6 Days in Shanghai and Beyond

Six days: this is where Beijing finally makes sense

Everything up to five days on this site keeps you within a couple of hours of Shanghai. Six days is the shortest length where a proper Beijing add-on stops being a bad idea, because the fastest G-trains cover Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing South in about 4 hours 18 minutes and the Forbidden City and Great Wall genuinely want two full days once you arrive, not a rushed afternoon. Everything before that trip is the setup: land, sort the visa and money, then two short rail hops before the long one.

Sort your visa scheme first, because the two options genuinely differ. The 240-hour visa-free transit covers a wide list including the US and UK, but needs a confirmed onward ticket to a third country, and the clock starts at midnight the day after immigration. The separate 30-day unilateral waiver has no onward-ticket condition and as of 2026 covers roughly 50 countries, but the United States is not on it, Americans default to the transit option. Check which applies to you before you build the rest of this trip around either one.

Book these before you go:

  • A base near Hongqiao or People’s Square - check rates on Agoda .
  • Your Suzhou garden time - browse Suzhou garden tours if you’d rather not build the route yourself.
  • The Beijing rail hop and Forbidden City timed entry - both fill up around holidays.

Day 1: Arrival and orientation

  • Land at Pudong (PVG). Metro Line 2 runs direct downtown in roughly 60-70 minutes for about Y7-8; the Maglev only reaches Longyang Road station, so it’s a novelty ride, not a genuine shortcut, and its famous 431km/h top speed has been throttled since 2021 regardless.
  • Walk the Bund for free orientation, then spend the afternoon in the French Concession, no fixed plan required. Come back after dark, roughly 7 to 10pm, for the lit-up Pudong skyline. This day barely scratches the city itself, so if Shanghai is your real target rather than a launchpad, follow the deeper in-city plan in the Shanghai guide instead.
  • If six days feels tight for both Shanghai and a Beijing run, the 5-day version keeps the hop shorter, and the 7-day version gives Beijing room to breathe.
  • Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with a foreign card before you land, both accept international Visa and Mastercard via passport verification since 2023. Install and test a VPN before departure too, since VPN provider sites are themselves blocked once you’re inside the firewall.

Day 2: Suzhou

  • The fastest G-trains from Shanghai Hongqiao reach Suzhou in as little as 23-30 minutes, 350-plus daily departures, Y21-40 second class. Confirm you’re leaving from Hongqiao Railway Station, not Shanghai Railway Station, the two stations are not interchangeable.
  • Pick one garden, the Humble Administrator’s or the Lingering, both sit close to the station, and see it properly rather than rushing both in an afternoon.

Day 3: Hangzhou

  • About 45 minutes each way, Hongqiao to Hangzhou East, Y34-120 second class, 300-plus daily departures. Metro Line 1 from Hangzhou East reaches West Lake in another 30 minutes for Y5.
  • A 9:15am departure gets you lakeside by roughly 10:25am, return trains run until about 10:30pm. This is the day trip that rewards sitting still rather than rushing between angles.

Day 4: the history Shanghai’s skyline hides

  • Morning at the Shanghai Museum on People’s Square, free entry, and since an August 2025 policy change no advance reservation needed, just walk in with your passport.
  • Afternoon at the Propaganda Poster Art Centre, tucked into an ordinary apartment building’s basement in Changning District, about Y25 entry, a genuinely unfiltered look at 20th-century political history that the rest of the city’s museums don’t attempt.
  • Pack light for tomorrow; you’re taking an overnight bag to Beijing and leaving the rest at your Shanghai hotel if it’ll hold luggage.

Day 5 and 6: Beijing, the payoff

Board a G-train from Shanghai Hongqiao in the morning, about 4 hours 18 minutes to Beijing South on the fastest services, roughly 50 departures a day, second-class fares from around Y550-630 on the quickest trains. Book through Trip.com or the official 12306 booking system and bring your passport as your ticket ID.

Day 5: the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City, ideally with a pre-booked timed entry , takes most of a day to see properly, it’s the largest palace complex on earth and rewards not rushing.

Day 6: the Great Wall

A full day at the Great Wall, either the closer, more restored Badaling section or the steeper, less crowded Mutianyu, both reachable by a couple of hours’ transit from central Beijing - book a Great Wall day tour if you’d rather not sort the transit yourself. Fly or take the evening train back to Shanghai, or continue your onward trip from Beijing directly if your itinerary allows it.

Things to know

  1. Shanghai and Beijing both run on China Standard Time, GMT+8, uniform nationwide regardless of how far a region sits from the standard meridian.
  2. Mandarin is the national language and what you’ll need for signage and transactions; Shanghainese, the actual mother tongue of many longtime Shanghai residents, is a different, mutually unintelligible dialect, worth knowing so “everyone speaks Mandarin” doesn’t read as “that’s the local language.”
  3. The metro is the fastest way around both cities. Load a transit card or use Alipay/WeChat’s transport QR code for tap-and-go fares; since June 2025, foreign contactless cards also tap directly at Shanghai Metro turnstiles with no app setup.
  4. Cash is functionally the backup option, not the plan. Alipay and WeChat Pay dominate both cities, and having one set up with a foreign card before you land avoids real friction at small vendors.
  5. Tipping isn’t expected in restaurants in either city, and rounding up is a courtesy, not an obligation.
  6. Summers are humid in Shanghai and can be oppressive by July and August; Beijing’s summer is drier but still hot, pack for both if the trip spans the season.

Tips

  1. Book the Shanghai Museum, Forbidden City timed entry, and any high-demand restaurant reservations before you land, not after.
  2. A VPN installed and tested before arrival matters more on a trip this long, since you’re relying on maps and translation apps across two cities and a five-hour train ride between them.
  3. Carry some cash for the rare vendor who won’t take mobile payment, but expect to use your phone for almost everything else in both cities.
  4. Respect photography etiquette at temples and historic sites; some spaces prohibit it entirely, and a posted sign is worth reading rather than assuming.
  5. Don’t try to add Xi’an or Guilin to this same trip. Xi’an’s fastest train alone runs 5 hours 39 minutes to 6 hours each way and wants its own two nights; Guilin’s train option is close to 9 hours and flying (2.5-3 hours) is the only sensible route there. Six days is Beijing’s trip, not everyone’s.