TripInfoHub

TripInfoHub's ten-day China guide counts day one as arrival and day ten as departure. Its four-city route goes through Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an and Beijing, with transfers on days three, five and seven. That leaves one full sightseeing day at each of the first three stops and two main sightseeing days in Beijing.

This is the most useful detail in the guide. A list of four cities can make a trip sound more spacious than the calendar allows. TripInfoHub puts the moves into the schedule and includes things to leave out, giving a first-time visitor a concrete way to judge the pace.

The same guide offers Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai as one slower route, or Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing as another. These are alternatives to the four-city plan, with fewer transfers and more time at the remaining stops.

For someone choosing between one more city and an extra day in a place, the comparison is more helpful than a single fixed itinerary. The guide also asks readers to count travel door to door, including station or airport and hotel transfers. A train's running time alone is not the time taken out of the day.

The guide links to China Railway and official attraction sources for the Palace Museum, Panda Base and Terracotta museum. It recommends checking attraction reservations before settling hotel and transport plans. Those links give readers somewhere to check the plan against current booking details.

The route is a planning framework, with no booked connections behind it. Transport and attraction availability can change what fits. The guide also makes clear that an itinerary does not establish visa eligibility.