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China trip planner / Start here

How to plan your first trip to China

Start with one reason you want to go—history, food, nature, or modern city life—then choose a geographically coherent route instead of collecting distant landmarks. Seven days usually fits two or three bases; ten days supports three or four; fourteen days creates room for a contrasting region without making every morning a transfer. For a classic first trip, Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai form a practical backbone connected by high-speed rail. Add Chengdu for food and pandas, Zhangjiajie for mountain scenery, or Guilin and Yangshuo for a slower karst landscape. Before booking, verify the entry rule for your passport, set up mobile payments and connectivity, identify the exact rail stations, and check public-holiday dates. Keep the first and last days light, group sights by neighborhood, and give weather-dependent places a fallback. The planner above produces a usable route from one interest; month, duration, and pace are optional refinements.