Apologies in advance for the low effort post. It was suggested here on FT that I could consider starting a thread for ideas but if this is too "lazy" then I'll try to find more time in my hectic schedule to put more work in first.

Mr and Mrs 40love are middled aged, still physically healthy and fit thankfully, and are planning to spend 10 days in China (TWOV). The easiest way to configure the TWOV trip was to fly into PVG, and we have 10 days to exit to HK which was the next planned destination. We also wish to keep the last 2-3 days of the itinerary open to the possibility of someone taking us around to a former village in Guangdong where we have some family roots.

So far this is what the itinerary looks like:

Day 0 - arrive in PVG
???
West Lake/Xihu, Hangzhou
???
Day 7 or 8 Shenzhen (reserving possibility of a Guangdong tour that replaces Shenzhen)
Day 9 or 10 - leave for HK depending on other circumstances

We really know nothing about China at all. It would have been nice to see the Great Wall and some other famous sites but it seems most of that is much further North. It would be great to get any suggestions as to ways to fill our itinerary (along with any good value/well positions hotels too - bearing in mind that we are normally budget travellers, but will look to splash out a little on ourselves during this trip).

Thanks in advance!

PS - perhaps as a guide to what sort of things we typically do, we recently went to Japan and our itinerary included Tokyo viral/cliche city locations, Metropolitan Government Tower, National Museum, Art Museum, Kyoto Fushimi Inara Taisha shrine, Nishiki Market, Nara Park, Osaka day trip only/Glico running man sign, Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum, and side trip to Miyajima Island.

If you�re looking to not move all too much, you could do Hangzhou as a day trip, head to Huangshan for a few days if it interests you, and maybe stop in Xiamen for a night on the way down to the GBA. If you want to move around a lot, sure, you could go up to Beijing and do the Great Wall (though I�d recommend a longer trip for Beijing, there is a lot to do). You could also head out west and see Zhangjiajie and Chengdu, with maybe a night stop in Chongqing, before flying to CAN or SZX or wherever, which is what my recommendation would be.

There is not much to do in Shanghai unless you are a foodie as they have great food. Better go to Beijing for sightseeing.

There are a lot of places to go for day trip if you need to go to Shanghai. You can check on viator.com

https://www.viator.com/Shanghai/d325-ttd

Would have loved Beijing but my home country airline Air NZ only flies to PVG. China wasn't even really on the plans but for several reasons (including the possibility of adding a China trip) PVG ended up being better than flying to HKG which would have been our usual plan.

Didn't really appreciate when we booked that Beijing is where it's really at, and also didn't appreciate how huge China is/how far Beijing is from Shanghai!

Thanks for the link above which I'll look at.

Viator,com will give you some ideas. You can book a cheaper tour locally or do it yourself. Just make sure some of the places need to get tickets in advance.

4 days in SH (one of these is a day trip to Suzhou)
1 overnight in Hangzhou (maybe 1.5 days there, although you can spend more time there) - maybe a quick day trip to Yiwu to see the International Market and Hengdian Film City?
3-4 days split between Guangdong/Shenzhen.
That leaves you with 0-2 days. Maybe a stop in Xiamen.

My vote would be for 2 nights in Shanghai, 5-6 in Beijing, and then the rest in Guangdong (focus on visiting your ancestral village).

If you are set on going to China, personally SE Asia is more interesting, with better food and beaches, the distances you need to travel to see everything you are planning are immense so try fewer days in Beijing, a boring government city, you'll see most things in three days there, the Wall, Forbidden City, Wangfujing, etc. three days in PVG is plenty with a day trip to Hangzhou for the lake and tea market or Suzhou instead, and three days in the south between Shenzeng/Guangzhou, then HK, much more interesting, especially walking around the entire island from above, don't wait in line for the tram up, take it down taxi up so you don't waste time, wander the mid levels, etc.

Thanks. China is so vast and it's a pity our booked flight is into Shanghai rather than Beijing (on account of our available flight options).

How would one generally choose to travel from Shanghai to Beijing, and more importantly, Beijing to Guandong?

At this rate, if we can't find someone to take us around Guandong then potentially we could skip it altogether and fly to HK instead (are flights expensive on routes between China and HKG booked 2-6 weeks out?)

I recommend trying to spend more time in fewer places instead of trying to superficially visit every spot in a big country in one trip. I know the 打卡 method is tempting but it's exhausting and you miss the details.

上海 - 北京 is a toss up between flying and train. I recommend the latter since the total travel time is roughly the same- remember PKX and PEK are not in the city centre. Beijing is more for historical and cultural reasons. I've been there twice, although the second time this past dec was also to show my dad around.

Personally I like the south better, but that is also my cultural background, since my family is from 台湾 and thus, we have southern chinese tastes and preferences (and the northern chinese accent......makes my head work overtime). Guangzhou 广州 you can explore on your own for about three days, no tour guide needed. The area is very modern in general, makes the rest of the world seem 10 years behind. There is also much culture and heritage, but you won't find the grand boulevards and grandeur of the north as that was not the southern Chinese style.

To fly between PKX/PEK and CAN takes 3 hours by plane, a ton of airlines service the route, but CZ has two hubs at PKX and CAN respectively, just FYI.

I visit China every year, sometimes the same city, and find something new, so don't rush.

I agree with that. There's plenty to do even in Shanghai, if you consider the surrounding cities/areas as part of it.

IMO, OP should choose the cities/areas to visit based on their own personal preferences (e.g. cultures/histories, natural wonders, city skylines, culinary experiences, etc. or some combination thereof).

China is about the same size as the lower 48 US states, and we've really only been talking about the eastern seaboard. Imagine doing DC, Boston, and Orlando in succession...not especially difficult.

Flights are quite cheap 2-6 weeks out, but it's convenient you added that qualifier because many people are perplexed by the fact that discounted inventory doesn't get released until then. If you want to get a ballpark idea on prices, search for flights 3 weeks from NOW.

I thought for pricing, flights to/from mainland and HK, Macau, and Taiwan regions are treated as international. I just peeked on Ctrip and a SHA - HKG trip doesn't have any especially cheap tickets within the next couple weeks versus say, 3-5 months out, and I know from experience that a mainland China to Taiwan flight isn't cheap at the last minute.

You might be right because I can't recall ever looking for regional flights more than 2-3 weeks in advance. The good news is that almost all of the places I go (e.g. HKG, MFM, TPE, SEL, TYO, BKK, SIN, SGN) are quite reasonably priced, though some of the Hongqiao flights (e.g HND) can get expensive at times.

Thanks for all of the help and advice. I need to keep options open because I have business in HKG following the Mainland visit, and that business may very much determine the Mainland timeframe and possibly itinerary. So I can't fully lock in until much later (sadly).