AsiaChinaChina
China's difficulty is not the sights but the operating system: a censored internet, two payment apps that run daily life, and a passport that doubles as your ticket. Two weeks for the classic three cities, the apps installed before the flight, and Golden Week avoided.
ChinaChina in a nutshell
Where to go in China
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Plan your adventure in China
Our travel routes through China
China is loved by culture seekers and backpackers alike. We recommend several routes through this country, here they are in full!
7 nights1 week, first-timer highlights
Beijing · Xian · Chengdu
Beijing's temples, Xian's Terracotta Army, and Chengdu's pandas shine in clear, mild weather before summer heat.
7 nights1 week, the Yangtze delta
Shanghai · Suzhou · Hangzhou
Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou favor clear, mild weather; avoid summer humidity and winter grey skies.
9 nights10 days, highlights plus alpine Sichuan
Beijing · Xian · Chengdu
Alpine lakes and karst peaks of Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong require autumn clarity and cool temps; avoid summer crowds.
11 nights2 weeks: the southwest, slow
Kunming · Dali · Lijiang
Yunnan highlands favor autumn: clear skies over Dali, Lijiang, and Shangri-La; spring works but avoid summer rains.
12 nights3 weeks, the Silk Road west
Xian · Lanzhou · Zhangye Danxia
Desert sections of Dunhuang and Kashgar escape brutal summer heat in spring or autumn; winter is too cold.
14 nights2 weeks, the imperial north and the delta
Beijing · Datong · Pingyao
Luoyang's peonies peak late March; otherwise spring or autumn suit Beijing's temples and Shanghai's museums equally.
19 nights3 weeks: north to south, nature-heavy
Beijing · Chengdu · Jiuzhaigou
Spans climate zones from Beijing to Hong Kong; autumn offers consistent clarity from Jiuzhaigou's peaks to Yangshuo's karst.
21 nights3 weeks: first-timer, north to south
Beijing · Pingyao · Xian
North-to-south span works best in shoulder seasons; autumn avoids Golden Week crowds and gives consistent clear weather.
23 nights4 weeks: Beijing to Hong Kong, backpacker
Beijing · Pingyao · Xian
Long route needs sustained good weather; autumn delivers clear skies, autumn colour, and avoids peak summer crowds.
Updated August 2026 · 14 min read · Written by the Stippl editorsWe looked at how travellers actually plan China on Stippl, across 113,000+ planned stops in China.
Two or three regions joined by high-speed rail is how China gets planned, and most stops get 2 nights. Beijing takes 16.1% of every Chinese stop planned on Stippl, with the Wall on its doorstep, and the classic trio adds Xi'an for the Terracotta Army and Shanghai for the Bund; beyond them the named things are Chengdu's pandas and hot pot, the karst corridor of the Li River between Guilin and Yangshuo, Zhangjiajie's sandstone pillars, Lijiang's Naxi old town under the snow mountain and Chongqing's vertical streets. Hong Kong is a separate jurisdiction with its own currency and entry rules.
China is a leg of a longer Asian trip for most people, and it is planned around the domestic holidays rather than the weather. Only 25.3% of China trips planned on Stippl carry no other country, with Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan the usual companions, and most travellers plan about 82 days ahead, which is what the train tickets, released exactly thirty days out and bound to the passport, allow.
Install Alipay, WeChat, a VPN and a translation app before the flight, carry the passport everywhere, and book the headline sights on their timed entries. English is scarce enough that translation apps do most of the talking. Skip Chinese New Year and the first week of October, when the whole country travels at once, and skip Badaling for the Wall, because the wild sections are empty and the restored one is not.
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Download the appWho China is for
History buffs
Few countries offer a continuous, visitable record on this scale: the Terracotta Army, thirteen dynastic capitals, Buddhist caves carved from the fourth century and the Wall.
Foodies
Chinese food does not survive contact with the country; Sichuan, Cantonese and Xi'an cooking have almost nothing in common, and the eight great cuisines are separate worlds.
Travellers who plan
Timed entry, visitor quotas and advance booking are the norm at the headline sights, and the country rewards organisation far more than spontaneity.
Nature travellers
The most consistent surprise is the landscape: karst rivers, turquoise alpine lakes, sandstone pillars, rice terraces and Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Solo travellers and women
One of the safest countries to travel alone; the discomfort is being stared at and photographed, not danger.
Multi-country planners
Only 25.3% of China trips planned on Stippl carry no other country, with Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan the usual companions.
Rail-loving travellers
The high-speed network is a destination in itself, and the sleeper classes are the last of the great long-distance train cultures.
Maybe not for you: travellers who want zero admin, since registration, passport checks and app setup are unavoidable; anyone expecting a backpacker scene, since the old hubs are now domestic mass tourism; and anyone who needs to be understood without an app
The best time to visit China
Spring
March to May
The strongest window: clear skies in the north, comfortable temperatures nationwide, blossom and peony season, before the summer rains, with Labour Day week in early May as the one crowd to dodge.
Summer
June to August
Hot, humid and crowded with domestic travellers in the cities and at the headline sights; the exceptions worth travelling for are the Tibetan plateau, Yunnan's highlands and Inner Mongolia's grasslands.
Autumn
September and October
The consensus favourite: dry, clear, cooler, with autumn colour in the parks, and the one thing to plan around is Golden Week in the first week of October.
Winter
November to February
Cold and often smoggy in the north, mild in the far south, the cheapest season, and the only one for Harbin's ice city; Chinese New Year closes the country for a fortnight.
- Most travellers plan China about 82 days ahead on Stippl, and 24.2% book half a year out. Train tickets release exactly thirty days ahead and the headline sights sell timed slots, so the shape of the trip is fixed early and the tickets late.
- The three domestic holiday blocks matter more than the weather. Chinese New Year, Golden Week in October and Labour Day in May each make transport and accommodation genuinely hard, and the fortnight around New Year closes businesses outright.
- Air quality is a season-independent factor in the north and the industrial cities. Worst in winter, it can grey out views for days, so Beijing's Wall day is planned with a spare day behind it.
- The regional climate spread is extreme. The same trip can need shorts and a down jacket, since Harbin and Kunming share nothing but a calendar, and the Tibetan plateau is cold in July.
- Kunming is the Spring City for a reason. A mild year-round climate makes Yunnan the shoulder-season option when the rest of the country is too hot or too cold, and the gateway to Lijiang and the gorge.
- 30% of Chinese stops planned on Stippl are a single night, and most get 2. The high-speed rail is why: Beijing to Xi'an in five hours and Xi'an to Chengdu in three turns the classic circuit into a chain of short stops.
Add your China dates and we'll flag the weather per stop
Stippl shows the season, crowds and prices for every place on your route.
Festivals, and when to avoid them
Chinese New Year
The largest annual human migration on earth: the official holiday runs about eight days, travel chaos spans two weeks either side, and many businesses close outright. Avoid it unless the family celebrations are the point.
Golden Week
National Day week, when the entire country travels at once; trains and the headline sights sell out, prices spike and the queues at the Wall and the Bund run for hours. Book the fortnight before or after.
Labour Day
A shorter version of the same problem, busy but more manageable, with the spring window either side of it the best weeks of the year. Book the trains the day they release.
Mid-Autumn Festival
A three-day holiday of mooncakes and family reunions that fills the trains for the weekend and often runs straight into Golden Week; treat the two as one busy fortnight.
Qingming
Tomb-sweeping day, a three-day holiday and a domestic travel bump in the middle of the spring window, with the trains full for the long weekend.
Harbin Ice and Snow Festival
Ice harvested from the Songhua River and carved into an illuminated city, at minus twenty; the one reason to be in the far north in winter, and the hotels price for it.
Luoyang Peony Festival
The city has been associated with peonies since the Tang dynasty, and the gardens and the Longmen caves fill for the month; book Luoyang's rooms ahead or day-trip from Xi'an.
Qingdao Beer Festival
The country's largest beer event, a fortnight of tents on the coast in the brewery city, with the seaside hotels full and the rest of the country in its summer crowd.
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Things to do in China
A wild section of the Great Wall
Jinshanling, Jiankou, Gubeikou or Simatai, where the Wall is unrestored and empty, two to three hours from Beijing; skip Badaling, which is restored and never empty.
The Terracotta Army
About 8,000 individually modelled figures guarding the first emperor's tomb outside Xi'an, found by farmers digging a well in 1974, on a booked slot from the city.
A morning at the Chengdu Panda Base
Go at opening, when the pandas are fed and awake; by afternoon they are asleep, and the base is a metro ride from the teahouses of the centre.
The Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo
Four hours through the karst corridor, the landscape printed on the twenty-yuan note, then bicycles and bamboo rafts between the peaks around Yangshuo.
Jiuzhaigou's turquoise lakes
Alpine water so mineral-clear it looks retouched, in northern Sichuan, on a daily visitor quota that is booked ahead in the autumn colour weeks.
Trekking Tiger Leaping Gorge
Two to three days high above the Yangtze in Yunnan, between Lijiang and Shangri-La, with guesthouses along the trail and the snow mountain across the river.
What to eat in China
lacquered roast duck, skin first with sugar, then rolled in pancakes
a simmering broth in the table, often split mild and numbing, cooked at your seat
a savoury breakfast crêpe with egg, chilli, spring onion and crisp wonton
soup dumplings, eaten carefully
steamed or fried dumplings, the northern staple
shredded stewed meat in a flatbread, often called China's oldest sandwich
hand-pulled belt-wide noodles with chilli and cumin
hand-pulled noodles in clear beef broth, the national fast food
small steamed and fried plates eaten with tea
tofu in a numbing chilli and bean sauce
cumin-heavy grilled skewers, the standard late-night food
candied hawthorn on a stick
Discover food spots in Stippl
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Chinese customs and what not to do
Face matters
Confucian values still shape interactions: respect for age, keeping harmony, and mianzi, which means avoiding public embarrassment for anyone involved, including yourself.
You will be photographed
Being stared at, photographed without being asked or asked to pose is common outside the biggest cities and is done without embarrassment; uncomfortable rather than hostile.
Politics is the danger
Tiananmen, Tibet and Taiwan are best left alone, in person and online, and the one conversation that can genuinely go wrong.
Temples are in use
Working religious sites rather than monuments, so dress modestly, keep quiet and ask before photographing inside, in mosques as much as in Buddhist halls.
Walk past the crowd
Queueing is long and constant at every major sight and domestic tourists dominate the numbers; a few hundred metres further than the crowd usually buys solitude.
Different norms, not rudeness
Loud burping, spitting and sneezing surprise Western visitors and read as different habits rather than as offence.
Do
- Carry your passport at all times; it is your ID for trains, hotels and many museums
- Register your stay within 24 hours, or make sure the hotel has done it
- Install Alipay, WeChat, DiDi, Baidu Maps and a translation app before you fly
- Accept and offer things with two hands
- Go to a public park at sunrise at least once
Don't
- Photograph government buildings, military sites or police
- Raise Tiananmen, Tibet or Taiwan
- Assume a VPN can be downloaded after you land; it cannot
- Expect Badaling to be worth the trip
- Tip; it is neither expected nor encouraged
What a China trip costs
Budget
€24–49
A hostel dorm, street food and noodle shops, hard-seat and slow trains, the free parks and the metro.
Mid-range
€55–95
A private hostel room or a budget hotel, restaurant meals, second-class high-speed rail, the headline tickets.
High-end
€115+
Comfortable hotels, business-class rail, guided access to the Wall and the Army, hot pot with a private room.
Track what you actually spend
Set a daily budget per country and log expenses in any currency while you travel.
Visas, SIM cards and getting around
Entry & visa
Visa-free for many, renewed yearly
EU, UK and Canadian passports enter visa-free for up to 30 days under an exemption renewed year to year, so check before booking; US and Australian passports need a visa.
Money
Alipay or WeChat, foreign card linked
Mobile payment is the default rather than an option, and both apps accept a linked foreign Visa or Mastercard without a Chinese bank account. Carry some cash as backup.
Connectivity
VPN and eSIM before you fly
The firewall blocks Google, WhatsApp, Instagram and most Western sites, so a VPN goes on the phone at home, and an eSIM gives data on landing.
Getting around
High-speed rail, bound to your passport
The network links every city here in a few hours, tickets release thirty days ahead tied to the passport, and most foreigners book through an agent app.
Health
Nothing required, boosters advised
No vaccinations are required for entry. Hepatitis A and the standard boosters are the usual advice, and travel insurance covers the hospital that will want payment up front.
Water
Boil it or buy it
Tap water is not drinkable on the mainland. Hotels and trains supply boiling water, and the corridor tap is a fixture of every long-distance train.
Tipping
None, and it confuses people
There is no tipping culture on the mainland; it is neither expected nor encouraged and mostly causes confusion, with Hong Kong the exception.
Power & plugs
Three plug types, 220 volts
The same voltage as Europe, so Europeans need only a plug adapter; sockets take flat two-pin, round two-pin and the angled three-pin.
Language
Mandarin, apps do the rest
English is genuinely scarce, including in Beijing, and the writing system gives no foothold. Translation apps carry most conversations, started by locals as readily as by you.
Mandarin worth knowing
Nobody expects you to speak the language, which is exactly why a handful of words goes so far.
nǐ hǎo
Hello · 你好
xièxiè
Thank you · 谢谢
duìbùqǐ
Sorry, or excuse me · 对不起
duōshǎo qián
How much is it? · 多少钱
bù là
Not spicy, the most useful two syllables in Sichuan · 不辣
mǐfàn
Rice, ordered separately · 米饭
wǒ bù chī ròu
I don't eat meat · 我不吃肉
xǐshǒujiān zài nǎlǐ
Where is the toilet? · 洗手间在哪里
huǒchē zhàn
Railway station, for the taxi driver · 火车站
gānbēi
Cheers, and it means empty the glass · 干杯
China questions, answered
One or two, joined by high-speed rail: the classic trio of Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai takes ten to fourteen days, and Sichuan, Yunnan or Guangxi add a week each. Most travellers give a Chinese stop 2 nights on Stippl, so lay the stops out that way, then ask people who have been, in subreddits like r/chinatravel.
Usually not: only 25.3% of the China trips planned on Stippl carry no other country, and Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan are the usual companions. Decide which neighbours are in before fixing the Chinese leg, because the visa-free scheme counts days in mainland China only, and Hong Kong is a separate entry.
Dutch, British, Canadian and most EU passports enter visa-free for up to 30 days for tourism under a scheme that has been renewed year to year rather than made permanent, so check it before booking. US and Australian passports still need a visa applied for ahead, and Hong Kong has its own rules.
Yes, if you want Google, WhatsApp or Instagram, and it must be bought and installed before you arrive, because the VPN sites are blocked from inside. An eSIM from home often routes around the firewall, and the translation and payment apps work without one.
Tickets release exactly thirty days ahead and are bound to your passport, so a name on the booking is the name at the gate. The official app needs a Chinese bank card, so most foreigners use an agent app for a small fee, and most travellers plan China about 82 days ahead on Stippl, which is when the shape is fixed and the tickets are not.
Yes, by every account, and one of the safest countries for solo travellers including women. Pickpocketing at crowded sights is the practical risk, the drug laws and political conversation are the ones to take seriously, and being stared at outside the big cities is uncomfortable rather than dangerous.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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