7 Days: Shanghai and Beyond
A full week is the version of this trip where Shanghai genuinely earns the word “gateway.” You get both classic day trips, a real water-town detour, and three unhurried days in Beijing instead of the sprint the shorter itineraries force. By the end of this one you’ve seen two very different Chinas, not just a single city with some day trips bolted on.
Book these before you go: the Beijing G-train on Trip.com (book the moment your dates are firm), a Beijing hotel (Agoda) for the three-night stay, and a Great Wall Mutianyu day tour on Viator .
| Day | Focus | Key cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Land, visa/eSIM setup, the Bund | Free (the Bund promenade) |
| 2 | Suzhou day trip by G-train | ¥21-40 second-class fare |
| 3 | Hangzhou West Lake day trip | ¥73 second-class fare |
| 4 | Wuzhen or Tongli water town | Check current transport fares |
| 5-7 | Beijing: Forbidden City, Great Wall, flex day | ¥550-700 G-train fare |
Day 1: Arrival and the Doorway City
Land at Pudong (PVG) for international flights, or Hongqiao (SHA) if your routing allows it, since Hongqiao sits right beside the station carrying most of this week’s plans. Confirm your visa status before booking anything else: the 240-hour transit (55 countries including the US) requires a confirmed onward ticket to a third country, while the separate 30-day unilateral waiver (roughly 50 countries, not the US) has no such condition. Because this itinerary loops through Beijing and back to Shanghai rather than exiting through a different country, the 240-hour transit generally doesn’t cover it cleanly, so anyone not on the 30-day list should plan on a standard tourist visa well ahead of departure.
Sort your eSIM and test your VPN before you fly, both are far harder to arrange once you’re inside the Great Firewall. Spend the afternoon on the Bund, free, best at dusk, and treat it as the opening note of a week that’s going to sound very different by Day 5: Shanghai was built as a foreign treaty port and remains one of the least typically Chinese major cities in the country. The Shanghai guide covers the deeper in-city sightseeing if you want a fuller read on the city itself.
Day 2: Suzhou
23-30 minutes from Hongqiao by the fastest G-trains, around ¥21-40 second class, 350+ departures a day. The gardens and the Suzhou Museum sit close enough to the station that you won’t lose the morning to transit.
Day 3: Hangzhou
About 45 minutes each way, roughly ¥73 second class, with Metro Line 1 running direct to West Lake from Hangzhou East. A 9:15am departure gets you lakeside by 10:25am, plenty of time for the slower, more rewarding day this lake deserves.
Day 4: Water Towns and a Different China
Wuzhen and Tongli, the deeper-cut Jiangnan water towns beyond the near option of Zhujiajiao, are worth the extra planning today, genuinely quieter and closer in feel to small-town Jiangnan life than either of the last two days gave you. Check transport schedules ahead of time, since neither connects as directly as Suzhou or Hangzhou, and use today as a slower, more observational stop before the pace changes completely tomorrow.
Day 5-7: The Beijing Hop
G-trains run Hongqiao to Beijing South 44-46 times daily, the fastest in 4h24m, most in 4.5-7.5 hours, second class around ¥550-700, book the moment your dates are firm since the sub-5-hour departures sell out inside two weeks. Take an early Day 5 train and spend the afternoon and evening on the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
Day 6 is the Great Wall, most visitors base it out of Mutianyu rather than the more crowded Badaling section, roughly 1.5-2 hours from central Beijing by car or tour.
Day 7 is your flex day: the Summer Palace, a hutong walk, or simply a slower morning before an evening train back to Shanghai or, if it fits your route better, a direct flight home out of Beijing instead of doubling back.
If Beijing isn’t quite the second stop you’re after, Xi’an is the other genuinely rail-friendly option, the fastest train does it in 5h39m and the Terracotta Army is worth every hour of the ride, while Guilin and Chengdu both sit far enough out that flying (2-3 hours each) beats a 9-14 hour train by a wide margin. The full gateway guide breaks down all four options if you’re deciding between them, and the 5-day itinerary shows what this trip looks like compressed if a week ever turns into five days instead.
Book the Beijing train before anything else on this trip, hotels included, the whole back half depends on that one reservation landing on the departure you actually want.