13-Day China Small Group Tour: Shanghai, Guilin, Yangtze River, Xi’an & Beijing Highlights

Itinerary Summary: Arrive in Shanghai – Airport Pick-up – Hotel Check-in – Free Time

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: No Food

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 out and get a feel for Shanghai. The city moves at a fast pace — wide streets, neon lights, and a constant flow of people. Walk a few blocks in any direction and you‘ll find small shops, local eateries, and the rhythm of daily life. No need to plan. Just let the city introduce itself.

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

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Start at the top of Shanghai Tower, China‘s tallest building at 632 metres. The elevator takes you to the 118th-floor observation deck in under a minute. From 546 metres, the city spreads out beneath you — the Huangpu River curving through, Pudong’s towers clustered below, and the older neighbourhoods of Puxi stretching west.

Then descend to the Shanghai Museum, housed in a building designed to resemble an ancient bronze vessel. Its collection of bronzes, ceramics, and calligraphy is among the best in China. 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: Nanjing Road runs 5.5 kilometres from the city centre to the waterfront, Shanghai‘s main commercial artery since the 1860s. End at The Bund at dusk. The 1.5-kilometre promenade is lined with 52 buildings of varying architectural styles — neo-classical, Art Deco, Renaissance — built between 1860 and 1937. Across the river, the Pudong skyline answers with towers that didn’t exist before 1990.

Itinerary Summary: Flight to Guilin – Elephant Trunk Hill – Reed Flute Cave

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast

Morning flight from Shanghai to Guilin. By the time you land, the landscape has changed completely — flat cityscape replaced by limestone peaks rising out of green farmland. After checking in, you visit Elephant Trunk Hill. It’s the postcard shot of Guilin: a 55-metre limestone formation that looks like an elephant drinking from the Li River. The “trunk” is a natural arch 13 metres wide, and it‘s been the city’s visual anchor for over a thousand years. Then you go underground at Reed Flute Cave, a 240-metre-long limestone cavern where coloured lights turn stalactites into something resembling a frozen waterfall or a forest of stone. The cave has been a visitor site since the Tang dynasty — some of the inscriptions on the walls are over 1,200 years old.

Itinerary Summary: Li River Cruise – Yangshuo Countryside – West Street

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Today you board the Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. The 83-kilometre route passes through the heart of the region‘s karst landscape — limestone peaks rising from the water, bamboo groves along the banks, water buffalo standing in the shallows. The boat moves at a slow pace, and the best view is from the deck. This is the scenery that appears on the back of China’s 20-yuan note. The cruise takes 4 to 5 hours.

Arriving in Yangshuo, the town is surrounded by the same peaks. The afternoon is free: rent a bicycle and ride through the countryside, or take an e-bike along the back roads. In the evening, West Street is the centre of activity — a pedestrian strip lined with bars, restaurants, and shops.

Itinerary Summary: High-Speed Train to Chongqing – Board Yangtze River Cruise at Chaotianmen Port

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels (Yangtze Cruise: 5-Star)

Meals Included: Breakfast

Morning high-speed train from Guilin to Chongqing. The journey takes about 4 to 5 hours. As the train moves west, the landscape shifts from karst peaks to the rugged hills of Sichuan.

Upon arrival, you‘re met at the station and transferred to Chaotianmen Port, where you board your Yangtze River cruise ship — a 5-star vessel that will be your home for the next three nights. After settling into your cabin, the ship departs in the evening. The Yangtze stretches before you, and the first leg of the river journey begins.

Itinerary Summary: Shore Excursion to Fengdu Ghost City

Hotel Star Rating: Yangtze Cruise: 5-Star

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The ship sails through the morning as you pass through the first stretches of the Yangtze‘s scenic gorges. After breakfast, you go ashore for a visit to Fengdu Ghost City. This is not a ghost town — it’s a hillside complex of temples and shrines dedicated to the afterlife in Chinese folklore. The site dates back over 1,000 years and sits on the northern bank of the Yangtze. You‘ll climb the 300-plus steps to the top, passing through the “Ghost King” gates and the Tianzi Palace.

Back on board in the afternoon, the ship continues its journey. Tonight, you pass through the first of the three gorges — Qutang Gorge — though it will be after dark. The crew often announces major sights, and you can watch from the deck or the observation lounge.

Itinerary Summary: Three Gorges Scenery – Shore Excursion to Shennv Stream

Hotel Star Rating: Yangtze Cruise: 5-Star

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today is the highlight of the cruise. You wake up in the middle of the Three Gorges — the ship passes through Wu Gorge, known for its dramatic peaks and deep valleys. The sheer cliffs rise on both sides, and the water narrows as the ship threads through. The scenery changes by the hour.

In the afternoon, you board a smaller boat for a shore excursion into Shennv Stream — a narrow tributary that branches off from the main river. The water here is calmer and greener, and the boat moves slowly past rock formations and cliffside tombs. It‘s a quieter, closer look at the same landscape you’ve been viewing from the deck.

Itinerary Summary: Three Gorges Dam – High-Speed Train to Xi’an

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast

Morning visit to the Three Gorges Dam, the world‘s largest hydroelectric power station. The dam is 2,309 metres long and 185 metres high. The visitor centre explains the engineering and the resettlement of over 1.3 million people. The view from the observation deck gives you a sense of the scale.

After the visit, you transfer to Yichang train station for the high-speed train to Xi’an. The journey takes about 6 hours. As the train moves north, the landscape shifts from the river valleys of central China to the loess plateau of the northwest. Upon arrival, you‘re met at the station and taken to your hotel.

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, 50 kilometres east of Xi’an. The site was discovered in 1974 and covers 20,000 square metres. Pit 1 contains approximately 6,000 terracotta figures, arranged in 11 parallel columns. Each figure stands between 1.8 and 2 metres tall and has a unique face — no two are identical. The army was built to accompany Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, and took 700,000 workers over 38 years to complete.

After returning to the city, you visit the Ancient City Wall, built in the 14th century and 13.7 kilometres around. You can walk or cycle along the top. The day finishes at the Bell Tower or Drum Tower, two landmarks that have marked the centre of Xi‘an for over 600 years.

Itinerary Summary: Giant Wild Goose Pagoda – Muslim Quarter – High-Speed Train to Beijing

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast

Morning visit to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, built in 652 AD. The pagoda is 64.5 metres tall, with seven storeys, constructed from brick without mortar — the blocks lock together through their shape. The monk Xuanzang spent 19 years travelling to India and back, bringing back 657 Buddhist texts, and the pagoda was built to house them.

From there, you walk into the Muslim Quarter, a warren of narrow streets that has been home to Xi‘an’s Hui Muslim community for centuries. The streets are lined with food stalls selling lamb skewers, biangbiang noodles, and flatbread.

Afternoon high-speed train to Beijing. The journey takes about 4.5 to 6 hours. Upon arrival, you‘re met at the station and taken to your hotel.

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

Hotel Star Rating: 3-Star Hotels

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

The day starts at Tian’anmen Square, one of the largest public squares in the world. From there, you walk into the Forbidden City — the palace complex that was home to China‘s emperors for over 500 years. It contains nearly 1,000 buildings and more than 9,000 rooms. Your guide leads you through the main halls, explaining the rituals and power structures that once defined this place.

A short walk takes you to Jingshan Park, an artificial hill formed from soil excavated during the Forbidden City’s construction. The view from the top gives you a complete overhead perspective of the palace layout. In the afternoon, you head to the Summer Palace, a sprawling imperial garden built around Kunming Lake.

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 offers a longer stretch of wall — 5.4 kilometres with 22 watchtowers. A round-trip cable car takes you up near Tower 14, saving your energy for walking along the wall itself. You can head east for steeper terrain or west for a quieter, forested stretch. The stonework is original Ming Dynasty construction.

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

Itinerary Summary: Departure from Beijing – 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. Thirteen days — from Shanghai‘s skyscrapers to Guilin’s karst rivers, along the Yangtze, past the Terracotta Warriors, and finally to the Forbidden City. You‘ve crossed a country by train, flown over it, and seen enough to know that one trip is never enough.