Ten days is what China actually needs. Seven gives you two cities; ten gives you the imperial north, the Terracotta Warriors, the karst rivers of the south and a modern coastal city, which is four quite different countries in one. This guide covers what genuinely decides how the trip goes, rather than repeating the itinerary.

The visa is free for Nepali citizens

Nepal is not on China''s visa free list, so a tourist visa has to be approved before you fly. Almost no page states this correctly: the Chinese Embassy has waived the visa fee for Nepali citizens through 31 December 2026. You still pay the visa centre''s service and express charges, but the visa costs nothing.

Apply online, then hand in your passport in person at the Chinese Visa Application Service Center on Durbar Marg in Kathmandu. You need six months validity and two clean blank pages, two recent photographs, a confirmed return ticket, hotels booked for the whole stay and a day by day itinerary, which we supply. A bank statement is usually asked for. Allow about a week and plan for two. Fingerprinting for short stay tourist visas is currently waived, though the Kathmandu centre still asks you to attend, so confirm when you file. Expect single entry, thirty day stay.

The arrival card, and the form that no longer exists

Since 20 November 2025 there is a China Digital Arrival Card, submitted online in the seventy two hours before you land, with the QR code shown at the border. It is free. Sites charging for it are not the government. The old health declaration was abolished in November 2023 and is not required.

Ten days, three internal journeys

This is the part that separates a well planned China trip from an exhausting one. Beijing to Xi''an is by high speed train, about four and a half hours, which is the right choice and a pleasure in itself. Xi''an to Guilin and Guilin to Shanghai are flights, and deliberately so. There is a direct train from Xi''an to Guilin but it takes close to eleven hours and would burn an entire day of a ten day trip. The flight takes two and a half.

On the train, one detail catches every foreign traveller: paper tickets are gone and you board by scanning your document, but the automatic gates were built for Chinese identity cards. At most stations a passport will not open them, so you use the staffed manual lane. Allow forty five minutes to an hour at the station.

Carry your passport, every day, all ten days

The physical booklet, not a copy. It is scanned or checked at Tiananmen Square, at the Forbidden City, at the Terracotta Warriors and at every train gate.

Three of these need advance reservations under each traveller''s name. Tiananmen Square has required a booked, passport linked slot since December 2021, with no walk up entry and no exemption for foreigners. The Forbidden City requires advance booking and closes every Monday. And the Terracotta Warriors withdrew their physical ticket windows entirely, so booking is online only and your passport is scanned at the turnstile, with photocopies refused. We hold all three reservations for you. Independently, this is where trips come apart.

The Li River cruise, described honestly

The sail from Guilin down to Yangshuo is the most beautiful thing on this itinerary and the least predictable. It runs about eighty three kilometres and takes three to five hours depending on the water level, faster in the high water months and slower in winter.

Two honest caveats. In the low water period the sailing can be shortened or moved onto a smaller boat for part of the route, and in heavy rain or flood conditions cruises are suspended outright, in which case a bamboo raft trip on the quieter Yulong River is the usual substitute. Nobody can promise the river. Guilin''s wet season runs April to August, with May and June the wettest, and this is precisely why September to November is the stronger half of the year for this particular tour even though April and May suit Beijing and Xi''an perfectly well.

The Great Wall at Juyongguan

The tour uses Juyongguan, closest to Beijing, set in a valley with the Wall running up both ridges. Quieter than Badaling, and only about seventy five kilometres out.

Be realistic: it is stairs rather than a slope, the steps are uneven, and there is no cable car here. It is hard work in summer heat and slippery after rain. Reaching a watchtower is not the point. Use the handrail on the descent, which is where people are actually hurt.

Xi''an, briefly

The Terracotta Warriors are about forty kilometres east of the city at Lintong, so it is a genuine day trip rather than a stop in town. Three excavated pits plus the bronze chariot hall; pit one is the one everybody pictures.

The city wall is the other thing worth your time and is often undersold. It is the most complete ancient city wall left in China, fourteen kilometres around, and you can hire a bicycle at the top and ride the full circuit in an hour and a half. Bicycle hire is not included in the package but it is inexpensive and it is the best hour in Xi''an.

Money and your phone

Google, Gmail, Maps, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are blocked in China. WhatsApp is the one Nepali travellers miss most. The simple answer 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 bought before departure keeps everything working. If you want a VPN too, install and test it before you fly, because you cannot download one inside. WeChat works everywhere.

On payments, Alipay and WeChat Pay both now take foreign Visa and Mastercard after a passport check, with no Chinese bank account needed. Set both up in Kathmandu. And since 1 February 2026 businesses must legally accept cash, so yuan works again; carry small notes. Your credit card is fine at better hotels and larger restaurants but fails at street food, markets and taxis.

The factory stops

A jade workshop near the Wall and a silk workshop in Shanghai. These are a normal fixture of group touring in China, the demonstrations are genuine, and there is no obligation to buy. Prices are no better than in the shops. Say so on the day if you would rather skip them.

Dates to avoid

National Day Golden Week, 1 to 7 October, generates something like eight hundred million domestic trips and puts every site, train and hotel at capacity. It sits inside the recommended season, which is why blanket advice about autumn is misleading.

Chinese New Year, mid February 2026 with a nine day national holiday, saturates transport for weeks in both directions.

Beijing is severely cold December to February and the exposed Wall is miserable. Shanghai is hot and humid June to August with typhoons possible July to September. Beijing air quality is much improved but still worst in winter and the late winter dust season.

Small things worth knowing

Do not drink the tap water anywhere on this route. Boiled water dispensers are standard in hotels and on trains.

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

No altitude concerns anywhere on this trip. Do not photograph military sites, police operations or government buildings, and keep the camera down near the Tiananmen security posts. Leave the drone at home. And to be clear, this tour does not include Tibet, which needs a separate permit and its own organised tour.

Who this trip suits

Travellers who want the whole country rather than a sample, and who do not mind two flights and a long train inside the ten days. It is a walking heavy trip and the Wall and the city wall both reward a decent pair of shoes. There is no direct flight from Kathmandu to Beijing or Shanghai, so both ends involve a connection.