First time visitor to China

I have a old and dear friend coming to visit me in China. It's his first time coming here, but he's pretty well traveled in both Asia and Europe. He will be here for 9 days this spring. He has a wide range of interests.

What I'm wrestling with is whether to: A) just stay in Beijing, hang out and have a very carefree schedule, with maybe a night or two in the countryside near a great wall section.

Or B) a tentative plan I've made for Beijing/Xian(with a side trip to nearby Huashan). 

I asked him what he'd rather do and he said he's happy with whatever I plan. I'm sure either way will be a blast, but I'm curious if it was your first and probably only trip to China, which option would be more appealing to you? 

Difficult to answer this kind of question for other people, but in my opinion, Xi'an has similar stuff to offer to Beijing, i.e. lots of old historic temples and so on. Personally, I'd do Beijing (since you are there anyway), and something completely different, say, Guilin and Yangshuo, or Suzhou and Hangzhou, for scenery. I mean, if you will only be there for a few days, it doesn't really matter whether you go somewhere large like Xi'an or somewhere a bit smaller like Guilin because you won't be able to cover everything in that time anyway.

On the other hand, if your friend is happy with whatever, then it doesn't really matter either way.

Pity your friend was non-committal. If that was me, I'd love to travel a little and would agree with moose that a place like Guilin , or Kunming, would give a little flavour of a different China. Mind you, 9 days isn't long! Would you fly or go by train? The train experience would be something else to experience for your friend too.

I disagree with the previous comments, I wouldnt want to go too far (like guilin) specially if he leaves from beijing too, thats pretty much two travel days out of the nine. Also he has visited other asian countries so maybe he has already seen some similar sceneries elsewhere. 

But I wouldnt want to stay 9 days in Beijing either. I agree with the moose that xian is a similar experience, but to me it is absolutely worth going for the terracota warriors alone. Plus huashan is a great idea. And you can add Datong to the loop for example.

Also, the first time I went to beijing I really appreciated that my friend showed me a section of the great wall that wasnt one of the typical ones (I dont remember the name but there was a lake and one section was underwater, but im sure there are plenty others the point is to avoid the heavily restored and crowded sections if possible).

Not been for a while (i.e.) years, but a trip to Pingyao was good from Beijing as it's an overnight train leaving in the evening each way, so even a day or one night is do-able, though understand the old city is a bit more touristy these days. Might be fine midweek, and there's some amazing temples in the villages around back from when it was a very wealthy area back in the day.

I do think Guilin/Yangshuo would be cool, however I was just there a few months ago, plus my friend and I both lived in Vietnam for 10  years(that's how we know each other) and I found the Guangxi scenery a bit similar to that.  I tossed around the idea of a Tiger Leaping gorge trek, as I've never been, but with 9 days, that's getting too far away and too expensive for air tickets. Chengdu, Sichuan, Dongbei, Neimenggu, Guizhou, Hunan...all these places would be awesome, but starts to get far away/pricey for 9 days needing time to show him around my "hometown". Whereas 高铁 from 北京 - 西安 leave at 7am and you're there for lunch- plus as @Singe mentions, the train is an experience itself. I get the fact everyone has pointed out that Xi'an and Beijing are of a similar flavor, but they are both "a very Chinese flavor", and Xi'an has a distinct Western feel, some good sites and food. 

On 3/16/2025 at 8:27 PM, anonymoose said:

Suzhou and Hangzhou

Would absolutely have been on my list, but planning to go there with my wife later this year

On 3/17/2025 at 4:02 AM, lordsuso said:

 I wouldnt want to go too far (like guilin) specially if he leaves from beijing too, thats pretty much two travel days out of the nine. Also he has visited other asian countries so maybe he has already seen some similar sceneries elsewhere. 

Precisely

On 3/17/2025 at 4:02 AM, lordsuso said:

to me it is absolutely worth going for the terracota warriors alone. Plus huashan is a great idea. And you can add Datong to the loop for example.

Although I've been to Xian several times for work, I have never had time to go to the Warriors, so that's a bonus, I've also never been to 华山. Although 华山 is probably quite touristy, we'll be there on a non-holiday weekday, I found an awesome hotel with an outdoor patio looking right out at the mountain, and that plank walk looks unforgettable. I'd love to take hime to Yungan grottos, but there simply isn't time to fit it in.

On 3/17/2025 at 4:02 AM, lordsuso said:

Also, the first time I went to beijing I really appreciated that my friend showed me a section of the great wall that wasnt one of the typical ones (I dont remember the name but there was a lake and one section was underwater, but im sure there are plenty others the point is to avoid the heavily restored and crowded sections if possible).

I'm actually a bit of a 长城 enthusiast. I've hiked over a dozen different sections of "wild wall" over the years. In fact I'm going to Jiankou Great Wall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlzzaD7kX0Y day after tomorrow for a hike. So, yeah, I'm planning to take him on an 11km hike at Jinshanling 金山岭 a mix of fully and lightly restored Great Wall, and not crowded at all.

On 3/17/2025 at 8:20 AM, Jim said:

a trip to Pingyao was good from Beijing as it's an overnight train leaving in the evening each way, so even a day or one night is do-able, though understand the old city is a bit more touristy these days. Might be fine midweek, and there's some amazing temples in the villages around back from when it was a very wealthy area back in the day.

I was mulling between Pingyao and Xian. I like Pingyao, but I couldn't think of a way to squeeze in any nature there, like I can with Huashan. I'm not familiar with these villages around Pingyao.

The main thing you've all sold me on in this thread is that we definitely shouldn't just hang out in Beijing the whole time. It will be absolutely non-stop though, he had better sleep well on the flight over

I did actually hatch one other idea, but I'd have to do a lot of research. It would be a pretty alternative type China trip. That would be to do the 3 day Wutai Shan trek. https://www.walkopedia.net/best-world-walks/China/Wutai-Shan

"While the area gets very busy in high Summer, it is a very pleasant place in Spring and Autumn. The sites around Taihuai are well worth taking time over, as the area escaped the Cultural Revolution relatively unscathed, leaving some of the oldest wooden buildings in China still standing. It should be said, though, that Wutai Shan does get some mixed reviews (there is quite a lot of kitsch around), and doesn’t have the amazing drama of (say) Hua Shan or Emei Shan. But preferable if you want atmosphere, but less punishing walking."

This place is very drivable from Beijing, and I can drive/have a car. We both love road trips, the outdoors and this would certainly be an adventure. The other visitors will likely be 100% Chinese. It does seem a bit complicated, and we both also love chilling out in brewpubs - not sure what the access to cold beer(even Qingdao) would be like on this trek. Anyone have any experience doing this? It's very, very tempting to me and I'm at least going to read up on it. 

Last option sounds great 

Your question reminds me of my first visit to Beijing with a tourist group, arriving from Xi'an via train about noon time in April 2017. Prepared for grime and smog as usually is reported by Western media, it instead was a wonderful spring day, not smoggy but the smell of dust like in ancient times - not industrial waste. Only downside to the good weather was that when we went to the Great Wall on Saturday, not only tourists like ourselves flooded the walls but Beijing people also used the beautiful day for an excursion. So when entering the wall turning to the left you could go slowly step by step. Trying the other side it was taking one step, then wait for the crowd of people in front of you to proceed another step, so after some steps I gave that up. That however did nothing to reduce the beauty of the scenery on the mountain side with flowering apricot trees etc. Two years later, we again visited the Great Wall on our own. This time it was on a rainy working day, and although the busses to the Great Wall were full of people, the Great Wall itself almost seemed deserted. No problem walking the wall on both sides, and on a rainy day the scenery was almost more impressive!

Beijing itself with its parks, museums, and monuments certainly has enough to offer to entertain your friend for 9 days. Also, both Xi'an and Beijing have a somewhat similar "imperial" atmosphere, so I personally would prefer to visit the somewhat more "plebeian" Hangzhou. But off course Xi'an is nearer to Beijing and the terracotta army and the museum built around it alone make Xi'an worth a visit, ignoring the many other highlights Xi'an has to offer.  Also you yourself not yet having visited the mausoleum site is a good reason to go Xi'an. As to experiencing the high speed train from Beijing to Xi'an, that certainly also is a worthwhile experience, but if your friend already has traveled with the Shinkansen, I have been told that won't make much of a difference.

On 3/17/2025 at 3:03 PM, Flickserve said:

Last option sounds great 

It does sound incredibly interesting(if challenging), and I think that compared to this somewhat outdated article, the air is mostly a lot better nowadays:

https://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/travelsightseeing/outbound-hiking-the-sacred-mountain-wutaishan

My wife went to Wutai Shan last year, so just asked her, and she says driving is a bit of a hassle, as you need to pre-book to be allowed into the villages/scenic area in general; she says you're much better going in on a coach - they drove to somewhere nearby where you could park up and then get a bus in. Then they hiked the mountains and spent the night in a temple.

On 3/17/2025 at 9:25 PM, Jim said:

need to pre-book to be allowed into the villages/scenic area

Yeah I was looking at that. The hotels I was looking at all have parking lots, but say you need to pre-book. I'll investigate that further. Did she enjoy the hiking and scenery/atmosphere there? 

On 3/18/2025 at 12:15 AM, suMMit said:

Yeah I was looking at that. The hotels I was looking at all have parking lots, but say you need to pre-book. I'll investigate that further. Did she enjoy the hiking and scenery/atmosphere there? 

She did; went with a group of friends, hiked the mountains then stayed in a temple overnight. Think those friends are all quite sincere Buddhists so they were there for the meditation, wife was more along for the ride.

I presented my plan with a breif summary of Xian vs. Wutaishan and he is erring more towards the Wutaishan, and so am I. So I'm pretty much certain that's where we are going after Beijing. I did a lot of research last night and while it has some downside(so does everywhere), it looks really, really interesting. Especially photos online from all sources and seasons look very intriguing. 

So we did end up going to Wutaishan. We spent 4 days in Beijing, I drove us to WTS where we spent 2 nights, then we drove to a section of wild great wall in the countryside outside bj. We stayed at a guesthouse overnight and hiked the GW in the morning. We drove back to bj and had another day and a half. 

WTS was a good choice, as my friend really enjoyed the drive, about 5.5 hours including stops to eat etc. He got to see some "real china", the highways and other infrastructure and some interactions with people on the way. The scenery was quite nice and the weather was good, we took different routes there and back which had surprisingly different scenery - the way there was farms and the way back was craggy mountains. He was very impressed by the highways and bridges. 

As @Jim mentioned, getting the car in to WTS was some mafan. My wife had to reserve the parking as there was no place to insert a passport number. We also had to sweet talk them a bit at the entrance. My Chinese skills came in very handy. The next morning, where to start hiking wasn't very well signposted either, but again, Chinese helped and we got there. We ended up not staying overnight at a monestary, but rather back at the guesthouse, as we didn't have the time for a full 2 day loop. Anyway, we had a full day hike with great weather. Next day we checked out some of the temples in the valley.

Great wall hike was phenomenal weather and all around excellent. We also had a great time in bj both before and after WTS. My friend, although we'll traveled in Asia (having lived in Vietnam and Japan in the past) was VERY impressed with China. More than I expected him to be. I had a great time showing him around and almost everything went smoothly. We had a fun filled catch up!