Beijing and Shanghai are the two halves of China most travellers want to see: the imperial capital and the commercial one, four and a half hours apart on a train that runs at three hundred kilometres an hour. Seven days is enough for both if the logistics are handled. Below is what actually needs planning.

Visa: free for Nepali citizens, but apply early

Nepal is not covered by China''s visa free arrangements, so a tourist visa must be approved before departure. The part most pages get wrong: the Chinese Embassy waived the visa fee for Nepali citizens and the waiver runs to 31 December 2026. The visa centre''s service and express charges still apply, but the visa itself is free.

Apply online, then present your passport in person at the Chinese Visa Application Service Center on Durbar Marg in Kathmandu. You need a passport valid more than six months with two clean blank pages, two recent photographs, a confirmed return ticket, hotels booked for the whole stay and a day by day itinerary. We provide the hotel confirmations and the itinerary. A bank statement is normally requested. Reckon on about a week, and give yourself two.

Fingerprinting for short stay tourist visas is currently waived, but the Kathmandu centre still asks applicants to attend in person, so confirm the position when you file. Expect single entry with a thirty day stay.

The digital arrival card

Since 20 November 2025 every visitor files a China Digital Arrival Card online, within seventy two hours of arrival, and shows the QR code at immigration. It is free, and any site charging for it is not official. Kiosks exist at the airport if you miss it, but that means queueing after a long flight. The old health declaration was abolished in 2023 and is no longer needed.

What stops working when you land

Google, Gmail, Maps, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are all blocked. For most Nepali travellers WhatsApp is the one that hurts, because it is the line home.

The clean solution is roaming rather than a VPN. Data routed through your home network is not filtered, so a roaming pack on your Nepali SIM, or a travel eSIM purchased before you fly, keeps everything working normally. If you want a VPN as well, install and test it in Kathmandu; you cannot download one inside China. WeChat works everywhere and is how your guide will contact you.

Paying for things

Two changes have made China much easier for visitors than it was three years ago.

Alipay and WeChat Pay both accept foreign Visa and Mastercard now, linked after a passport check, with no Chinese bank account required. Set up both before leaving Nepal, since acceptance varies by merchant.

And since 1 February 2026 businesses are legally obliged to accept cash and may not refuse it or price it worse. So yuan works again. Take small notes, because change is often a problem.

Your credit card is not a payment method here. Foreign cards work at better hotels and larger restaurants, and fail almost everywhere else, where terminals only handle UnionPay or the two wallets.

Your passport is your ticket, every day

Carry the physical booklet, not a photocopy. It is checked at the Forbidden City, at Tiananmen Square and at every train gate.

Tiananmen Square has needed a booked, passport linked time slot since December 2021. There is no walk up entry, no exemption for foreigners, and the reservation runs through a Chinese language mini programme that is hard to use without a Chinese phone number. The Forbidden City likewise requires advance booking under each traveller''s passport number, and closes every Monday. Both reservations are made for you as part of this tour. If you were travelling independently, this is the step that most often goes wrong.

The bullet train, and the gate that will not open

Beijing to Shanghai is 1,318 kilometres, covered in as little as four hours and eighteen minutes and typically four and a half to six depending on the service. It leaves from Beijing South and arrives at Shanghai Hongqiao. It is one of the genuine pleasures of the trip.

One practical detail: paper tickets no longer exist and you board by scanning your document, but the automatic gates were designed for Chinese identity cards. At most stations a foreign passport will not open them, so you go through the staffed manual lane. Arrive forty five minutes to an hour before departure rather than cutting it fine.

The Great Wall at Juyongguan

This tour uses Juyongguan, the pass closest to Beijing, sitting in a valley with the Wall climbing the ridge on both sides. It is quieter than Badaling and the drive is only about seventy five kilometres.

Be realistic about the climb. It is stairs, not a slope, the steps are uneven, and there is no cable car at this section. It is hard work in summer and slippery after rain. You do not have to reach a watchtower for it to be worth it. Use the handrail coming down, which is where injuries happen.

Zhujiajiao, and what the ticket covers

The water town is more than seventeen centuries old and sits about an hour from central Shanghai. Worth knowing before you go: the town itself is free to walk into and open all day. What is ticketed is the individual sites inside it, the classical gardens and the small museums, and the boat ride along the canals is separate again. Those are not included in the package, so if you want the gardens, budget a little cash for the day. Going early is the difference between a canal town and a crowd.

The factory stop

A jade workshop appears on the Great Wall day. This is a standard part of group touring in China, the demonstration is real, and there is no obligation whatsoever to buy. Prices are not better than in the shops. If you would rather skip it, tell the guide on the day.

When to go

April to May and September to November are the right windows for both cities. Two periods to avoid sit inside them.

National Day Golden Week, 1 to 7 October, is the busiest week of the Chinese year, with hundreds of millions of domestic trips. Sites, trains and hotels are all at capacity.

Chinese New Year, mid February 2026 with a nine day holiday, saturates transport for weeks either side.

Beijing is bitterly cold from December to February and the exposed Wall is unpleasant. Shanghai is hot and very humid from June to August, with typhoons possible from July to September. Beijing''s air quality has improved a great deal but is still worst in winter and the late winter dust season.

Practical notes

Tap water is not drinkable in either city. Hotels and trains have boiled water dispensers.

Check your medicine bag. Codeine and tramadol are controlled narcotics in China, and both turn up in cough syrups and combination painkillers sold freely over the counter in Nepal. Carry only what you need, in original packaging, with an English prescription letter.

Do not photograph military sites, police operations or government buildings, and keep the camera down near the security posts at Tiananmen. Drones are effectively off limits for tourists. And to be clear, this tour does not include Tibet, which requires a separate permit and its own organised tour.

Who this trip suits

First time visitors to China who want the two headline cities without rushing, and who would rather take a train than another flight. It involves a lot of walking, the Wall included. Note that there is no direct flight from Kathmandu to Beijing or Shanghai, so both ends need a connection, which is worth picturing when you look at day one and day seven.