China Trip Cost Calculator
Unlike plain Tier-1/Tier-2 calculators that only let you pick one city, this calculator builds the route directly on the map and calculates a mixed trip across several cities – each with its own price level, connected by real rail costs. Food costs also vary a lot by region – see the regional cuisines page for what's typical to eat where.
16 cities · Last verified: 2026-07-31
An 11-day mid-range trip on the route Beijing – Xi'an – Shanghai costs around €3,600 for 2 people including flights, that's about €174 per day on the ground. Traveling the same route exclusively through Tier-1 cities costs about €246 more, according to our calculator. That figure doesn't include attraction tickets – for example theme park admission, covered separately on the theme parks page.
Total cost
€3,595
Per day on the ground
€174
Savings vs. an all-Tier-1 route
€246
11 days · On the ground €1,646 · Rail €263 · Flights €1,686
All 16 Cities Compared by Price
Sorted by costIndex (Beijing = 1.00, the highest value). Details on the derivation are in the methodology note below. Hotel prices in trade-hub cities like Guangzhou can spike around major fairs – see the trade centers page for fair schedules worth checking before you lock in dates.
| City | Tier | costIndex | Hotel (avg./night) | Restaurant (2 people) | Local transit (single fare) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beijing | Tier 1 | 1.00× | €174 | €25.7 (¥200) | ¥4.00 |
| Shanghai | Tier 1 | 0.95× | €157 | €25.7 (¥200) | ¥4.00 |
| Hangzhou | Tier 1 | 0.93× | €157 | €24.5 (¥190) | ¥4.00 |
| Guangzhou | Tier 1 | 0.91× | €157 | €25.7 (¥200) | ¥3.00 |
| Shenzhen | Tier 1 | 0.91× | €157 | €25.7 (¥200) | ¥3.00 |
| Kunming | Tier 1.5 | 0.81× | €124 | €19.3 (¥150) | ¥5.00 |
| Chengdu | Tier 1.5 | 0.77× | €124 | €19.3 (¥150) | ¥4.00 |
| Chongqing | Tier 1.5 | 0.71× | €124 | €19.3 (¥150) | ¥2.50 |
| Harbin | Tier 1.5 | 0.71× | €128 | €20.0 (¥155) | ¥2.00 |
| Shenyang | Tier 1.5 | 0.71× | €124 | €19.3 (¥150) | ¥2.50 |
| Xiamen | Tier 1.5 | 0.69× | €130 | €20.3 (¥158) | ¥1.00 |
| Xi'an | Tier 2 | 0.59× | €105 | €15.4 (¥120) | ¥2.00 |
| Qingdao | Tier 2 | 0.57× | €99 | €15.4 (¥120) | ¥2.00 |
| Guilin | Tier 3 | 0.49× | €83 | €12.9 (¥100) | ¥2.00 |
| Zhangjiajie | Tier 3 | 0.43× | €75 | – | – |
| Lijiang | Tier 3 | 0.11× | €19 | – | – |
Methodology: how the costIndex is calculated per city
costIndex per city = weighted average of hotel price (weight 0.5), restaurant price for 2 people (weight 0.35), and a single local-transit fare (weight 0.15), each relative to Beijing = 1.00. A direct hotel-price source (ChinaHighlights) exists only for Beijing (200 USD), Shanghai/Guangzhou/Shenzhen (180 USD), and Xi'an (120 USD). For the other cities, the hotel price was derived proportionally from the Numbeo restaurant price, calibrated to the ratio of the three anchor cities (hotel USD ≈ 0.95 × restaurant CNY value). Zhangjiajie and Lijiang have no Numbeo data; for those, a separately researched hotel source was used for each, and costIndex was built from the hotel price alone (restaurant/transit = null). The original tier classification (Tier 1 = Beijing/Shanghai/Shenzhen/Guangzhou; Tier 1.5 = Hangzhou/Qingdao/Xiamen; Tier 2 = Chengdu/Chongqing/Xi'an/Kunming/Shenyang/Harbin; Tier 3 = Guilin/Zhangjiajie/Lijiang) was corrected based on the researched data: Hangzhou, with a costIndex of 0.93, sits clearly closer to the Tier 1 group than to Qingdao/Xiamen (also confirmed by Numbeo's own, independently published cost-of-living index: Hangzhou 36.8 vs. Beijing 38.8, Guangzhou 37.2 – much closer together than to Qingdao 30.5 or Xi'an 27.5), and was therefore moved to Tier 1. Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Harbin, and Shenyang, with a costIndex of 0.71–0.81, sit noticeably above Xi'an/Qingdao (0.57–0.59) and were moved to Tier 1.5; Xi'an and Qingdao now form Tier 2. Lijiang is based only on inexpensive courtyard guesthouses in the old town (not on the same 3-star comparison basis as the other cities) and is therefore not directly comparable to the other cities – the very low costIndex (0.11) reflects the budget-guesthouse segment, not necessarily the city's overall price level.
Restaurant and local-transit prices come directly from Numbeo (user-reported individual data points, with a limited sample size per city). Hotel prices are directly sourced only for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Zhangjiajie, and Lijiang; for the other nine cities they were estimated proportionally from the Numbeo restaurant price (see methodologyNote). The flight price and the holiday-season multiplier are likewise estimates. That's why sampleData: true applies to the entire dataset.
Sources
- Numbeo Cost of Living – restaurant and local-transit prices per city
- ChinaHighlights: China Trip Cost Guide – hotel prices for Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou/Shenzhen/Xi'an
- China Dragon Travel: Zhangjiajie cost guide – hotel price for Zhangjiajie
- MyChina Guide: Lijiang Old Town courtyard hotels – hotel price for Lijiang
- Budget Your Trip: China – daily budget by travel style
- TravelChinaGuide: high-speed trains – rail prices and distances for the CNY/km derivation
- Swoodoo: Frankfurt–Beijing – flight price
- CNBC: China's Golden Week travel boom – Golden Week price surcharge
- XE Currency Converter – EUR/CNY/USD/GBP/AUD exchange rates
All figures as of 2026-07-31.
FAQ
How is the daily price per city calculated?
Each city has a costIndex relative to Beijing (= 1.00), built from the hotel price (weight 50%), the restaurant price for two people (35%), and a local transit ticket (15%). The daily baseline price for the chosen travel style (backpacker/mid-range/comfort/luxury) is multiplied by this index, the season multiplier, and the number of travelers – for each city individually, not as a flat rate for the whole trip.
Why does the tier classification differ from other China guides?
We checked the usual Tier 1/1.5/2/3 classification against researched hotel, restaurant, and local-transit prices. Hangzhou is priced clearly closer to Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou than to Qingdao – so we classify it as Tier 1 instead of Tier 1.5. Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Harbin, and Shenyang sit above Xi'an and Qingdao and move to Tier 1.5. Details are in the table below and in the methodology note.
Are the rail costs between cities realistic?
The calculation uses the straight-line distance (not the actual route) multiplied by an average of 0.48 CNY/km, derived from five real, researched high-speed routes. On very long routes without a direct rail connection (e.g. across the whole country), a domestic flight can in practice be cheaper or faster than the calculated rail price.
What does "savings vs. an all-Tier-1 route" mean?
This figure shows how much the same route with the same number of travel days would cost if every city were priced at Beijing's level (costIndex 1.00). The difference shows how much money a mix of pricier and cheaper cities saves compared to an all-Tier-1 route – that's the central advantage of a map-based over a flat-rate cost calculation.
How much does Golden Week change the costs?
According to press reports, hotel prices rise 200–400% during Golden Week (National Day) and the Spring Festival. Since restaurant and local-transit prices barely follow suit, we use a conservative multiplier of 1.9× for total on-the-ground costs – that's a deliberately cautious estimate, not an exact forecast for a specific date.
Can I share my route or come back to edit it later?
Yes. Route, travel style, season, and number of travelers are automatically written into the URL (e.g. ?r=peking:4,xian:3&stil=mittel&saison=normal&pax=2). The link can be saved, shared, or reopened, and restores the route unchanged.
Related:Best Time to Visit China → ·Visa Check →