Worked example · Classic China, 10 days

Every day, planned to the hour —
before you commit to anything.

2 travellers, first visit October departure Beijing — Xi'an — Shanghai basis: from €3,800 pp

Every plan starts as something like this: a couple visiting China for the first time, an October departure — and ten days worked out to the hour. We publish it in full, so you can judge exactly how we think before you ever write to us. The route overview lives here; this page is the planning underneath it.

The Great Wall winding over empty green ridges at first light

Day 3, 7:50am — the light this plan is built around.

Why no guest photos here? Travel stories belong to the people who lived them — we'll never publish your name, your photographs or your itinerary. What you see on this page is licensed photography (credited where required) and a plan we can stand behind, hour by hour.
Day 1

Land, exhale, set up

Your guide meets you at arrivals with your name in English and pinyin, and a car big enough for the luggage you actually brought. No sightseeing today. Over a courtyard dinner near the hotel, your guide spends an hour getting your phone ready for China: payment apps bound to your card and tested with a real transaction, the maps that work here, and the week's reservations walked through.

The detail that makes it work: the payment setup happens with a working card, a live test payment and a fallback plan — not with a PDF you'll read at 1am. If a bank blocks the first transaction attempt (it happens), we solve it tonight, not at a ticket gate on Day 2.
The golden rooftops of the Forbidden City seen from Jingshan hill
The Forbidden City from Jingshan — Day 2's finale. Photo: Picrazy2, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Day 2

Beijing — the Imperial axis

The Forbidden City with a guide who tells it as a story of emperors, eunuchs and exam candidates — not a list of halls. Then up Jingshan hill for the view that puts 600 years into scale, and an unhurried walk through a living hutong with a long-time resident, ending among neighbours rather than souvenir stalls.

The detail that makes it work: this is the hardest ticket of the trip — real-name, passport-bound, sold out within minutes on release day. We book at release, against passport details checked twice (one transposed letter and the gate machine says no), and the confirmation is screenshotted into your trip file.
Day 3

Beijing — the Great Wall, before the crowds

Early departure for Mutianyu. You walk in as the gates open, take the cable car up, and have the Wall to yourselves for the best hour of the day. Down by toboggan if your knees agree. Back in the city by mid-afternoon: the Temple of Heaven when local life is in full swing — card players, singers, tai chi — or the 798 art district if that's more you.

The detail that makes it work: the whole day hinges on 90 minutes. Miss the early window and you're in a queue of tour buses; hit it and you get the photograph everyone thinks is Photoshopped. The driver stages at the lower car park, not the official one — the exit is uphill empty, downhill full.
A silver Fuxing high-speed train gliding through a station
Four hours, city centre to city centre, at 300 km/h. Photo: Samson Ng, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Day 4

To Xi'an by high-speed rail

Morning train west in first class — city-centre station to city-centre station in about four hours, watching the North China plain give way to loess country. Tickets, platform and car navigation all handled; you just look out of the window. Evening walk in the Muslim Quarter: the city's Silk Road heritage, eaten rather than read about.

The detail that makes it work: rail tickets are real-name and booked the moment advance sales open, with names entered exactly as your passport's machine-readable line — no spaces, no middle-name improvisations. Your big suitcase doesn't need to fight the luggage rack: we send it hotel-to-hotel and you board with an overnight bag.
Terracotta warriors up close in Pit 1, Xi'an
Pit 1 — we build the day around the army, not around a gift shop.
Day 5

Xi'an — the Terracotta Army

Two thousand years of an emperor's afterlife project, with real time to look — Pit 1's ranks, the generals, the detail no two faces share. Then back to the city for the Ming wall by bike in the last of the light. Dinner is a dumpling house where the queue is locals.

The detail that makes it work: most tours sprint the site in two hours because their schedule needs the afternoon for a factory showroom. Ours doesn't — the day is built around the pit, and the city wall is timed for when the heat drops and the light turns. There is no showroom in this plan. There is never a showroom in any plan.
The Lujiazui skyline lit up at night, seen from the Bund
Day 6, dusk — the 21st century on one bank. Photo: King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Day 6

To Shanghai — one river, two centuries

Morning flight (or rail, if you prefer the ground-level view — it takes the difference out of the day, and some people love it). Arrive, check in, and be at the Bund for dusk: the twenty-first century lighting up on one bank, the nineteenth holding its own on the other.

The detail that makes it work: we time the day backwards from sunset. The lights come on at a fixed hour; the riverside walk, the photo stop and the dinner reservation are all anchored to it — so you watch the city switch on, instead of arriving to a skyline that's been lit for hours.
Yu Garden's Ming-dynasty pavilion with the Shanghai Tower rising behind it
Ming pavilion, supertall backdrop — the Shanghai story in one frame. Photo: Stefan Fussan, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Day 7

Shanghai — yesterday and today

Yu Garden and the old town in the opening hour, before the lanes fill; then the French Concession's plane-tree streets on foot — laneway houses, coffee, the Art Deco thread that runs into the Lujiazui skyline. Evening free, with our shortlist of what's worth your night.

The detail that makes it work: starting early isn't a quirk, it's the strategy — the garden at opening hour and at noon are two different places. The morning's route is a loop that finishes at the best xiaolongbao queue in the old town, timed for the first lunch seating.
Day 8

Shanghai — water and stone

Half a day in Zhujiajiao water town while the morning air is still cool on the canals — stone bridges, tea by the water, the slow version of the Yangtze delta. Evening optional: jazz at the Peace Hotel, a Shanghai institution on the Bund since 1929, with seats we hold ahead.

The detail that makes it work: Zhujiajiao rewards the first two hours after opening and punishes the rest — so it's a morning, never an afternoon. The jazz bar keeps limited seats; the reservation goes in when your dates confirm, not the week before.
Day 9

Shanghai, lived

Tai chi in Fuxing Park with the morning regulars, a wet market with your guide — the fish, the tofu man, the season's fruit — and a hands-on cooking class where lunch is what you just made. Or a free day by design, with our map of what's actually worth your hours. Your call, made the night before, not in January.

The detail that makes it work: a good plan has exactly one day you can redesign in real time — and enough slack that rain, a museum closure or a tired morning costs you nothing. Day 9 is the circuit-breaker; nothing downstream depends on it.
Day 10

Depart, unhurried

Private transfer with generous timing — Shanghai traffic is a planning input, not a surprise. Your guide checks you through to security, and we stay reachable until you're home and the luggage is too.

The detail that makes it work: departure day is planned with slack for the two things that actually go wrong — traffic and tax-refund queues — not for the terminal to be five minutes early. If you're claiming the departure tax refund on shopping, we budget the queue into pickup time.

Your version

This plan is a starting argument, not a fixed product.

What changes it

Season and weather · walking pace and knees · interests (swap 798 for tea, swap the Wall's toboggan for a second hutong morning) · hotel tier — this is costed on boutique 4-star; 5-star and heritage options reprice transparently · party size and rooming.

What doesn't

Private, always · one great thing per morning, one per afternoon · real-name bookings handled by us against triple-checks · no shopping stops, ever — see how the commission model works if you're wondering why that matters · support until you're home.

Trade partners: the same plan, priced and phrased for resale, is on the partner page — and the five lines we hold ourselves to on every ground handling job are in our DMC standard.

Make it yours

Tell us your dates, and who’s coming.

We reply within one working day with honest thoughts on routing, season and what we’d change for your party.

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