How Many Days Do You Need in Each Chinese City?

The short version

Visit one city for every three to four days of your trip. That gives you time to see each place properly and absorbs the half day you lose every time you move.

If your plan has more stops than this, it is probably too rushed. The rest of this guide shows how many nights each city needs and what to cut.

How many nights each city needs

These are nights for a first visit, at a normal pace, with one big sight a day.

See our city pages for Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Chengdu, Zhangjiajie and Guilin, and our Chongqing travel guide.

Why Beijing needs the most time

• The Great Wall takes a whole day. The popular sections are one and a half to two hours from the center each way. See Great Wall tickets.
• The Forbidden City is closed on Mondays and must be booked in advance, so you need some flexibility. See Forbidden City tickets.
• Distances are long. Beijing is spread out, and security checks at Tiananmen Square add waiting time.

Cities people give too much time

• Shanghai. It is a great city to arrive in or leave from, but it has fewer historic sights than Beijing. More than four nights is only worth it if you add day trips or like slow city days.
• Xi’an. Two nights is right for most visitors. A third only makes sense for Mount Hua.

Cities people give too little time

• Chengdu. Visitors often plan one night for the pandas and then wish they had stayed longer. The food, teahouses and relaxed pace are the point.
• Zhangjiajie. One or two nights is not enough for a place that takes most of a day to reach and depends on the weather. See is Zhangjiajie worth it?

What a change of city really costs

A “four-hour train” is not four hours out of your day. Count the whole transfer:

So every move costs half a day at least, and often a full day. Five moves in two weeks is two and a half to five days spent in transit.

Typical journey times between popular cities:

Train times vary by service, so check your exact train. See the high-speed train guide and domestic flights in China.

Is your itinerary too rushed? A quick test

Your plan is too rushed if two or more of these are true:

1. You change city more often than every three days on average.
2. Any city has only one night. One night means one evening and one tired morning.
3. You have two transfer days in a row.
4. A “day” in your plan starts after a morning train. That is half a day, not a day.
5. You have no free half day in the whole trip for rain, jet lag or a sold-out sight.
6. You land after a long-haul flight and plan a big sight the same day.
7. You planned a mountain area with no spare day for fog or rain, such as Zhangjiajie or Huangshan.

Jet lag matters more than most people expect. From Europe or the Americas, plan an easy first day and put your most important sight on day two or three.

What to cut first

When a plan has too many stops, cut in this order:

1. One of two similar cities.
   • Chengdu or Chongqing: choose Chengdu for pandas, food and a relaxed pace, or Chongqing for dramatic city views at night. They are only about an hour apart by train, so keep both only if you have four or five nights for the pair. See Chengdu vs Chongqing.
   • Hangzhou or Suzhou: choose one, or see Suzhou as a day trip from Shanghai.
   • Zhangjiajie or Guilin: both are scenery stops that need three nights. Pick one on a two-week trip.
2. The stop that is furthest from your route. Hong Kong, Yunnan and Harbin are each far from the classic Beijing–Xi’an–Shanghai line. Add them only when they are your start or end point, or when you have three weeks. See adding Hong Kong to a China trip.
3. Days, not cities, in Shanghai. If you need one more night somewhere, take it from Shanghai.
4. Whole regions. Yunnan, Xinjiang, Tibet and the Silk Road are separate trips. Trying to add one to a first two-week visit spoils both.

Keep Beijing. It is the one city where cutting days costs you the sights most people came for.

Example: six cities in 14 days

A common first plan is Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Zhangjiajie and Shanghai in two weeks. That is five transfers and only about nine real sightseeing days.

Numbers are nights. Each option leaves one spare night to place where you like.

Ways to save time without cutting cities

• Fly into one city and out of another. Arriving in Beijing and leaving from Shanghai saves a full day of backtracking.
• Take morning trains, leaving between 8:00 and 9:00, so you arrive for lunch and still have an afternoon.
• Use day trips instead of overnight stops: Suzhou or a water town from Shanghai, Leshan from Chengdu.
• Stay near a metro station and near the right train station. Big cities have several stations, often an hour apart.
• Book the big sights before you fix your dates in each city. The Forbidden City, the Terracotta Warriors and the Chengdu Panda Base all use real-name advance booking. See Terracotta Warriors tickets and Chengdu Panda Base.
• Avoid Chinese public holidays, when everything takes longer. See visiting China during Golden Week or Chinese New Year.

Slower trips: who should add days

Add a night to each city, or drop one stop, if you are:

• Traveling with children. One big sight a day is enough. See China with kids.
• Traveling with older parents or anyone who tires with a lot of walking. The Forbidden City alone is about 1 km from end to end.
• Visiting in July or August. Heat and humidity make long sightseeing days hard.
• On your first trip outside Europe or North America. Everything takes a little longer when the language, apps and payments are new. See first time in China.

Ready-made routes

If you would rather start from a tested plan, see our itineraries for 5 days, 7 days, 10 days and 14 days, or the Beijing, Zhangjiajie and Shanghai route.

Not sure what to cut? Send us your draft plan. Our free trip planning service will tell you honestly where it is too tight and suggest a route that fits your dates.