Chongqing
2 Nights- Check-in
- Fri, Sept 11
- Check-out
- Sun, Sept 13
Vertical city, Ciqikou, hotpot
HU728 Madrid Sept 10 → Chongqing Sept 11 · return from Shanghai
Chongqing · Yangshuo · Guilin · Wuyuan · Huangshan · Shanghai
September 11–23, 2026 · 12 nights / 13 days · as a group (leaving Madrid on the 10th)
From the vertical megacity on the Yangtze to the karst country of the Li River, the Huizhou villages of Wuyuan and the Yellow Mountain, ending in Shanghai. A trip designed to make sense at a glance: where you sleep each night, how you move each day, and what to book before anything else.
The route
Southwest → east: the route strings together mountain, river and village before ending on the coast. Click a marker to jump to its stage.
Where you sleep
Six hotels, with the check-in and check-out date of each one exactly as you must enter them when booking. Check-out is always the morning after the last night.
Flight HU728 · Madrid Sept 10, 11:05 → Chongqing (Jiangbei) Sept 11, 05:00
Vertical city, Ciqikou, hotpot
Train T1 · Chongqing West → Yangshuo · from 4 h 25 (+ 45 min bus into town)
3-night base: Yulong and Xingping with a raft on the Li
Bus Yangshuo → Guilin · direct bus ~1.5 h · ~50 CNY (or the train, 30 min)
Hinge night next to the station: the train to Shangrao leaves at 08:48
Train T3 · Guilin → Shangrao (08:48, ~6 h) + T4 · Shangrao → Wuyuan (~30 min)
"China’s most beautiful countryside"
Train T5 · Wuyuan → Huangshan North · <30 min (+ car to Tunxi)
Hongcun, Xidi and the Yellow Mountain base
Train T6 · Huangshan North → Shanghai Hongqiao · 2 h 30 – 5 h
Three city nights, with a whole free day
Flight Return flight · Wed, Sept 23 · check the airport: Hongqiao ≠ Pudong
Stage 1 · Days 1–2 · Nights 1–2 · Sept 11–12
The vertical city on the Yangtze
The table
Chongqing does not cook: it sets fire. Beef tallow, dried chilli and Sichuan pepper — málà (麻辣), which burns and numbs at the same time. Here breakfast is spicy, lunch is spicy and dinner is spicy; the split pot (yuānyāng) and the word 微辣 (wēilà, "mild") are your two lifelines.
Chongqing hotpot
重庆火锅 · chóngqìng huǒguō
A beef-tallow broth that never stops boiling. You fish things out and dip them in the yóudié (油碟), sesame oil with garlic, which douses the fire. The classics: máodǔ (毛肚, beef tripe, 7 seconds and out), yācháng (鸭肠, duck intestine) and málà niúròu (麻辣牛肉).
Xiaomian
重庆小面 · xiǎomiàn
The city’s breakfast: wheat noodles with a dozen seasonings, peanuts, pickled greens and a lake of chilli oil. With mushy peas and minced pork it becomes wānzá miàn (豌杂面). 8–15 CNY.
Hot-and-sour noodles
酸辣粉 · suānlà fěn
Translucent sweet-potato noodles in a vinegar-and-chilli broth with crushed peanuts. Street food, 10 CNY, eaten standing up and not filling.
Maoxuewang
毛血旺 · máoxuèwàng
Born right here in Ciqikou: congealed blood, tripe, pork belly and vegetables in a red chilli broth. Sounds odd, tastes exactly like this city.
Laziji chicken
辣子鸡 · làzǐjī
Nuggets of fried chicken buried in a mountain of dried chillies: the game is finding the chicken. The original comes from Gele Mountain.
Spring-water chicken
泉水鸡 · quánshuǐjī
Chicken stir-fried and then stewed in Nanshan spring water. There is an entire street devoted to it, right on the way up to day 1’s viewpoint.
Chaoshou in red oil
红油抄手 · hóngyóu chāoshǒu
Pork wontons drowned in chilli oil and Sichuan pepper (or in clear broth, if your stomach is asking for mercy). Breakfast or a quick dinner.
Douhua with rice
豆花饭 · dòuhuā fàn
Silken tofu curd, a bowl of rice and a spicy dip. The cheapest and most comforting thing you can eat here: 12–20 CNY.
Ciqikou mahua
陈麻花 · chén máhuā
A fried dough twist, crunchy and addictive; sweet, salty and spicy versions. The queue at the Chen shop is the neighbourhood’s best thermometer.
Huashi Wanza Mian 花市豌杂面
Order: wānzá miàn, and say "微辣" unless you want to cry at eight in the morning
The neighbourhood classic a step from the hotel. Opens early and closes at midday: it is breakfast, not lunch.
Hou Ci Ji Youcha 厚慈记传统油茶
Order: yóuchá (油茶): a thick rice paste with crunchy fritters, peanuts and pickles
The locals’ secret breakfast and, surprisingly, the least aggressive of the lot. Ideal on day 1, straight off the plane.
Hao You Lai Suanla Fen 好又来酸辣粉
Order: one bowl of suānlà fěn and keep walking
Central and touristy, yes — but it is the bowl everyone eats standing up before heading to Hongyadong.
Shibati Yanjing Mian 十八梯眼镜面
Order: beef noodles in red oil
For anyone who wants the loaded version. It is off-route: only if you sleep in Jiangbei.
Ciqikou street stalls 磁器口
Order: freshly fried Chen mahua, máoxuèwàng (it was born here) and mallet-pounded glutinous rice cake
Eating here means grazing, not sitting down. The good stuff is in the side lanes; the main street is souvenirs.
Yangji Longfu 杨记隆府
Order: làzǐjī and rabbit stir-fried with pickled peppers
Jianghu (truck-stop) cooking with a tablecloth and river views: the middle ground if the group would rather not sit on a plastic stool.
Jiujiu Douhua Guan 九九豆花馆
Order: dòuhuā fàn and braised pork belly
A neighbourhood canteen with zero concessions. The cheapest and most honest meal on this list.
Zenglaoyao Yuzhuang 曾老幺鱼庄
Order: garlic-and-chilli crucian carp and griddled pork ribs
Tucked under a bridge in an old air-raid shelter. The scene is worth as much as the fish.
Peijie Laohuoguo 珮姐老火锅
Order: a yuānyāng (split) pot, 毛肚, 鸭肠, 麻辣牛肉, and bīngfěn (冰粉) for dessert to put out the fire
It is on every list and still holds up. Long queue: pull a number on WeChat or turn up at 17:30.
Yuwei Xiaoyu Huoguo 渝味晓宇火锅
Order: chicken feet and brown-sugar rice cake
The one locals pick: fewer photos, more old Chongqing. If Peijie has a two-hour wait, come here.
Spring-chicken street (Nanshan) 南山泉水鸡一条街
Order: quánshuǐjī and stir-fried mountain greens
A hundred near-identical restaurants in a row. Dinner and the viewpoint in one day-1 move: walk into whichever has the most cars outside.
Pipayuan Shiweixian Huoguo 枇杷园食为鲜火锅
Order: hotpot in a garden with the city lights below
It held the Guinness record for the world’s largest hotpot restaurant by seats. Excessive, and memorable for exactly that reason.
Xinma Chaoshou 鑫麻抄手
Order: chaoshou in red oil, or in broth if you have had enough
The dinner plan for when someone cannot look at another chilli. Fast, ten minutes from the hotel.
Day 1 · Fri, Sept 11
September average Chongqing 28° 22° 52 % days with rain
Madrid Chongqing (Jiangbei)
HU728 · MAD 11:05 (Thu, Sept 10) → CKG 05:00 (Fri, Sept 11) · 11 h 55
You leave Madrid on Thursday the 10th at 11:05 and the HU728 lands at 05:00 on Friday the 11th at Jiangbei T3. There is nothing to prove today: day 1 is the trip’s shock absorber, and almost everything below is free or costs 30 CNY.
05:30 – 07:00
Passport control takes 30–45 minutes: no visa needed, with the waiver in force until 31/12/2026. Then taxi or DiDi — 30–40 min and 55–70 CNY per car to Jiefangbei (two cars for the group), with the hotel address written in Chinese on your phone screen. The metro is not worth it: line 10 does not open until 06:30 and, if you wait for it, it is ~50 min for 7–8 CNY (line 10 to Zengjiayan, change to line 2, off at Linjiangmen) — cheap, but with luggage and no sleep the taxi wins easily.
07:00 – 11:00
Bags to the hotel and pay for early check-in on at least one room: normal check-in is in the afternoon, and taking turns in the shower changes the whole day. Have a proper xiaomian breakfast (see the stage’s food guide) — a bowl of chilli noodles at eight in the morning is exactly what everyone here does. Then nap with an alarm: 90 minutes, not one more. Sleeping three hours today buys you insomnia tonight and jet lag dragged all the way to Yangshuo.
11:00 – 14:00
All on foot from the hotel. The Liberation Monument (1946) hemmed in by towers; Bayi snack street (八一路好吃街) to graze along; the Luohan Temple (罗汉寺, 10 CNY), Buddhist and still working, wedged between skyscrapers. Finish with Kuixinglou (魁星楼), the building you enter at street level on the 22nd floor and leave on the 1st onto a different street. Chongqing is the "8D city": here the ground floor depends on which way you arrive.
14:00 – 17:30
Same idea both times — pick by how your legs feel, a good half hour each, skippable without drama if the group is wrecked. Shibati (十八梯, free, always open, Jiaochangkou metro exit 11): the "eighteen flights" that linked the upper city to the port, rebuilt in 2021 — big, restored and very photogenic, with teahouses and stalls. Shancheng Alley (山城巷, free): far smaller and unmade-up, a long balcony over the Yangtze where people still live.
17:30 – 19:30
The classic postcard: the whole Yuzhong peninsula, both rivers wrapped around it, from the Nanshan Yikeshu viewpoint (南山一棵树, 30 CNY, 9:00–22:00). A 30–40 min taxi, 60–80 CNY from Jiefangbei; going up via the Yangtze cableway is the pretty version, but slots vanish and tomorrow you will have it better organised. Get there 40 minutes before sunset —around 19:00 in September— to watch the city light up.
Eling Park (鹅岭公园, free), ten minutes from the hotel: Kansheng Tower and the confluence of the two rivers below. Less spectacle, no journey.
19:30 – 22:00
Since you are already up there, dinner on Nanshan’s spring-chicken street (see the food guide): reasonably spicy and no pot — hotpot is tomorrow. On the way back, Hongyadong lit up from Qiansimen bridge (the photo) or from Cangbai Lu at street level (the wall of light). Free, but in high season you need a timed slot from the 洪崖洞 mini-program; the lights go off around 22:00–22:30.
Minimum plan, no guilt: shower, nap, Eling Park at dusk, a quick dinner near the hotel and Hongyadong at night, ten minutes away on foot. It is the only day of the trip you can throw overboard without losing anything unrepeatable — tomorrow you see Chongqing in full.
Day 2 · Sat, Sept 12
September average Chongqing 28° 22° 52 % days with rain
The full day, and the densest of the trip. Chongqing is not walked on the flat: you go up and down, and the thing that solves it is the metro — line 1 west (Ciqikou) and line 2, which hangs over the Jialing and is a viewpoint with a 2–7 CNY ticket. Today the order matters more than the list.
08:00
Buy the Yangtze cableway (长江索道) slot for this afternoon now: 30 CNY one way on the WeChat mini-program 重庆索道公司, choosing station and time band. In high season slots sell out 2–3 hours ahead —turning up at 15:00 and being offered 20:00 is normal— so book the 17:30–18:00 band in the morning. If it is gone: queue at the booth, or cross the river on the Chaotianmen ferry for a few yuan.
08:30 – 11:00
Ciqikou (磁器口, free, metro line 1), and at 8:30–9:00 or it will be impossible: by mid-morning the main street is a souvenir corridor walked in single file. The good part is the side alleys dropping towards the Jialing, the Baolun Temple (宝轮寺, 9th-century, buried inside the village) and the stalls of freshly fried mahua (陈麻花). An hour and a half is plenty: out by 11:00.
11:00 – 12:00
From Ciqikou: line 1 to Daping, change to line 2, one stop. The viewing platform (观景台) is outside the gates and free: the monorail goes in through the 6th floor of a residential block and out the other side, with a train every 2–4 minutes — no waiting. Better still: get on and ride Liziba → Zengjiayan suspended over the river. It is the best viewpoint in the city and it costs 2 CNY.
12:00 – 15:30
Lunch around Jiefangbei or Shibati (see the food guide) and then the museum (三峡博物馆, free, 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:30, closed Mondays — Saturday the 12th is fine). You must book a slot 1–7 days ahead on the 大美重庆 mini-program and enter with your passport. Inside, two halls justify the visit: the Three Gorges —the valley the reservoir swallowed, with whole towns moved up the hillside— and Chongqing as wartime capital (1938–1946), bombed for six years. Ninety minutes covers it. Across the square, free to look at, the Great Hall of the People (1954): a Temple of Heaven at Soviet scale.
Huguang Guild Hall (湖广会馆, 30 CNY, 9:00–17:30, closed Mondays): the 18th–19th-century Huguang guild courtyards, telling the story of the mass migration that repopulated Bayu. It is where you see Sichuan opera face-changing (变脸) —the trick of masks vanishing with no visible method— inside the 40-minute "Drunken Bayu" show. Quick, cheap version: a Ciqikou teahouse runs its own face-changing and fire-breathing turn for 28–30 CNY with tea included, late afternoon and evening.
16:00 – 18:30
The cableway, from Xiaoshizi (Yuzhong) to Shangxinjie (Nan’an): five minutes suspended over the river — the shot that appears in every film made here. On the far bank, Longmenhao old street (龙门浩老街, free): restored former-concession houses up the slope, café terraces and the best head-on view of the skyline of Yuzhong, which is exactly what you came for. Back by taxi (~20 CNY) or on your second cableway ticket.
18:30 – 20:00
From outside, which is how it works (洪崖洞): eleven floors of mock stilt houses hung off the cliff, lit up around 19:00. The photo, from Qiansimen bridge; the impact, from below, on Cangbai Lu. Inside it is a shopping mall — though one where floors 1 and 11 both open onto a street. Free, with a timed slot via mini-program in high season.
And here it is serious (see the food guide: the places marked "Day 2"). Expect a 30–60 minute queue at the good ones —you take a number and wait with tea and sunflower seeds— order 鸳鸯锅 (yuanyang, the split pot) if anyone in the group cannot take chilli, and wear nothing that is not going straight into the wash: beef tallow stays in clothes and hair.
Two Rivers night cruise (两江游) from Chaotianmen: about 60 minutes, 60 CNY on deck and ~120 in an air-conditioned cabin, with departures until 21:00–21:30. The uncomfortable truth: if you have already done the cableway and Nanshan, the boat shows you the same skyline from a third angle. A good plan if the group still has energy; no loss at all if you go to bed.
Dazu Shike (大足石刻), the only World Heritage site Chongqing has: some 50,000 Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian figures carved into the rock between the 9th and 13th centuries, much of it with original pigment. High-speed train from Chongqing West or Shapingba (26–33 min, ~40 CNY second class) to Dazu South, plus a 30-minute taxi to Baoding mountain (50–60 CNY); combined ticket 140 CNY. It takes the whole day and replaces the city one: only worth it if someone is pulled more by Buddhist art than by the megacity. The Wulong karst is 2.5 h each way and does not fit.
Three Gorges Museum + Huguang Guild Hall + Hongyadong (which does have a roof inside) + hotpot. The whole day works undercover; the only casualty is the cableway, and in fog it does not show you much anyway.
Stage 2 · Days 3–5 · Nights 3–5 · Sept 13–15
The landscape on the 20-yuan note
The table
The fire is over: Guangxi cooks sweet, sour and riverine. Li River fish, snails, Lipu taro and rice in every shape. And in September the whole place smells of osmanthus (桂花) — the flower that gives Guilin its name, "osmanthus forest", and that ends up in the wine and the cakes.
Beer fish
啤酒鱼 · píjiǔ yú
Li River carp fried with the scales on (that is what makes them crisp) and then braised with Liquan beer, tomato, peppers and perilla. The town’s dish, in a pan, to share. Priced by weight: 60–80 CNY per jin (500 g).
Stuffed river snails
酿田螺 · niàng tiánluó
The snail is pulled out, minced with pork and mint, stuffed back in the shell and braised. You suck it out. Easier than it looks, and addictive.
The eighteen stuffed things
十八酿 · shíbā niàng
The local obsession: stuffing minced pork into anything that will hold it — tofu, peppers, courgette, aubergine, mushrooms, squash blossoms. Order a mixed platter.
Lipu taro with pork belly
荔浦芋扣肉 · lìpǔ yù kòuròu
Alternating slices of taro and pork belly steamed with fermented bean curd, turned out onto the plate like a dome. Rich, sweetish and very celebratory.
Guilin rice noodles
桂林米粉 · guìlín mǐfěn
The whole region’s breakfast and probably the best 10 CNY of the trip: rice noodles, lǔshuǐ (卤水, the master sauce that is the soul of the dish), crisp meat and fried soybeans.
Oil tea
油茶 · yóuchá
Tea leaves pounded and fried with ginger and garlic, served hot and savoury, topped with puffed rice and peanuts. Baffling at the first sip, addictive by the third.
River prawns and snails
漓江虾 · líjiāng xiā
Tiny Li River prawns fried whole, shells and all. In any of the eateries by the Xingping pier.
Osmanthus: wine and cake
桂花酒 / 桂花糕 · guìhuā
September is its month. The wine is sweet and light; the cake, a tablet of rice and blossom that crumbles. Guangxi’s best edible souvenir.
Shouzi Guilin Mifen 手子米粉
Order: a dry mǐfěn of two liǎng (两), then the clear broth from the communal pot on the side
Opens at 7:00 and closes early; by 8:00 there is a queue of neighbours, families and local police. That is the endorsement.
Any mifen counter in town 米粉店
Order: whatever the person in front orders; the pickles, peanuts and chilli on the counter are free and go on top
The rule never fails: wherever there is a queue of people in uniform at 8 a.m., go in.
Lucy’s
Order: a Western breakfast, real coffee and their apple crumble
A backpacker institution since 2006. For the day your body asks for toast instead of chilli — and that day will come.
Yangshuo Mountain Retreat 阳朔山隐
Order: beer fish, spring rolls, duck and ribs; vegetables from their own garden
Right where the morning of rafts ends. A garden on the river bank, village food done properly, and they have been at it since 2001.
Luna (Yangshuo Village Inn) 月亮山 · 历村26号
Order: beer fish, stuffed snails and desserts — the kitchen is half local, half Italian
A rooftop facing Moon Hill. Lonely Planet put it on its best-restaurants-in-China list in 2020, and it is still there for a reason.
Eateries by the Xingping pier 兴坪老街
Order: fried river fish, tiny Li prawns and stir-fried seasonal greens
Nothing memorable, everything decent: it is the meal that belongs between the raft and Laozhai Shan’s 1,150 steps.
Farmhouses in the Yulong valley 农家菜
Order: the day’s claypots, garden vegetables and cold Liquan beer
No menu and no English: you point at what is in the kitchen. Village prices and the best moment of the day.
Xie Sanjie Pijiu Yu 谢三姐啤酒鱼
Order: the beer fish (you pick the fish), stuffed snails and stir-fried water greens
Gold at Yangshuo’s 2018 beer-fish competition and the town’s most famous. Go before 18:30: the fish takes 25–30 min and after that there are no tables.
Da Shifu Pijiu Yu 大师傅啤酒鱼
Order: the same, with less queueing
The other big name. It has several branches and they do not all cook alike: the West Street original is the good one.
Chongqing Jiemei Chuancai 重庆姐妹川菜
Order: textbook Sichuan, with the heat dialled to taste
For when the group cannot face another beer fish — and by the third night, that happens.
The Groove
Order: burgers, German sausage, fresh bread and salads
The cook is German and the bread is real. A guilt-free escape valve halfway through the trip.
Day 3 · Sun, Sept 13 T1
September average Yangshuo 31° 23° 48 % days with rain
T1 Chongqing West Yangshuo (station in Xingping)
Direct · from 4 h 25 · only 4/day
Yangshuo station (Xingping) Yangshuo town
Bus at the door or Didi · ~45 min
There are only 4 direct trains a day from Chongqing West; the fast one takes 4 h 25. Pick a morning one to arrive mid-afternoon.
The "Yangshuo" station is 25 km from West Street. Buses to town wait at the door (~45 min); a Didi works too.
Train to Guilin (21 pairs a day; avoid getting off at Guilin West, which is far and poorly connected) and a 1.5 h bus or Didi to Yangshuo.
Settle in and stretch your legs along the riverside promenade: Green Lotus Peak (Bilian) and Yangshuo Park sit right by town and are your first effortless dose of karst.
Welcome dinner: Yangshuo's signature dish is beer fish (píjiǔ yú), cooked in a pan and shared. Afterwards, West Street: it is a nighttime theme park — see it, cross it and get out; the perpendicular alleys breathe better.
Tomorrow's Yulong raft is bought today: segments go on sale online at 20:00 the evening before (via WeChat) and the good ones sell out fast. Ask the hotel to get you the Jinlong → Jiuxian stretch (~1 h 20, ~320 CNY per 2-person raft). If you want the Impression Liu Sanjie show (evening of day 4 or 5), book that now too.
Day 4 · Mon, Sept 14
September average Yangshuo 31° 23° 48 % days with rain
The best day of the trip if you like the countryside.
Punted, 2 people per raft and not a single motor — the antithesis of the cruise. It is now sold by segment (online, at 20:00 the day before): the star is Jinlong → Jiuxian, ~6 km and 1 h 20 dropping down nine small weirs with their splash (~320 CNY/raft); short ones run 120–200. Bring a waterproof phone pouch and go first thing: fewer rafts and better light.
Farmhouse lunch by the river or near Moon Hill: claypots, garden vegetables and cold beer at village prices.
Bike or e-scooter (bike 30–60 CNY/day; electric 40–150 depending on battery). Classic route: Yulong Bridge (stone, 600 years old) → the villages of Jiuxian and Chaolong → Moon Hill, returning along dirt tracks — in September the rice stands tall, on the verge of turning yellow.
The arch photographs perfectly well from the base (15 CNY), and the climb (~800 steps, 20–30 min) is worth more for the valley view than for the arch itself. Only if your legs have it in them — tomorrow brings more steps.
Two viewpoints, pick one: Cuiping (50 CNY, ~500 steps, 20 min), postcard river bends and almost nobody; or the TV Tower, free and with the best view over town, but a tough 45 min and no lighting — headlamp if you come down after dark.
70 minutes on the river itself, a cast of 600, directed by Zhang Yimou. Shows at 19:45 and 21:20, tickets from ~238 CNY, open-air with no roof. The most honest local review gives it 7/10: "if there is time, yes; essential, no." Allow 3–3.5 h door to door with the exit traffic jam.
Silver Cave, ~20 min south: commercial and colour-lit, but the best cave in the area according to those who compare it with Guilin's Reed Flute. First thing, before the groups.
Day 5 · Tue, Sept 15
September average Yangshuo 31° 23° 48 % days with rain
Yangshuo Xingping
Bus or Didi · ~40 min
Xingping pier Li River
Raft · 1–1.5 h · ~120–220 CNY/person
The old town on the banks of the Li (bus or Didi, ~40 min): stone alleys and Ming–Qing houses. Arrive before 10:00 — by midday the main street belongs to the tour groups; the real town lives in the side lanes and the old pier.
This is the raft that replaces the cruise. The big one: the whole Yangdi → Xingping stretch, the star section of the river — official 4-seat rafts, ~216 CNY/person (+35 per empty seat), 1.5–2 h; your hotel arranges the transfer to the Yangdi pier. The short one: from the Xingping pier, out and back to the Nine Horses Fresco, 80–120 CNY per raft, 30–60 min.
The Huangbu shoal falls on that stretch. There is a land viewpoint 15–20 min on foot from town, but the exact banknote perspective is from the water.
No luggage, no children under 1.2 m and no one over 70 (they check passports). And there is some spray: keep a thin rain jacket handy.
~1,150 steps and 30–40 min of serious climbing — not a stroll, a stairway with a handrail — up to the best panorama of the river in the whole area. The entrance, next to the pier, is easy to walk past: ask. Come down in daylight; there are no lights.
If you stay for sunset, the cormorant fishermen pose as the sun drops (a staged, paid photo — and still a lovely one). Otherwise, back to Yangshuo for dinner.
The viewpoint behind the classic aerial photo of the river bends, ~50 min from Yangshuo (even if it is sold as "Guilin"). Pickups 3:30–4:30, entry 60 CNY, a short climb (15–20 min) and sunrise ~6:20; the platform fills within minutes. It fits today or tomorrow the 16th before heading down to Guilin: back by 8:00, the day still works in full.
Stage 3 · Day 6 · Night 6 · Sept 16
The hinge: lakes, pagodas and the 08:48 train
The table
Half an afternoon, one night and a hurried breakfast: the train leaves at 08:48. Guilin eats sweet, riverine and borderline Cantonese — and at seven in the morning the whole city has exactly the same breakfast.
Guilin rice noodles
桂林米粉 · guìlín mǐfěn
Ordered by liǎng (两; two is standard), round or flat (切粉), with or without a brined egg. The soul is the lǔshuǐ, a master sauce topped up for decades. Mix it all, eat it dry, and add the clear broth at the end.
Horse-meat rice noodles
马肉米粉 · mǎròu mǐfěn
The historic version, served in tiny bowls that stack up as you go. Only in a couple of century-old shops, and a rarity you barely see any more.
Roast goose
烧鹅 · shāo’é
Lacquered crisp skin, juicy meat and no grease. Guangxi borders Guangdong and it shows: this is what a Guilin local orders for a proper dinner.
Nun’s noodles
尼姑素面 · nígū sùmiàn
The vegetarian noodle from the Reed Flute Hill temples: mushroom and bamboo broth, not a drop of animal fat.
Gongcheng oil tea
恭城油茶 · gōngchéng yóuchá
The oil-tea appellation, from the Yao county of Gongcheng. Savoury, bitter and with fritters floating in it. Intangible heritage, literally.
Osmanthus in everything
桂花 · guìhuā
The city is named "osmanthus forest" and September is when it blooms: wine, small cakes, syrup. Buy a box on the Zhengyang pedestrian street.
Qingyun Tangfen 青云汤粉
Order: mǐfěn in broth, which is the house speciality
The obvious pick with an 08:48 train. An old, much-loved shop within walking distance of the station: in, ten minutes, out.
Chongshan Mifen 崇善米粉
Order: dry mǐfěn with braised meat, the version locals order
Since 1985, several branches: clean, orderly, no surprises. The safe bet for a group in a hurry.
Minggui Mifen 明桂米粉
Order: the same, plus a brined egg and tofu skin
Open 24 hours, on the far side of the river. The safety net: if your hotel lands in Qixing or dinner runs long, breakfast here happens at any hour.
Youyixuan 又益轩
Order: the mǎròu mǐfěn, in their little bowls
A century old and the horse-meat noodle house. A curiosity rather than a pilgrimage.
A late lunch on arrival
Order: a two-liǎng mǐfěn and a bit of grazing; save room for the roast goose at dinner
You arrive from Yangshuo mid-afternoon and the proper dinner is at 19:00: this is a bridge, not a meal.
Picnic for the train
Order: steamed buns, tea eggs, fruit, nuts and plenty of water; the trolley on board is expensive and sad
Six and a half hours between Guilin and Shangrao. Free boiling water in every carriage: a decent pot of instant noodles saves midday.
Chunji Shao’e 椿记烧鹅
Order: half a roast goose, rice and garlic greens
Where Guilin locals go when they want a genuinely good dinner. Afterwards, a twenty-minute walk to the lit pagodas.
Dongxi Xiang alley 东西巷
Order: grazing: skewers, snails, stinky tofu, mǐfěn and Liquan beer
Restored Ming and Qing houses packed with stalls. Touristy and lively at once; it fits day 6’s evening walk perfectly.
Zhengyang Tangcheng 正阳汤城
Order: their slow-cooked soups and Guangxi cooking
Right on the pedestrian street, comfortable, seated. The textbook option if the group arrives worn out from the transfer and does not want to think.
Day 6 · Wed, Sept 16 T2
September average Guilin 31° 23° 40 % days with rain
T2 Yangshuo Guilin
Direct bus ~1.5 h · ~50 CNY (or the train, 30 min + 45 min out to the station)
No rush: the transfer is an hour and a half and the afternoon is what counts. A mǐfěn breakfast, a wander through the Diecui Lu stalls and, if your legs allow, one last hour on a bike along the Yulong. It is also the second chance at the Xianggong Hill dawn raid (pickup 4:30, back by 8:00): the day still works. Leave the hotel around 11:30 with the suitcases.
Two ways, and with luggage the simple one wins. Direct bus from Yangshuo bus station: every 20–30 min, ~1.5 h, ~50 CNY, dropping you at Qintan station (琴潭), 20 min by taxi from the centre. Train (T2): 30 minutes to Guilin — but Yangshuo’s station is out in Xingping, 45 min from town, so door to door it takes about the same with two more transfers. A seven-seat Didi door to door runs 250–350 CNY per car and is the comfortable call if you are loaded up.
In Guilin around 13:30. Bags to the hotel, then pick one thing — this is a city for walking, not for queueing: Solitary Beauty Peak (独秀峰, inside the Jingjiang Princes’ City, 100–130 CNY) — just over 300 steps and the best panorama of the urban karst, with the Ming wall below; the Reed Flute Cave (芦笛岩, 110 CNY, 1 h, 15 min by taxi to the north-west), the lit cavern of every postcard; or the riverside walk to Elephant Trunk Hill (象鼻山), which you see whole and for free from the promenade — the ticket (55–75 CNY) only buys you a closer look at the arch.
The evening covers the city's best without forcing it: the Sun and Moon Pagodas lit over Shan Lake (19:00–23:00; free from the shore, which is also how they look best), dinner in Dongxi Xiang alley or the Zhengyang pedestrian street — try Guilin rice noodles — and the lit Elephant Trunk Hill, free from the riverside promenade. Then early to bed: tomorrow, the 08:48.
Sleep next to the Guilin station your day-7 train leaves from (central or North; you will see it when buying the ticket). And buy the train picnic tonight: tomorrow, with the 08:48, there is no gap for it.
If you have energy to spare: the «Two Rivers and Four Lakes» night cruise, 90 min around the lit lake ring (190–220 CNY, departures from ~19:25 — confirm your dock when buying).
Stage 4 · Days 7–8 · Night 7 · Sept 17
"China’s most beautiful countryside"
The table
Wuyuan is Jiangxi with a Huizhou soul, summed up by a local saying: "no meat without steaming, no vegetable without thickening" (无荤不蒸, 无素不糊). Cooking happens in towers of bamboo baskets, thickened with rice flour, with fish from the river outside. Little chilli, plenty of depth.
Pouched red carp
荷包红鲤鱼 · hébāo hónglǐyú
THE county dish: a fat red carp raised in the village ponds, steamed or braised. Fine flesh, clean broth, none of that muddy taste. 50–80 CNY per fish.
Crumbled tofu stew
糊豆腐 · hú dòufu
Tofu broken up and thickened with toasted rice flour, with offal and herbs. The "糊" half of the local saying. Sounds like nothing, and it is what you miss most afterwards.
Rice-flour steamed pork belly
粉蒸肉 · fěnzhēngròu
Slices of pork belly coated in toasted ground rice and steamed until they collapse. ~45 CNY. There are lamb and wild-greens versions too.
Qìgāo
汽糕 · qìgāo
A steamed fermented-rice cake spread thin on a round board with dried shrimp, radish, mushroom and chives. Crisp outside, spongy inside. 5 CNY and Wuyuan’s breakfast.
The steamed table
婺源蒸菜 · wùyuán zhēngcài
The whole county cooks by steaming, in stacked bamboo towers that arrive at the table one on top of another. Order a tower and share it: the most fun part of dinner.
Fish in rice-wine lees
酒糟鱼 · jiǔzāoyú
Fish cured and steeped in rice-wine lees. Salty, faintly alcoholic and hard to find outside the county. Sold vacuum-packed as a souvenir too.
Mugwort cakes
艾米果 · àimǐguǒ
Green glutinous rice balls with mugwort, stuffed with bamboo shoot and pork. Eaten standing, in the street.
Wuyuan green tea
婺绿 · wùlǜ
The county has been one of China’s great tea districts since the Tang dynasty. In any village they will pour you a free cup and try to sell you half a kilo.
The Wengong Beilu qìgāo stall 文公北路老字号汽糕摊
Order: one portion of qìgāo straight out of the steamer
The old stall. It sells out by mid-morning, and your car leaves at 07:45: it is on your way.
Xiaomao Laomian Tangbao 小毛老面汤包
Order: the sourdough bāozi and the century-egg soup with meat cake
A queue of locals first thing, which is the only review you need. The buns are the speciality.
Yeshi Niugufen 叶氏牛骨粉
Order: noodles in beef-bone broth; the portion is enormous
For whoever starts the village day genuinely hungry. 20 CNY and you will not think about food again until Huangling.
Tianjie Shifu 天街食府
Order: the county red carp and fěnzhēngròu (~45 CNY a portion)
Open 11:00–14:00. Eating up top saves a cable-car round trip; it is the best table inside the scenic area.
Tianjie breakfast stalls 篁岭天街
Order: qìgāo, mugwort cakes, griddled tofu
If breakfast in Ziyang fell short, or if you would rather graze among the drying racks than sit down. Eat early and move on.
Likeng · Dexinju Nongjiacai 李坑·德馨居农家菜馆
Order: canal fish and seasonal vegetables
The backup plan: you reach Likeng late in the day, and if the schedule has slipped this replaces dinner before the 17:54 train.
Zhenggongfu Tucaiguan 蒸功夫土菜馆
Order: the steam tower: lamb fěnzhēng, hú dòufu and kǒushuǐ fish
Steam specialists, which is exactly what you came to Wuyuan for. Eat early (17:30–18:15) and you will make Wunvzhou in time for the 19:00 dǎtiěhuā.
Ziyang Xiaochi 紫阳小吃
Order: whatever is in the display case — just point
A local reputation and neighbourhood prices. A quick dinner if you would rather save the evening for the lit-up town.
Wuyuan Renjia Nongjiacai 婺源人家农家菜
Order: steamed red carp, hú dòufu and the day’s greens
One of the best-rated in town, with a full menu of the local repertoire. The option for a proper sit-down dinner.
Fuchun Zhujiaoguan 赋春猪脚馆
Order: braised pig trotters with rice
Locals queue for it. One dish, cheap and filling: not refined cooking, just a real dinner.
Inside Wunvzhou 婺女洲
Order: stalls and dining rooms inside; you are paying for the set design
Convenient if you would rather eat between the two dǎtiěhuā shows (19:00 and 21:00) instead of rushing from the centre. Pricier and worse than Ziyang, but it saves a trip.
Day 7 · Thu, Sept 17 T3T4
September average Wuyuan 30° 22° 38 % days with rain
T3 Guilin Shangrao
08:48 · 6 h 30 · only 5–6 trains/day · 206–510 CNY
T4 Shangrao Wuyuan
~25 min · ~18 trains/day · from ~40 CNY
The long day of the trip: the 08:48 train, about six and a half hours direct, arriving in Shangrao between 15:00 and 15:20. Bring a picnic and downloaded content.
45–60 minutes is enough; the short train to Wuyuan takes ~25 minutes and there are ~18 a day (the last one at 21:46 — plenty of slack if something goes wrong).
16:30 – 17:00
Taxi to the hotel in Ziyang, the town centre (~3 km, 10 min, 15–25 CNY). Check in, shower and head out: tonight there is a plan.
10–15 min by taxi (婺女洲; 15–20 CNY, or bus 520 for 2). A Huizhou "ancient town" built in 2022 around an artificial lake — stage set, not heritage, but superbly executed and with the night as its speciality. Everything lit from 17:00; the dǎtiěhuā (打铁花, a rain of molten-iron sparks at 1,600 °C) is included with the ticket (125 CNY in 2026), at 19:00 and 21:00; and the water show "Meet Wuyuan" (遇见·婺源, 45 min, 140 CNY) usually runs at 18:40 and 20:10 — confirm times that day. Closes 21:00–21:30. After a day of trains it fits perfectly; the authentic villages come tomorrow.
Wuyuan’s classic mega-show (梦里老家): the whole mountainside as a stage and ~10,000 lights, daily session 20:00–21:10, ~5 km south of the centre. 158–178 CNY online; not on international Trip.com — buy at the box office that day (a September Thursday won’t sell out) or have the hotel book it. It is 90% visual: without Chinese you lose the story, not the show. Both don’t fit in one night: choose. Our pick: Wunvzhou.
The local table: steamed hongbao red carp (荷包红鲤鱼, THE county dish), crumbled tofu stew (糊豆腐) and rice-flour steamed pork belly (粉蒸肉). For tomorrow’s breakfast: qìgāo (汽糕), the local steamed rice cake. If you eat in the centre: the Zhuzi pedestrian street and the Xingjiang riverside; the 紫阳小吃 stall by the municipal government has a local reputation.
Day 8 · Fri, Sept 18 T5
September average Wuyuan 30° 22° 38 % days with rain
Wuyuan villages
Car with driver 07:45–17:30 · 300–500 CNY/car · suitcases in the boot
T5 Wuyuan Huangshan North
21–24 min · 13 trains/day · 35 CNY · target 17:54 or 18:04
Huangshan North Tunxi
Taxi/Didi · ~30 min
Wuyuan is not a village, it is a county: car with driver for the day (300–500 CNY per car in September, mid season; ask the hotel the night before, Ctrip/Trip.com, or the contacts in the "Drivers" tip), suitcases in the boot, ending the route at the station. Leave at 07:45.
08:30 – 12:00
The hillside village of the drying racks (篁岭), with Tianjie street and rooftops covered in trays of chillies and corn — the photo is a morning one, in its light. Access is by cable car only: ticket+cable car 145 CNY (165 on peak dates; ~22 US$ on Trip.com). Included with the ticket, the Leixin suspension bridge (垒心桥): 298 m long, 97 m high, with a 48 m glass-floor span. Allow 3–4 h; early lunch on Tianjie or after descending.
Working back towards the station, in order: Wangkou (汪口, ~1 h) — a thousand-year river port, barely commercialised, with the Yu clan ancestral hall (俞氏宗祠) and its first-rate wood carving — and Likeng (李坑, 1.5 h) — the Huizhou "little Venice", packed at midday and quiet late in the day, which is when you arrive. Jiangwan (江湾) is on the way: the "official" 5A village and the least charming — stop only if you are ahead of schedule. A 10-min photo stop at the Moon Bay viewpoint (月亮湾, free) if the timing works.
Individual villages: 60 CNY each (at the gate, no risk). There is a combo pass (通票, ~210 CNY / 5 days / 12+ sites) which never includes Huangling: with Wangkou + Likeng (+ Jiangwan) individual tickets tie or win — the pass only pays off if you add a fourth village. Confirm the 2026 price at the first ticket office.
17:30
Target: the 17:54 or 18:04 train to Huangshan North (21–24 min, 35 CNY; confirm train numbers when sales open), with the ~19:00 one as the safety net. On arrival, taxi/Didi to Tunxi (~30 min).
Order chòu guìyú (臭鳜鱼, fermented mandarin fish — smells fierce, tastes glorious), máo dòufu (毛豆腐, grilled "hairy" tofu) or dāobǎnxiāng (刀板香, cured pork belly). Reliable names: Laojie Diyilou (老街第一楼, the classic, 73–100 CNY/pers.), Dasha Huicaiyuan (大傻徽菜园, more local, ~59) or Chenglong Jiudian (成隆酒店, by the river, ~80).
Jiangling (its moment is March rapeseed; you get better terrace views from the Huangling bridge), the northern line (Sixi-Yancun and the Song-dynasty Rainbow Bridge — opposite direction, +1.5–2 h of driving), Shicheng (Nov–Dec mist and maples) and Wolong Valley (a summer-season gorge). If you ever return in March, sleep at the Wuyuan Skywells heritage house (Yancun): 300 years old, 9.9/10 — this time the night plan ruled it out.
Stage 5 · Days 9–10 · Nights 8–9 in Tunxi · Sept 18–19
Huizhou villages and the Yellow Mountain
The table
Huizhou cooking (徽菜) is one of China’s eight great cuisines and the hardest to find outside Anhui: not even Shanghai has decent examples. There is no sea here — there are ferments, smoked meats, bamboo shoots, mountain herbs and long braises. The most interesting stop of the trip for eating, and the strangest.
Fermented mandarin fish
臭鳜鱼 · chòu guìyú
The flagship. Mandarin fish salted and pressed for six or seven days until it ferments, then braised with pork belly, bamboo and soy. It smells like old cheese and tastes glorious; the flesh flakes into petals. 90–160 CNY per fish.
"Hairy" tofu
毛豆腐 · máo dòufu
Tofu fermented until it grows a white fuzz of mould — yes, on purpose — then griddled and served with chilli sauce. It tastes like fried camembert. Start here if the fish intimidates you.
Cured pork on the board
刀板香 · dāobǎnxiāng
Cured pork belly steamed on a wooden board, which perfumes the meat. Hence the name: "the fragrance of the chopping board".
Hu Shi’s one-pot
胡适一品锅 · yīpǐnguō
Layers of cabbage, tofu, egg, meatballs and pork stacked in a pot and stewed together. Named after the philosopher Hu Shi, from just up the road. A family dish: order it if you are four or more.
Stone-pressed cake
石头粿 · shítóuguǒ
A cake stuffed with dried greens and pork, flattened on the griddle under a hot stone until paper-thin. Street breakfast, forever.
"Crab shell" shaobing
蟹壳黄烧饼 · xièkéhuáng shāobǐng
A flaky pastry filled with dried greens and pork, slapped onto the wall of a clay oven until golden. Named for its shape and colour. 3–5 CNY, and it survives a rucksack well.
Shoulder-pole wontons
汪一挑馄饨 · wāng yītiāo húntún
The name comes from the vendor who carried his kitchen on a shoulder pole down the old street. Paper-thin skins, a small filling, clear broth. 10–12 CNY.
Tea: Maofeng and Houkui
黄山毛峰 / 太平猴魁
Two of China’s ten most famous teas come from these mountains. The Xie Yuda museum on Laojie lets you taste them: the best souvenir of the trip, and it weighs nothing.
Wang Yitiao Huntun 汪一挑馄饨
Order: a bowl of wontons and a shāobǐng from the stall next door
The old street’s breakfast, before the shops open. A ten-minute walk from the hotel.
Xiusao Daguo 秀嫂达粿
Order: freshly pressed shítóuguǒ, stuffed with dried greens
Made in front of you, stone and all. Buy two: one you eat there, one goes in the bag.
Hotel breakfast, at 6:00
Order: whatever there is, and fill the thermos
The car to Huangshan leaves at 06:40. Tell the hotel the night before that you want an early breakfast; if they cannot, buy something for the car when you shop the evening before. Nothing is open in Tangkou at that hour.
Pig’s Inn 猪栏酒吧
Order: the set of the day: Huizhou country cooking with garden produce
The converted farmhouse that put Bishan on the map. Call ahead in the morning if you are a group — they cook to order. Next door, the Bishan Bookstore has decent coffee.
Xidi dining rooms 西递
Order: griddled máo dòufu and a bamboo stir-fry
Simple and family-run, kitchens open to the courtyard. If you leave Xidi at 11:15, this is lunch before Bishan.
Yellow Mountain picnic 黄山
Order: shāobǐng, nuts, chocolate, bananas and 1–1.5 L of water each
Up there everything arrives on a porter’s shoulders and the price says so: instant noodles 25–35 CNY, a plate of stir-fried vegetables 45–60, a bottle of water 6–15 (three to five times normal). There are water dispensers by the toilets for refills; stoves and open flames are banned throughout the park.
Laojie Diyilou 老街第一楼
Order: chòu guìyú, máo dòufu and dāobǎnxiāng — the full trio
The old street’s classic, always full and rightly so. Book, and order the fish the moment you sit down: it takes time.
Meishi Renjia 美食人家
Order: chòu guìyú and Hu Shi’s one-pot
The other name that always appears alongside the first, in an old-house setting. If Diyilou is full, this is the answer.
Dasha Huicaiyuan 大傻徽菜园
Order: the same, 30% cheaper and with more locals around you
Less touristy, less decorated, same cooking. The pick for anyone who has already done one dinner on Laojie.
Huishang Guli 徽商故里
Order: Wucheng smoked tofu, dried bamboo, stuffed eggs and cured meat
The most "restaurant" of the four, decorated like a merchant’s house. For the dinner where you need to impress.
Huajinglou 画景楼
Order: village Huizhou cooking, with the lit pond in front of you
At 17:30 the village empties and at 18:30 the lanterns come on: this is the table. Cheaper alternative: Hongcun Diyilou (~50 CNY).
Day 9 · Sat, Sept 19
September average Tunxi 29° 21° 41 % days with rain
Tunxi Xidi · Bishan · Hongcun
Car with driver 08:00–21:15 · ~600–900 CNY incl. evening wait
A whole day for the Huizhou villages, with a day driver (~600–900 CNY incl. the evening wait; agree on "return ~20:30 from Hongcun"). Order matters: tour groups pour into Hongcun at 9:00 — you do the opposite. Each village: 104 CNY at the gate, 94 online; the Hongcun ticket is valid 3 days with re-entry (tied to your passport).
08:45
Xidi (西递) first thing, while it breathes: the Hu Wenguang arch (1578, the only surviving pailou), the Hu clan hall (敬爱堂) and austere lanes with actual residents. 2–2.5 h. The Chinese saying nails it: "Hongcun is a painting, Xidi is a book" — they are not redundant; here architecture and interiors rule.
Between Xidi and Hongcun, a village with no ticket and no groups (碧山). The Bishan Bookstore (rural branch of Librairie Avant-Garde inside an ancestral hall, with a café) and the Pig’s Inn (猪栏酒吧) for lunch or a drink. 1–1.5 h of a real counterpoint to the ticketed villages.
13:30
Hongcun (宏村) walked clockwise (groups go the other way): South Lake and the Crouching Tiger bridge → Nanhu Academy → the Half-Moon Pond (月沼) → Chengzhi Hall (承志堂, 1855, the "commoner’s Forbidden City" — give its gilded carvings 45–60 min) → the Wang clan hall.
17:30 – 21:15
At 17:30 the ticket offices close and the village empties at once: sunset over South Lake (~18:05), lanterns lit on the pond from 18:30 and, when scheduled, the fish-lantern parade (鱼灯巡游; in 2025, Fri–Sat–Sun — confirm on the park’s WeChat the day before). Dinner inside: Huajinglou (画景楼, pond views, ~68 CNY/pers.) or Hongcun Diyilou (~50). Back in Tunxi ~21:15. This is why you need the car: the last bus leaves 17:10–17:30 and Didi barely exists in Hongcun at night.
Mukeng (木坑竹海, 35 CNY, 1 h): the Crouching Tiger bamboo sea, 5 km from Hongcun; its glass bridge (60 CNY) is skippable. Our advice: skip it — it is all slopes and thousands of steps await tomorrow. The Xidi night show ("Xidi Passion", 西递传奇, autumn ~18:30–20:30, included in the online ticket) is the other possible evening — incompatible with Hongcun’s lanterns: pick one. We recommend Hongcun.
Day 10 · Sun, Sept 20 T6
September average Summit, 1,860 m 17° 10° 53 % days with rain 43 km/h gusts 16° / 9° feels like
Tunxi Tangkou
06:40 · ~50 min · 150–200 CNY · pre-booked driver, suitcases along
Tangkou Huangshan North
16:25 · 40–50 min · 120–180 CNY · same driver
T6 Huangshan North Shanghai Hongqiao
Target 18:25 → 21:11 (2 h 46) · 2nd class from 177 CNY · alt. 17:26 → 20:27; last resort ~19:56
06:15 – 07:30
Up at 06:15, with a picnic and 1–1.5 L of water each bought the night before (a bottle costs 6–10 CNY up top). Pre-booked car at 06:40 with the suitcases (150–200 CNY, ~50 min; alternative bus, 20 CNY and 1 h): at the Tangkou visitor centre by 07:30. Luggage: best left with the driver; official storage exists (~15 CNY/day per large bag). Compulsory shuttle to the cable-car base (19 CNY, ~20 min). It is a Sunday and the park opens at 06:30: if the driver can come at 06:20, you get half an hour ahead of the weekend crowds.
08:15 – 15:45
Go up via Yungu (云谷, 80 CNY, big cabins — the groups crowd the other side early) around 08:15. Route: White Goose Ridge → optional detour to Shixin peak (始信峰, +40–60 min) → Beihai → Paiyunting viewpoint (~10:30) → West Sea Grand Canyon downhill, loops 1 and 2 to the bottom (2–2.5 h of stairs hung off the granite, the best of the day) → monorail from the bottom to Tianhai (100 CNY) → picnic → Bright Summit (光明顶, 1,860 m) → Baibu Yunti stairway downhill → Greeting Pine (迎客松, ~15:00) → Yuping cable car down (90 CNY). Total: ~10–12 km, ~7 h, thousands of steps — demanding but doable with normal fitness.
If the clock bites, in this order: 1) skip Shixin; 2) swap the full canyon for loop 1 + Feilaishi rock → Bright Summit (saves ~45 min and 100 CNY, but you lose the best part); 3) short circuit without the canyon (4–5 h). Tiandu peak — open in 2026, with Lianhua closed on rotation — does not fit: a brutal extra 2.5–3 h, a 15:00 checkpoint, and a free reservation that opens 2 days ahead at 21:00 and vanishes.
Expect 10–17 °C at the summit (8–10 less than the valley): layers, a rain shell (ponchos sell for 10–20 CNY up top) and grippy soles — wet polished granite skates. In mist or drizzle, go up anyway: it is the classic Huangshan aesthetic, it opens and closes by the minute, and the sea of clouds is most likely right after a front. In sustained heavy rain, do not go up (the canyon would close): with the same driver, Hongcun/Xidi — or Emerald Valley, 翡翠谷, if the swap already used them on day 9 — then the station, which fits the train.
15:45 – 18:25
Down by ~15:45, shuttle to the visitor centre and pre-booked car at 16:25 (120–180 CNY; the same driver, with the suitcases — do not trust the bus for this: the last one is not guaranteed). At the station by 17:20 for the 18:25 train. It is the only tight end-of-day of the trip, and it is the price of three full nights in Shanghai: when sales open, confirm that evening departure exists before locking in the rest.
Stage 6 · Days 11–13 · Nights 10–12 · Sept 20–22
A finale among plane trees and skyscrapers
The table
Shanghai eats sweet: sugar and soy in almost everything (本帮菜, běnbāngcài, "the local cooking"). After two weeks of chilli, shoots and ferments, it tastes like a rest. And breakfast on the street is infinitely better than at the hotel: do not settle for the buffet.
Xiaolongbao
小笼包 · xiǎolóngbāo
Paper-thin skin with soup inside. The protocol: bite a corner, sip the broth, dip in black vinegar with ginger, then eat. They genuinely burn — wait a minute.
Shengjianbao
生煎包 · shēngjiānbāo
A leavened bun stuffed with pork and broth, fried in a flat pan until the bottom is crunchy, finished with sesame and spring onion. More Shanghainese than xiaolongbao and half as famous. ~6 CNY for four.
Scallion oil noodles
葱油拌面 · cōngyóu bànmiàn
Noodles, spring onion slowly confited in oil until it caramelises, soy and sugar. Three ingredients and a flavour that makes no sense on paper. 15–25 CNY.
Red-braised pork belly
红烧肉 · hóngshāo ròu
The king of benbangcai: pork belly glazed in soy, rock sugar and rice wine until lacquered and wobbling. If you order one local dish, this is it.
Fried river prawns
油爆虾 · yóubào xiā
Small prawns fried whole and sweet-glazed; you eat them shell and all, which is the crunchy part. A Shanghai table classic.
Eel under sizzling oil
响油鳝糊 · xiǎngyóu shànhú
Strips of paddy eel with garlic, finished with boiling oil poured over at the table: the "响" in the name is the sizzle. Show included.
The four heavenly kings
四大金刚 · sì dà jīngāng
The street breakfast: dàbǐng (baked flatbread), yóutiáo (savoury fried dough), dòujiāng (soy milk, sweet or savoury) and cífàntuán (a glutinous rice roll with the dough stick inside). 8–18 CNY each.
Hairy crab
大闸蟹 · dàzháxiè
The city’s autumn obsession. The season starts in late September: on the 21st–22nd you are right on the edge — if you see it on a menu it will be among the first, and the females’ roe will still be half-formed. If it turns up, try it; if not, that is not on you.
Man Man Tang Bao 曼曼汤包
Order: pork xiaolongbao, plus the vegetarian jìcài (shepherd’s purse) ones
Wrapped to order, one by one, since the nineties. Eight for 13 CNY: the best value in the city, and few tourists know it.
Jia Jia Tang Bao 佳家汤包
Order: the pork ones; the pure crab (108 CNY) only if it is that kind of day
The thinnest skins in town and a decades-old institution. It falls on the way to the Shanghai Museum.
Da Hu Chun 大壶春
Order: old-school shēngjiānbāo: no soup, more dough, more bread
Michelin-recommended and the stronghold of the "real shengjian has no soup" camp. A local argument eighty years old.
Yang’s Fry-Dumpling 小杨生煎
Order: four shēngjiān and a sweet-potato noodle soup
The opposing camp: soup inside. It is a chain, it is everywhere and it always works — the emergency breakfast.
A Niang Mian 阿娘面
Order: scallion oil noodles and the pork-chop noodle soup
For the free day’s late breakfast, when nobody has to get up early. A queue by midday.
Four-heavenly-kings stalls 四大金刚
Order: a cífàntuán and savoury soy milk; eaten walking
Gone by 9:30. This is the breakfast Shanghai is losing: take the chance.
Nanxiang Mantou Dian 南翔馒头店
Order: the crab-roe xiǎolóngbāo
Since 1900, and a Bib Gourmand. The ground floor is takeaway only (a long, fast queue): sit on the 2nd or 3rd floor, where the food is better and the wait shorter.
Lan Xin Canting 兰心餐厅
Order: hóngshāo ròu, eel and river prawns
Bib Gourmand 2026, open since the eighties, four tables, no reservations and a queue outside. Precisely what people mean by "real local food".
Lu Bo Lang 绿波廊
Order: crab-roe tofu, eight-treasure duck and their dim sum assortment
The old town’s state restaurant: half a dozen heads of state have eaten here. Overpriced for what it is, and still the most storied room in Yuyuan.
Xiao Ping Fandian 晓平饭店
Order: scallion-oil clams, peppered eel and hóngshāo ròu
Loud, lively and with a picture menu — you order by pointing, which with a group is a blessing.
Jianguo 328 建国328
Order: red-braised pork, stir-fried liver and seasonal greens
No MSG, assertive flavours and staff used to foreigners. The easiest place on the list if anyone in the group is fussy.
Old Jesse 老吉士
Order: red-braised pork, scallion fish head and clay-pot rice with crab roe — the duck must be ordered when you book
The definitive benbangcai since 2004: a cramped, noisy room with not one concession. Book days ahead.
Lai Lai Xiao Long 莱莱小笼
Order: the crab-roe-and-pork ones; pure crab roe is 158 CNY for four
A Bib Gourmand and, for whoever has eaten the most xiaolongbao in this city, the best. A light, perfect dinner after a long day.
Ren He Guan 人和馆
Order: hóngshāo ròu, the crab dishes and their house shēngjiānbāo
One Michelin star and still home cooking, in a beautiful retro room. Reservation essential.
Fu 1088 福1088
Order: refined Shanghainese; the whole restaurant is private dining rooms
One Michelin star and the best option for a group dinner: every table gets its own room. Book weeks ahead.
Fu He Hui 福和慧
Order: the tasting menu — vegetarian cooking at the very top level
Two Michelin stars. High-end vegetarian, one of the best restaurants in China and never dull. The farewell dinner, in capitals.
Sir Elly’s
Order: Northern Italian, and the terrace
One Michelin star and the most cinematic terrace in the city. If you want the view, this is it. Ask for a table by the window.
Sheng Yong Xing 盛永兴
Order: Peking duck, carved at the table, with the river behind
One Michelin star. Peking duck is not from here, but the view and the price make that irrelevant.
Wang Bao He 王宝和
Order: the hairy crab banquet, with their house rice wine
Open since 1744 and the inventor of the crab banquet. Only worth it if the season has opened: call before you go.
Day 11 · Mon, Sept 21
September average Shanghai 28° 22° 53 % days with rain
The only day with a plan in Shanghai, and it fits the three cities packed in here: the old one (Yuyuan and the old town), the colonial one (the French Concession) and the new one (the Bund facing Pudong). It all links up by metro for 3–5 CNY with Alipay, and no leg is more than 25 minutes from the next.
07:30 – 09:00
On the street, not at the hotel. The four heavenly kings (四大金刚) are gone from the stalls by 9:30, and they are the breakfast Shanghai is losing. The queue-and-institution alternative: Jia Jia Tang Bao, which also falls on the way to People’s Square (see the food guide).
09:00 – 11:00
The garden (豫园, 40 CNY, 9:00–16:30, last entry 16:00) is booked on the mini-program with your passport number: sales open 14 days ahead and it is one ticket per person per day; there is a box office too. Be at the gate at 9:00 — it is two hectares and by 11:00 you shuffle in single file. Look for the Exquisite Jade Rock (a Song-dynasty Taihu stone, the house treasure), the dragon walls rippling over the roofs and the opera stage. Outside, the bazaar is free: the Huxinting teahouse mid-pond and the zigzag bridge, with nine turns because evil spirits can only walk straight.
11:00 – 13:00
Mind the day: the 21st is a Monday, the day almost every museum in the city closes — People’s Square, Power Station of Art, Rockbund, Long Museum. The exception happens to be the good one: the Shanghai Museum East (上海博物馆东馆, Pudong, free), home since 2024 to the ritual bronzes, ceramics and painting, which closes on Tuesdays — so it is open today and shut tomorrow, on your free day. The catch: it needs 2–3 hours and it is over in Pudong, so it does not fit this slot. If the museum matters to you, today is the only day: trade it for half the Concession and go in at 14:00. Otherwise these two hours disappear on their own in the Yuyuan bazaar and the old town, which start at the gate you just walked out of.
13:00 – 14:30
Two schools, both in the food guide: the crab-roe xiaolongbao at Nanxiang, inside the bazaar —go up to the 2nd or 3rd floor, the ground floor is takeaway only— or the benbangcai table at Lan Xin, already in the Concession, which drops you exactly where the afternoon starts.
14:30 – 18:00
About 4–5 flat km in the shade of the plane trees, unhurried. Come out of the metro (lines 10/11, Jiaotong University) at Wukang Mansion (武康大楼, 1924, by the Hungarian Hudec), the prow presiding over the junction; walk up Wukang Lu with its plaques of famous residents; cross to Anfu Lu (cafés, small shops and the best people-watching of the trip); pass the Wulumuqi Lu market; carry on along Fuxing Xi Lu to Sinan Mansions and Fuxing Park —at 17:00, dominoes, cards and open-air ballroom dancing— and end at Tianzifang, shikumen lanes turned into shops (touristy and fun), or Xintiandi, the polished expensive version.
Columbia Circle (上生新所, free): a 1920s American club, an art deco pool and a bookshop. And Zhang Yuan (张园), Jing’an’s restored shikumen block.
18:00 – 19:30
From Waibaidu Bridge to Yan’an Lu along the raised promenade. The 1920s facades at your back and Pudong in front: the lights come on around 18:45–19:00 in late September, and those twenty minutes of still-blue sky with the city already lit are the photo of the trip. The sightseeing tunnel under the river (50 CNY of psychedelic lighting) can be skipped guilt-free. If you want the version with a drink, the terraces at Bund 18 or the House of Roosevelt look at the same thing from above.
Huangpu river cruise: about 50 minutes, 115–135 CNY at night in high season from Shiliupu pier, with departures until 21:00. It is the only way to see both banks at once and moving. The more Shanghainese alternative: the old jazz band at the Fairmont Peace Hotel, playing since the eighties with musicians who have long gone grey.
Yuyuan handles rain better than it looks (the galleries are roofed), Tianzifang is covered in stretches, and between the Power Station of Art and a teahouse in the bazaar the whole afternoon disappears. The Bund under an umbrella is still the Bund.
Day 12 · Tue, Sept 22
September average Shanghai 28° 22° 53 % days with rain
No plan, on purpose. It is the only day of the trip with nothing to catch, and after eleven days of trains, steps and early starts that is worth more than any monument. Sleep in, have a clockless breakfast and pick one thing from below. What you should not do today is attempt three.
Today is Tuesday and the Shanghai Museum East (上海博物馆东馆, Pudong — the big one, the bronzes) is closed: it was yesterday or never, and day 11 says so. In exchange, everything that was shut on Monday opens today — the People’s Square building (free, no reservation since 2025, physical passport required; note it is down to two permanent galleries, Ming and Qing furniture and minority craft: 45 minutes), the Power Station of Art and the West Bund museums. If you had to pick one single thing for today, it would be option A: Suzhou fits whole and looks like nothing else you have seen.
The best option if you still want one more city. High-speed trains from Hongqiao every few minutes: 25–35 min and 40–60 CNY second class. Get off at Suzhou, the central station, not Suzhou North. There: the Humble Administrator’s Garden (拙政园, the largest of the classical gardens, capacity-limited and booked ahead), the Suzhou Museum by I. M. Pei right beside it (free, booked, closed Mondays) and the Pingjiang canal lane for late afternoon. Leave at 8:30 and you are back by 19:00, in time for dinner. It is a real day out, not a half-afternoon escape.
The water town within reach: metro line 17 from Hongqiao, ~37 min and ~8 CNY, and you are there. Wandering the lanes is free; individual temples and houses cost 5–10 CNY and a boat ride runs about 150 CNY per boat (up to six people). The 16th-century Fangsheng Bridge is the image. Go first thing: from 10:00 the coach parties start arriving. Even shorter version: Qibao (line 9, 30 min from downtown), more modest and with more street food, though you barely leave the city.
Shanghai Tower, floor 118 (~180 CNY): 632 metres, a lift that takes under a minute and the entire Huangpu bend at your feet. The hour matters more than the building: go in an hour before sunset and one ticket buys you day and night. Alternatives: the SWFC deck (the "bottle opener", glass floor on 100) or, free apart from the drink, a high bar in Lujiazui. Warning: in haze —common in September— you see less from up there than from the Bund.
Three clusters, half a day each. The West Bund, a riverside museum walk: Long Museum (spectacular raw concrete), Tank Shanghai (converted kerosene tanks) and the Centre Pompidou × West Bund. M50, by Suzhou Creek: brick sheds full of small galleries, free entry, neighbourhood feel. And the Power Station of Art, the converted power plant —free for its regular shows— which is the most impressive building of the three.
Jing’an Temple (50 CNY), golden roofs wedged among office towers; Zhang Yuan and Columbia Circle to see how Shanghai restores things; the South Bund fabric market, where a made-to-measure shirt or suit takes 24–48 h —today is the last possible day, tomorrow there is no time—; and an hour-long foot massage for 100–150 CNY which, after Huangshan, is not an indulgence.
Confirm which airport your flight leaves from (Hongqiao ≠ Pudong) and check in online; weigh the bags with everything you bought; keep 100–200 CNY in cash for tomorrow; and buy the tea and gifts today, because at the airport they cost triple. And one rule: no excursions tomorrow. Suzhou and Zhujiajiao belong to today.
Farewell dinner, and this one you book from home (see the food guide: the places marked "Day 12 · farewell"). Then the last walk along the Bund — much of Pudong’s lighting goes off around 22:00, so go before that. Tomorrow only the airport remains.
Day 13 · Wed, Sept 23
September average Shanghai 28° 22° 53 % days with rain
Shanghai Spain
Return flight · check the airport: Hongqiao ≠ Pudong
A quiet morning depending on flight time. After check-out the bags stay at reception —every hotel does it— and do not take on anything far from the hotel.
Shanghai’s best last hour is the Bund at 7:00: empty, with old men doing tai chi and the haze lifting off Pudong. A shengjianbao breakfast on the way back and that is that. With a bit more margin: Jing’an Temple or Zhang Yuan, both ten metro minutes from the centre.
Hongqiao and Pudong are different airports and a good hour apart: check your boarding pass, not your memory. To Pudong (PVG): the Maglev from Longyang Road costs 50 CNY (40 if you show a same-day boarding pass) and takes about 8 minutes — but getting to Longyang Road is already 30–40 min of metro, so door to door it beats nothing: you take it for the pleasure of taking it. Metro line 2 takes ~1 h and some trains require changing at Guanglan Road (platform opposite). By taxi, 45–70 min and ~200 CNY. To Hongqiao (SHA): lines 2 or 10, 30–40 min, or a 90–120 CNY taxi.
Be at Pudong three hours before an international flight: T1 and T2 are far apart and exit control with a foreign passport is slow. And remember that the 25th–27th is the Mid-Autumn Festival: the 23rd is still clear —you leave two days before the peak— but the airport is already filling up. Add half an hour of cushion.
How the trip moves
The exact September 2026 timetables cannot be seen yet: in China tickets go on sale 15 days ahead. What follows are the real service windows and durations, which are stable. Confirm train numbers on 12306 or Trip.com as soon as sales open.
| Day | Leg | How | Duration | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Raft on the Li River | From the Xingping pier: out and back to the Nine Horses Fresco, or the Yangdi–Xingping stretch | 1 – 1.5 h | ~120–220 CNY/pers. |
| 6 | Yangshuo → Guilin | Direct bus from Yangshuo bus station every 20–30 min; arrives at Qintan station, 20 min by taxi from the centre. Alternatives: the train (30 min, but the station is 45 min from town) or a 7-seat Didi door to door | ~1.5 h | ~50 CNY (Didi, 250–350 CNY/car) |
| 8 | Wuyuan villages (day car) | Ask the hotel the night before, or Ctrip/Trip.com; suitcases in the boot; Huangling → Wangkou → Likeng, ending at the station | 07:45 – 17:30 | 300–500 CNY/car (Sept) |
| 9 | Tunxi ⇄ Xidi · Bishan · Hongcun | Day car with the evening wait agreed ("return 20:30 from Hongcun"). Cheap plan without the sunset: bookable bus in the Didi app (站点巴士), 06:40–17:10, ~20 CNY | 08:00 – 21:15 | ~600–900 CNY/car incl. the evening wait |
| 10 | Tunxi → Tangkou → Huangshan North stn. | Same driver all day: out at 06:40, luggage minding, pick-up at 16:25 (the bus is not reliable for the train). Inside the park, compulsory shuttle 19 CNY each way | ~50 min + 40–50 min | ~300–400 CNY the package |
What to buy, and when
Ordered by date, not by importance: what is on top comes first. Train tickets are only sold 15 days ahead — the opening dates are approximate, the app shows the exact day — so as a group, put one person on buying each leg on its first day of sale. You can book with a foreign passport on 12306 or Trip.com, and the name must match the passport exactly. If a train sells out there is an official waiting list (you pay upfront and get refunded if you miss out): it works better than it sounds. Tick each box as you book: it stays saved in this browser.
Book now, with free cancellation: Wuyuan and Tunxi are small towns with few beds and prices climb in September. Check-in and check-out dates, exactly as you must enter them, in the map of nights. Guilin is the only one that waits: it depends on the T3.
Verifying a foreign passport on 12306 can take days, and the name must match letter by letter. Have it done before August 30: that day you want to be buying, not signing up.
Just the price per car per day, and confirmation they are there: the firm booking is closed the night before. Contacts and how to write to them, in Drivers with direct contact.
Free cancellation up to 24 h before, so buying early costs nothing and saves you queues and capacity limits. The real deadline is 48 h before each day. What goes online and what at the gate, in the practical notes.
Sun 30 Aug
Sales open today. Only 4 direct trains a day: buy first thing. If it sells out, plan B via Guilin (21 daily pairs) and a 1.5 h bus to Yangshuo.
Wed 2 Sept
On sale today, and it is the no-risk leg: frequent trains and a bus every 20–30 min. If you end up taking the bus or a Didi, there is nothing to buy here.
Thu 3 Sept
The most delicate ticket of the trip: only 5–6 a day and this is the only one that lands you in Wuyuan by mid-afternoon. The moment it opens. If it shows sold out, use the official waiting list.
Thu 3 Sept
In the same sitting as the T3, with its arrival time in front of you: leave a good 45 min to change in Shangrao. There are ~18 a day, so the margin is yours to choose.
Thu 3 Sept
Right after buying the T3: it is a single night with an 08:48 departure, so the station rules the choice (central or North), not the city centre.
Fri 4 Sept
Target: the 17:54 or 18:04, the one that fits after the villages. There are 13 a day, but it closes the day of the car: have it before you talk to the driver.
Sun 6 Sept
Target 18:25 → 21:11 (alternative 17:26; last resort ~19:56). Sunday return to Shanghai: it fills up. Confirm it before you fix the pick-up time in Tangkou.
Tue 8 Sept
Opens 24–48 h ahead depending on the airline. Seats together and baggage sorted before you set foot in Barajas.
Tue 15 Sept
It is on the calendar only so nobody hunts for it online: you pay at the pier (~120–220 CNY/pers.) and choose the stretch on the spot.
Thu 17 Sept
As you check in: departure at 07:45 with the suitcases in the boot, Huangling → Wangkou → Likeng and ending at the station for the T5. 300–500 CNY per car.
Thu 17 Sept
The ticket (125 CNY, with the 19:00 dǎtiěhuā included) is paid at the gate on arrival. The show (140) is on Trip.com: if you buy it, confirm the 18:40 and 20:10 sittings that same day.
Fri 18 Sept
Make it the same driver for both days: on Saturday Xidi–Bishan–Hongcun with the wait until 20:30, and on Sunday Tangkou at 06:40, luggage minding and pick-up at 16:25 for the train.
Mon 21 Sept
Opens 24–48 h ahead. And check the airport: Hongqiao ≠ Pudong, and the transfer from the hotel changes completely.
Mon 21 Sept
If you go up, the hour matters more than the building: a ticket for one hour before sunset, bought a day ahead. Check the sky first: in haze you see less than from the Bund.
Before you go
Not needed. The waiver for ordinary Spanish passports is extended until 24:00 on December 31, 2026, for stays of up to 30 days. If anyone stays in a private home, they must register at the nearest police station within 24 hours — hotels do it for you.
Your last train is on Sunday the 20th and the flight on Wednesday the 23rd: you leave two days before the holiday, with more slack than before. In the final days trains and the airport will start filling up, but you dodge it. If the flight moved to the 25th–27th, rethink that leg.
Shoes with grippy soles (Xingping and Huangshan are stone and steps), a light rain jacket, a power bank. In September it is hot and humid at every stop except the Huangshan summit, where it genuinely cools down.
Alipay and WeChat Pay with a foreign card now work almost everywhere. Carry some cash anyway for rural buses and rafts.
In advance on Trip.com (or each park’s official mini-program): the 6 trains (there or on 12306), the Huangshan entrance (190 CNY, real-name with passport) with the Yungu cable car up (80), Huangling ticket+cable car (145–165) and Hongcun and Xidi (94 online vs 104 at the gate). Wunvzhou’s "Meet Wuyuan" show (140) is also on Trip.com in English. Nearly all of it with free cancellation up to 24 h before. At the gate, no risk: the Wunvzhou entrance (125), Wuyuan’s individual villages (60 each) and their combo pass, Mengli Laojia (a September Thursday won’t sell out), the Yuping cable car down and the canyon monorail (paid up top, depending on time and legs), the Tangkou shuttles (19) and Mukeng. The rule: real-name items and anything capacity-limited, online; small sums and on-the-spot decisions, at the gate.
Huangshan/Tunxi — Thomas Gao ("Huangshan Private Tour", English-speaking guide-driver, 4.9/5 on TripAdvisor with 2026 reviews): WhatsApp/WeChat/tel. +86 18955904525 · thomasgao662@yahoo.com — ask him to quote all three days; he also runs Wuyuan from Tunxi. Car+driver without a guide: etripchina (WeChat: etripchina · WhatsApp +86 13617732531; Xidi+Hongcun ~US$133/car, station transfer ~US$59). Wuyuan — "Mr. Yu", freelance driver with a 7-seat MPV, recommended on the TripAdvisor forum in May 2026 (WeChat: AShark1998; no English, negotiate ~300–450 CNY/day); if he does not reply, the Ziyang hotel will arrange one the night before, or the English-speaking owners of the Skywells hotel can organise a car (WeChat: edgawne · frontdesk@wuyuanskywells.com). How: add the exact WeChat ID (create the account now, not in September), ask the price per car per day and the pick-up point, reply "请发文字" if they send voice notes (the app translates text), and pay at the end (cash or Alipay), never up front.
Route decisions
An itinerary is also defined by what it discards. These stayed on the cutting-room floor, for a reason.
It was in, and it is out — and with it, the trip’s fourteenth day. The reasons, in order: in mid-September the terraces are green with the first yellows (full gold arrives in the last week of the month, and the harvest is held back to Oct 24–Nov 2); sunrise is a fog lottery; and the place is expensive in hours — two half-days on mountain roads, luggage split in two and a basic guesthouse in between. What is lost is real: the terraces empty from ~16:00 to ~11:00, the only way to see them without day tours. If anyone goes back, go in the last week of September or in October, and sleep in Tiantouzhai (Dazhai). In its place the trip gains an extra half-morning in Yangshuo and a whole afternoon in Guilin, and it now ends on Wednesday the 23rd.
Replaced by the Xingping raft. The boat takes 4–5 hours and spends its final stretch on flat scenery (lunch is served exactly there); the raft covers the star section, costs a third and gives back a good half-day. The only thing lost: sailing into Yangshuo.
Out, to slow the pace. The long train to Shangrao happens with or without it (Shangrao is the obligatory junction towards Wuyuan and Huangshan), so it only cost a night and two hours of driving — but it is a scenic reconstruction, not a thousand-year-old town. Hongcun, Xidi and the Wuyuan villages cover the authentic part. Re-examined for the day-7 evening: arriving in Shangrao at 15:10 with suitcases, the return brushes the last train — and its offer (a lit stage-set town) is already covered by Wunvzhou, 10 min from the hotel.
The other two names around Shangrao. Sanqingshan (UNESCO, granite pinnacles with cliff-hung walkways) is genuinely serious — but it needs a full day that does not exist, and it is "Huangshan in miniature" when you climb the real one 72 hours later. Gexian Village is another fabricated Taoist village with lights: 90% redundant with Wunvzhou and worse placed. Neither is worth breaking the itinerary for, and both duplicate something you already have.
Sunrise over the sea of clouds is spectacular, but it is the opposite of resting: a spartan hotel, a 4:30 wake-up and a backpack on your shoulders. If you ever come back with more margin, it is the first thing to reclaim.
It repeats Chongqing's role. The only unrepeatable thing is the pandas, and it costs two days.
The alternative route. More spectacular in one hit and with the best old town in China, but the connection towards Huangshan forces a transfer in Changsha with only 4 trains a day.
Well connected to Chongqing (2 h 17), but it is a car destination: an hour and a half to the Grand Canyon, three hours to Pingshan. And heading east it is a dead end.
Zhujiajiao, Nanxun, Xitang: not included by default, but with day 12 free, Zhujiajiao (~1 h each way) is the natural outing if you feel like leaving the city.