Ni hao. Works with anyone.
Essentials- Capital
- Beijing
- Currency
- Yuan (¥)
- Language
- Mandarin
- Best months
- Apr – May, Sep – Oct
- Visa
- Visa-free for many
- Daily budget
- $60 mid-range
China is the trip that most rewards preparation and most punishes turning up unprepared. Two things will define your experience more than anything in a guidebook: whether you have set up mobile payments before arriving, and whether you have a VPN running. Cash is nearly extinct in the cities, foreign cards are refused almost everywhere, and the apps you rely on for maps, messaging and search are blocked.
Get those right and the country is astonishing to travel in. The high-speed rail network is the best in the world — Beijing to Shanghai is four and a half hours, city centre to city centre, for around $80. And the food is not one cuisine but eight, which differ from each other more than French does from Italian. Sichuan numbs, Cantonese steams, Hunan burns, Shandong is wheat and vinegar, Jiangsu is delicate and sweet.
Two weeks gets you three regions properly. Do not try for more.
When to go
Jan: Mixed time to visit
Feb: Mixed time to visit
Mar: Good time to visit
Apr: Best time to visit
May: Best time to visit
Jun: Good time to visit
Jul: Mixed time to visit
Aug: Mixed time to visit
Sep: Best time to visit
Oct: Best time to visit
Nov: Good time to visit
Dec: Mixed time to visit
Best Good Mixed Avoid
April to May and September to October are the two windows: mild, dry and clear. Avoid the first week of May and the first week of October — the national holidays put hundreds of millions of people on the move and every train and hotel is booked. Northern winters are severely cold and dry; Beijing sits below freezing for weeks. July and August are hot, humid and the wettest in the south.
What it costs
| Item | Rate | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel room, private, 3-star | $42 / night | $588 |
| Food and drink | $16 / day | $224 |
| High-speed rail, 3 long legs | — | $205 |
| Metro and city transport | $3 / day | $42 |
| Great Wall, palaces, pandas, entry | — | $140 |
| eSIM, VPN, sundries | — | $45 |
| Fourteen days | $1,244 |
Rail is the line most people underestimate — three long legs is $205, though it buys back three days you would otherwise lose. Food is remarkably cheap for the quality: a bowl of hand-pulled noodles is ¥15, a full Sichuan meal for two with beer is ¥120. Entry tickets add up faster than in most of Asia, and the popular sites now require advance online booking with a passport number.
What to eat
Mapo tofu
¥25–45
Sichuan. Silken tofu in fermented bean paste with minced pork and enough Sichuan pepper to make your lips buzz. The numbing is the point, not a mistake.
Xiao long bao
¥25–60
Shanghai soup dumplings. Bite a small hole, drink the broth, then eat. Doing it wrong is how you burn your mouth.
Peking duck
¥180–400
Beijing. Carved at the table, with pancakes, scallion and sweet bean sauce. Worth the price once at a proper duck house.
Lanzhou beef noodles
¥15–25
Hand-pulled wheat noodles in clear beef broth with chilli oil and coriander. Available in every city and the best cheap meal in China.
Dim sum
¥60–150
Cantonese, and eaten at breakfast rather than brunch. Har gow, siu mai, char siu bao, chicken feet if you are game.
Jianbing
¥6–12
The great Chinese street breakfast: a thin crepe with egg, crispy cracker, pickles and chilli sauce, folded on a griddle in ninety seconds.
Where to base yourself
| Place | Notes | Nights |
|---|---|---|
| Beijing | Stay in a hutong courtyard inside the second ring road. The Wall, the Forbidden City and the best duck. | 4–5 nights |
| Shanghai | Base in the former French Concession, not near the Bund. Best food city of the three and the easiest to walk. | 3 nights |
| Chengdu | Sichuan food, teahouses, pandas, and the most relaxed big city in China. | 3–4 nights |
| Xi’an or Guilin | Xi’an for the Terracotta Army and Muslim Quarter food; Guilin and Yangshuo for the karst landscape. Pick one. | 2–3 nights |
A route that works
Beijing: arrive, set up, hutongs
Get the SIM and payment apps working before anything else. Then walk the hutongs around Nanluoguxiang and eat jianbing.
Beijing: Forbidden City and Jingshan
Book ahead with your passport. Climb Jingshan afterwards for the view back over the roofs.
Beijing: Great Wall
Mutianyu or Jinshanling, not Badaling. Leave at 7am. A full day and the reason many people come.
Beijing: temples and duck
Temple of Heaven in the morning, Lama Temple after, then a proper duck dinner in the evening.
Rail to Shanghai
Four and a half hours at 350km/h. Second class is comfortable. Watch the country change through the window.
Shanghai: concession and the Bund
Walk the former French Concession in the morning, the Bund at dusk when the Pudong towers light up.
Shanghai: markets and dumplings
A morning wet market, then soup dumplings for lunch and a Jiangsu dinner.
Day trip: Suzhou or Zhujiajiao
Thirty minutes by rail to classical gardens and canals. Better than a third day in the city.
Rail west to Chengdu
A long haul — consider the overnight sleeper or a cheap flight. The food changes completely on arrival.
Chengdu: pandas early, tea late
Research base at opening when the pandas are active, then a Renmin Park teahouse in the afternoon.
Chengdu: hotpot and the old streets
Sichuan hotpot is a two-hour commitment and a rite of passage. Order the mild broth on one side.
Chengdu: Leshan or Qingcheng
The giant Buddha at Leshan, or Mount Qingcheng for Taoist temples in the mist.
Chengdu: cooking class and market
Learn what actually goes into mapo tofu. It is mostly two ingredients you have never bought.
Fly out
Chengdu has good international connections, or rail back if you are continuing.
Practical notes
| Visa | China has expanded visa-free entry substantially — many nationalities now enter for 30 days without a visa, and 24-hour to 240-hour visa-free transit applies at most major airports. The list changes frequently, so verify your own passport against the current official policy before booking anything. | |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile payments | Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with your foreign card before you fly. Both now accept international cards. Without one you will struggle to buy a metro ticket, pay a taxi or order in many restaurants — cash is refused more often than accepted in the big cities. | |
| VPN | Google, WhatsApp, Instagram and most Western news sites are blocked. Install and test a VPN before arrival; you cannot download one once you are there. Alternatively use Baidu Maps and Amap, which work well and need no VPN. | |
| Rail | Book through Trip.com or the official 12306 system with your passport number. Second class is fine. Arrive 30 minutes early — stations are airport-sized with security screening. | |
| SIM | An eSIM bought before travel is the simplest route and often routes around the firewall. Local China Mobile SIMs are cheap but require registration and do not bypass blocks. | |
| Bookings | Major sites — the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army, the panda base — require advance online reservation with passport details, often days ahead. Turning up is no longer an option. | |
| Water | Do not drink the tap. Hot water dispensers are everywhere, in hotels and on every train; a flask is standard practice. | |
| Language | English is far less common than in South-East Asia, including in cities. A translation app with an offline Mandarin pack and camera-based menu translation is genuinely essential rather than a convenience. | |
Where your time is better spent
Take the Great Wall at Mutianyu or Jinshanling instead of Badaling — the restored, crowded, coach-served section is the one to leave alone. In Shanghai, the observation decks charge for a view of a skyline that looks better from the Bund at street level, for nothing.
For tea, sit down in a Renmin Park teahouse in Chengdu rather than accepting an invitation to a tea ceremony from someone who approaches you near a tourist site — that particular script ends in a large bill. And give your three regions their full time rather than adding a fourth: seven cities in fourteen days means you have seen seven railway stations.
Before you book
Visa rules, fees and prices in this guide were checked in September 2026 and they move. Confirm entry requirements with your own foreign ministry and current fees with the relevant authority before committing money.
All-you-can-eat hotpot in Yangzhou
Chicken feet, chicken head and a bubbling pot I did not want to leave. A full sit-down hotpot meal in Yangzhou, filmed start to finish.
Say It Yourself
Back to the route
Twelve phrases in Mandarin
Mandarin has four tones plus a neutral one, and the tone marks in pinyin tell you which. Getting a tone wrong usually produces a real but different word, so speakers rely heavily on context — you will be understood more often than you expect. English is far less common than in South-East Asia, so these earn their keep here more than anywhere else on the site.
Xie xie. Say it often.
EssentialsSofter than dui bu qi and more natural.
EssentialsBu yao la. Essential in Sichuan and Hunan.
EatingHen hao chi. Say it to the cook.
EatingWo yao zhe ge. Point and say it.
EatingDuo shao qian. The key question.
MoneyOften no. Set up Alipay before you fly.
MoneyTai gui le. Markets only.
MoneyXi shou jian zai na li.
Getting aroundWo ting bu dong. Then show your phone.
Getting aroundShow the address on your screen as you say it.
Getting aroundThe 5 tones, drawn
First (ā)
high and level
Second (á)
rises
Third (ǎ)
dips then rises
Fourth (à)
falls sharply
Neutral (a)
short and light
One to ten, for price tags
1一yi
2二er
3三san
4四si
5五wu
6六liu
7七qi
8八ba
9九jiu
10十shi
Chinese numerals appear on menus, market boards and receipts. Note the finger counting too — six to ten are single-hand gestures, and vendors use them constantly in noisy markets.
China Questions
The four I get asked most
Do you need a visa for China now?
Often not. Visa-free entry has been extended to many nationalities for 30 days, and lengthy visa-free transit is available at major airports. The policy has changed repeatedly, so check the current official rules for your passport rather than trusting any guide, including this one.
Can you travel China without mobile payments?
Technically yes, practically no. Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with your own card before you fly — both accept foreign cards now. Cash is increasingly refused, and without an app you will lose time on every transaction.
How good is the high-speed rail?
The best in the world. Beijing to Shanghai is 1,300km in four and a half hours for about $80, city centre to city centre. It beats flying on every measure once you count airport transfers.
Which region should a first-timer eat in?
Chengdu for Sichuan if you like heat, Guangzhou for Cantonese if you do not. Both are complete food destinations on their own. Beijing and Shanghai have everything but the regional capitals have the reference versions.
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