Trip research, living doc, updated September 25, 2026 (tours and flights in)
China, December 2026
Five weeks. Anders, Mom and Dad land in Guangzhou November 29 and keep November 29 to December 12 loose, with a Guangzhou painting stretch pencilled in for December 3–12. Chongqing December 13–16, then Tamilyn lands in Chengdu on December 17 and joins two eight-day tours with everyone: a Sichuan loop from Chengdu December 17–24 (Jiuzhaigou, Mount Emei, Leshan), and a Jiangnan loop from Shanghai December 24–31 (Hangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Suzhou). Hong Kong for New Year's Eve and January 1. Anders and Tamilyn fly home from Hong Kong on January 1, Mom and Dad from Guangzhou on January 2. A wedding trip along the way: the photoshoot in Shanghai, the dress ordered in Guangzhou.
1Shenzhen2Macau3Guangzhou painting, dates open4Chongqing5Chengdu Tamilyn joins6Shanghai Christmas + New Year’s Eve7Hong Kong family, then home
Who asked for what:Mom + DadTamilynAndersEveryone (all 4)
01Why this order
Anders, Mom and Dad fly into Guangzhou together on November 29 and base at the Shenzhen family apartment. November 29 to December 12 is free. The draft below fills it with Shenzhen, Macau, and a Guangzhou stretch where Anders takes his Lingnan brush-painting course (maybe December 3–12) and the wedding dress gets ordered. Chongqing is December 13–16. Tamilyn lands in Chengdu on December 17 and the four of them travel together from there, on two booked tours: a Sichuan loop out of Chengdu December 17–24 (Jiuzhaigou, Dujiangyan, Mount Emei, Leshan), then a Jiangnan loop out of Shanghai December 24–31 (Hangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Puyuan). Both are packed, so free time is a few evenings. Then Hong Kong for New Year's Eve and January 1, so she meets the whole family. Anders and Tamilyn fly home that evening, and Mom and Dad fly from Guangzhou on January 2.
Two honest notes. The Guangzhou return at the end is gone, so the route is simpler: one flight from Shanghai straight to Hong Kong on New Year's Eve. The cost is the dress. Nobody is back in Guangzhou to pick it up, so it has to ship to the Shanghai tour's last hotel. And the tours leave no free morning for the pre-wedding photoshoot, so it needs a dawn slot (see the Shanghai tour card). Yunnan is off the route, and reaching it would mean taking three nights out of Chengdu, which the dates do not have room for.
02Itinerary
Leg 1 · November 29 to December 16 · the south, then west, Anders + parents
What is fixed and what is not. Fixed: land in Guangzhou November 29, Chongqing December 13–16, Chengdu from the 17th. Free: November 29 to December 12. Shenzhen, Macau and Guangzhou below are a draft for those days, with painting maybe December 3–12. The one thing that should not drift is ordering the wedding dress early, because a custom gown needs three to four weeks and it now has to ship to Shanghai before New Year's.
Nov 29 – Dec 1
Shenzhen 深圳
Chans64–75°F
All three land together at Guangzhou Baiyun (CAN) at 11:30am Sun Nov 29, on Asiana from JFK via Seoul (leaves 12:30am Sat Nov 28). From Baiyun to the Shenzhen apartment is about 2 hrs by metro and high-speed rail, or a car. Free bed, the whole southern base
The apartment is home base and free. Unpack, settle in, shake off the flight
Casual early Hong Kong family drop-ins, 15 min across the border, whenever the day is loose
Shenzhen runs its own drone and light shows over the skyline, catch one if the timing lines up
Shuibei Jewelry Market (水贝珠宝商圈), Luohunew TikTok saveand this one. China's largest jewellery wholesale district and one of the world's biggest hubs for gold, diamonds and lab-grown stones, with manufacturers selling direct. On a wedding trip this is the obvious place to deal with rings, and it is a metro ride from the free apartment. The timing problem worth naming: Tamilyn is not in the country until Dec 17, and Shenzhen only happens Nov 29–Dec 1. So treat these days as the scouting run, learn the market and the real prices, and either settle the design with her remotely, or use the fact that Luohu sits right at the Lo Wu border to make a run over from Hong Kong on Jan 1. That second option is now very tight (Anders and Tamilyn fly home that evening) and costs a mainland re-entry, so the remote route is the realistic one
Four wholesale markets worth a morning new TikTok save. Shenzhen is the sourcing capital, so this is the cheapest version of any shopping list on this trip
The Shenzhen Science and Technology Museumnew TikTok save, a huge new build in Guangming. It pairs with the Huawei flagship for a single tech day, and it is the kind of place that works well on day two when nobody has slept properly yet
Dec 1 – 3
Macau 澳门
Chans60–70°F
HZMB Golden Bus, about 45 min from Hong Kong or Shenzhen, ~HK$65, runs 24 hrs
Ruins of St Paul's and Senado Square, the UNESCO historic center
The Cotai casinos and their shows (the Venetian is the big one)
Portuguese egg tarts at Lord Stow's, and Macanese food around Rua da Cunha in Taipa
Visa note: US passports are visa-free 30 days for Macau, which is its own SAR. Hopping back to the mainland after uses a mainland entry, fine on the 10-year multi-entry visa
Dec 3 – 12
Guangzhou, the painting stretch 广州
ChansAnders54–68°F
High-speed rail from Shenzhen, 30 min, ~¥75 ($11). The longest single stop of the trip if the painting course lands on Dec 3–12 (still open), and the dress gets ordered here
Anders' Lingnan painting week: private daily lessons, because no packaged one-week course exists (researched). Build it as a private intensive (一对一集训), ~¥200–500 a session, arranged by DMing the Xu Xiaoming Lingnan Floral and Bird workshop studio (Redtory, ¥380/$54, Sundays only, confirm it still runs) or asking the Memorial Hall for a teacher referral, 4–6 weeks ahead. Copy masterworks at the museum between lessons, anchor with the Sunday group workshop
Foshan pottery: Nanfeng Ancient Kiln in Shiwan (40 min by metro), a 500-year-old dragon kiln still firing, with wheel classes. Shiwan ware is the Lingnan ceramic tradition, so it stacks with the museum days, and the artists' village is the best cup-and-bowl hunt of the trip
The wedding dress, and the new dates change the pickup: Guangzhou Wedding Street on Jiangnan Blvd North, Haizhu, Metro Line 2 Shiergong. Custom runs about $450+ and takes 1–4 weeks. Order it in the first days here, around Dec 3–5, using Tamilyn's measurements sent from Boston. Nobody comes back to Guangzhou now, so ask for a ready date around Dec 22 and have the shop ship it by SF Express (next day) to the Shanghai hotel. She tries it on there, and a local tailor handles alterations with a week to spare. The risk to name out loud: a gown fitted from remote numbers usually needs work, and there is no shop to walk back into. So pick a dress with simple lines that a tailor can take in, and have the shop confirm the ship date in writing
The health checkup moved here. The Chengdu tour has no free morning, so the Chans do it in the free days instead. Meinian Onehealth runs centres in most big cities, so confirm a Guangzhou or Shenzhen one with an English coordinator. It needs fasting until about 11am, so avoid a Tuesday after a supervision night. Tamilyn is not in the country yet, so hers is dropped unless she does it at home
Shopping: DongShanKou walking street, the trendy one Anders' save, and APM market for wholesale clothing Anders' save. Dim sum mornings, Shamian Island, Canton Tower at night
Dec 13 – 16
Chongqing 重庆
ChansAnders46–55°F, foggy river city
Fly Guangzhou to Chongqing, about 2 hrs, ¥500–900 ($70–127). Four nights, then high-speed rail to Chengdu the morning of the 17th to meet Tamilyn's plane
The Love Ladder (Anders' request): the 6,208 steps Liu Guojiang hand-carved over 50 years for his wife, at Zhongshan Ancient Town in Jiangjin. Free, 8am–5pm. Book a driver for the day, do the Love Culture Corridor and a partial climb. It used to be the Christmas Day plan; on this timeline it lands here instead, which is honestly a better day for it because nothing else competes
Hongya Cave at night, Liziba station (the train that runs through a building), Ciqikou old town from your TikTok
Antique market dig for the ceramics hunt Anders' save
Tamilyn wanted Chongqing, and this timeline puts it before she lands. The Chengdu tour has no free day, so the old plan of an overnight back to Chongqing is out. The one fix left: she flies into Chongqing on Dec 15 or 16 instead of Chengdu, catches the end of this stop, and rides the train to Chengdu with everyone on the 17th. It costs one or two more days of bunny sitting, and her flight would need rebooking. Her three Chongqing saves are waiting for that: a classic old-school teahouse Tamilyn's save, Xi Yue He Zi in Xiahaoli, the one with the water table where you paint your own cakes Tamilyn's save, and the Chongqing 1949 Grand Theatre, where the stage rotates and so does the audience, four shows daily with free English translation devices Tamilyn's save. If she comes early, save the theatre and the teahouses for her last day here. If not, they park.
Supervision on this leg: Monday Nov 30 from Shenzhen, Dec 7 from Guangzhou, Dec 14 from Chongqing. All three are 11pm–midnight and 1–2am China time, so they land on nights with a soft morning after. Chongqing on Dec 14 is the one to watch, since Dec 15 is a full day.
Leg 2 · December 17 to January 2 · all four together, two tours, Tamilyn joins in Chengdu
Two booked tours, back to back, and both are packed. Tour 1 (Dec 17–24) starts in Chengdu but spends most of its week out of town: Jiuzhaigou, Songpan, Dujiangyan, Mount Emei and Leshan. Tour 2 (Dec 24–31) starts in Shanghai and loops through Hangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou and Puyuan water town before one last night on the Bund. Hotels, ground transport and most lunches are included; many dinners are on us. There are no free days, only free evenings and the edges of arrival and departure days. So the old Chengdu and Shanghai city lists got cut down to what fits in those windows. The flight between the two tours on Dec 24 is on us.
Heads up: both tours have shopping stops. Tour 1 has a jade stop, a health sleep products center and a Tibetan medicine center. Tour 2 has a pearl factory, a silk factory, a gemstone crafts museum, a latex factory and a jade museum. Packaged tours make money this way, so expect a sales pitch at each one. Browse, and only buy what you would buy anyway. The Taihu pearls on Dec 27 could be wedding jewellery, but check the price against Shuibei in Shenzhen first.
Tamilyn's tea trail, tour edition. The tours carry a lot of it for her: Tibetan tea in the Tibetan village (Dec 20), the Longjing tea village at Meijiawu (Dec 26), two Royal Tea Banquet lunches, the Yixing zisha teapot museum (Dec 27), and a canal boat with tea and Pingtan storytelling in Suzhou (Dec 29). Add Kuanzhai Alley's teahouses on Dec 23, and Niang Qing or a milk tea run in Shanghai on a free evening. That covers her.
Dec 17 – 24
Tour 1: Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou, Emei, Leshan 成都
Everyone (all 4)41–55°F in Chengdu, roughly 20–45°F in Jiuzhaigou
Tamilyn lands at Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU, the older airport, not Tianfu) at 1:15pm Thu Dec 17, on Cathay via Hong Kong. Her flight leaves Boston at 12:30am Wed Dec 16, so she heads out the night of Tue Dec 15. The Chans come from Chongqing by high-speed rail that morning, about 1 hr, ¥154 ($22). The tour picks up at the airport or the train station (it groups arrivals within 2 hours, so ask whether it will do both). Hotel check-in from 2pm. "InterContinental luxury upgrade" version, 8 days
Thu Dec 17, arrive: pickup, InterContinental Chengdu Global Center. Free afternoon and evening, the best free window of this tour
Fri Dec 18, to Jiuzhaigou: the new Mian-Jiu Expressway, a stop at a panda center on the way (Panda Park, a breeding and rewilding base), through Pingwu. Delta Hotels by Marriott Jiuzhaigou
Sat Dec 19, Jiuzhaigou Valley: the full day, park shuttle included, lunch on us inside the park. Tibetan welcome dinner and a Tibetan family visit. InterContinental Jiuzhaigou, with its hot spring and a Tibetan costume try-on for hotel guests
Sun Dec 20, to Dujiangyan: a traditional Tibetan village (silverwork or Tibetan tea), a jade stop, Songpan Ancient Town, and Diexi Lake from the 1933 earthquake. Hilton Garden Inn Dujiangyan
Mon Dec 21, to Mount Emei: Guanxian Ancient City, a health products stop, then Baoguo and Fuhu temples at the foot of Emei. Lunch on us. Juzishu Hotel, Emeishan. Supervision night
Tue Dec 22, Leshan: the boat that shows the whole Giant Buddha from the river (they climb to it instead if the boats are stopped), a Tibetan medicine stop, then the hotpot-and-show dinner at Mage Manor. Sheraton, back in Chengdu
Wed Dec 23, Chengdu: the Sichuan intangible heritage center, Shu brocade, and Kuanzhai Alley, with lunch on us there. Peking duck dinner. InterContinental Sancha Lake, well outside the city near Tianfu airport
Thu Dec 24, out: breakfast, then the tour drops everyone at the airport for the flight to Shanghai
Cold and high. Jiuzhaigou's lakes sit at about 2,000 to 3,100 m (6,500 to 10,000 ft), and Songpan is about 2,850 m. In late December that means frozen waterfalls, icy paths and nights well below freezing. This is the coldest part of the whole trip, colder than Shanghai. Pack real winter layers and good shoes, drink water, and go slow on the high trails, especially Mom and Dad.
Tamilyn's dental loupes, pick up Dec 17. The afternoon she lands (1:15pm, at Shuangliu, which is closer to the city than Tianfu) is the only real free time in the city. The morning of the 24th is out: that night's hotel is at Sancha Lake, about an hour from central Chengdu, and the tour heads straight to the airport. Confirm the shop's hours and address before she flies, and ask for any fit check that same afternoon
Also Dec 17, if energy allows: Anders' dance class at Kinjaz Dojo China (In99 Plaza on Tianfu Avenue, run with Sinostage, DM the Instagram for the December schedule). The first hotel is also in the Tianfu Avenue area, so check the distance. Or the Qianshen 24-hour spa as a jet-lag reset Tamilyn's save, or Gentle Monster's HAUS NOWHERE by Taikoo Li
Dec 23 lunch in Kuanzhai Alley: the one free meal in town. Pull from her Chengdu eating list Tamilyn's save, and People's Park teahouse is about 1 km away if the tour allows the time. Qi Huo Cha Tamilyn's save only if it is close by
Covered by the tour now: pandas (the Dec 18 panda center stands in for the Chengdu research base), mala hotpot Tamilyn's save (the Mage Manor hotpot dinner on Dec 22), and the Leshan Giant Buddha
Dropped from this week: the Chongqing overnight with Tamilyn, the health checkup (moved to the free days in the south, see Guangzhou), Du Fu Thatched Cottage's wintersweet, and the tea rave with Hovy Lee, unless one of his sets lands on the evening of Dec 17
Optional extras the tour sells: Bao'en Temple in Pingwu, the Emei kung fu and face-changing show, an imperial herbal meal and a seafood BBQ buffet, USD 120 a person for the bundle
Dec 24 – 31
Tour 2: Shanghai and the Jiangnan loop 上海
Everyone (all 4)34–50°F, damp chill
Fly Chengdu to Shanghai on Thu Dec 24, about 3 hrs, ¥600–900 ($85–127), on us. The tour picks up at Pudong or Hongqiao. Christmas Day is in Hangzhou, and the tour ends the morning of Dec 31
Thu Dec 24, arrive Shanghai: Sofitel Shanghai North Bund. No meals included, so Christmas Eve dinner is ours. Free evening
Fri Dec 25, Hangzhou: Dongpo pork lunch, a walk around West Lake, the G20 City Balcony, and an AI robot base. Dinner on us. Radisson Hangzhou Jinmao
Sat Dec 26, to Wuxi: Meijiawu, the Longjing tea village, then a Royal Tea Banquet lunch. Changguangxi Wetland Park, Nianhua Bay Zen town. Crowne Plaza Wuxi
Sun Dec 27, to Nanjing: the Taihu pearl factory, the Yixing zisha teapot museum, Qianlong banquet lunch. The Dongshuimen water gate, then Laomendong by the Confucius Temple for snacks. Nanjing RSL Hotel
Mon Dec 28, Nanjing to Yangzhou to Suzhou: the jade museum, Dabao'en Temple, lunch, then Slender West Lake and Dongguan Street in Yangzhou. DoubleTree Suzhou Wuzhong. Supervision night
Tue Dec 29, Suzhou to Puyuan: Panmen Gate from outside, a silk factory, a Royal Tea Banquet lunch, a canal boat with tea and Pingtan storytelling. The night is at Puyuan Pujin Hotel, inside the water town
Wed Dec 30, back to Shanghai: a gemstone crafts museum and a latex factory, lunch, then the Fairmont Peace Hotel on the Bund. Free evening on Nanjing Road and the Bund
Thu Dec 31, out: breakfast, then the airport transfer. Tour over
The Dec 31 gap, settled by the tickets. Anders and Tamilyn fly home from Hong Kong at 7:40pm on Fri Jan 1. A Jan 1 morning flight from Shanghai would leave about five hours in Hong Kong. So take the tour's airport transfer on Dec 31 and fly to Hong Kong that day. That gives New Year's Eve over Victoria Harbour with the family, plus most of Jan 1.
The pre-wedding photoshoot needs a new slot. The tour has no free morning. Two ideas that work: dawn on the Bund, Dec 31, walking out of the Peace Hotel before breakfast and the airport transfer (book the Hong Kong flight for midday or later), or early morning in Puyuan water town, Dec 30, since the tour hotel sits inside the town and the lanes are empty before breakfast. For either, book a freelance photographer, not a studio package. OneThreeOneFour can still quote. Budget roughly ¥1,700–9,000 by tier, and book 1 to 3 months ahead
The dress ships to the Fairmont Peace Hotel. It is the only tour hotel named for sure (the rest say "or equivalent"). Ask the shop to time delivery for Dec 30, and ask the hotel to hold it. That leaves no real time for alterations, so see the open question on the dress
Christmas Eve in Shanghai, Dec 24: the North Bund hotel is close to the Bund. Book the one big dinner for tonight, the Xu Dunhuang Cultural Palace Feast Anders' save, or pick from the Shanghai eating list new TikTok save: Lai Lai Xiao Long Bao (莱莱小笼包) for soup dumplings and Wei Xiang Zhai (味香斋) for sesame noodles both have several branches, and Shu Cai Ji (舒蔡记) does sheng jian bao at 120 Zhejiang Rd (M)
Christmas Day in Hangzhou: not a holiday in mainland China, so everything is open. West Lake at night and a proper dinner of our own
Dec 30 on Nanjing Road: the Peace Hotel is right at the Bund end. Pop Mart's global flagship on Nanjing Road East is a short walk (set a budget first), and the Hema supermarkets carry the viral durian mille crepe cake from your IG
Tamilyn's Shanghai list, for the free evenings: Niang Qing (酿青), the TCM cocktail tea bar Tamilyn's save; Zhong Yao Tang (中曜堂), the TCM gelato shop with the herb plushies new IG save; and the milk tea list, Tea's Day (Xintiandi), Li Shan Shan and Yee3 Tamilyn's save. Souvenirs: To Summer (观夏) fragrance new TikTok save and Muji China's jasmine-tea line new TikTok save
Covered by the tour now: Suzhou new TikTok save and Hangzhou, and a water town (Puyuan stands in for Nanxun and Zhujiajiao). Nanjing is on the route on Dec 27, but the Xuanwu Lake wintersweet save sits across town from Laomendong, so it probably does not fit
Dropped from this week: Shanghai Disneyland, the Astronomy Museum (Dad's pick), the Shanghai Museum, Mom's flower class at Shanghai Pathways, Anders' C-drama studio shoot Anders' save, the fashion circuit, and Jingdezhen
Dec 31 – Jan 1
Hong Kong, the finish 香港
Everyone (all 4)57–68°F
Fly Shanghai to Hong Kong on Thu Dec 31 after the tour's airport drop, about 2 hrs 30, roughly ¥800–1,200 ($113–169, est.). One Hong Kong hotel night, Dec 31. Anders and Tamilyn fly home from HKG at 7:40pm Fri Jan 1, Cathay nonstop, landing in Boston at 10pm the same day. Mom and Dad take the high-speed rail to Guangzhou that evening (about 50 min to Guangzhou South), sleep near the airport, and fly from Baiyun at 12:40pm Sat Jan 2, Asiana via Seoul, home to JFK at 9pm
This is one evening and one day, and the list below is a week. Three things are non-negotiable: the family, the Chao Shao-an Gallery, and the chop. The order that makes it fit: land Dec 31, family dinner, then the midnight fireworks over Victoria Harbour together. Jan 1 morning, order the chop at Man Wa Lane (about 3 hrs to carve), ride out to Sha Tin for the gallery while it is cut, family lunch, collect the chop, and leave for the airport by about 4:30pm. One catch: Jan 1 is a public holiday in Hong Kong, so call Kingstone Engraving and check the gallery's holiday hours first. If the chop shop is closed, order it the afternoon of Dec 31 instead. The calligraphy courses are term-length, so they are out.
The family, first: Grandma (mom's side), the aunts and uncles (dad's side), Tamilyn meets everyone. Two households and two meals, so agree who gets the New Year's Eve dinner and who gets the Jan 1 lunch in advance; everything else fits around it
The Chao Shao-an Gallery in Sha Tin: free, the master's own donated collection and his rebuilt studio. The living links: Ho Wing-cheong (何永祥), who studied under Chao Shao-an himself and teaches at Lingnan University, and Ng Yuet-lau (伍月柳), often called Chao's last close female student. Write to either 4–6 weeks out through their institution and ask for a lesson or studio visit, an hour with a direct student would crown the trip's art thread
What to do in the three hours the chop is being cut: G.O.D. (Goods of Desire), 48 Hollywood Road, Centralnew IG save is a ten-minute walk from Man Wa Lane. Independent Hong Kong design, and the packaging is the whole point, old shop signs and tenement motifs turned into gifts. It is the most efficient souvenir stop of the trip, because it is already on the walk you are doing
The neon-light workshop: Aura Art at Tai Kwun (HK$340, LED neon now that the glass-bending classes are gone) from your IG, book ahead
A Twemco flip clock (the factory showroom stopped direct sales, buy at LOG-ON, Fortress, or the M+ museum shop) from your IG
The flower long shot: Mr. Gong, the arrangement master from Mom's and Dad's saved videos, is based in Hong Kong. DM him a few weeks out about a session; if it lands, your parents meet the guy from their phones
Citizenship paperwork (settled and closed): both parents had green cards when Anders was born, so the descent route to right of abode is shut. The only remaining doors are naturalising in HK (China expects the US passport given up) or a Top Talent Pass plus seven years of living there. Nothing to file on this trip
Parked · still researched, not on this timeline
Nothing here is deleted, it is just off the fixed dates. Keep it for a future trip, or for filling the open days of November 29 to December 12.
parked
Yunnan: Dali + Lijiang 云南
was the photoshoot37–59°F, freezing nights
Off the route. It was the photoshoot plan, but reaching it would cost two extra flights and three nights out of the fixed Chengdu week, so the shoot moved to Shanghai
The pre-wedding photoshoot, with Tamilyn: Erhai Lake in Dali and Lijiang old town under Jade Dragon Snow Mountain are the iconic backdrops. Studios that serve foreign and HK couples: OneThreeOneFour (an English-language aggregator, quote by request), plus Lijiang and Yangshuo studios. Book 1–3 months ahead. Budget roughly ¥600–9,000 by tier: budget one-location ~¥600–1,800, mid two-location ~¥1,680+, premium multi-location or video ~¥6,000–9,000
Honest flag: late-December nights run near freezing with hard wind at Erhai, and the snow mountain is properly cold, so gowns need warm layers between shots. Lean on the Dali lakeside and the old-town backdrops for the comfortable shots
Dali old town: the walled streets, the Three Pagodas, Erhai Lake by bike or boat
Lijiang old town: the canal lanes, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain by cable car on a clear day (it can close on wind or snow, so keep a buffer)
parked
Guilin / Yangshuo 桂林
was Chans46–59°F
Dropped when the loose fortnight went to Guangzhou and Chongqing. High-speed rail from Guangzhou is 2.5–3 hrs, ~¥150 ($21), so it is the easiest thing to drop into the open days of Nov 29 to Dec 12 without moving a single fixed date
Li River cruise Guilin to Yangshuo, 4–5 hrs through the karst peaks (~¥215–480 by boat class). December is uncrowded, book about a day ahead
Yangshuo karst countryside: West Street, biking the Yulong River, the classic postcard hills
Longji rice terraces are optional, they go bare and brown in winter, so an easy skip this time
Also parked from earlier rounds, all still researched: Beijing and Zhangjiajie (Mom and Dad have been, and Zhangjiajie in winter is brutal), Xiamen and the Fujian tulou, Hainan, Suzhou and Hangzhou (now on the Shanghai tour), Jingdezhen porcelain (no free days left for it).
New, and parked for the same old reason: two Beijing saves, the modern-not-historic spots list new TikTok save and the shopping-district rundown, Sanlitun, Nanluoguxiang, Shichahai, Qianmen, Wangfujing and Parkview Green new TikTok save. Mom and Dad have done Beijing and asked to skip it, and it is not on these dates. Held for a future trip, and the modern-spots angle is a genuinely different Beijing from the one they saw in 2017.
New, and parked with regret: Harbin's Ice and Snow Worldnew IG save. A half-billion-dollar city built out of ice every winter, and it genuinely would be open during the trip. Three things kill it on these dates: it is roughly 1,200 miles north of Shanghai, every day from Nov 29 to Jan 2 is now spoken for, and it runs −20 to −30°C, which is exactly the cold Mom and Dad ruled out when they cut Zhangjiajie. If it ever happens it wants its own January trip, 2 to 4 days, with VIP tickets so the Ferris wheel and ice slide do not eat hours in line.
03Flights
All booked and ticketed on Trip.com, July to August 2026. Anders flies out from New York with Mom and Dad, and home to Boston with Tamilyn. Every ticket says to be at the airport 3 hours early. Booking codes stay in the Trip.com app, not on this page.
Who
Route
Notes
Ballpark
Anders
JFK → Seoul → Guangzhou (CAN) leave 12:30am Sat Nov 28, land 11:30am Sun Nov 29 HKG → BOS nonstop leave 7:40pm Fri Jan 1, land 10pm Jan 1
Out on Asiana with Mom and Dad, 2 hr 10 connection in Seoul, bags go straight through. Home on Cathay with Tamilyn.
$712 out $1,574 home
Mom + Dad
JFK → Seoul → Guangzhou (CAN), same flights as Anders CAN → Seoul → JFK leave 12:40pm Sat Jan 2, land 9pm Jan 2
Asiana round trip, so they end in Guangzhou, not Hong Kong. 4 hr connection in Seoul on the way home, bags go straight through.
$1,595 Mom $1,472 Dad
Tamilyn
BOS → Hong Kong → Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU) leave 12:30am Wed Dec 16, land 1:15pm Thu Dec 17 HKG → BOS nonstop with Anders, Jan 1
Cathay both ways. A 5 hr 20 layover in Hong Kong on the way in, bags go straight through. Note she lands at Shuangliu, the older Chengdu airport, not Tianfu.
$1,383 out (after a seat refund) $1,574 home
Long-haul total, all paid
$8,310
Inside China, still only 3 legs need a flight (Guangzhou to Chongqing, Chengdu to Shanghai, Shanghai to Hong Kong). Everything else is high-speed rail, the HZMB bus, or a border crossing. Trains go on sale about 15 days out on the 12306 app or Trip.com, book with passports.
Leg
How
Time
Cost each
Guangzhou Baiyun airport → Shenzhen (Nov 29)
Metro + high-speed rail, or a car
~2 hrs
~¥100 ($14, est.)
Shenzhen → Macau (and back)
HZMB Golden Bus
~45 min
~¥65 ($9)
Shenzhen → Guangzhou
High-speed rail
~30 min
~¥75 ($11)
Guangzhou → Chongqing
Fly
~2 hrs
¥500–900 ($70–127)
Chongqing → Chengdu
High-speed rail
~1 hr
¥154 ($22)
Chengdu → Shanghai (between the tours, on us)
Fly
~3 hrs
¥600–900 ($85–127)
Shanghai → Hong Kong (Dec 31)
Fly
~2 hrs 30
¥800–1,200 ($113–169, est.)
Hong Kong → Guangzhou (Mom + Dad, Jan 1)
High-speed rail
~50 min
~¥215 ($30)
04Sleeping on ¥150–200 a night ($21–28)
Doable, with one catch. Budget chains (Hanting, 7 Days, Home Inn, Vienna) and hostel private rooms hit ¥150–200 ($21–28) easily in Chengdu, Chongqing and Guangzhou; Macau runs higher, especially over the holidays. Central Shanghai wants ¥250–350 ($35–50) for the same bed. Two ways to handle it:
Stay on a metro line 20–30 min out in Shanghai and keep the budget intact, or
Let the pricier nights run ¥250–300 ($35–42) and claw it back in the cheap southwest. The free Shenzhen base helps a lot.
One rule that matters: hotels need a license to host foreigners. On Trip.com filter for "accepts foreign guests" before booking, some budget chains will turn you away at the desk otherwise.
The actual hotels, city by city
Checked July 2026: every one below takes foreigners (flagged where that could not be double-checked) and has private double rooms. First pick listed first. Prices are current low-season doubles; exact December 2026 rates show up in the fall. The two tours include their hotels, so the Chengdu and Shanghai hostel picks are gone. Party of 4 = two doubles.
At Lianglukou metro, 2 stops to Jiefangbei. Foreigner acceptance inferred, not confirmed
¥130–180 ($18–25)
Chengdu tour
Included: InterContinental Global Center, Delta by Marriott Jiuzhaigou, InterContinental Jiuzhaigou, Hilton Garden Inn Dujiangyan, Juzishu Emeishan, a Sheraton, InterContinental Sancha Lake (or similar)
7 nights, Dec 17–23
in the tour price
Shanghai tour
Included: Sofitel North Bund, Radisson Hangzhou, Crowne Plaza Wuxi, Nanjing RSL, DoubleTree Suzhou, Puyuan Pujin, Fairmont Peace Hotel (or equivalent)
7 nights, Dec 24–30
in the tour price
Rough lodging picture on the new timeline: the Shenzhen apartment is free for the first three nights, so the nights we pay for are Macau (2), Guangzhou (10), Chongqing (4), Hong Kong on Dec 31 (1), and one Guangzhou airport room for Mom and Dad on Jan 1. That is 18 paid nights, mostly two rooms each. The other 14 are tour hotels. Guangzhou being the longest stop is good news, it is one of the cheapest beds on the list, and worth asking about a monthly or long-stay rate for a ten-night block.
05Visas: start here, it is the long pole
All four of you need a tourist (L) visa. Good news: it is the easy version now. No flight bookings, no hotel proof, no invitation letters since 2024, and the fee is a flat $140 through December 31, 2026, which almost always comes back as a 10-year multi-entry visa.
One myth to kill early: the viral "Americans can do China visa-free for 10 days" videos mean the 240-hour visa-free transit rule. It requires arriving from one country and leaving to a different one, all within 10 days. Every stay on this trip is longer than that, so it helps nobody here. Get the visas.
Macau and Hong Kong are separate: both are SARs, and US passports are visa-free 30 days for each, no China visa needed to enter them. But every time you come back to the mainland (after Macau, after the Hong Kong family days) you use one more mainland entry, which is exactly why the 10-year multi-entry visa matters on this route.
Why NY works for everyone: the NYC consulate's district covers both New York and Massachusetts, so Boston applicants use the same office as the parents. Walk-in, no appointment. And a relative can drop off and pick up for you, so whoever is in NY can run all four applications in one trip.
Fill out the COVA form online for each person (the new system, live since late 2025), print and sign
Passports valid 6+ months past the trip with 2 blank pages, check all four now
One photo each, 48 x 33 mm, white background (any passport-photo shop knows the China spec)
Proof of US residence (license or utility bill copy)
Drop off at the NYC consulate, standard processing is about 4 business days, budget 1–3 weeks door to door
Target: submit by mid-October, so any hiccup still clears before booking gets stressful
06The two bunnies stay in Boston
Tamilyn is home covering the two bunnies until she flies out, and her flight leaves Boston at 12:30am Wed Dec 16, so she heads out the night of Tue Dec 15. She and Anders land back in Boston at 10pm Fri Jan 1. So the South End apartment needs a sitter from about Dec 15 through Jan 1, roughly 17 days. Two rabbits is still a real job: they hide illness, GI stasis moves fast, and the sitter needs to read rabbit body language. Rabbit-savvy beats generic, no contest. South End is an easy sell for sitters (central, walkable), which helps at the holidays.
Rabbit-savvy volunteers across eastern Massachusetts who do home visits, run by the rabbit rescue org. The best fit: real rabbit people, and the fee is a donation to the rescue.
~$25/pen/day donation 17 days ≈ $425 if the two share a pen, ~$850 if they need separate ones
Once or twice daily 30-min visits. Filter hard for real rabbit experience, say two rabbits up front (some sitters charge per pet), and do a paid meet-and-greet first.
$20–35/visit with multi-pet fees 17 days ≈ $340–560, x2 for twice daily
Small-pet boarding if you would rather move them than have visitors. Not the ask (you wanted apartment visits), just the backup; two buns for two-plus weeks still adds up.
Per-pen per-night, quote for ~2 weeks
Book this early. December holidays are the busiest sitter weeks of the year, and the good rabbit people go first. Reach out in September when you book flights. Leave the regular vet's number plus the emergency line: Angell Memorial in Jamaica Plain sees rabbits 24/7, 15 minutes from the South End. And leave a hay mountain, two rabbits still eat it faster than any sitter expects.
07Saved spots tracker
Everything you have sent, already slotted into the plan above. Of the 31 Instagram links, 17 were Japan or Taipei content, so those are parked at the bottom, not in the plan. The Yunnan link sits in the parked block for now, since Yunnan came off the route in the newest timeline. Five new Instagram saves were folded in on August 7: four landed in the plan (Shanghai twice, Hong Kong, and Jingdezhen as an open call) and Harbin parked. The TikTok China collection was re-read the same day: 26 saves, 15 already here, 11 new. Nine of those eleven landed in Shenzhen and Shanghai, and the two Beijing ones are parked.
"China" collection: 13 new spots folded in (Shanghai fashion circuit, Beijing cafes, CQ antiques, GZ streets, the Silk Road feast); the rest were already tracked
Parked for other trips: Beijing (Universal Studios, the Great Wall, the century teahouse) and Zhangjiajie (the Avatar pillars, the robot exoskeleton legs) wait for a warmer season, parents' orders after a freezing November there. Xiamen and Fujian (Gulangyu island, the tulou clan houses) drop off this route too, saved for a coastal trip. Hainan Island, the Chinese Hawaii, is parked as well: December is its crowded peak season and this route has no spare nights, but it is the obvious warm next trip (it is even on the map, the little island in the bottom corner). Jingdezhen pottery bootcamps run 5 days minimum, a real detour into Jiangxi, so the Shiwan class covers pottery this trip and Jingdezhen waits for its own. The 16 Japan links are saved for a Japan itinerary whenever you want one.
Your Instagram saved collection page needs a login I don't have, but individual links like these work fine. Keep them coming and I will fold each one in.
08Before wheels up
Monday supervision (Anders, 3 hrs weekly)
Sessions are Boston Monday 10-11am and 12-1pm (the 1-2pm person is being asked to join the 12-1 hour). China is 13 hours ahead, so that means Monday 11pm-midnight and Tuesday 1-2am, done by 2am. Five times: Nov 30 in Shenzhen, Dec 7 in Guangzhou, Dec 14 in Chongqing, Dec 21 at the Mount Emei hotel on tour 1, and Dec 28 at the Suzhou hotel on tour 2. Dec 21 is the one to plan around: the Leshan boat day starts right after breakfast on the 22nd, so that is a good night to hand Greg the second slot. Test the eSIM at the Jiuzhaigou hotels first, since that is the most remote stretch. If the move is declined, it runs to 3am. Keep Mondays light and Tuesday mornings slow. Google Meet is blocked in China, so the plan is: main line, an unlimited roaming eSIM (the phone shares data with the laptop, about 3GB per session). Backup, Astrill or LetsVPN installed on both devices before the flight. Escape hatch, Zoom, which works in China; warn everyone a one-week switch could happen. Private room, headphones. If sessions touch patient information, check the institution's rules about access from China first. Backstop: Greg offered to cover the whole month, and Anders is keeping the supervision anyway, but the safety net now means one failed eSIM or one brutal night can't leave a client hanging. The rule: always take the first session (China 11pm-midnight); only hand Greg the second one (China 1-2am, the after-1am slot) on nights it is wrecking sleep. A preference, not a hard constraint, which is a calmer way to travel.
Money
China barely takes cards or cash anymore. Link a US Visa or Mastercard inside Alipay and WeChat Pay before flying. Alipay is the smoother one, and DiDi (taxis) lives inside it.
Internet
Google, Instagram and WhatsApp are blocked on Chinese wifi. A travel eSIM (Airalo, Holafly) skips the block because roaming counts as foreign traffic. Set it up before landing, not after.
Apps to install
Amap for maps (Google Maps is useless there), Dianping for food, Trip.com for trains and hotels, and a translator that works offline.
Bookings that sell out
The photoshoot photographer is the long pole at 1-3 months ahead, so book it first. Then the Chengdu to Shanghai flight on Dec 24 (timed to both tours' airport transfers), the Shanghai-to-Hong Kong flight on Dec 31, the Hong Kong hotel for New Year's Eve (prices jump), Mom and Dad's Guangzhou airport room for Jan 1, and a written ship date from the dress shop. Almost everything else in December can be decided day-of.
09The full bill
Group totals, all five weeks, recomputed for the new dates. Three travelers until Dec 17, four after. Daily = beds + food + tickets; travel fares sit in the transport table. Estimates marked (est.). The dress and the photoshoot are both in at a mid tier; shopping hauls and souvenirs are not. Only the first three nights sleep free at the Shenzhen apartment now, because Hong Kong moved to the very end. The two tours are in as two rows, counting only the meals they leave to us. The tour prices themselves are not in yet, so add them once they are known.
Day
Where
In the number
Beds
Food
Tickets
Day total
Nov 29
Shenzhen
land in Guangzhou 11:30am, on to the apartment
¥0
¥330
¥0
¥330 ($46)
Nov 30
Shenzhen
supervision Mon; early HK family drop-in
¥0
¥330
¥0
¥330 ($46)
Dec 1
Macau
bus over, Senado + Ruins of St Paul’s
¥1,200
¥400
¥0
¥1,600 ($225)
Dec 2
Macau
Cotai, egg tarts
¥1,200
¥400
¥200
¥1,800 ($254)
Dec 3
Guangzhou
rail in; ORDER THE DRESS
¥400
¥330
¥0
¥730 ($103)
Dec 4
Guangzhou
Lingnan class + Memorial Hall
¥400
¥330
¥350
¥1,080 ($152)
Dec 5
Guangzhou
Lingnan class
¥400
¥330
¥300
¥1,030 ($145)
Dec 6
Guangzhou
Lingnan class
¥400
¥330
¥300
¥1,030 ($145)
Dec 7
Guangzhou
class; supervision Mon
¥400
¥330
¥300
¥1,030 ($145)
Dec 8
Guangzhou
class + Foshan pottery
¥400
¥330
¥400
¥1,130 ($159)
Dec 9
Guangzhou
class + YOMA spa
¥400
¥330
¥700
¥1,430 ($201)
Dec 10
Guangzhou
class + perfume museum
¥400
¥330
¥300
¥1,030 ($145)
Dec 11
Guangzhou
class + Chen Clan Hall, Shamian
¥400
¥330
¥200
¥930 ($131)
Dec 12
Guangzhou
last class + DongShanKou
¥400
¥330
¥300
¥1,030 ($145)
Dec 13
Chongqing
fly in; Hongya Cave at night
¥400
¥330
¥0
¥730 ($103)
Dec 14
Chongqing
Love Ladder + driver; supervision Mon
¥400
¥330
¥900
¥1,630 ($230)
Dec 15
Chongqing
Wulong Karst day trip
¥400
¥330
¥700
¥1,430 ($201)
Dec 16
Chongqing
Ciqikou, antique market, hotpot
¥400
¥330
¥200
¥930 ($131)
Dec 17–24
Tour 1
Sichuan loop; hotels, transport, most meals in the tour. Our meals only (est.)
tour
¥1,500
tour
¥1,500 ($211) + tour price
Dec 24–31
Tour 2
Jiangnan loop; hotels, transport, lunches in the tour. Our dinners (est.)
tour
¥2,800
tour
¥2,800 ($394) + tour price
Dec 31
Hong Kong
fly from Shanghai; family dinner, harbour fireworks
¥1,400
¥440
¥0
¥1,840 ($259)
Jan 1
Hong Kong
chop, gallery, family lunch; Anders + Tamilyn fly 7:40pm; parents rail to Guangzhou
¥400
¥440
¥200
¥1,040 ($146)
Jan 2
Guangzhou
Mom + Dad fly 12:40pm
¥0
¥110
¥0
¥110 ($15)
Daily subtotal, Nov 29 to Jan 2
¥9,800
¥11,370
¥5,350
¥26,520 ($3,735) + tours
Transport
Cost
Long-haul, all paid: Mom $1,595 and Dad $1,472 (JFK–Guangzhou round trips), Anders $712 out, Tamilyn $1,383 out, and $3,148 for the two of them home from Hong Kong
$8,310
Shenzhen–Macau HZMB bus x3
¥200 ($28)
Macau–Guangzhou, ferry/bus + rail x3
¥400 ($56)
Baiyun airport–Shenzhen x3, and Hong Kong–Guangzhou rail x2 for Mom and Dad on Jan 1
¥730 ($103)
Guangzhou–Chongqing fly x3
¥2,100 ($296)
Chongqing–Chengdu rail x3
¥462 ($65)
Chengdu–Shanghai fly x4
¥3,000 ($423)
Shanghai–Hong Kong fly x4 (est.)
¥4,000 ($563)
Local metros, DiDi, airport links (~¥60/day group)
¥2,160 ($304)
Transport subtotal
$10,149
Everything else
Cost
Bunny sitter for the two buns, ~Dec 15–Jan 1 (about 17 days; Tamilyn covers them until she flies)
$600
Visas, 4 x $140 at the NYC consulate
$560
Wedding dress, custom (est.); off-rack would be less
$450
Pre-wedding photoshoot, freelance photographer at a mid tier (est.), day still open
$423
Health checkup for the three Chans in the free days (est.)
$697
Subtotal
$2,730
Grand total: about $16,610 plus the two tour prices for the group, all five weeks. The real flights came in at $8,310, almost double the old $4,325 guess, and that is most of the jump. The tours replaced 14 nights of do-it-yourself beds, food and tickets, so everything that is left is the south, the flights, and the Hong Kong finish. The optional Chengdu tour extras are not in (USD 120 a person). The photoshoot is in at a mid tier (¥3,000): a budget shoot runs about $250 less, a premium one about $850 more.
10Open questions
BOOK THIS FIRST: the photoshoot, now a dawn slot. Yunnan is out, and the tours leave no free morning. The two slots that work: Dec 30 at first light in Puyuan water town (the tour hotel is inside it), or Dec 31 at dawn on the Bund from the Peace Hotel, which needs the extra Shanghai night. Pick one, then book a freelance photographer who meets you there. The dress has to be in hand by then. Nothing else on this trip has a longer lead time. Studios want 1 to 3 months, so this is the earliest real deadline and the thing to book before flights.
Settled: the dates, and therefore the shape of the route. Nov 29 to Dec 12 free (painting maybe Dec 3–12), Chongqing Dec 13–16, the Chengdu tour Dec 17–24 with Tamilyn, the Shanghai tour Dec 24–31, Hong Kong Dec 31 to Jan 1. The Guangzhou return at the end is gone, so it is one flight from Shanghai straight to Hong Kong on Dec 31. These dates are what the family can do, so everything below works inside them rather than proposing to move them.
Settled: all the long-haul flights are booked. Anders, Mom and Dad land in Guangzhou Nov 29. Tamilyn lands in Chengdu at 1:15pm Dec 17. Anders and Tamilyn fly home from Hong Kong at 7:40pm Jan 1, and Mom and Dad fly home from Guangzhou at 12:40pm Jan 2. She still meets the whole family, on New Year's Eve and Jan 1.
Settled: the wedding work is photos and dress only. No ceremony to plan. The dress gets ordered in Guangzhou in early December and shipped to the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. The photos are the open question above.
Open: the dress is ordered before Tamilyn is in the country, and nobody goes back to pick it up. Order Dec 3–5, ask for a ready date around Dec 22, and have the shop ship it by SF Express to the Fairmont Peace Hotel for Dec 30, the one tour hotel that is named for sure. Ask the hotel to hold it. The tours leave no time for a tailor, so what arrives is what she wears. That makes two choices safer: have her measured properly by a tailor in Boston rather than at home, and pick a style that forgives small fit problems (a lace-up back, a wrap, stretch). The backup: buy off-rack on Wedding Street and carry it out of Guangzhou on Dec 12, which skips the shipping risk.
Nearly settled: Tamilyn's dental loupes, Dec 17 in Chengdu. The tour itinerary answers it. Dec 17 is the free afternoon in the city. The night of Dec 23 is at Sancha Lake, about an hour out, and the 24th goes straight to the airport, so the 24th is out. Confirm the shop's hours and address before she flies.
Open: the tour prices, and three small asks for the tour companies. The day-by-day plans are in (section 02). Still needed: both prices for four people. Ask the Chengdu tour whether it can pick up the Chans at the train station in the morning and Tamilyn at Shuangliu airport at 1:15pm. Ask the Shanghai tour what time its Dec 31 airport transfer leaves, so the Hong Kong flight can be booked around it. Ask both whether the shopping stops can be skipped.
Settled by the tickets: fly Shanghai to Hong Kong on Dec 31. Anders and Tamilyn leave Hong Kong at 7:40pm Jan 1, so a Jan 1 morning flight from Shanghai would leave about five hours there. Flying on the 31st after the tour ends gives New Year's Eve with the family and most of Jan 1.
Open: Tamilyn asked for Chongqing and it now sits before she lands. Her four asks were Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu and Yunnan. This timeline gives her Shanghai and Chengdu outright. The Chengdu tour has no free day, so the overnight is out. The one fix left is for her to fly into Chongqing on Dec 15 or 16 and ride the train to Chengdu with everyone on the 17th. That means more bunny-sitter days and a rebooked flight. Yunnan depends on the photoshoot answer.
Book soon: New Year's Eve in Hong Kong, and Mom and Dad's last night. One Hong Kong hotel night on Dec 31, near the harbour for the fireworks, and NYE prices climb as it gets closer. Then Mom and Dad need a way to Guangzhou on the evening of Jan 1 and a room near Baiyun airport, since their flight leaves at 12:40pm Jan 2. Also check the chop shop and the Chao Shao-an Gallery for Jan 1 holiday hours.
Open: what fills Nov 29 to Dec 12. Two free weeks. The painting course may take Dec 3–12, which would leave Nov 29 to Dec 2. What is written above puts those in Shenzhen and Macau. Guilin is parked and would also fit, about 3 hrs by rail from Shenzhen, without moving a single fixed date.
Open: the AI Chinese Medicine save still needs a city. The @chrischou reel doesn't name the location; these exist in Shanghai and Beijing, so it likely lands in the Shanghai finish once pinned down.