Taking elderly parents to China: pacing, access, toilets and the sights that work after seventy
A planning guide for Australians travelling to Shanghai, Beijing or Suzhou with parents in their seventies or eighties: the daytime flight, one sight a day, hotels with lifts near the metro, wheelchairs at the big sights, the Great Wall by cable car, which gardens have steps, food and medication, insurance after seventy, and a gentle four-day Shanghai plan.
Some of the best trips we run are for Australian families taking parents or grandparents to China: a father who left in 1989 seeing Shanghai again, a mother in her late seventies who always meant to go, grandparents taken to meet the relatives. They are also the trips that need the most careful planning, because the standard four-day itinerary is a 12-kilometre walking day with stairs, crowds and heat. This is how we slow it down without taking the China out of it.
The principles
- One sight a day, with a car. Not two. The second sight is where the afternoon goes wrong.
- A private car and driver every day, waiting at the gate, with the hotel as the lunch and nap option. For an older traveller this is the single biggest difference between enjoying the trip and enduring it.
- Hotels with lifts, on the flat, near a metro and a park, with a sit toilet, a shower seat if needed, and a lounge for the afternoon.
- Mornings for the sights, afternoons for rest, and dinner early. Chinese cities are at their quietest at opening time and their most crowded after 10 am.
- A guide who has done this before: who knows where the lifts are in the Forbidden City, which garden has the fewest steps, and which restaurant has a quiet table and soft food.
The flight
Choose the daytime departure from Melbourne (about 10 h 30 min, landing in the evening) rather than the overnight; the flights guide explains why. Book an aisle seat near the toilets, request wheelchair assistance at both airports if there is any doubt (it is free and it also speeds you through immigration), and plan nothing on arrival day but the hotel and dinner. The time difference is only two or three hours, so there is no real jet lag to recover from.
Hotels
A four- or five-star international hotel in Jing’an or the French Concession in Shanghai, or in Wangfujing in Beijing: lifts, wide corridors, a pool and a lounge, English at the desk, a doctor on call, and a sit toilet with grab rails on request. Courtyard hotels in the hutongs and lane-house boutiques in Shanghai are charming and full of steps; the Beijing and Shanghai guides say which to avoid. Ask for a room near the lift, a kettle, and a chair in the shower.
Access at the big sights, honestly
| Sight | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Bund | Flat promenade, ramps | Early morning or after 9 pm for space; the car drops at the north end |
| Yu Garden | Steps, narrow paths, crowds | Go at opening; the bazaar outside is flatter and the point for many |
| Suzhou gardens | Steps at every doorway, uneven stone | The Master of the Nets is smallest; the Pei museum next door is fully accessible |
| West Lake, Hangzhou | Flat causeways, boats | The boat does the distance; a wheelchair rolls the Bai Causeway |
| Forbidden City | Long and flat, with ramps at most gates; free wheelchairs at the entrance | Three hours end to end; a wheelchair and a guide make it a pleasure |
| Temple of Heaven | Flat park, steps to the main hall | The park at 8 am is the best thing in Beijing for older visitors |
| Summer Palace | Long Corridor flat; hill is steps | Take the boat across the lake and skip the hill |
| Great Wall, Mutianyu | Cable car to the wall; the wall itself is steep steps | Ride up, walk 50 metres to a tower, sit, ride down; the view is the same |
| Water towns | Bridges with steps every 100 metres | The boat; Zhujiajiao early, Wuzhen’s western area has lifts and is the most accessible |
| Disneyland | Fully accessible, wheelchairs for hire | A good day for three generations |
Wheelchairs are available free or for a deposit at the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Disneyland, the museums and most major sites; a folding travel wheelchair from Australia, used for the long flat stretches and folded into the car, is the most useful object you can bring, even for a parent who walks well at home.
Toilets
Sit toilets are in every hotel, mall, airport, train and major sight; squats appear in older public toilets and small restaurants, and the toilets guide has the detail. The practical rule for older travellers: use the hotel or the mall before setting out, and the guide plans stops at the sights’ modern blocks. Accessible “third toilets” with rails exist at the big sites and in newer public blocks.
Heat, cold and walking
Shanghai from June to September is hot and humid and the single biggest risk for anyone over seventy; plan those months as mornings only, with the pool or the museum in the afternoon, or travel in April, May, October or November instead. Beijing winters are below freezing with wind; layers, a hat, and short outdoor stretches. Daily walking on our senior itineraries is kept to three to five kilometres, in stretches of no more than 40 minutes, with somewhere to sit at the end of each.
Food and medication
Chinese food suits older palates well: congee, steamed fish, tofu, soups, soft braised dishes and dumplings; the guide tells the kitchen “less oil, less salt, no chilli” in a sentence. Breakfast at the hotel, lunch at a quiet restaurant near the sight, dinner early. Bring all medication in original packaging with a list and a doctor’s letter, enough for the trip plus a week, and keep it in the hand luggage; the healthcare guide covers pharmacies and the international clinics, which have geriatric and cardiology doctors on call.
Insurance after seventy
Travel insurance gets harder and dearer with age and with declared conditions, and some policies exclude China or cap the age at 75 or 80. Buy early, from an insurer that will cover the age and the conditions, declare everything, and keep the assistance line to hand. It is a condition of booking with us and, bluntly, the thing that turns a bad week into a manageable one if a hip or a heart plays up.
For parents born in China
A trip home after thirty or forty years away carries more than sightseeing. Build in the old neighbourhood, the former school, the relatives, and a slow afternoon in the park where the retirees play cards; these matter more than the Bund. The visiting relatives guide covers the passports and the gifts. A guide who speaks Shanghainese or the local dialect, rather than only Mandarin, is sometimes the difference for a parent whose Mandarin faded decades ago; ask us.
A gentle four days in Shanghai
| Day | Morning | Afternoon |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrive on the daytime flight; hotel | Early dinner nearby; the Bund by car for ten minutes if energy allows |
| 2 | Yu Garden at opening with a wheelchair for the bazaar, old-town snacks | Rest; the Bund promenade at dusk, flat, from the car |
| 3 | The French Concession by car with short walks: Fuxing Park, a tea house, a lane | Rest; dinner at a quiet Shanghainese restaurant |
| 4 | Zhujiajiao by car at 8.30 am, the boat, early lunch | Rest; a river cruise at dusk from a seat, or the Pei-designed museum if in Suzhou instead |
Beijing adds three days on the same pattern: the Temple of Heaven park, the Forbidden City by wheelchair with a guide, the Wall by cable car with a bench at the top, the Summer Palace by boat.
How we run these
A guide and a car every day, sights booked for opening slots, wheelchairs reserved where they exist, restaurants chosen for quiet and soft food, the hotel chosen for its lift and its lounge, and a day plan that stops at lunch. We ask about mobility, hearing, diet and medication when you enquire, and we are honest about which sights are worth the stairs. Families tell us afterwards that the parents talked about the trip for a year; the parents tell us the car was the best part.
