Apart from booking the actual tickets, public transport in both China and Hong Kong was actually surprisingly easy to navigate and get around. Just make sure you arrive at least an hour in advance before the departure of the train, to go through security checks and line up for the check-in desks. We took various trains during our trip, from high-speed trains to multiple night trains. For a detailed explanation of how to book train tickets, pictures of train models and how to get around the metro, read this post.

Our trip was 19 days in total, including our flights. So while we had only limited time, we tried to optimize our route as much as we could by taking night trains.

As of December 2024, these were the times and prices of the trains we took during our trip:

Type	Destination	Number	Departure	Arrival	Price (per person)
Night Train	Beijing West (北京西) → Xi’an (西安)	D43	20:30	08:23 ⁺ ¹	€62 (1st class Sleeper)
Train	Xi’an North (西安北站) → Chengdu East(成都东)	G89	19:17	22:30	€35.00
Train	Chengdu East (成都东)→ Chongqing North (重庆北)	D2238	09:17	11:20	€12.65
Night Train	Chongqing North (重庆北) → Tongren (铜仁)	K1077	23:50	07:00 ⁺ ¹	€26.39 (Soft sleeper)
Bus	Tongren North Bus Terminal → Fenghuang (凤凰古城)		07:30	09:00	€3.50
Train	Fenghuang Gucheng (凤凰古城) → Zhangjiajie West (张家界西)	G6430	09:02	10:09	€9.90
Night Train	Zhangjiajie West (张家界西) → Guangzhou North (广州)	K687	19:17	07:03 ⁺ ¹	€53.75 (Soft sleeper)
Train	Guangzhou (广州) → Hong Kong (香港西九龙)	G6113	10:00	10:59	€27.82

To get an idea of the average accommodation costs in China and Hong Kong, we’ve included an overview of our hotels and the prices. Overall, we loved most of the hotels we picked, except the one in Hong Kong, where we had some issues with a leak in our room and some troubles with the staff.

City	Hotel/Hostel	Facilities	Total Price (2 persons)
Beijing	Yihe Boutique Hotel (Guangqumennei Subway Station Branch)	Hotel, Private Bathroom	€113.61
Chengdu	Chengdu Mitang Youth Hostel (Kuixinglou Branch, Kuanzhai Alley)	Hostel, Private Bathroom	€50.00
Chongqing	Mcsrh Hotel (Chongqing Jiefangbei Chaotianmen)	Hotel, Private Bathroom	€25.95
Fenghuang	Fenghuang Shuyi Homestay (Fenghuang Ancient Town Branch)	Hotel, Breakfast, Pick-up, Private Bathroom	€18.84
Zhangjiajie (Wulingyuan)	Tianchong Yunhai Resort Hotel (Wulingyuan National Forest Park)	Hotel, Breakfast, Private Bathroom	€14.12
Zhangjiajie	Zhangjiajie Compass Boutique Inn (Tianmen Mountain Cableway Branch)	Hotel, Private Bathroom	€10.95
Hong Kong	Yesinn @YMT Youth Hostel	Hostel, Private Bathroom	€115.00

We started our trip in Beijing, where we spent four full days exploring this major city and its surroundings. While we didn’t have nearly enough time to explore everything that we wanted, we got a nice introduction to the culture and most important historic monuments. It is extremely important to book entrance tickets in advance, since tickets sell out fast and for some you can’t buy them on the spot. Be prepared to wait in many long lines, which resolve very fast, and to have a security and bag check for most historic sights as well metro and train stations.

We particularly loved the Summer Palace, which is quite out of the city centre, but easily reachable by metro. We got there not long after the palace opened, and had the place nearly to ourselves.

We chose to only spend half a day in Xi’An, to see the Terracotta Warriors and the Muslim Quarter, and then continue the same day to Chengdu. While I would have loved to spend more time in this interesting and diverse city, I don’t have any regrets about rushing to Chengdu, as we ended up loving this city; it was even my favourite city that we’ve visited in China!

While it’s possible to go to the Terracotta Warriors by public transportation from the station, we opted to take a taxi there as we were so tight on time and in the end, the price difference isn’t that big while saving a lot of time. After visiting the three halls and the museum, we drove back to the city and got dropped off near the ‘Giant Wild Goose Pagoda‘. From there, we took a bus to the Muslim Quarter to dive into the local street food. It was very chaotic, to say the least, and felt very different from the other Chinese cities we had seen during the trip. At night, we took another night train to Chengdu!

While Chengdu is mostly famous for its pandas (which we visited as well), we loved the city even more! It was very tranquil and green, while having lots to see and do. Some of our highlights include:

• People’s Park: Famous park with multiple teahouses, people dancing and playing board games, and the famous blue & pink ‘dating corner’.
• Wenshu Yuan Monastery: A beautiful Buddhist monastery. While we were visiting they were hosting an event with multiple games around the area and it was really cute to see children playing some unique and traditional games.

We particularly loved the food we tried here, and from the many dumplings that we tried during our trip, this city is definitely where we had the best ones. Read about the restaurants that we visited during our stay here, including our search for a local apartment that became too famous and started its own restaurant that you must try.

Chongqing had a completely different feel that the previous cities so far during our trip. It’s also known as the ‘cyberpunk’ city of China, at night the city is lit up by many lights, and the difference in heights can make it confusing to navigate. We visited the centre the first day, and ended our night with the traditional hotpot, with which we had a little trouble because the broth was insanely spicy.

The second day we went to Ci Qi Kou Gu Zhen, which was the old town from the Ming dynasty. We tried some traditional snacks and had a calm walk through the cute and small streets and went back again by metro to the city centre.

This was probably the most tricky town to get to during our route. We had taken a night train from Chonqing to Tongren, where we switched to a minivan. The train had dropped us off very early in the morning, so we had some time to kill in the area before our bus drive to Fenghuang. We discovered that very little shops and cafe’s around the station were open, and we were mainly walking around and killing time.

During the drive to Fenghuang, a local befriended us and added us to WeChat, in which we continued to chat during the whole ride. It’s actually easy to chat through WeChat, as you can translate all the messages directly. After getting dropped off, we took a taxi to the hotel and spent the rest of the day exploring the town. Unfortunately, it was off-season which is in theory nice, but since there were (almost) no other tourists, most of the shops in the historic city were closed, and it gave a bit of an empty and deserted feel.

We did have a nice walk all along the river, and returning on the other side. It was a very pretty sight with all the wooden houses on stilts.

We spent 3 full days in the area, of which two days in Wulinyuan and one day in Zhangjiajie city. On the first day, we started with an easy route, the Golden Whip Stream. The trail was 7.5 km long and took us about 2 hours. Since it had rained this morning, all the stones were very wet and slippery, so we had to be extra careful. The nature was very beautiful and foresty, it being a mix of bamboo and regular trees. Sadly, monkeys also liked this trail, and at the beginning and end there were a lot of them…

On the second day, we took the Bailong elevator up to walk through the Yuanjiajie area before the crowds. While all areas seem quite big on the hiking maps that we could find online, we walked through them quite quickly. We took one of the shuttles that runs on top of the mountain to the Yangjiajie area, where we stepped out to see the ‘Great Natural Wall’. We also wanted to hike to Tianbo Mansion, but the route was blocked with a sign that the path was under construction (January 2025). We walked back to the parking with shuttle buses, and took one to Tianzi Mountain. In this area, it was a bit more crowded, and we walked to a few viewpoints with breathtaking sceneries. We decided to walk all the way down, which connected to the 10 Mile Gallery.

On the last day in the area, we visited Tianmen Mountain, located to the south of Zhangjiajie. When buying the tickets online, we chose ticket option B, which meant taking a shuttle bus first towards the shorter cable car. It took us to the middle station, from where it was a short walk along the edge of the mountain to the famous ‘Stairway to Heaven’. We followed the East route, walking along the edge of the mountain most of the time, enjoying the views. A lot of trees were in the middle of the path, or lowly hanging over it, so you had to pay attention to not only the snow but also your head! On the other side of the mountain, there was a small Buddhist temple. We walked around for a bit and continued to the West route. This side was quite more crowded now, probably because of the time.

While staying in Hong Kong, you must visit at least one traditional Hong Kong-style teahouse called a ‘Cha chaan teng’. They have amazing buns, in particular, the ‘pineapple bun’ (because of the pattern) was our favorite. We mainly enjoyed strolling through the different neighborhoods of the city, with each its own vibe.