Itinerary · 12 days · 50 places
12 Days in China
Twelve days from the Imperial Palace via the Great Wall at Mutianyu to the Terracotta Army and on into the neon canyons of Shanghai. High-speed train and plane link the three cities, leaving time in between for hutongs, teahouses and night-time alleys.
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Photo: Mike van Schoonderwalt · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival in Beijing — Qianmen and the old trading street
Arrival in Beijing
Hotel check-in
Base yourself south of Tiananmen in the Qianmen district, where grey courtyard houses, tea shops and Metro Line 2 sit close together.
Qianmen Street
The rebuilt merchants' street in front of Zhengyangmen Gate, where a historic tram runs between illuminated shopfronts in the evening.
Day 2Imperial city — Tiananmen, Palace Museum and the chain of lakes
Tiananmen Square
The 44-hectare square with the Mao Mausoleum, the Great Hall of the People and the gate with its portrait on the north side; entry only with a passport and advance registration.
Forbidden City
The imperial palace of the Ming and Qing, with the three great throne halls on the central axis and the treasuries in the eastern courtyard.
Jingshan Park
The man-made Coal Hill behind the palace; from the Wanchun Pavilion you can see the entire golden roofscape of the Forbidden City.
Beihai Park
An imperial lake garden with the White Dagoba on Jade Island and the glazed Nine-Dragon Wall in the northern section.
Evening: Houhai lakeshore
A lakeside path along the rear lake with willows, rickshaws and music bars; from Yinding Bridge the view reaches as far as the Drum Tower.
Day 3Great Wall at Mutianyu
Great Wall at Mutianyu
The restored section of wall with 22 watchtowers above wooded ridges; up by cable car or chairlift, down by toboggan run.
Mutianyu Village
The farming village at the foot of the wall, with chestnut groves, fruit stalls and converted courtyard houses along the access road.
Hongluo Temple
A Buddhist monastery on Hongluo Mountain with ginkgo trees more than a thousand years old and a bamboo grove that grows here north of its usual range.
Evening: Wangfujing shopping street
An illuminated pedestrian street east of the Forbidden City with department stores, a large bookshop and the covered snack street.
Day 4Temple of Heaven and the northern hutongs
Temple of Heaven
The round Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests on a triple marble terrace, surrounded by a cypress park where people practise tai chi and play cards in the morning.
Hongqiao Pearl Market
A four-storey market opposite the east gate of the Temple of Heaven selling freshwater pearls, tea and electronics — haggling is the rule here.
Nanluoguxiang Hutong
An 800-metre lane from the Yuan era with sixteen side alleys, old courtyard gates and small workshops off the main axis.
Drum Tower and Bell Tower
The old city's pair of timekeepers: up in the Drum Tower, replicas of the 24 drums are played several times a day.
Evening: Gulou East Street
A stretch of street behind the Drum Tower with record shops, craft-beer bars and noodle kitchens that keep working until midnight.
Day 5Summer Palace and the Haidian university district
Summer Palace
The imperial summer residence on Kunming Lake, with the 728-metre painted Long Corridor and the Marble Boat on the western shore.
Yuanmingyuan – Old Summer Palace
The garden palace destroyed in 1860, of which only the toppled baroque columns of the western section still stand in the park.
Peking University – Weiming Lake
The Peking University campus around the "Nameless Lake", with the Boya Pagoda disguised as a water tower; entry with a passport and advance registration.
Evening: Wudaokou
A student district between the universities with Korean barbecue restaurants, bookshops and tearooms that only really wakes up after eight.
Day 6By high-speed train to Xi'an — city wall and Muslim Quarter
Onward to Xi'an
Hotel check-in
Xi'an City Wall – South Gate
The fully preserved Ming city wall, a 13.7-kilometre rectangle; at Yongning Gate you can hire bikes for a lap along the top.
Xi'an Bell Tower
The wooden tower from 1384 at the crossing of the two main axes; a replica of the Jingyun Bell hangs on the upper floor.
Muslim Quarter – Beiyuanmen
The lanes of the Hui community north of the Drum Tower, with walnut-bread bakers, lamb skewers and persimmon cakes.
Evening: Drum Tower Square
The illuminated square between the Bell and Drum Towers, an evening meeting place for music and street calligraphy.
Day 7Terracotta Army and Mount Li
Terracotta Army
The three excavation pits near Lintong, with thousands of life-size warriors in battle formation and the bronze chariots in the exhibition hall.
Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang
The wooded, 76-metre earthen mound above the still-unopened burial chamber of the first emperor, one and a half kilometres west of the pits.
Huaqing Palace
The hot springs at the foot of Mount Li, with the reconstructed Tang bathing pools and the site of the 1936 Xi'an Incident.
Mount Li
Take the cable car up to the Fengbo Terrace and the beacon towers, with views across the entire Lintong plain.
Evening: Datang Everbright City
The pedestrian axis in front of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, lit up in the evening, with bronze statues, street stages and a fountain show.
Day 8Tang Xi'an — museums, pagodas and food streets
Shaanxi History Museum
An overview of 3,000 years of central China: Zhou bronzes, Tang tomb figures and the murals from princely tombs in a special gallery.
Big Wild Goose Pagoda
The 64-metre brick tower from 652, where the monk Xuanzang had the sutras he brought back from India translated.
Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Xi'an Museum
The slender pagoda, shortened by two storeys in earthquakes, in a quiet park, next to the city museum with its model of the Tang capital.
Yongxingfang – food street
A recreated Tang quarter by the eastern city wall, where every region of Shaanxi is represented with its own stall.
Evening: South Gate wall illuminations
The floodlit section of wall at Yongning Gate in the evening, with its moat, drawbridge and the red lanterns of the gate bastion.
Day 9On to Shanghai — the Bund on the first evening
Onward to Shanghai
Hotel check-in
The Bund – riverside promenade
The raised promenade along the Huangpu, with the unbroken row of colonial buildings behind you and the towers of Pudong opposite.
Nanjing Road East
The pedestrian axis from the Bund to People's Square, with old department stores, neon signs and the little sightseeing train.
People's Park
A green space on the former racecourse with a lotus pond, concrete art at MoCA and the Sunday marriage market.
Evening: Waibaidu Bridge and Suzhou Creek
The riveted steel bridge from 1907 at the northern end of the Bund, lit blue in the evening, with a view of Broadway Mansions.
Day 10Old town and Pudong — Yu Garden and skyscrapers
Yu Garden
A Ming-era scholar's garden with dragon walls, the Exquisite Jade Rock and the zigzag bridge across the pond in front of the Huxinting Teahouse.
Yuyuan Old Town Bazaar
The maze of lanes with curved roofs around the garden, selling paper cuts, seals and teapots.
Shanghai Tower – observation deck
The city's fastest lift whisks you 546 metres up to the 118th floor, from where the bend of the Huangpu and the old town lie before you at once.
Lujiazui Binjiang Riverside Promenade
The riverside path beneath the three supertowers, with a view back across to the old signal tower and the colonial front of the Bund.
Evening: Xintiandi
Converted shikumen stone-gate houses with courtyards, terraces and bars; the house of the first Communist Party congress stands within the block.
Day 11French Concession — plane trees, villas and Jing'an
Tianzifang
A block of lanes in the former French Concession where artisans' courtyards have become studios, coffee roasters and tiny shops.
Fuxing Park
Laid out in French style in 1909, the park has a circular rose garden where dance groups, card games and tai chi go on side by side in the morning.
Wukang Road and Wukang Mansion
László Hudec's ship's-bow-shaped brick building at the fork, with the plane-shaded villa street and its memorial plaques in front.
Jing'an Temple
The gold-roofed temple complex between office towers, with the Jade Buddha in the main courtyard and the silver incense burner in the inner courtyard.
Propaganda Poster Art Centre
A private collection in the basement of an apartment block on Huashan Road, with over a thousand posters from 1949 to the 1980s.
Evening: Anfu Road
A short street with wine bars, a bookshop and bakeries, where half of Shanghai sits on the kerb in the evening.
Day 12Jade Buddha, M50 and departure
Jade Buddha Temple
An active Chan monastery with two jade figures brought from Burma, the seated Buddha on the upper floor and a vegetarian monastery kitchen.
M50 Art District, Moganshan Road
A former textile mill on Suzhou Creek, now home to around forty galleries and studios behind a wall covered end to end in graffiti.
Departure from Shanghai
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