What £1,500 buys on a China trip

What the budget covers

Treat £1,500 per person as the on-the-ground figure, excluding international flights. It buys a comfortable ten-day trip for two: four-star hotels, high-speed rail between cities, a private guide on some days and shared guides on the rest, plus entrance fees and two meals a day.

This is neither shoestring nor luxury. It is the middle band where you stop worrying about the odd taxi or a second coffee, stay somewhere central and clean, and eat well without checking the prices on every menu. It is roughly what two people would spend on a fortnight's package holiday, spread over ten days of real travel.

Return flights from Heathrow or Manchester to Beijing or Shanghai usually add £450–750 on top, depending on season and how early you book, so treat them as a separate line in the budget. Flying into one city and out of another costs no more and saves a wasted return leg.

Hotels: the biggest line

Four-star hotels in Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai run about £70–90 per room per night, breakfast included. That buys a central location, a western-standard room and desk staff who can help with bookings and taxis. Per person, sharing a twin, that is £35–45 a night.

Three-star hotels cut the bill by roughly a third, to £45–60, and are perfectly fine; the gap is usually location and English at the desk rather than cleanliness. Boutique courtyard hotels in the old quarters sit between the two. For a ten-day trip the saving of around £150 per room is real but modest.

Prices jump in the first week of October and around Chinese New Year, when the same room can double. Avoid those two periods and the hotel budget holds where you set it. Shoulder weeks in November and March are the quietest and cheapest of the good-weather months.

Location is what you are really buying. A central four-star in Beijing or Shanghai saves an hour of commuting a day and a taxi fare each way, which over ten days is worth more than the nightly saving from a cheaper hotel out on the ring road.

Trains, guides and drivers

High-speed rail between Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai totals roughly £120 per person for the full ten days. Second class is comfortable on these legs, and the longest, Beijing to Shanghai, is about 4 hours 30 minutes. First class on the same routes adds about £80 per person for more legroom.

Guides are where a trip can quietly double in cost. A private guide and driver run £110–150 a day; a shared small-group day costs £35–55. The sensible mix is private for the big, awkward sites and shared for the rest.

A private car and driver for local transfers, without a guide, comes in lower at around £70–100 a day, and can be worth it in cities where the main sights sit far apart and taxis are slow in traffic. For a family of four, a private car often costs less per person than four separate taxis.

Entrance fees and food

Entrance fees are the surprise line. The Terracotta Army, the Great Wall at Mutianyu and the Forbidden City together come to about £70 per person, and a single major sight is rarely under £10. Budget £10–15 a day for entrances on a sightseeing-heavy itinerary.

Food is cheap if you let it be. Two meals a day runs £15–25 per person in ordinary restaurants; add afternoon tea and a proper dinner and it climbs to £30–40, still well below what the same standard costs in the UK.

On a private itinerary, expect the guide to steer you to restaurants they trust, which is usually good value — but ask for the price range first if you want to stay inside the budget you set. A single banquet-style meal with a group can add £30 in one evening, so plan for at least one.

Set aside a contingency of about £100 per person for the things you cannot pre-book: a spontaneous taxi day, a river cruise, an extra night when a train is delayed. It is the difference between a budget that bends and one that breaks under a single surprise.

What £1,500 does not buy

It does not include international flights, travel insurance or a visa if you need one. It does not cover shopping, spa treatments or single supplements, and a solo traveller can expect to add £300 or more for the same standard of hotel.

It also assumes you avoid the first week of October and Chinese New Year. Travel in those weeks and the same ten days can cost £500–800 more per person for identical hotels and trains, which is the single biggest swing in the whole budget.

Finally, prices move. Rail tariffs, hotel rates and entrance fees are adjusted by season and by year, so read every figure here as a guide to proportions rather than a quotation. Use it to compare choices, not to predict the exact bill.

One more invisible line: guidance. China allows foreign tour groups only through licensed operators, and a licensed guide costs more than an unlicensed one who may approach you in the street. The saving is not worth the risk of a trip that cannot legally proceed as planned.