Four days in Guangzhou work from one base in Tianhe or near Beijing Road: the city’s Cantonese food, the Pearl River and the colonial-era waterfront all sit on the metro. This plan keeps you in one licensed room and covers the foreigner booking details that actually come up.
For a foreign passport holder, the smart 4-day Beijing plan is to sleep all four nights in Dongcheng or Xicheng — the core inside the 2nd Ring Road — within easy Metro reach of the Forbidden City, the lakes, and the Hutongs. Licensed hotels here register foreigners routinely; relocate only if you add a Great Wall overnight.
A foreign passport holder’s 3-day Wuhan plan is to sleep all three nights in Hankou — the riverside district with the old foreign concessions, the food streets, and the most licensed hotels. Wuhan is three towns joined by bridges and a big Metro; Hankou keeps you central, walkable to the Yangtze, and registered cleanly with one check-in.
Where should a foreign passport holder sleep during a 3-day Shanghai trip? Base all three nights in central Huangpu (the Bund–People’s Square corridor) or in Pudong’s Lujiazui if you want skyline views. Both districts sit on Metro lines and host licensed international hotels that register foreign guests without fuss.
Three days in Hangzhou are best spent from one base beside West Lake: the lake, the tea hills and the old town are all rides, and a lakefront room turns the sunset into a walk home. This plan is organised around that stay and the choices foreigners should know.
For a foreign passport holder, the smart 3-day Chongqing plan is to sleep all three nights on the Yuzhong peninsula — the central district between the two rivers where the hotspots, the Metro, and the foreigner-licensed hotels all sit. You check in once, register once, and ride the light rail to everything else.
Three days in Beijing fit the imperial core, the Great Wall and the hutongs from a single Dongcheng base if you sleep near the Forbidden City and treat the wall as a day loop. This short plan is built around where you rest each night, not a race through sights.
A foreign passport holder’s two-week China honeymoon is best as five romantic bases: three nights in Beijing, two in Xi’an, three in Shanghai, three in Yangshuo, and three on Sanya’s beach. Each base has licensed hotels with proper double suites and registers foreigners cleanly — book the honeymoon suites and the beachfront room in advance, and confirm the foreigner policy in writing.
Two weeks in China for a first-timer is best built as four bases joined by high-speed rail, with one licensed hotel in each city and only three travel days between them. This plan treats sleeping well as the spine of the trip, not a detail to sort later.
Two days in Xi’an are tight, so base once inside the city wall near the Bell Tower and make the Terracotta Army a day loop — do not sleep out by the site. This plan is about one well-placed room and the transfer logic that saves your only free half-day.