20 day August 2026 China trip report!

Here's the day by day, if you have any questions we're happy to answer them!

We're a mid-thirties couple from Europe for context 😉

Sat 8: landed in Beijing after a Chongqing layover where we bought a CCC power bank and China Mobile SIM. The plane had an hour of delay but we still managed to get to Mutianyu for the sunset. Unfortunately there was no night tour, but opening hours were extended.

Sun 9: early start at Temple of Heaven park, then to the National Museum. The museum is HUGE! Even just the ancient China section takes hours! We managed to see the Jinsha and Sanxingdui exhibit, out of this world! Train to Datong and Didi to Hunyuan in the evening.

Mon 10: we got to Xuankong hanging temple ticket office at 5.30 to get climbing tickets but the were already 500 people there... in the end we missed them by like 10 people... still cool to see from below. Since we were done early we went to see the Fogong pagoda before going to Yungang grottoes. Train to Pingyao in the evening, night stroll in Pingyao.

Tue 11: early Didi to Mianshan. The site is very large but buses, cableways and elevators speed things up considerably. If you're motivated and have a full day you could see it all. We missed just a few things because we had a train to Xi'an and were tired 😅, but we could have done more.

Wed 12: the original plan was going to Songshan to do the hike towards the Shaolin temple, but there was a typhoon a few days earlier that caused a lot of rain so it was closed. We managed to swap the plan for Friday, which was Xi'an and the terracotta army. The Xi'an mosque was super cool and the terracotta army is truly a wonder, but we missed the emperor's mausoleum site since we didn't know how to get to it (it was late so maybe shuttles were not operating?). Afterwards Didi to Huashan.

Thu 13: Huashan was also hit by heavy rain but only hiking trails were closed. We took the north cableway up, and the west down. There were a bunch of low clouds in the morning, fortunately they cleared by the afternoon.

Fri 14: Songshan was still closed so we had to figure out another destination and chose Maijishan. Time was a little tight since we had a train to Chengdu from Xi'an but we managed to visit the grottoes, we even got a guided tour with one special cave. If you can do as many special caves as possible, they're very worth it (but doing all of them could be expensive). We got to Chengdu around 11 pm and went to Kuanzhai expecting some nightlife but it was deserted! 😅

Sat 15: early train to Leshan. Got to the Buddha just after opening and climbed down without any queue. The path on its right was closed unfortunately, but it was still mind-blowing to see. We spent the rest of the day exploring the various temples. We also saw the Oriental Buddha capital, but it's all new carvings so it can absolutely be skipped. In the evening we got to Chongqing just in time for the drone show, and are hotpot at Hongyadong afterwards.

Sun 16: we wanted to see a stone forest but couldn't fit Kunming, so we found out there's one near Chongqing called Wansheng, which is older than Kunming. It's pretty unknown, so we asked our Didi driver is he could wait for us, it cost 300 yuan (maybe could have been less if we wanted to haggle). Afterwards train to Zhangjiajie, but before checking into our hotel in Wulingyuan we visited Furong in the evening.

Mon 17: Zhangjiajie line B. We spent a total of 14 hours in the park, the weather was perfect thankfully! We only had one day and it's impossible to see everything, please follow everyone's advise and schedule 2 or 3 days.

Tue 18: Tianmenshan line B. Heaven's gate was visible in the morning but the rest of the mountain was covered by clouds most of the rest of the day. We still managed to do the whole tour by early afternoon. Train to Tongren in the evening, before that we visited Dayong "ancient" city, just a kitschy tourist trap.

Wed 19: Fanjingshan. We had managed to get tickets through trip, but just for 11 am. We got there a bit earlier and they let us through, probably since we were foreigners. We had a Chinese SIM so we could reserve the climbing spot, but we had thousands before us. We explored the other temples, they were all covered in mist and clouds most of the time. Amazingly the weather cleared up a few minutes while we were climbing the red summit. Then it at started raining 😅. If you don't have a Chinese SIM we found out that asking at the info point at Cheng'en temple they give you a qr code that lets you climb right away... 🙄. Train to Guiyang in the evening.

Thu 20: we slept at Guiyang the night before so we could take an early train to Guilin and manage to do the cruise. Amazing, amazing views, and we were lucky with the weather. Sanjie Liu show in the evening.

Fri 21: the weather spoiled a bit, but still we managed to do the hot air balloon (tethered), and Ruyi peak. In the afternoon we went to Reed Flute cave (the extra ticket for the attraction inside is not worth it). Then we had a night train to Shangrao.

Sat 22: we got to Shangrao at 6 am, stored our luggage at the train station and went to Sanqingshan. Beautiful mountain. The weather was not great but then it cleared up. In the late afternoon we took a train to Huangshan.

Sun 23: Huangshan. The worst weather for the most beautiful (allegedly) mountain. Just very unlucky... we got only a few glimpses. The weather and the crowds pushed us to cut our visit short and take an earlier train to Zhengzhou.

Mon 24: early train to Longmen grottoes, which were cool but not as amazing as Yungang or Maijishan. Then we went to the Shaolin temple. We saw the Kung Fu show with VIP tickets (which just means you get to choose your seat before everyone else. There were some VVIP seats but we don't know how to get tickets for those). After a visit to the temples we took the Songshan cableway up to the mountain. Fortunately the cliffs are very near so we managed to see them. Sanhuang palace seems near but it was actually too far for us, we just made it to the suspension bridge and back in the time we had. Train to Beijing in the evening.

Tue 25: early train to Chengde. We started with Putuo, then Xumi, Puning, Pule, then up to hammer peak and finally the mountain resort. Unfortunately we just managed to get to the pagoda before it started raining. Train back to Beijing.

Wed 26: forbidden city. It took us around 8 hours to do the full tour. Rain once again in the morning, but then it cleared just enough for some nice photos. Lama temple afterwards just before it closed. Siji Minfu dinner (de-li-ci-ous) and then Nanluogo hutong.

Thu 27: the summer palace. No rain but it was cloudy, still better than being under the hot sun. We did the north tour without the ferry since we had our plane back at 5 pm. We got to Chongqing for our layover at 8 pm, the next flight was at 2.40 am, so we decided to take one last walk around Hongyadong.

All in all an amazing trip! Even though the itinerary was packed we still only managed to scratch the surface... we'll absolutely be back! 😁