely on any transit exemption (often described as 144 or 240 hours, with listed cities, a required onward ticket to a third country and designated ports), confirm current rules and eligibility before you buy tickets.
Three free things
- Walk the Temple of Heaven park at dawn. The public park outside the paid halls fills with locals exercising, music and card games; entry to the park itself has typically been very cheap, so check the current price. Photo: the long approach and the Hall of Prayer's blue roof.
- Stroll the Bund promenade in Shanghai at dusk. The riverside walkway is free; the Lujiazui skyline lights up across the river.
- Climb onto the quiet stretches of hutong lanes around Beijing's Drum and Bell Tower area on foot; the lanes themselves cost nothing and show daily life.
(Also commonly free to walk: the Xi'an Bell Tower square and the Muslim Quarter's streets, where you pay only for what you eat.)
Payments and phone in one paragraph
Mobile wallets (Alipay and WeChat Pay) run daily life in Chinese cities, and both have worked on ways for visitors to link foreign cards; the details have changed several times, so check each app's current visitor instructions before you fly. Set the app up at home on reliable Wi-Fi, because verification steps can be awkward once you land. Carry two physical cards and a modest cash float as backup. For internet, what is commonly reported is that some foreign sites, apps and messaging services can be slow or unavailable on local networks. Decide which of your tools matter (maps, email, banking, messaging), check your mobile carrier's roaming or eSIM options, and download offline maps and a translation pack before departure. Follow local law and your provider's terms.
The ten days in one glance
Beijing: Forbidden City and Jingshan, Mutianyu Great Wall, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace, hutongs and Lama Temple. Xi'an: morning bullet train, city wall, Muslim Quarter, then Terracotta Army. Shanghai: People's Square, Yu Garden, the Bund and Lujiazui, French Concession. Pace yourself: three of the four Beijing days are heavy walking days, so the hutong day is deliberately light. If your visa or transit rule only allows part of the route, drop Xi'an last; the Beijing-to-Shanghai pairing still works with a direct bullet train or flight.
Safety in two lines
The State Department rates mainland China Level 2 (Exercise Increased Caution) and warns about arbitrary enforcement of local laws and exit bans. Carry your passport, register at your hotel, and enroll in the State Department's STEP program.
What's not worth it: Forcing a fourth city into ten days. Chengdu or Guilin tempts first-timers, but two bullet-train days lost to transit rarely beat a slower pass through these three.
This is the free lite guide. The full day-by-day guide, with maps, photo stops, rain plans and the points playbook, is part of PerkJolt All-Access.
Good to know before you go
China's entry rules were revised several times between 2024 and 2026, and payment apps, ticketing systems and sight rules move even faster. Everything below is a planning frame, not a promise. Before you book, confirm the entry rule and the advisory on the official pages named in each section.