10-Day Beijing, Xi‘an, Chengdu & Shanghai Small Group Tour: Pandas, Ancient Kingdoms & Imperial Capitals

Your driver meets you at the airport and takes you to your hotel in the city centre. Once you’ve checked in, the rest of the day is yours.

If you‘re not too tired, step outside and let the city hit your senses. The sheer density of Beijing can feel like a different planet—the air smells like sesame oil and petrol, and the noise of scooters and chatter spills out of every lane. Walk a few blocks and you’ll see laundry hanging from balconies above storefronts selling live crabs and cured meats. No plan needed. Just get lost in the street-level chaos, then head back to the quiet of your hotel when you‘ve had enough.

Itinerary Summary: Tian‘anmen Square – Forbidden City – Jingshan Park – Summer Palace

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Start at the world’s largest public square—Tian‘anmen Square—where the sheer openness hits you before any building does. From there, you pass through the gates of the Forbidden City, a walled city of nearly 1,000 structures that housed China’s emperors for five centuries. The scale is deliberate: wide courtyards, raised halls, and a north-south axis that once ordered the entire capital. Your guide walks you through the main halls, pointing out the details that reveal how power was performed here—the carved dragons, the bronze vats for fire-fighting, the thresholds worn smooth by generations of feet.

A short walk to Jingshan Park takes you up an artificial hill built from the soil of the Forbidden City‘s moat. From the top, the palace’s golden roofs form a grid below you—a perspective that was once reserved for the emperor alone. In the afternoon, you head to the Summer Palace, a lakeside retreat that served as an escape from Beijing‘s summer heat. The Long Corridor runs along Kunming Lake with over 14,000 painted panels, each telling a fragment of Chinese folklore. The Marble Boat sits motionless at the water’s edge—built not to sail, but to be seen.

Itinerary Summary: Mutianyu Great Wall – Bird‘s Nest & Water Cube (Exterior)

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Today you head to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, about 73 kilometres from the city centre. It’s less crowded than Badaling and gives you 5.4 kilometres of wall with 22 watchtowers to explore. A round-trip cable car takes you up near Tower 14, so you can spend your energy walking the wall itself, not climbing to it.

You can head east for steeper, more dramatic views, or west for a quieter stretch where the wall curves through forest. The stones under your feet are still the original Ming Dynasty work—worn, uneven, and exactly what you came to see.

On the way back, the bus passes the Bird‘s Nest and Water Cube, the two iconic venues from the 2008 Olympics. There’s a brief stop for photos before heading back to the city.

Itinerary Summary: High-Speed Train to Xi’an – Giant Wild Goose Pagoda – Muslim Quarter

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast

Morning transfer to the railway station for the high-speed train to Xi‘an. The distance is 1,200 kilometres, and the train covers it in 4.5 to 6 hours. The route crosses the North China Plain and enters the Loess Plateau—a region of deep valleys and silt deposits.

Upon arrival, you’re met at the station and taken to your hotel. In the afternoon, you visit the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, a seven-storey brick pagoda built in 652 AD. It was constructed to house Buddhist scriptures brought back from India by the monk Xuanzang—he spent 19 years on the road, and this tower was his library.

From there, you walk into the Muslim Quarter, a dense network of streets that has been home to Xi‘an’s Hui Muslim community for centuries. The stalls sell lamb skewers, flatbread, and a hundred other things you won‘t see anywhere else. It’s a place to eat, watch, and get lost in the crowd.

Itinerary Summary: Terracotta Warriors – Ancient City Wall – Bell Tower / Drum Tower

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

The morning is devoted to the Terracotta Warriors, about an hour’s drive east of the city. The site was uncovered in 1974 and covers 20,000 square metres. Pit 1 contains roughly 6,000 life-sized figures, each with a different face, arranged in battle formation. The scale is staggering—it was built to accompany the first emperor of China into the afterlife and took decades to complete.

After returning to the city, you visit the Ancient City Wall, built in the 14th century. It‘s 13.7 kilometres around, and you can walk along the top or rent a bicycle. The view looks both directions—towards the old city and the newer districts beyond. The day finishes at the Bell Tower or Drum Tower, two landmarks that have stood at the centre of Xi’an for over 600 years.

Itinerary Summary: High-Speed Train to Chengdu – Hotel Check-in – Free Time

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast

Morning high-speed train from Xi’an to Chengdu—about 3.5 to 4 hours. As the train moves south, the landscape changes again: the loess plateau gives way to the green, hilly terrain of Sichuan.

Upon arrival, you‘re met at the station and taken to your hotel. The rest of the day is yours. Chengdu is known for its food, and the area around your hotel is a good place to start. Ask your hotel for a local hotpot recommendation—Sichuan hotpot is a meal that demands your full attention. The city has a famously relaxed pace, so take your time.

Itinerary Summary: Chengdu Panda Base – Sanxingdui Museum – Jinli Old Street (Plan A) OR Chengdu Panda Base – Chengdu Museum – Kuanzhai Alley – Renmin Park (Plan B)

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast

Plan A starts with the Chengdu Panda Base, the world‘s most successful giant panda breeding facility. The park opens at 7:30 AM, and arriving early means catching the pandas during their most active hours—they eat, climb, and roll around in the morning cool. The base is home to over 50 giant pandas and several red pandas. Next is the Sanxingdui Museum, one of China’s most important archaeological sites. The museum houses bronze masks, golden sceptres, and ivory artifacts from a lost civilisation that flourished over 3,000 years ago. The bronze masks with protruding eyes and the 3.96-metre bronze tree are genuinely strange and unforgettable. The day ends at Jinli Old Street, a restored pedestrian street lined with traditional Sichuan architecture, food stalls, and souvenir shops.

Plan B offers a more urban Chengdu experience. After the Panda Base, you visit the Chengdu Museum, which covers the city‘s history from prehistoric times to the present. Then Kuanzhai Alley—a restored Qing-dynasty district of courtyard houses now filled with teahouses, galleries, and restaurants. The day finishes at Renmin Park, where locals play mahjong, drink tea, and practise tai chi. It’s a glimpse of Chengdu‘s famously relaxed pace of life.

Itinerary Summary: Flight to Shanghai – Hotel Check-in – Free Time

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast

Morning flight from Chengdu to Shanghai. By the time you land, you‘re in a different China again—flat, dense, and vertical. After checking into your hotel, the rest of the day is yours.

If you have the energy, step outside and let Shanghai’s rhythm pull you in. The streets are wider, the buildings taller, and the pace faster than anything you‘ve seen so far. Walk a few blocks and you’ll see the full spectrum of the city—old ladies playing cards on the sidewalk, delivery scooters weaving through traffic, and neon signs competing for your attention. There‘s no plan. Just get a feel for the city that moves faster than the rest of China.

Itinerary Summary: Shanghai Museum – Shanghai Tower – Yu Garden & Bazaar – Nanjing Road – The Bund

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Your Shanghai day begins at the Shanghai Museum, a building designed to resemble an ancient bronze cooking vessel. Inside, the collection of bronze vessels, ceramics, and calligraphy tells the story of China through its objects—some dating back 3,500 years. Then you ascend Shanghai Tower, China‘s tallest building at 632 metres. The 118th-floor observation deck gives you a full view of the city’s layout: the Huangpu River curving through, Pudong‘s towers clustered below, and Puxi’s older neighbourhoods stretching west.

Next is Yu Garden, a Ming-dynasty garden built between 1559 and 1577. Zigzag bridges, rockeries, and pavilions are packed into just 2 hectares—a masterpiece of space and balance. The adjacent Yuyuan Bazaar is a maze of stalls selling everything from tea to souvenirs. Afternoon along Nanjing Road—5.5 kilometres of shops, department stores, and neon—leads you to The Bund. The 1.5-kilometre promenade is lined with 52 colonial-era buildings, facing Pudong‘s towers across the river. The contrast is what makes this view the city’s defining image.

Itinerary Summary: Departure from Shanghai – Airport See-off

Hotel Star Rating: N/A

Meals Included: Breakfast

Your driver picks you up from the hotel and takes you to the airport for your departure flight. Ten days, four cities—from Beijing‘s imperial palaces to Xi’an‘s buried army, from Chengdu’s pandas to Shanghai‘s skyscrapers. The contrasts will stay with you long after you’ve left.