- 🥾 Difficulty 2 / 5
- 📍 Highest point 2,155 m
- 🚗 no driver needed
- ✈️ no domestic flight
- 🛂 Macau as a bonus
- 🎶 strong nightlife
- 🎶 festival possible on day 19
- 💶 €1,900–2,300 p.p.
- Entry: Xi'an
- Day by day
- Map
- Hiking & viewpoints
- Off the beaten path
- Nightlife
- Transport
- Border check
- Practicalities & costs
- Sources
The character of this route
This is the route with the highest pace and the lowest physical demand – and still not a coach tour. It follows a historical axis from north to south: first the capital of the Han and Tang empires, then Sichuan's own independent bronze culture, the Buddhist rock sculpture of Dazu, after that the trading cities of the Pearl River Delta and finally Hong Kong and Macau as two very different colonial legacies.
There is still a hike in here, and a serious one at that: Huashan with the Changkong Zhandao, a plank path bolted to the cliff face several hundred metres above the drop. Plus a night on the East Peak for the sunrise.
Anyone who picks Route 2 gets the best food journey of the six proposals: Shaanxi noodles, Sichuan hotpot, Chongqing xiaomian, Cantonese dim sum and Macanese-Portuguese cooking – four completely different cuisines in three weeks.
📊 The route in numbers
- Bases
- 7 (Xi'an, Huashan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong)
- Rail kilometres
- approx. 3,100 km
- Longest leg
- Chongqing → Guangzhou, approx. 7 h
- Total elevation gain
- approx. 2,500 m of ascent, almost all of it on Huashan
- UNESCO World Heritage
- 4 (Terracotta Army, Dazu, Emei/optional, Macau old town)
- Border controls
- 2 (mainland → Hong Kong, Hong Kong → Macau)
💡 Why Xi'an as the arrival airport
Xi'an sits at the northern end of the axis and has good connecting flights from Germany. From there the trip runs consistently south in geographical terms – not a single backtrack, no stretch covered twice. Compared with starting in Chengdu that saves about half a travel day, and it gives the better dramatic build-up: from the imperial capital to the glass façade.
20 days
Day by day
27 October to 15 November 2026. Halloween falls on the evening we arrive in Chengdu, the final weekend on Hong Kong and Macau.
| Day | Date | Location | Activity | Accommodation | Transport |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue 27 Oct | Xi'an | Arrival, lodgings in the quarter inside the city wall. In the evening through the lanes of Muslim Street: lamb skewers, roujiamo, pomegranate juice. | Xi'an | Flight arrival |
| 2 | Wed 28 Oct | Xi'an / Lintong | 🚄 Early to the Terracotta Army – be there before nine, after that the pits fill up. In the afternoon the Shaanxi History Museum, which is what actually puts the finds in context. | Xi'an | Local train, bus |
| 3 | Thu 29 Oct | Xi'an | 🚲📍 Cycle ride on the fully preserved city wall, a 14 km circuit 12 metres up. Then the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and the Hanyangling tomb museum with its glass-floored walkways over the original pits. | Xi'an | Bicycle, metro |
| 4 | Fri 30 Oct | Huashan | 🥾📍 The mountain day. 35 minutes by high-speed train, then the ascent. Anyone who wants to takes the Soldier's Path; anyone sparing their knees takes the cable car to the West Peak. Then the summit circuit and the Changkong Zhandao, the harnessed plank path in the south face. Night in the mountain hotel on the East Peak. | East Peak, 2,100 m | 🚄 35 min + on foot |
| 5 | Sat 31 Oct | Huashan → Chengdu | 📍 Sunrise on the East Peak, descent, midday train to Sichuan. In the evening Halloween in Chengdu – the one night of the year when Chinese clubs are at their busiest. | Chengdu | 🚄 approx. 4 h |
| 6 | Sun 1 Nov | Chengdu / Guanghan | Sanxingdui: the bronze masks of a culture that had nothing to do with the central empire and was practically unknown until the 1980s. The real culture shock of this route. In the afternoon the Jinsha Museum in town. | Chengdu | 🚄 30 min + bus |
| 7 | Mon 2 Nov | Chengdu | Wuhou Shrine, the Daoist Qingyang Gong, in the afternoon ear cleaning and jasmine tea in the Renmin teahouse. In the evening Sichuan opera with face-changing – touristy, but good. | Chengdu | Metro |
| 8 | Tue 3 Nov | Chengdu → Chongqing | 🚄 90 minutes. In the afternoon the body of the city itself: 📍 Liziba, where the elevated railway runs through a residential block, the Kuixinglou stairway between the levels, in the evening Hongyadong in its sea of lights above the Jialing. | Chongqing | 🚄 1.5 h |
| 9 | Wed 4 Nov | Dazu | Day trip to the Dazu Rock Carvings, UNESCO World Heritage: tens of thousands of figures from the Song period, still painted, in a density and state of preservation that is unique in China. Far less visited than Longmen or Yungang. | Chongqing | Bus, approx. 1.5 h |
| 10 | Thu 5 Nov | Chongqing | The old quarter of Ciqikou, Luohan Temple, 📍 cable car across the Yangtze. In the evening the viewing platform of the Raffles complex at the river confluence – the best city view in China. | Chongqing | Metro, cable car |
| 11 | Fri 6 Nov | → Guangzhou | 🚄 The longest rail leg of the route, straight across Guizhou and Hunan. Evening arrival in Canton, first round of dim sum in one of the old teahouses around Liwan. | Guangzhou | 🚄 approx. 7 h |
| 12 | Sat 7 Nov | Guangzhou | Shamian Island with its colonial buildings, the Chen Clan Academy with its wood carvings, 📍 up the Canton Tower in the evening. After that 🎶 the club quarter of Zhujiang New Town. | Guangzhou | Metro, ferry |
| 13 | Sun 8 Nov | Guangzhou | 🧭 The unvarnished part: the Xiguan lanes, Yongqingfang, Qingping market and the streets around Guangxiao Temple. Cantonese everyday life, hardly a Western face. | Guangzhou | Metro, on foot |
| 14 | Mon 9 Nov | → Shenzhen | 🚄 30 minutes and a forty-year jump in time: from the trading port to the city that in 1979 was still a fishing village. The OCT-LOFT art district, the Shenzhen Museum, in the evening the Huaqiangbei electronics market. | Shenzhen | 🚄 30 min |
| 15 | Tue 10 Nov | Shenzhen | 🥾📍 Morning up Wutong Shan, 944 m, Shenzhen's local mountain with a view across the border into Hong Kong. In the evening 🎶 the club scene that in Shenzhen has hooked up with the Chengdu scene over the past few years. | Shenzhen | Metro, bus |
| 16 | Wed 11 Nov | → Hong Kong | 🛂 Border crossing into Hong Kong, either by metro via Futian/Lok Ma Chau or on the express train to West Kowloon. In the afternoon Central and Sheung Wan, in the evening 📍 the Peak – by tram, not on foot. | Hong Kong | Metro + border |
| 17 | Thu 12 Nov | Hong Kong | Kowloon day: the Palace Museum and M+ in the West Kowloon Cultural District, then the lanes of Yau Ma Tei and the night market on Temple Street. | Hong Kong | MTR, Star Ferry |
| 18 | Fri 13 Nov | Lantau | 🥾📍 Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin, then the hike down to the fishing village of Tai O with its stilt houses. In the evening 🎶 Sheung Wan and Kwun Tong. | Hong Kong | MTR, cable car, bus |
| 19 | Sat 14 Nov | Macau or Yuen Long | 🛂 Option A – Macau: day trip by ferry, approx. 1 h.
The old town is UNESCO World Heritage: Portuguese churches next to Chinese temples,
pastéis de nata, Senado Square. Back to Hong Kong in the evening.
🎶🎶 Option B – Shi Fu Miz Festival: four stages in the Tai Tong Organic EcoPark, 12:00 to 04:00, confirmed. Both on the same day is not possible – see the note under the table. |
Hong Kong | Ferry + 🛂 or MTR + shuttle |
| 20 | Sun 15 Nov | Hong Kong | Dim sum in Sham Shui Po, Star Ferry, Airport Express. Onward flight. | — | Airport Express |
Table scrolls sideways · 20 days, 27 Oct – 15 Nov 2026, no gaps.
🎶 Day 19: the only real scheduling clash on this route
On Saturday 14 Nov the Shi Fu Miz Festival takes place in Hong Kong – Tai Tong Organic EcoPark in Yuen Long, 12:00 to 04:00, four stages, date and line-up confirmed. That collides with the Macau day trip.
Clean solution: move Macau forward to day 17 (Thu 12 Nov) and push the Kowloon day with M+ and the Palace Museum to day 19 – then Saturday is free for the festival. Museums are busier on a Thursday than on a Saturday anyway. Details and tickets in Route 4.
Source: Mixmag Asia, 15 Jun 2026, and shifumiz.com. Checked 29 Sept 2026.Geography
Map
A straight north–south axis from Shaanxi via Sichuan and Chongqing into the Pearl River Delta.
In China: the Amap link works behind the firewall. Google Maps is blocked on the mainland and OpenStreetMap is unreliable – background, app tips and offline maps.
🚗 Driving legs individually in Amap – with a drawn route
The button above only places markers, no line: Amap's marker endpoint shows up to ten points but no track between them. A drawn route comes from the navigation endpoint. This route has no driving legs at all, however – it runs entirely by rail. Amap is the wrong tool for train connections; use Trip.com or the 12306 app instead.
The embedded map shows the corridor without a route line; there are no route lines here, because this route has no driving legs.
Despite the cultural focus
🥾 Hiking and viewpoints
Huashan and the plank walk
Difficulty: medium to high, psychologically demanding. The classic ascent up the Soldier's Path to the North Peak is pure stair work, steep and long. The summit circuit links the North, West, South and East Peaks; the highest point is at 2,155 m.
The highlight is the Changkong Zhandao: planks bolted into the south face, with via ferrata protection and hundreds of metres of air below. A separate ticket and a harness are compulsory. Anyone with a fear of heights gives it a miss – the rest of the circuit is still strong.
A note on the season: late October is low season on Huashan, so pleasantly quiet. Up top it can already be freezing, though, and in the wet the steps get slippery. The night on the East Peak is basic and cold, but worth it for the sunrise.
Xi'an's city wall by bike
Difficulty: relaxed. 14 kilometres on the closed crown of the wall, rental bikes available up there. 📍 Head towards the West Gate in the late afternoon, when the light falls flat across the roofs of the old town. The best first impression of the city's structure you can get.
Wutong Shan, Shenzhen
Difficulty: medium. 944 m, about 3 to 4 hours of ascent on surfaced paths, very popular with locals early in the morning. 📍 From the top a view across the bay as far as Hong Kong – the border read as a landscape.
Lantau: Buddha to Tai O
Difficulty: medium. From the Tian Tan Buddha down the old path to Tai O, about 3 hours, with a view of the open sea. If you want more: Lantau Peak at 934 m is Hong Kong's second-highest mountain and the classic sunrise summit – which means setting off from Ngong Ping at four in the morning.
Not in the guidebook core programme
🧭 Off the beaten path
Hanyangling rather than just terracotta
The Han imperial tomb north of Xi'an has an underground museum with a glass floor: you walk directly above the open pits with their thousands of small ceramic figures. Hardly any groups, far more intimate than Lintong.
Sanxingdui
The bronze masks from Guanghan are among the most unsettling objects in Chinese archaeology – a culture without writing, without any link to the central empire, with huge eyes and trees made of bronze. Chinese visitors know it, Western ones almost never.
Dazu rather than Longmen
The Dazu Rock Carvings stand in the shadow of the more famous cave temples, but they are better preserved, more colourful and more narrative. A day trip from Chongqing, almost empty on weekdays.
Chongqing's levels
The city works in three dimensions. Anyone who once tries to walk from the Kuixinglou stairway down to the river gets the principle: exit 1 of a metro station can be twenty metres above exit 2. An afternoon with no destination is more instructive here than any sight.
Qingping market, Canton
The big herb and dried-goods market in Liwan: seahorses, mushrooms, dried lizards, ginseng graded by quality. A part of everyday Cantonese culture that turns up on no postcard.
Coloane rather than casinos
In Macau on day 19, don't stay on the Cotai Strip but head for Coloane: village square, chapel, Portuguese bakery, seafront promenade. Half an hour from the gambling concrete, another world.
Evenings
🎶 Nightlife on this route
Route 2 has the second-best nightlife potential after Route 4 – because it strings together four genuine club cities in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and because your legs are still fresh in the evening.
Chengdu, days 5–7 🎶
31 October falls on a Saturday – Halloween has by now become the biggest night out of the autumn in Chinese cities, and by some margin the most pronounced in Chengdu. The scene is concentrated around Jiuyanqiao and Yulin. Chengdu is regarded as the centre of Chinese techno culture.
Guangzhou, day 12 🎶
Saturday night in Zhujiang New Town: big rooms, international bookings, less underground than Chengdu but reliably full. The alternative for quieter evenings: the bars in Yongqingfang.
Shenzhen, day 15 🎶
Shenzhen has built up its own electronic scene over the past few years, with plenty of venues around OCT and Shekou. Realistically, though, a Tuesday night is a bar night.
Hong Kong, days 16–19 🎶
Four evenings, including Friday and Saturday. The interesting places are the warehouse venues in Kwun Tong and the smaller spots in Sheung Wan and Wan Chai – not Lan Kwai Fong. Drinks are expensive, entry prices moderate.
Shi Fu Miz, day 19 🎶🎶
The confirmed highlight: Saturday 14 Nov, Tai Tong Organic EcoPark in Yuen Long, 12:00 to 04:00, four stages ranging from deep house through techno and UK bass to ambient. On this route the Macau trip has to be brought forward to day 17 for it. Details in Route 4.
🔎 Last-minute check – two weeks before departure
Specific venue names are unreliable in China when booked far ahead: places close and open quickly, events are often announced only via WeChat. So no guarantees here, just the sources that help at short notice:
- Resident Advisor – event calendar, filterable by city
- Mixmag Asia for Greater China
- Bandwagon Asia for Hong Kong and Southeast Asia
Logistics
🚄 Transport analysis
🚄 The only route with no need for a vehicle at all
Route 2 runs entirely on rail, metro and ferry. No hire car, no driver, no flight. All seven bases are on the high-speed network or reachable by local transport. That makes it the cheapest of the six variants and the one that is easiest to plan with confidence.
🚗 A hire car would actually be counterproductive here
Quite apart from the fact that China recognises neither the German nor the international driving licence: Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen all operate number-plate driving bans on certain days, parking is expensive and the metros are faster. On this route a car would be nothing but a drawback.
| Leg | Means | Duration | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xi'an → Huashan | 🚄 HSR | approx. 35 min | Huashan North station, shuttle from there to the mountain entrance. |
| Huashan → Chengdu | 🚄 HSR | approx. 4 h | Via the Xi'an–Chengdu high-speed line through the Qinling tunnels. |
| Chengdu → Guanghan (Sanxingdui) | 🚄 + bus | approx. 1 h | As a day trip, luggage stays at the hotel. |
| Chengdu → Chongqing | 🚄 HSR | approx. 1.5 h | Very frequent service, almost like a commuter line. |
| Chongqing → Dazu | Bus | approx. 1.5 h | From Caiyuanba, day trip. |
| Chongqing → Guangzhou | 🚄 HSR | approx. 7 h | Longest leg. Take an early train and the evening in Canton stays usable. |
| Guangzhou → Shenzhen | 🚄 HSR | approx. 30 min | Every half hour. |
| Shenzhen → Hong Kong | Metro or 🚄 | 30–60 min | 🛂 Passport control. The metro via Futian/Lok Ma Chau is cheaper, the train to West Kowloon more comfortable. |
| Hong Kong → Macau | Ferry | approx. 1 h | 🛂 Its own border control, see the border check. |
Mandatory check
🛂 Border crossing check
🛂 China: no visa, 30 days per entry
Germans enter visa-free, up to 30 days per entry, the arrangement valid until 24:00 on 31 Dec 2026. Carry hotel bookings and the onward flight ticket out of Hong Kong.
Sources: Consulate General of the PRC in Hamburg (4 Nov 2025); FAQs on Visa-free Entry into China, as of 21 May 2026.🛂 Macau as a small border crossing – straightforward
Like Hong Kong, Macau is a separate special administrative region with its own immigration control. Germans need no visa and may stay for up to 90 days. The day trip is therefore formally a border crossing, but in practice a ferry ride with two passport checks.
- Procedure
- Exit Hong Kong, ferry crossing approx. 1 h, entry into Macau. The reverse in the evening.
- Time needed at the border
- 20–40 minutes each way, more at weekends
- Return to Hong Kong
- no problem, a fresh visa-free entry of up to 90 days
- Effect on China
- none – the China entry is already finished at this point
Alternative: instead of the ferry, take the bus across the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge. Spectacular scenery, roughly the same time.
Implementation
Practicalities and costs
💶 Cost estimate per person
- Accommodation, 19 nights
- approx. €850 (Hong Kong 4 nights approx. €440)
- Rail and local transport
- approx. €330
- Entry fees and museums
- approx. €180
- Macau day trip
- approx. €60
- Food and drink
- approx. €450
- Nightlife
- approx. €150
- Buffer
- approx. €150
- Total
- €1,900–2,300
🎒 Kit
- Good trainers are enough almost everywhere – except on Huashan, where you want a firm sole
- Gloves and a hat for the night on the East Peak, it gets down to around 0 °C
- A light rain jacket, the delta can throw a short downpour at you in November
- One halfway presentable outfit for Hong Kong – some places have doormen with opinions
- Power bank and head torch for the Huashan sunrise
🌡️ Weather during the travel period
- Xi'an
- 7–18 °C, dry, often smoggy
- Huashan, up top
- −2 to +8 °C, frost possible at night
- Chengdu
- 12–20 °C, hazy
- Chongqing
- 13–21 °C, frequent fog over the river
- Guangzhou
- 19–27 °C, pleasant
- Hong Kong / Macau
- 20–26 °C, the best time of year
📅 Booking order for Route 2
- Open-jaw flight: in to Xi'an, onward flight out of Hong Kong
- Hong Kong hotel for days 16–20 – the most expensive item, book immediately
- Mountain hotel on the Huashan East Peak, limited number of beds
- Timed-slot ticket for the Terracotta Army
- From 12 Oct, book the train legs day by day as they enter the 15-day window, securing Chongqing → Guangzhou early in particular
- Macau ferry only once you are there, the service is frequent
⚠️ One risk worth knowing about
The Changkong Zhandao on Huashan can be closed at short notice in ice, storms or heavy crowds. There is no guarantee and no advance reservation. If it is shut, the summit circuit remains – and even without the plank path that is one of the most impressive mountain days in China.
Further reading
Sources
- Consulate General of the PRC in Hamburg – visa exemption for Germany until 31 Dec 2026
- FAQs on Visa-free Entry into China, as of 21 May 2026
- Hong Kong Immigration Department – visa-free entry
- UNESCO – Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, Terracotta Army
- UNESCO – Dazu Rock Carvings
- UNESCO – Historic Centre of Macau
- Trip.com Trains – train booking, 15-day advance sale
- Shi Fu Miz Festival – official site, 14 Nov 2026
- Shi Fu Miz – ticket shop
- Resident Advisor – event calendar for the last-minute check