Four days in Shanghai is enough to cover the Bund, the former French Concession, modern Lujiazui and a water-town day trip — and the city’s metro means you can do all of it from one central base. For foreign visitors, a single hotel near People’s Square, Jing’an or the French Concession is the efficient choice: you never repack, and every sight is a short metro ride away.
Four days in Chengdu is enough for the pandas, the temples, the teahouse life and a Sichuan food blowout, all from one central base. The city is flat, walkable and Metro-connected, so a single hotel near the centre keeps every sight close and lets you graze the famous cuisine across several evenings rather than one rushed sitting. Here is the day-by-day plan and where to stay.
Three days in Xi’an is the classic first visit: the city wall, the Muslim Quarter, the Terracotta Army and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, all from one central base. The warriors are the one out-of-town excursion; everything else sits inside the Ming-era ramparts. This is the day-by-day plan most first-timers use, plus where to stay so the transfers stay short.