All routes
Each route is a complete plan: the sequence of days, the transport between them, the hotels with benefits attached, and the practical details that decide whether a day works.
North, South & East China
11days
The most complete first trip to China that still fits in two weeks. Two northern imperial cities, two days in the karst country, and the finale in Shanghai — sequenced so the pace never breaks and no leg is wasted on transit.
From US$1,890per person
North & East China
8days
The single most requested China route, and the right first multi-city trip. Three cities, two high-speed rail journeys, and the three sights that decide whether a first visit lands: the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army and the Bund.
From US$1,550per person
Northwest China
6days
The route the caravans actually took, now run on scheduled trains. Six days covers Xi’an, the Gansu corridor and the Mogao caves, with an overnight in Dunhuang that gets you into the desert at dawn rather than at midday with everyone else.
From US$2,150per person
South China
5days
Fujian packs three different Chinas into one province: the Hakka earth buildings inland, the Arab-and-Indian trading port on the coast, and the colonial island of Xiamen. Five days, one high-speed line, no backtracking.
From US$1,300per person
South China
6days
The Guangxi everyone photographs, in the right order: a city night in Guilin, a dawn above the Longji terraces while the day-trippers are still on the motorway, then the Li River cruise downstream to the karst towers of Yangshuo. Six days with no wasted transfer and one sunrise that justifies the early alarm twice over.
From US$1,450per person
South China
4days
The Bay Area has a slow version, and it runs through Zhuhai: the Lovers’ Road waterfront under palm lines, the scallop shells of the grand theatre on its reef, and a ferry out to Dong’ao Island — the quietest of the Pearl River islands, where the Alila sits above its own beach cove. The loop ends with a border walk into Macau for the Senado squares and the old-town lanes, and a night at the Palace before flying out of Cotai. It is the coastal week that Hong Kong cannot give you, thirty minutes away from Hong Kong.
From US$1,400per person
South China
5days
The most efficient first trip into China from Hong Kong or Southeast Asia. Two mainland cities with genuinely different characters, one hour apart on the high-speed rail, finished with a half-day in Macau across the border.
From US$1,400per person
Hainan & South China
5days
China has a genuine tropical coast, and Sanya is where it gets serious. Five days combines two of the best beach resorts with the inland rainforest and hot springs, which is what makes it more than a beach week.
From US$1,500per person
South China
5days
A coastal route that works because the two ends are so different. Xiamen is soft, subtropical and slow; Hong Kong is hard, vertical and fast. Five days with a good flight between them is exactly right.
From US$1,350per person
South China
4days
Two cities on either side of one river, with a border crossing that takes eleven minutes. Four days lets you use Shenzhen as a base for a Hong Kong visit, which flips the usual order and cuts the cost considerably.
From US$1,100per person
East China
7days
The three cities that make a first trip to eastern China, plus the thing most itineraries skip: a night in a water town, after the day coaches have gone. Seven days is enough for both if you plan the transfer days properly.
From US$2,100per person
East China
4days
The most painted mountain in China and the two villages at its foot, compressed into four unhurried days: one night in Tunxi, one night on the summit for the sunrise, and the Huizhou courtyards in between.
From US$1,100per person
East China
5days
Nanjing is the imperial capital that most first trips skip: the Mausoleum avenue under plane trees, a Ming emperor’s tomb in the purple hills, a Ming city wall you can walk, and a museum quarter the size of a small town. Five days runs Nanjing at three nights — the right count for the wall, the tomb and the Confucian quarter without rushing — then puts you on the 80-minute high-speed train to Shanghai for the Bund and the French Concession lanes.
From US$1,450per person
East China
7days
The three cities that first-time visitors to China should see, in the right order, with the trains between them already worked out. This is the route we run most often, and the one we recommend for a first trip if the traveller has a week.
From US$2,100per person
East China
4days
A deliberately unhurried route through the classical China that most itineraries speed past. Four days, two of them in Suzhou, one in a water town and one in Hangzhou for the lake.
From US$1,100per person
Southwest China
9days
The full Yunnan traverse, done in the right direction: fly into Kunming, climb slowly through the Erhai lakeside and the Naxi old town, and finish on the Tibetan plateau at Shangri-La. Nine days, three cultures, one altitude curve that actually works.
From US$2,450per person
Southwest China
5days
Two full days inside the sandstone range that borrowed its silhouette to cinema, the cliff arch above the city, and a night in the stilt-house river town four hours west. Five days, no wasted transit.
From US$1,100per person
Southwest China
8days
The plateau done at the right pace: two slow days in Lhasa while the altitude settles, the Friendship Highway through Gyantse and Shigatse, and a night in the tent camp under the north face of Everest. Eight days, one permit, one horizon.
From US$2,800per person
Southwest & Western China
6days
Guizhou is what Yunnan looked like twenty years ago: waterfalls without barriers, karst rivers that run green over stone, and Miao villages where the silver is still made by hand. Six days does the three highlights without a wasted transfer.
From US$1,600per person
Southwest & Western China
5days
The Three Gorges is the one journey in China where the transport is the destination. Four days downstream from Chongqing, with the gorges in the mornings, small-group shore excursions, and a night in Chongqing at either end.
From US$1,550per person
Southwest China
5days
The two UNESCO sights of southern Sichuan in one clean week: the Tang-dynasty Buddha cut into the river cliff at Leshan, and the Golden Summit of Emei Shan floating above its sea of clouds. The pacing is deliberately gentle — summit by cable car, soak in hot springs at night, and Chengdu’s pandas on the way home.
From US$1,190per person
Southwest China
4days
Guilin takes the postcards; the Guangxi border country takes the quiet. This 4-day loop runs south from Nanning to Detian, where the Qui Chun River drops over a horseshoe cliff on the Vietnam line — Asia’s largest transnational waterfall — then folds back through the Mingshi valley, where karst peaks rise straight out of rice fields and bamboo rafts drift between them. It is the closest thing we run to a Southeast Asian river landscape without leaving China.
From US$980per person
Southwest China
4days
The most photogenic short route in China, and the one that works hardest for it. Four days is enough if you are willing to start early every morning — the karst landscape is at its best in the first two hours of daylight and in the mist after rain.
From US$1,050per person
Southwest China
6days
Two very different experiences that work better together than separately. Chengdu is a relaxed, edible, tea-drinking city. Jiuzhaigou is a day’s drive away and utterly unlike anywhere else in China. Six days lets you do both without rushing either.
From US$1,880per person
Western China
4days
One of the great river journeys in the world, taken at the pace of a river cruise. Chongqing is the city to arrive in, and the Three Gorges are the reason to leave it.
From US$1,150per person
North China
4days
Four days in China's coldest big city, built around the hours when Harbin is actually itself: the ice city at full darkness, the frozen river at noon, and the Russian avenue under the lamps. Cold is the attraction, and it is handled.
From US$1,250per person
North China
5days
The China that survived: a complete walled town where the first banks ran the empire, 51,000 Buddhas carved into a cliff in the fifth century, and the monastery pinned to a cliff face. Five days of the deepest history in the country, all by high-speed rail.
From US$1,350per person
North China
8days
Xinjiang is a province the size of Western Europe with a Silk Road history to match. This route takes the southern arc: the museum and the bazaar in Urumqi, the desert oasis cities of Turpan, then the old trading city of Kashgar and the mountains that start at its edge.
From US$2,750per person
North China
5days
Hulunbuir is the largest stretch of unbroken grassland in China, running east from Hailar to the Russian border. Five days of driving, herder lunches, river bends at sunrise, and one very strange border town.
From US$1,400per person
Northwest China
6days
Qinghai is the part of the plateau you can do in a week: a 2,275-metre gateway city, China’s largest lake ringed by grassland, and a salt flat that mirrors the sky. Six days runs the loop at altitude-safe pace — two nights in Xining around the drive, sunrise on the west shore, and Kumbum as the cultural anchor.
From US$1,590per person
Northeast China
5days
China’s snow mountain that the international market has not found yet: a volcanic crater lake on the Korean border, forests glazed in rime ice, hot springs steaming at −20°C, and a resort where the ski runs end at the hotel door. Five days, planned around the two realities of winter here — early starts and real cold-weather gear.
From US$1,450per person
North China
5days
Beijing in the cold months is a different city: empty palace courtyards, clear air over the mountains and the kind of light you do not get in autumn. This route is built around the openings and the cold, not in spite of them.
From US$1,450per person
Northwest China
4days
The western terminus of the Silk Road, and the shortest route in this collection with the most concentrated payoff. Four days is enough, but the fourth is the one you will still be thinking about.
From US$1,450per person
Choosing
The single most useful question when planning China is not "where" but "how many days are you actually moving for".
One region, one or two cities, one country-and-city pairing if you have Hong Kong or Macau on the itinerary. These routes work because nothing is wasted on transit.
Two regions and one long transfer. This is where the classic itineraries sit, and where the high-speed rail starts earning its place in the plan.
