Shanghai, Suzhou & Hangzhou: 6-Day Itinerary
By the China for Travelers editorial team · Published 2026-06-06 · Updated 2026-08-15 · 6 days · Shanghai · Suzhou · Hangzhou
Compiled by our Chongqing-based editorial team. This plan draws on aggregated 2024–2026 r/travelchina trip reports, official attraction information and published itineraries. All high-speed-rail times and prices are pulled live from our 12306-sampled rail dataset, not estimated.
Budget. Budget roughly US$110–180 per person per day excluding international flights. The three rail hops are short and cheap (Shanghai–Suzhou and Shanghai–Hangzhou are both well under an hour); the bigger spend is hotels and garden/temple tickets. See our China trip-cost guide for a per-day breakdown. Full cost breakdown →
Day by day
Day 1Shanghai
Arrive Shanghai, the Bund
- Transfer in from PVG/SHA; set up Alipay / WeChat Pay + eSIM
- Evening: the Bund waterfront for the Pudong skyline at night
Getting around · Amap-verified
- MaglevLongyang Road → Central Shanghai≈25 minFrom PVG, the Maglev covers 30 km in ≈8 min, then a metro hop into the centre
- CarAirport (PVG / SHA) → Central Shanghai45m–1h10mPrivate transfer — easiest with luggage after a long-haul flightBook a private airport transfer →
Book this day
Day 2Shanghai
Yu Garden, French Concession, Pudong
- Yu Garden + bazaar early (go before it fills), then the Bund by daylight
- Cross to Pudong for the observation decks if clear
- Evening in the former French Concession (Wukang Road, Tianzifang) for dinner
Getting around · Amap-verified
- WalkThe Bund → Yu Garden≈20 min1.5 km through the Old City — easily walkable, no metro needed
Book this day
Day 3Suzhou
HSR to Suzhou — classical gardens
Shanghai → Suzhou by high-speed rail23m · ¥31 – ¥46 2nd class · 634 trains/day
- Short high-speed train Shanghai → Suzhou (well under an hour)
- The Humble Administrator's Garden and a second classical garden (Lingering Garden or the Master-of-Nets Garden)
- Evening: Pingjiang Road canal lanes
Getting around · Amap-verified
- MetroSuzhou North Railway Station → Old town (Pingjiang Road)≈30 minMetro into the historic centre — the gardens cluster around the old town
Day 4Hangzhou
Suzhou canals, HSR to Hangzhou, West Lake
Suzhou → Hangzhou by high-speed rail1h 25m · ¥75 – ¥144 2nd class · 179 trains/day
- Morning: Tongli or the Suzhou canals before the crowds
- Midday high-speed train Suzhou → Hangzhou
- Evening: a first walk along West Lake at dusk
What to know before you go
West Lake 西湖
- Hours
- No gate and no opening hour — the lake, the shoreline path, both causeways and the lakeside parks are open and free at any hour, day or night. Only the ticketed sub-sights inside the scenic area keep hours of their own.
- Ticket
- Free
- Getting in
- Metro Line 1 straight to Longxiangqiao (龙翔桥) with no transfer — the eastern-lakefront station, a short walk from the Hubin waterfront where most visitors first reach the water.
Getting around · Amap-verified
- MetroHangzhou East Railway Station → West Lake area≈30 minMetro Line 1 + a short hop toward the lake
Book this day
Day 5Hangzhou
West Lake + Lingyin Temple
- A full West Lake morning — causeways, boats, the classic ten-views spots
- Afternoon: Lingyin Temple and the Feilai Feng grottoes
- Optional: a Longjing tea-village visit in the hills behind the lake
What to know before you go
West Lake 西湖
- Hours
- No gate and no opening hour — the lake, the shoreline path, both causeways and the lakeside parks are open and free at any hour, day or night. Only the ticketed sub-sights inside the scenic area keep hours of their own.
- Ticket
- Free
- Getting in
- Metro Line 1 straight to Longxiangqiao (龙翔桥) with no transfer — the eastern-lakefront station, a short walk from the Hubin waterfront where most visitors first reach the water.
Lingyin Temple & Feilai Feng 灵隐寺·飞来峰
- Booking
- Required — opens Slots open 7 days ahead, released daily at 08:00. Same-day booking does not exist, so the earliest possible visit is tomorrow. Choose a morning (07:30–12:00) or afternoon (12:00–17:00) slot — but the morning slot actually admits until 13:00 and the afternoon one from 11:00, so they overlap by two hours. Daily caps: 35,000 weekdays, 50,000 weekends, 65,000 public holidays.. Public holidays — and the lunar 1st and 15th, when Chinese visitors come to burn incense — clear within minutes of the 08:00 release and need the full 7 days' notice. Weekends want about 3 days. Weekdays are rarely the constraint; a day ahead is enough.
- Last entry
- 17:00
- Ticket
- Free
- On a passport
- Foreign passports ARE accepted — the booking mini-program lists passport alongside the mainland ID card, and the document type has to be switched to Passport by hand. Carry the physical passport; photographs and photocopies are refused. ⚠️ At the gate the official wording is "scan your document at the turnstile", but travellers consistently report the turnstiles are built around the mainland ID card and face match: the staffed lane is the reliable route and clears in 3–5 minutes when the booking already exists.
- Getting in
- From the Hubin lakefront: ~10 km (Amap-routed 9.9 km / 28 min, 2026-08-04), because no road crosses West Lake and the drive swings right around its southern end. The straight-line gap is only ~4 km. ⚠️ The widely-repeated "20 minutes from West Lake" is NOT simply wrong — it is unlabelled: from the lake's NORTH-WEST shore (Yue Fei Temple) Amap routes 3.67 km / 11 min, and our own west-lake-hangzhou page correctly prints ~20–25 min for that origin. It is the EAST-side hotel strip, where the reader is, that costs half an hour. Say which shore, or the two pages read as contradicting each other. ⚠️ On WEEKENDS and public holidays, 08:00–17:00, taxis and ride-hail are barred from the Lingyin area outright: the app reassigns the drop to an outer car park — 西溪路608号 to the north or 小牙坞 to the south — from which a ¥2 shuttle covers the rest. ⚠️⚠️ BOTH ARE OVER 4 km FROM THE GATE (Amap-routed 2026-08-04: 西溪路608号 4.49 km / 10 min drive, 3.19 km / 43 min on foot; 小牙坞 4.24 km / 8 min drive, 57 min on foot). An earlier version of this note said the shuttle "covers the last stretch in 3–5 minutes" with a 10–15 minute walk as the fallback; that timing belongs to the LAST hop, not this one — the 灵隐路32号 transfer centre is a 605 m / 8 min walk from the gate. Do not tell a reader they can walk it. Weekdays carry no such restriction and a car reaches the gate.
Longjing Tea Villages & the China National Tea Museum 龙井茶村·中国茶叶博物馆
- Last entry
- Both museum branches stop admitting shortly before close; plan the museum for the early afternoon, not the late one.
- Ticket
- Free
- Getting in
- ⚠️ There is NO metro in these hills — this is the single most useful access fact and the reason a tea-village morning eats more of the day than people plan for. Taxi or DiDi up from the lakefront is the default.
Full Longjing Tea Villages & the China National Tea Museum guide
Getting around · Amap-verified
- CarWest Lake → Lingyin Temple≈25 min≈9 km west of the lake; bus or taxi — the metro does not reach the temple directly
Book this day
Day 6Hangzhou
Hangzhou → Shanghai, depart
Hangzhou → Shanghai by high-speed rail34m · ¥34 – ¥87 2nd class · 328 trains/day
- Morning high-speed train Hangzhou → Shanghai (under an hour) for the flight home
- Or fly direct from Hangzhou (HGH) if your routing suits it
Getting around · Amap-verified
- CarCentral Shanghai → Pudong Airport (PVG)45m–1h10mDoor-to-door private transfer with luggage for the departureBook a private airport transfer →
FAQ
- Is Suzhou or Hangzhou better as a day trip from Shanghai?
- Both deserve an overnight, not just a day trip — but if you must choose, Suzhou for classical gardens and canals (and it's the closer, faster hop), Hangzhou for West Lake's scenery and Lingyin Temple. This 6-day loop does both with one night each rather than rushing them as day trips.
- How long are the train hops between Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou?
- All short. Shanghai–Suzhou and Shanghai–Hangzhou high-speed trains are both well under an hour, with very frequent departures; Suzhou–Hangzhou is a short hop too (sometimes via a Shanghai Hongqiao change). Each leg's rail card shows the live duration, price and frequency from our 12306-sampled dataset.
- Do I need to book the Suzhou gardens in advance?
- Yes for the Humble Administrator's Garden in peak season — it caps daily entries and sells timed slots. The smaller gardens are easier walk-ups. Book ahead with your passport, the same as any timed-entry sight in China.
- How much does this Jiangnan 6-day loop cost?
- Roughly US$110–180 per person per day excluding international flights. The three rail hops are short and cheap; hotels and garden/temple tickets are the main spend. See our China trip-cost guide for a full breakdown by travel style.
Adapt this plan
Method. Inter-city rail figures (duration, price, trains/day) are pulled live from our 12306-sampled rail dataset and link to the full route page — they are not estimated or duplicated here. The within-day “getting around” times — airport runs, the Great Wall / Terracotta Army / Panda Base day trips, and the marked walking legs — are derived from Amap (高德地图) routing sampled in May 2026 and baked in at build time. The day-by-day editorial plan’s sourcing is disclosed in the note above the fold. Tour inventory, ticket prices and opening policies change — verify specifics before you commit. Last reviewed 2026-08-15.