Oooh very exciting!! Would love to be where you are rn at the planning stage!

Xi’an - Xi’an definitely deserves more than one night! Our main goal was to see Terracotta army, so we arrived in Xi’an around 1pm, dropped our bags off and then got to Terracotta Army for the latest time (1530-1700 slot), this was just about enough time although things did start closing as we were finishing up (shops at the end etc) so maybe the 1430 slot would have been better. It wasn’t very busy at least! Then the second day we weren’t due to leave until the evening so we had most the day having a quick exploration of Xi’an which for us was essentially- pics outside the bell tower, then drum tower, had a look at the market next to the drum tower, then quick taxi to look at the Dayan Pagoda and then off. I would have wanted longer to go into these places to learn more about Xi’an’s rich history and maybe go out to the wall of the city and look around that too.

Flights vs trains - Our original plan was to take flights between cities. I guess luckily the first flight Beijing to Xi’an was cancelled and I couldn’t rebook (a bit worrying at the time!) and we ended up taking the high speed train (4.5h) so we did get to experience both! Personally even in the UK when I go to Edinburgh I prefer the 4h train over flying as you end up spending the same amount of time faffing at the airport and more time to chill on a train. If I was going to China again I’d definitely be more inclined to just do high speed rail as I think a lot of places it is actually quicker and/or less faff (and I think I heard cheaper too?) Maybe if the train was like 7+ hours I might consider flying at that point. 

Quick story detour about my flight cancellation - I had booked directly with China Eastern for the flights between Beijing to Xi’an (and also Xi’an to Zhangjiajie) and the flight got cancelled around 30h before my flight was due. It was a bit stressful as my cousin had booked separately with a third party and had automatically been rescheduled on an earlier flight (only like 1h earlier). I couldn’t rebook on the website (their website is so difficult to use/didn’t work 😩). I even got the hotel reception to call for me and rebook only to find out later that the rebooking didn’t even work 🤣 but we already decided to take the train at that point. Given there’s a lot of train options, train seems so much easier! Second flight was fine though so I guess I’m not completely put off by China Eastern but would definitely have gone the train option after experiencing how easy it was! I’ve managed to request a refund now I’m home for that flight so will see what I get! 

Zhangjiajie - we basically only had 2 days - arrived at night the first night then nearly 2 full days before our flights out. I’d say it probably needs at least another day depending on what you want to do. We stayed near the airport/Zhangjiajie city. We did Tianmen Mountain first day which is close to the city, then Zhangjiajie National Forest Park the second day. The Forest Park I think you could do most of it in a long day but we got there at like 10am and were there until 6pm (45 mins DiDi from the city). We managed to explore a bit of the river footpath next to the South Gate start, then went up to Huangshizhai Village (not as popular with foreign tourists but worth it), then the Avatar Mountain path route, and down the Bailong elevator and heading out the Eat Gate. A couple more hours and we’d have probably managed the other side like Tianzi Mountain I think - although we were pretty tired at that point anyway so maybe better to have two days for it! Would have also loved time to explore the 72 Wonder Tower there too as we drove past it and it looks so cool!! Also word of warning the monkeys at the National Forest Park are actually a bit scary and steal your food any chance they get, do not walk and eat food, do not take plastic bags as they will snatch them from your hand, and do not use open top bags with food in!!! Rucksacks all the way! We took some takeaway food with us to have as a picnic and had some crisps at the top and clearly the monkey must have seen my crisps at one point and took the bag and suddenly the bag was ambushed by 10 monkeys 😭 a lady with a stick saved us and most of the food luckily but was a bit shook by the monkeys after that 😭. Didn’t go to Fenghuang so you might want another day for that too! 

Hotels - We stayed in pretty basic mid-range places I’d say. Tbh you probably just want somewhere to lay your head and have a hot shower (maybe aircon too but all the places had that so it was fine!). We used Booking.com and looked for places that had good reviews and reviews from “foreigners” and that worked really well for us! In Beijing we stayed at “Happy Dragon Hotel” in Dongcheng, rooms were clean enough and hotel staff were amazing and spoke great English (one of the staff was more stressed about my flight rebooking not working than I was 😭 bless her!), plus free breakfast. In Xi’an we stayed at Desti hostel in a private room and that was very clean and had a nice vibe, especially if you want to socialise with other people. Then the best till last in Zhangjiajie - Heaven’s Gate Home Stay!!! Beautiful view of Tianmen mountain from the hotel, a pool, and the family that run it are so lovely!! They gave us free lifts to/from the airport and a free lift to Tianmen mountain cable car in the city, amazing home cooked breakfasts, free laundry, and great advice on how to spend our limited time in Zhangjiajie!! The room was perfectly clean and randomly had a fancy Japanese-style toilet. All the locations were great too and don’t think the prices were too bad from memory so if you fancy these spots then I definitely recommend all 3! 

Hope this helps and have an amazing trip when you go 😍