- Route Plan

  This travel has always been in our sights, even if only for the Great Wall. When looking at an itinerary to visit the country's highlights, we immediately realized that there was too much to see and we were going to need more than one trip to China. So, we split the visits into two: one trip focused on the northern part of the country, clearly based in Beijing, and another through the southern part, including more outlying places like Hong Kong or Taiwan, where there is a wonder from our list.

  Here we are looking at the first trip, which, in an initial sketch, started from Beijing towards Xi'an, from there to Chengdu, and then we would take the Three Gorges cruise from Chongqing. Upon finishing the cruise, we would head towards Shanghai, where the itinerary would end.

  When looking more closely at the National Parks, we saw that we had to include Zhangjiajie at the very least, an area that has several sites to see. This is a place that is also within easy reach from where the cruise ends and allows a direct flight back to Beijing to close the loop. To make room for Zhangjiajie, we moved Shanghai to the second trip.

  The final change came once we had our available days and saw how tight the itinerary was. Looking at the places to visit in more detail, we found more things to see in Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, and even in the Zhangjiajie area. The solution was to remove the cruise, which took up four days on its own and whose excursions we could see required a certain amount of physical effort and were not worth it compared to the new visits.

  With that change, we were able to relax the pace at each point and add visits as important as the Leshan Giant Buddha from Chengdu or the fantastic towns of Fenghuang and Furong from Zhangjiajie.
Our itinerary in China
  So, our route through China, which starts with an afternoon arrival in Beijing, looks like this:

 1: Arrival in Beijing
 2: Tour to Great Wall in Mutianyu.
 3: Train from the capital to Xi'an.
 4: Train to Chengdu, with trips to Panda Center and the Great Buddha in Leshan.
 5: Tren a Chongqing y visita de la ciudad.
 6: Train to Fenghuang spending a night there.
 7: Train to Zhangjiajie with trips to Furong, Mount Tianmen and the National Park.
 8: Flight back to Beijing with visit to the city center.

  On the map appears in red the flight routes and in blue the train ones.

   So, the definitive route plan (númber of day and where we'll sleep), is the following, starting by May 10th of 2026:

1 y 2: Beijing
3: Xi'an
4 y 5: Chengdu
6 y 7: Chongqing
8: Fenghuang
9 y 10: Zhangjiaje
11 y 12: Beijing
13: Flight

  With this, the total budget of this travel is around 2600€, about 1300€ per person.

- Flights

  In our search for flights from Barcelona, we found that an old friend offered us the best value for money: Qatar Airways. So, we chose the most convenient schedules for us. The flights purchased from Qatar Airways look like this, for 636€ per person:

05/09/2026   BCN    11:35          DOH    18:50
05/09/2026   DOH    23:10          PKX    12:00  +1
05/22/2026   PKX     11:40         DOH    15:45
05/23/2026   DOH    18:35          BCN    23:30

  We only have one domestic flight on this trip and only one airline that offers it: China Air. The price shown looked too high for a hour-and-a-half flight in China, as it came out to about 200€ per person. We waited until we got closer to the flight date and, finally, just two months in advance, we bought it for 140€.

  This would be our domestic flight with Air China, from Zhangjiajie to Beijing by 140€ per person:

05/20/2026   DYG   17:15         PKX    19:40

  With this, we have a total expense on flights of 1,552€. As usually happens in Asia, it is the biggest expense of the trip.


- Hotels

  We started looking for hotels in order, prioritizing location since the prices allow for it.
   
  Therefore, the first one to be booked had to be for the first two nights in Beijing. We chose the Nostalgia Hotel (Beijing Prince Gong's Mansion) for its central and northern location, which offers quick exits both to Mutianyu and to the West Railway Station, where we need to go right after checking out. Another reason for choosing it was that they allow us to pay in advance and, based on the comments, they have English speaking staff. Those are important conditions for us for our first hotel since we want to deal with any issues that might arise with the payment systems we will have to use in China. We paid 129€ per night, making a total of 258€.

  The next destination will be Xi'an, where we will spend only one night. Although the obvious visit in that city is the Terracotta Warriors, since it is on the outskirts, the location we are looking for is within the walled city in the city center, where the other attractions are concentrated. We chose the Xi'an Bell Tower South Gate Manxin Hotel, for which we paid 35€ for that night.

  The next place of the trip is in Chengdu, where we will stay for two nights. We also looked in the center and ended up choosing the Yinxitang Suites Hotel, halfway between the Wenshu Monastery and People's Park. In total, it comes to 132€, which we will pay there. It's 66€ per night.

   After Chengdu, we are going to Chongqing, where we will also stay for two nights. We looked for hotels from which you could see the Saturday drone show. So, we checked the area where the two rivers meet and the Hongya Cave area. We ended up choosing the Chongqing Milky Way Hotel; although we will have to go outside to get a good view of the drone show. It is well connected to the main attractions too. We paid 50€ per night, totaling 100€.

  We will make a stop in a town preserved just as it was several centuries ago, which has become an attraction in itself. Here, we just have to choose one from the wide range of riverside accommodations. We ended up choosing the Fenghuang Story Hotel and paid 53€ for the night we will spend there.

  Afterward, we will base ourselves in Zhangjiajie to explore different attractions in the area. We booked two nights at the Days Hotel by Wyndham, right next to the 72 Wonder Tower so we can see the place both by day and by night. We paid 86€ in total, which is 43€ per night.

  The final stay will be back in Beijing. Since the star attractions on this occasion will be the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, we looked for hotels near those sights. We will end up paying 150€ once we arrive there for the two nights we will spend at the Beijing Xinqiao Hotel.

  This makes the total spending on hotels to be about 814€. Split by the 12 nights we will spend in China, it gives us an average expense of about 68€ per night. Considering that we have chosen high-end hotels with good locations, it seems to offer great value for money.


-Rental Car

  We are not going to rent a car du4ring this travel through China.


-Other expenses

  We used Trip.com for the transfers we booked. The only train tickets we bought in advance are for our first trip on the high-speed train, which will take place between Beijing West station and Xi'an North. We paid 79€ per person for our second-class seats.

  Other transfers are to the two points of the Great Wall of China that we are going to visit on different days. For Mutianyu, we paid 70€ in total, and for the night visit to Badaling, 72€; both include round-trip journeys.

  We have also booked a vehicle to pick us up upon arrival at Beijing airport to take us to our first hotel for 23€ in total.

   Detailed plan, then, is like this:

MAY
Day Night Morning Afternoon
10 Beijing Flight Beijing
11 Beijing Mutianyu Mutianyu
12 Xi'an train Xi'an
13 Chengdu Xi'an Chengdu
14 Chengdu Panda center Leshan
15 Chongqing Chengdu train
16 Chongqing Chongqing Chongqing
17 Fenghuang Chongqing Fenghuang
18 Zhangjiajie Fenghuang Furong
19 Zhangjiajie Zhangjiajie Zhangjiajie
20 Beijing Tianmen Flight
21 Beijing Beijing Badaling
22 Home Flight Flight