Stand in Tiananmen Square, look north through the gate toward the red walls beyond, and something in your chest actually tightens. Not because it’s pretty, though it is, but because you can feel the weight of what’s stacked up in front of you: six centuries of emperors, a walled city built to be the exact center of the known world, and a subway humming under your feet that now moves more people in a day than most countries have citizens.

A full week in Beijing means you finally have room for everything: the imperial core, the wall done properly, the neighborhoods, a real day trip, and a last morning that isn’t a mad dash to the airport. It also means getting the entry logistics right matters more, not less, because you’re spending a bigger chunk of your visa-free window here. Staying in the city the whole time? Our 7-day Beijing itinerary swaps Tianjin for a second Great Wall day and a market morning.

Six days is enough to treat Beijing as a launchpad rather than just a destination, and the extra day here is a genuine day trip that most itineraries never mention because it only makes sense once you understand how the entry rules actually work. Not interested in leaving the city? Our 6-day Beijing itinerary swaps this day for a second Great Wall section instead. Book these before you go: Forbidden City tickets release online exactly 7 days ahead and sell out for weekends A Mutianyu Great Wall tour if you’d rather skip arranging your own driver A hotel in Dongcheng near Wangfujing; check rates on Agoda before you land Day Focus Distance from center 1 Tiananmen Square + Forbidden City + Jingshan Park In city 2 Great Wall at Mutianyu ~90 min / 73km 3 Temple of Heaven + hutongs In city 4 Summer Palace + Lama Temple + 798 In city 5 Ming Tombs + Olympic Park ~1hr / 50km + in city 6 Tianjin day trip ~30 min by rail / 120km Before You Land China’s 240-hour visa-free transit scheme covers roughly 55 nationalities, the US, UK, Canada, Australia and most of the EU included, letting you skip the visa entirely if you’re holding a confirmed onward ticket to a third country and entering through an approved port like Beijing.

Five days lets you slow down enough to add a proper day trip without cutting the greatest hits, and that fifth day is where this itinerary actually earns its keep. Get the entry logistics sorted first, because none of the rest matters if you land without a plan for the Great Firewall or a Forbidden City slot. Rather skip straight to the sights? Our 5-day Beijing itinerary covers the same five days in-city only.

Four days is where Beijing stops feeling like a checklist and starts feeling like a city you’re actually visiting: the imperial core, the wall, the old neighborhoods, and now a full day for the parts most two-day tourists never get to. Sort your entry logistics first, then dig in. Skipping the visa talk, our 4-day Beijing itinerary covers the same four days in-city only. Book these before you go: Forbidden City tickets release online exactly 7 days ahead and sell out for weekends A Mutianyu Great Wall tour if you’d rather skip arranging your own driver A hotel in Dongcheng near Wangfujing; check rates on Agoda before you land Day Focus Distance from center 1 Tiananmen Square + Forbidden City + Jingshan Park In city 2 Great Wall at Mutianyu ~90 min / 73km 3 Temple of Heaven + hutongs In city 4 Summer Palace + Lama Temple + 798 + Sanlitun In city Before You Land If you’re from one of roughly 55 eligible countries and hold a confirmed onward ticket to a third country, the 240-hour visa-free transit scheme lets you skip the visa entirely through an approved port like Beijing; the ten-day clock starts at midnight the day after you arrive, so four days barely touches it.

Three days gives Beijing enough room to breathe: one day for the palace and square, one for the wall, and a third for the parts of the city that don’t show up on a postcard. Here’s the plan, plus the logistics you actually need to sort before you land. Want the same three days with none of the visa talk? Our 3-day Beijing itinerary covers the sightseeing only. Book these before you go:

Two days in Beijing sounds tight, and it is, but it’s genuinely enough if you make one hard call up front: one day for the imperial core, one day for the wall, and you don’t try to squeeze both into a single afternoon. Here’s how I’d spend it, entry logistics included. Prefer to skip the visa talk and go straight to sightseeing? Our 2-day Beijing itinerary covers the same two days in-city only.

Seven days is enough time in Beijing to stop rushing entirely. You still hit every headline sight, the palace, the wall, the temples, but now there’s a second wall day thrown in and a full afternoon to just wander wherever looks interesting. Six days works nearly as well, see our 6-day plan ; building a trip beyond the city, our 7-day Beijing-and-beyond itinerary swaps a day for Tianjin instead. Book these before you go:

Six days in Beijing means you finally get to be a little greedy about the Great Wall, doing the classic restored section early in the trip and a rougher, near-empty one later once you’ve got your legs under you. Five days is plenty too, see our 5-day plan ; a full week and our 7-day itinerary adds a market morning and Olympic Park. Book these before you go: Forbidden City tickets release online exactly 7 days ahead and sell out for weekends A Mutianyu Great Wall tour for day two, or a Jinshanling tour for day six A hotel in Dongcheng near Wangfujing; check rates on Agoda before September and October fill up Day Focus Time needed 1 Tiananmen Square + Forbidden City + Jingshan Park Full day 2 Great Wall at Mutianyu Full day (incl.

Seven days gets you the one thing a shorter trip can’t: room to go past the city limits without gambling on your acclimatization, ending at Shigatse’s Tashilhunpo Monastery with a spare morning to spare. This is the full version of our 6-day plan ; a valid Chinese visa gets you nowhere here on its own, so the paperwork below matters as much as the route. Book these before you go

Five days is where Beijing really opens up. You still get the palace and the wall on the front end, but now there’s room for the emperors’ actual tombs, an art district built inside an old weapons factory, and enough slack in the schedule that a slow lunch doesn’t blow the whole afternoon. Only have four days? Our 4-day plan covers the same core minus this fifth day; six days and our 6-day itinerary adds a second Great Wall section.

Six days is where a second permit enters the picture: beyond Ganden and Yamdrok Lake, this version adds Shigatse and Tashilhunpo Monastery, which needs its own Aliens’ Travel Permit arranged by your guide once you’ve landed. This builds on our 5-day plan , same acclimatization ladder, one extra permit and one extra day. Book these before you go Your Tibet Travel Permit and guide, sold as one package: licensed Tibet tours on GetYourGuide A Barkhor-edge room for the city nights: the Tibetan Hotel on Booking.

Five days gives this itinerary a genuine recovery day between its two big pushes past the city, Ganden first, a rest day at Sera and Drepung, then Yamdrok Lake. This builds on our 4-day plan ; the recovery day is the single biggest quality-of-life upgrade over doing this in four. Book these before you go Your Tibet Travel Permit and guide, sold as one package: licensed Tibet tours on GetYourGuide A Barkhor-edge room for the city nights: the Tibetan Hotel on Booking.

Four days is where this itinerary starts to feel like a real Tibet trip rather than a Lhasa layover: two city days banked, then two genuine pushes higher, Ganden first, Yamdrok Lake second. This builds on our 3-day plan , same permit and city-grounding days, one extra day trip added at the end. Book these before you go Your Tibet Travel Permit and guide, sold as one package: licensed Tibet tours on GetYourGuide A Barkhor-edge room for the city nights: the Tibetan Hotel on Booking.

Four days gets you past the two headline sights and into the version of Beijing that actually rewards a slower look, the imperial gardens, the incense-thick temples, the neighborhood that never quite goes to sleep. It’s the shortest trip length where you stop feeling rushed between stops. Tighter on time? Our 3-day plan covers the essentials; got a fifth day, our 5-day itinerary adds the Ming Tombs and 798 Art District.

Three days is the shortest version of this itinerary that actually leaves Lhasa city limits: two days banked at 3,656 meters, then one genuine push higher to Ganden Monastery. This builds on our 2-day plan , same permit and arrival logistics, one extra day spent outside the city instead of in it. Book these before you go Your Tibet Travel Permit and guide, sold as one package: licensed Tibet tours on GetYourGuide A Barkhor-edge room for two city nights: the Tibetan Hotel on Booking.

Here’s the part nobody tells you before booking a quick two days in Lhasa: this is the one city in China where a Chinese visa alone gets you nowhere. You need a Tibet Travel Permit, arranged in advance by a licensed agency, plus a guide attached to you for the entire trip. Two days is genuinely tight, and it keeps you inside city limits entirely, no Ganden, no Yamdrok Lake; our 3-day version is the first one that gets you out of town.

A full week in Lhasa, and none of it needs to leave the city. Seven days at 3,656 meters is enough to work through every monastery at a genuinely relaxed pace, two separate old-town days, and still have a spare morning before you fly out. This extends our 6-day plan ; if Ganden Monastery, Yamdrok Lake, or Shigatse are on your radar, that’s a different trip covered on our Lhasa and Tibet gateway guide .

Three days is the sweet spot where Beijing stops feeling like a checklist sprint and starts feeling like an actual trip. You get the palace, the wall, and enough breathing room to wander a hutong without checking your watch every ten minutes. Only got two days? Our 2-day Beijing plan trims this down to the essentials; four days and our 4-day plan adds the Summer Palace. Book these before you go:

Six days lets you do Lhasa itself at an unhurried pace, no day trips, no rushing, just the full monastery circuit plus two separate old-town days instead of one. This extends our 5-day plan ; once you actually want to leave the city, Ganden Monastery and Yamdrok Lake are covered on our Lhasa and Tibet gateway guide instead. Book these before you go A Barkhor-edge room: the Tibetan Hotel on Booking.

Five days is where a Lhasa trip stops feeling rushed and starts feeling like you actually live somewhere for a week: the full monastery circuit plus a real day dedicated to the old town’s quieter corners. This builds on our 4-day plan ; if you’re ready to leave the city itself, Ganden Monastery and Yamdrok Lake belong on our Lhasa and Tibet gateway guide instead, not squeezed into this one.

Four days gets you the classic Lhasa route with room to breathe: the two headline sights, a full day soaking up the old town, and a fourth day for the monasteries most short trips skip. Everything here stays inside city limits, our 3-day plan covers the shorter version, and our Lhasa and Tibet guide is where the day trips out to Ganden and Yamdrok Lake live if you’re extending further. Rest on arrival, let your body catch up, and don’t rush toward the big stuff.

Two days in Beijing sounds tight until you realize it only has to cover the two things you actually came for: the palace and the wall. Nail those two mornings and you’ve genuinely covered Beijing’s biggest icons, no filler required, and no third day wasted deciding what to cut. Got three days instead? Our 3-day Beijing plan adds the Temple of Heaven and the hutongs to this same spine. Book these before you go:

Three days is the sweet spot for a first Lhasa trip: two proper sightseeing days instead of one jammed one, plus a whole day to just wander the old town. This builds on our 2-day plan , same arrival-day rules, one extra day for Sera Monastery’s debating monks. Rest first, sightsee later, don’t rush the altitude. Book these before you go A Barkhor-edge room: the Tibetan Hotel on Booking.com puts Jokhang a 10-minute walk away Your Tibet Travel Permit and guide, sold as one package: licensed Tibet tours on GetYourGuide A Sera Monastery debate-session tour timed to the 3-5pm window: check GetYourGuide listings Day Focus Day 1 Arrival, rest, confirm the Potala reservation Day 2 Jokhang Temple, Barkhor kora, Tibet Museum Day 3 Potala Palace, Sera Monastery’s monk debates Day 1: Arrival and doing absolutely nothing ambitious Land at Lhasa Gonggar Airport, transfer to the city (around an hour), and check in.

Two days in Lhasa is a tight squeeze, only enough for the two sights everyone actually comes for, with day one spent doing almost nothing so your body can handle day two. No Sera Monastery, no day trips, nothing outside city limits: that’s what our 3-day version is for. This is the bare-minimum, first-timer route. Book these before you go A Barkhor-adjacent room: the Tibetan Hotel on Booking.com keeps you a 10-minute walk from Jokhang Your Tibet Travel Permit and guide package: browse licensed Tibet tours on GetYourGuide , since neither the Potala nor the region itself is enterable without one A Potala Palace-inclusive tour if you’d rather not manage the reservation yourself: search current options on Viator Day Focus Day 1 Arrival, rest, confirm the Potala reservation Day 2 Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Barkhor kora Day 1: Land, and do less than you want to Fly into Lhasa Gonggar Airport, about an hour from downtown, and check in.

Lhasa’s real “ticket” isn’t a turnstile, it’s a Tibet Travel Permit and a licensed guide, and both have to clear before you so much as book a flight. Here’s exactly what that takes, what it costs, and how to actually visit once you land at 3,656 meters. Lhasa at a glance Permit lead time 20-30 days for the Tibet Travel Permit (25-30+ in the April-October peak) Potala Palace ~2,300 real-name tickets/day, no same-day sales, ~1-hour timed entry Time needed 2 days minimum in the city, 5-7 to cover every monastery Booking lead Book your agency and Potala slot together, before any non-refundable flight Since the permit and guide are non-negotiable, sort them as one package: browse licensed Tibet tour options on GetYourGuide before anything else on your list.

Land in Beijing and the first thing you’re actually managing isn’t the Forbidden City or the Great Wall, it’s a clock. China’s 240-hour visa-free transit scheme lets travelers from about 55 countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia and the EU, skip the visa entirely if they’re holding a confirmed onward ticket to a third country and enter through one of 65 approved ports, Beijing among them. That clock starts at midnight the day after you land, not the moment you touch down, and it buys you ten full days to work with.

For most travelers, Lhasa isn’t the whole trip, it’s the launchpad. Ganden’s ridge-top kora, Yamdrok Lake’s turquoise water over the Kamba La pass, Shigatse’s Tashilhunpo Monastery, all of it runs through here, gated behind a Tibet Travel Permit and a licensed guide you can’t opt out of. This guide covers Lhasa as your base: the permit rules, the acclimatization math, and the day trips and onward hops that make the extra time worth booking.

Lhasa is not a city you wander into. Every foreign visitor needs a Tibet Travel Permit booked through a licensed agency 20 to 30 days out, a guide who stays with you the entire trip, and a plan for 3,656 meters of elevation before you’ve even unpacked. None of that makes it less worth doing, it makes the planning the actual first attraction. This guide covers Lhasa itself: the Potala Palace, the Barkhor’s old town, and the monasteries inside city limits; our 3-day Lhasa itinerary turns it into a day-by-day plan.

Shanghai: Two Centuries of Reinvention Happening Simultaneously Shanghai has more coffee shops than any other city in the world, more than New York, more than London, more than Tokyo. That statistic, which sounds like a marketing claim, tells you something real about the French Concession’s plane-tree-lined streets: this is a city that absorbs influences at extraordinary speed and makes something distinctly its own from them. That compression is what makes Shanghai unlike any other Chinese city and unlike any other city anywhere.

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.

Six days gives you room for everything the shorter versions of this trip have to trade off against each other: both classic day trips, a proper water-town detour, and a real two days in Beijing rather than the compressed sprint a five-day trip forces. This is the gateway itinerary that doesn’t feel like it’s cutting corners anywhere. 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 two-night stay, and a Great Wall Mutianyu day tour on Viator .

Five days is the shortest window where a real Beijing hop actually fits. This itinerary trades the deeper water-town detour of the 4-day version for a compressed but genuine trip to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, which is the moment this stops being a Shanghai trip with day trips and starts being an actual China trip. Book these before you go: the Beijing G-train on Trip.com (book the moment your dates are firm, sub-5-hour departures sell out first), a Beijing hotel (Agoda) for the overnight, and a Great Wall Mutianyu day tour on Viator .

Four days is where a gateway trip stops feeling rushed. You get the same Suzhou and Hangzhou day trips as the shorter versions of this itinerary, plus a fourth day that goes deeper into the water towns and gives you a genuine read on how different the rest of the Jiangnan region feels from Shanghai itself. Book these before you go: train tickets on Trip.com for both Suzhou and Hangzhou, a Shanghai hotel (Agoda) for all four nights, and a Wuzhen water town tour on GetYourGuide if you’d rather not plan Day 4’s transport yourself.

Three days is the sweet spot for a genuine gateway trip: enough time to land, get your bearings, and actually take both of the classic day trips out of the city rather than just one. This is the plan for someone who wants to say they’ve seen a slice of China beyond a single skyline, without committing a full week to it. Book these before you go: Suzhou and Hangzhou train tickets on Trip.

Two days isn’t enough to see Shanghai properly, and that’s fine, because this itinerary isn’t trying to. This is the plan for travelers passing through on the way to somewhere else in China, or bolting a quick side trip onto the front or back of a longer domestic itinerary. Think of it as a gateway sprint: land, get oriented, take one real train ride out of the city, then keep moving.

A full week in Shanghai means you can actually slow down, and it means you can reach every corner of the city, including the parts most visitors never find, without ever needing to leave the municipality. This is the itinerary I’d hand a friend who asked me to plan the whole thing, and it builds on the 2 , 3 , 4 and 5 day versions if you’d rather start shorter.

Five days is genuinely the best length for Shanghai itself, enough time downtown that you’re not rushing, and enough room to sneak in the water town and the neighborhoods most visitors skip without feeling like you shortchanged the city. Here’s the version I’d run, and if you want the shorter or longer cut, I’ve built 2 , 3 , 4 and 7 day versions too. Book these before you go: a French Concession hotel (Agoda) for all five nights, a Zhujiajiao water town tour (GetYourGuide), and Shanghai Disney Resort tickets if Day 5 is a park day, since peak-day tickets sell out.

Four days lets you do Shanghai properly, right down to the water town and the neighborhoods most visitors never bother finding, without ever leaving the municipality. Here’s exactly how I’d build it, and it nests inside the 5 and 7 day versions if you extend the trip later. Book these before you go: a Shanghai Tower skip-the-line ticket (GetYourGuide), a Zhujiajiao water town tour if you’d rather skip the metro transfers, and a French Concession hotel (Agoda) for all four nights.

Three days finally gives Shanghai room to breathe, one day for the classic riverside icons, one for the futuristic Pudong energy, and one for the artsy, creative side most visitors never bother finding. Here’s how I’d spend it, and it nests right inside the 4 , 5 and 7 day versions if you’ve got more time. Book these before you go: a Shanghai Tower skip-the-line ticket (GetYourGuide), a French Concession hotel (Agoda), and a Huangpu River cruise (Viator) are the three genuine sell-out risks on this trip.

Two days in Shanghai is tight, borderline reckless, but it’s genuinely enough to fall hard for this city if you move fast and skip the fluff. Here’s the plan I’d actually run, and if you get more time later, I’ve built out 3 , 4 , 5 and 7 day versions that nest right on top of this one. Book these before you go: Shanghai Tower skip-the-line tickets (GetYourGuide), a Bund-area hotel (Agoda), and a Huangpu River night cruise (Viator) all book out fastest on weekends.

Everyone pictures Shanghai as the neon skyline shot, Pudong’s towers glowing across the Huangpu River, and honestly that image undersells the place. The skyline is the appetizer. What actually gets me every single time I’m there is how the city flips between two totally different personalities depending which side of the river you’re standing on, colonial waterfront grandeur on one bank, glass-and-steel future city on the other, and you can walk between them.

Land at Pudong, do the Bund, eat some soup dumplings, fly home five days later, and you’ve technically “been to China” without ever setting foot outside one city that spent a century being the least Chinese place in the entire country. That’s the trip most first-timers book by accident. This is the version where Shanghai is your launchpad, not your whole itinerary, because the country on the other side of that train ticket is the actual reason to come this far.