Guilin, Zhangjiajie or Chengdu: which far destination is worth adding to a China trip?
For Australians with ten days or more who want one 'wow' beyond Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an: how far each is from Shanghai, how many days it needs, what it is actually like (the Li River, the Avatar pillars, the pandas and Sichuan food), who each suits, the best months, the crowd reality, and our ranking by traveller type.
Once the classic Shanghai and Beijing route is planned, the next question from guests with time to spare is which of the famous landscapes to add: the karst peaks of Guilin, the stone pillars of Zhangjiajie, or Chengdu with its pandas and its food. Each is a two-to-three-hour flight from Shanghai, each needs three days to be worth it, and they suit different people. This is how we compare them for clients, with the honest crowd and fitness notes.
At a glance
| Guilin and Yangshuo | Zhangjiajie | Chengdu | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The draw | Karst peaks along the Li River; rice paddies; cycling and bamboo rafts | Thousands of sandstone pillars (the “Avatar mountains”); the glass bridge; cable cars and lifts | Giant pandas; Sichuan food; teahouses; day trips to the Leshan Buddha |
| From Shanghai | 2.5 h flight | 2 h flight | 3 h flight |
| Days needed | 3 | 3 | 3 (4 with Leshan or Emei) |
| Walking | Easy to moderate; cycling optional | Stairs; a lot of them, though lifts and cable cars do the big climbs | Easy |
| Best months | April to May, September to November | April to May, September to November; avoid July and August storms | March to June, September to November |
| Crowds | Heavy on the river cruise and in Yangshuo town; light in the villages | Very heavy at the famous viewpoints on holidays; manageable midweek | Panda base busy by 10 am; otherwise relaxed |
| With young children | Yes: rafts, bikes, a gentle pace | Only with a carrier and patience | Yes: pandas, parks, soft food |
| With older parents | Yes, by boat and car | Difficult beyond the cable car viewpoints | Yes |
Guilin and Yangshuo
The landscape on the back of the 20-yuan note: limestone peaks rising straight out of flat rice fields and a slow green river. The classic experience is the Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo, four hours on a boat through the best stretch, which is wonderful and crowded; the better version for many is to skip the big boat and take a bamboo raft (now motorised, still quiet) on the Yulong River near Yangshuo, or cycle the lanes between the peaks. Yangshuo town itself has become a backpacker and domestic-tourist strip; stay in a guesthouse in the villages outside it, among the fields.
Add a day for the Longji rice terraces two hours north, where the hillsides are sculpted into stairways of paddy, or for the cormorant fishermen at dusk (a staged show now, but a beautiful one). Three days is right: one for the river, one for the countryside by bike or car, one for the terraces.
Who it suits: families, couples, anyone who wants scenery without stairs, photographers, first-timers who want the “China” of the paintings. It is the gentlest of the three.
Zhangjiajie
The forest park in Hunan that inspired the floating mountains in Avatar: thousands of quartz-sandstone pillars, some hundreds of metres tall, with pines on top and mist between them. It is one of the most dramatic landscapes on earth and the most logistically demanding of the three. The park is huge, with several areas reached by shuttle bus, a 300-metre outdoor Bailong lift up a cliff face, cable cars, and viewpoint trails that are mostly stairs. The Tianmen Mountain cable car and its glass walkways, and the glass bridge across a canyon, are separate sites and separate days.
The crowds at the famous viewpoints on Chinese holidays are the worst of any site in this guide, with queues of hours for the lift; midweek outside holidays it is manageable, and early mornings in the park are quiet. Fog can hide everything for a day; three days gives you the odds. Fitness matters: the lifts and cable cars do the big climbs, but a day in the park is still several thousand steps.
Who it suits: fit adults and teenagers, photographers, anyone for whom “dramatic” beats “gentle”. Not for prams, not for most people over seventy, not for the holiday weeks.
Chengdu
The capital of Sichuan and the easiest city in this list: flat, relaxed, famous for its teahouses, its food and its pandas. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on the edge of the city is the reason most people come; go at opening when the pandas are fed and active, and leave by mid-morning when they sleep and the crowds arrive. Dujiangyan panda base, an hour out, is quieter and runs keeper programmes.
Then the city: People’s Park teahouse with the ear-cleaners and the mahjong, the Wenshu Monastery and its vegetarian restaurant, the Jinli and Kuanzhai old streets (touristy, fun in the evening), Sichuan opera with the face-changing act, and the food: hotpot, mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, kung pao chicken, the numbing-hot cuisine that bears little resemblance to Australian “Sichuan”. Day trips: the Leshan Giant Buddha, 71 metres tall, an hour by train, or Mount Emei, the Buddhist mountain with its monkeys and temples, for a longer day or a night.
Who it suits: families (pandas, parks, soft food for the children and the fiery stuff for the adults), food travellers, older parents, anyone who wants a city rather than a hike. Three days; four with Leshan.
Our ranking, by traveller
- Families with children under twelve: Chengdu, then Guilin. Zhangjiajie waits until the children are teenagers.
- Couples and friends who walk: Zhangjiajie for the drama, Guilin for the calm; if forced to choose one, most pick Zhangjiajie and are glad, then wish they had done Guilin too.
- Older parents: Guilin by boat and car, or Chengdu. See the elderly parents guide.
- Food people: Chengdu, without question.
- Photographers: Zhangjiajie at dawn, Guilin at dusk.
- Business travellers with three spare days: Chengdu, because it is a city with an airport on every route and a dinner that will be remembered.
Fitting one in
Each adds three days and two flights to a Shanghai and Beijing trip, so the realistic shapes are Shanghai 3, Beijing 3, X 3 in ten or eleven days, or Shanghai 3, Xi’an 2, X 3 for a trip that skips Beijing. Flights connect each to both Shanghai and Beijing; Chengdu also connects to Xi’an by high-speed train in about four hours, which makes Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu by rail a strong route for a second China trip. The Xi’an guide covers that leg.
We run all three as add-ons to the Shanghai to Beijing tour with the same guide-and-car model, local guides who know the early-morning routes, and the honest advice above about who should and should not attempt the stairs. Tell us who is travelling and how many days you have on the contact page, and we will say which one.
