China is a great country to visit as a budget traveller, but you’re going to need to prepare yourself for all the different travel expenses first! Our China budget guide is based on the travel costs for our 3 week China trip.
If you’ve read our other travel guides, you will know that this trip to China was a dream come true. From the futuristic city of Shanghai to riding an e-scooter around the karst mountains of Yangshuo – it quickly became one of our favourite countries to explore.
We took high-speed trains, found low-cost street food and stayed in various kinds of accommodation throughout the country. We’re going to show you exactly what to expect from a trip to China!
We kept track of all our China travel costs on TravelSpend (a budget-tracking app). We do this for all of our trips as it’s so easy to use!
Our travel style is between basic and moderate. We sometimes spend more on food as we’re vegan, and there aren’t usually as many options. We like to be comfortable when travelling, but we’re not luxurious!
If you’re planning a future trip to China on a budget, here’s all of our China travel costs with many tips along the way!
This post may contain affiliate links. We will receive a small commission if you make a purchase using these links, at no additional cost to you.
As we are from the UK, we’ve written our guide in GBP (Great British Pounds). You can use a currency converter to exchange these figures into your home currency.
China Travel Costs & Budget Guide
First, we’ll share the total price of how much we spent in China! This total excludes flights in and out of the country, visas, travel insurance or any personal purchases such as clothes. We share more information about those payments later on in this guide!
Overall spend £2,034.75 (£1,0017 per person)
Daily Average (22 days): £92.48 (£46.24 per person)
So, this is our total China travel costs for 2 people spending 3 weeks in China. We are budget travellers, but we chose to spend a little more on restaurants and transport on this trip. China is a huge country, and the trains to get around were worth every penny!
At first, we were quite shocked by our final total, but honestly, the speed trains ate up a good portion of our China budget. We stayed in hostels, ate bao for breakfast and walked a lot. Let’s get into the breakdown of how much we spent in China!
Need travel insurance? Check out SafetyWing – Find out more here!
Accommodation in China on a Budget
Travelling in China is a little different compared to other countries. After browsing accommodation on Booking.com, Agoda or Hostelworld, we realised there weren’t a lot of options in our budget range – especially for cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
Trip.com is China’s leading booking platform for hotels, activities, trains and even flights. We found a larger range of accommodation on here that was suitable for our budget in China. All of our accommodation in China was booked on Trip.
For our 3 week China trip (22 days), we spent £436.47 (£218.24 per person), which is 21% of our total cost. This means our average nightly cost was around £20 a night for two people.
- Shanghai Hostel (dorm) – 4 nights – £107.49 (£26.87 per night)
- Beijing Hotel (private room) – 5 nights – £182.45 (£36.49 per night)
- Xi’An Hostel (dorm) – 4 nights – £36.96 (£9.24 per night)
- Chengdu Hostel (dorm) – 3 nights – £49.92 (£16.64 per night)
- Guilin Hotel (private room) – 2 nights – £17.68 (£8.84 per night)
- Yangshuo Guesthouse (private room) – 3 nights – £41.97 (£13.99 per night)
As you can see, we stayed in a mix of hostels, hotels and guesthouses. Dorm rooms in China are almost always split by gender, so we had a few days of our trip in separate rooms. We did this due to the location and price of the hostel. It was honestly the best option to get the best value and all of these hostels had great common areas.
Shanghai and Beijing were the most expensive destinations we visited in China and even though we stayed in a hostel in Shanghai, it was still a lot more expensive than the other hostels on our trip.
We definitely recommend checking out some hostel options if you’re travelling China on a budget. Here are most of the places we stayed in during our China trip (we didn’t love our Beijing and Guilin, so swapped them for a better alternative for the same budget).
Our recommended hotels, hostels and guesthouses in China:
Where to stay in Shanghai on a budget: Dayin International Youth Hostel
Where to stay in Beijing on a budget: Beijing Xinqiao Hotel
Where to stay in Xi’An on a budget: Tiny Spot Hostel
Where to stay in Chengdu on a budget: Desti Youth Park Hostel
Where to stay in Guilin on a budget: Magnolia Hotel
Where to stay in Yangshuo on a budget: Climbers Inn
We also visited Hong Kong straight after our China trip and struggled to find accommodation cheaper than China prices. Our Hong Kong accommodation was £166.68 for 4 nights, which is £41.67 a night for a hostel dormitory (Hop Inn)!
Tips for low-cost accommodation in China:
- The cheaper hotels usually have no windows (especially in cities)
- Check if the accommodation accepts foreigners
- Dorms in hostels are gender split
- For private rooms in large cities, stay a little further out but near a metro line
Overall, our travel costs in China for accommodation were very good because we stayed in hostels. Our favourite place was Tiny Spot Hostel, even though we were in separate rooms, the hostel was in a great location at an amazing price. We also loved the owner at Climbers Inn in Yangshuo.
Accommodation in China can easily climb out of budget if you want to stay in great locations in private rooms in the big cities. So if you want to stick to a budget, you’ll need to factor in extra money or stay in hostels! We recommend budgeting £20-£40 a night for two people on accommodation.
➤ Here’s our 3 Week China Itinerary so you can plan your trip!
China Travel Costs at Restaurants
Food is a huge reason why we love travelling so much, and in China, we wanted to be as comfortable as possible, so we spent a little more than the average budget traveller.
In 22 days, we spent £479.69 (£239.84 per person), which is 24% of our total cost. Food was our second biggest spend at around £21.80 a day together and it was so worth it. Plus, we also have a convenience store category in our budget guide, so this isn’t the total spend for food during our time in China.
We tracked the cost of every meal we ate and every snack we picked up during our China trip and we’d love to share an overview of what you can expect as two foodies in China. We are vegan, so we ate at clearly marked vegetarian restaurants, which are usually Buddhist restaurants. This meant we sometimes paid more, as there were rarely any suitable street food options for us.
Here’s an overview of how much our meals and food cost in each destination during our 22 days in China. These figures are based on what we spent in October 2024.
Shanghai Restaurant Travel Costs
Shanghai average meal cost for 2 people: £12.32 (excluding Shanghai Disney)
Food in Shanghai wasn’t too expensive, even though it’s one of the most expensive cities in China. It was the first destination we visited in China, so we were getting used to the cuisine and didn’t try many street snacks.
We spent £112.42 on restaurants for 4 days in Shanghai. Our most expensive meal was lunch at Disney Shanghai at £19.23, and our most affordable meal being a set meal in the city centre at £8.16.
One of our favourite meals was £17.62 for a feast of vegan food at Lotus Vegan in Shanghai, including dessert.
Beijing Restaurant Travel Costs
Beijing average meal cost for 2 people: £16.98
Somehow, Beijing ended up being our most expensive city for food (as vegans). There were amazing choices of restaurants and some of them were Michelin-graded and still very affordable! We indulged in hotpot and vegan buffets but still had cheap bao’s for breakfast.
We spent £159.40 over 4.5 days in Beijing. We had a few pricey meals at £22.46, £22.70 and £18.91.
You can also find affordable street food all over Beijing, but we stuck to restaurants, which made our China budget higher than what it could have been.
For breakfast, we would spend £1-2 on a few bao’s which would fill us up until lunch. We also tried the classic Chinese breakfast doughnuts and hot soy milk for £1.73.
Xi’an Restaurant Travel Costs
Xi’an average meal cost for 2 people: £7.76
After spending lots of money on food in Beijing, we felt like the true prices of China were coming out when we reached Xi’an. We already showed you that accommodation was cheaper, but the food was too!
Our first meal was one of the most affordable meals on our trip at £3.67 for 2 bowls of biang biang noodles and a side of cucumber. We spent £60.78 on restaurants for 3.5 days in Xi’an. Veggie buffets were only £2.50 each for unlimited choice, which was so good! Travelling in China on a budget is definitely possible!
Chengdu Restaurant Travel Costs
Chengdu average meal cost for 2 people: £9.50
We spent £74.68 during our 3 days in Chengdu, which is pretty good. There were a lot more snacks on offer here, so we were trying brown sugar fried buns for 54p, mochi cake for 27p and sesame balls for 86p.
Our most expensive meal in Chengdu was a hot pot that felt like an activity! It came to £19.72 for a huge spread of food and our own hot pot each. Other than the hot pot, most of our meals were less than £10, and we fell in love with Sichuan noodles.
Like most Chinese cities, Chengdu has some great street food on offer if you want to stick to a strict budget in China.
Guilin Restaurant Travel Costs
Guilin average meal cost for 2 people: £6.21
We were only in Guilin for 1.5 days, so we only spent £24.57 on restaurants and snacks. We ate at mostly veggie buffets for £6.28 and we left very full! That’s only £3 each per unlimited buffet.
There’s plenty of affordable street vendors and restaurants everywhere, so you don’t need to worry about the price of food here!
Yangshuo Restaurant Travel Costs
Yangshuo average meal cost for 2 people: £7.18
Our 3 days in Yangshuo were incredible, but we did struggle a little more with finding vegan food here, so we ended up at an Indian restaurant twice for £13.50 each time. Otherwise, food in Yangshuo is very affordable, with rice noodles costing £1 each.
Even in the middle of the countryside, we had mapo tofu, rice and a plate of veggies for £6.60. Our total spend on food here was £47.53.
➤ Check out our Shanghai Travel Guide to see the futuristic city!
Cost of Groceries in China on a Budget
We spent £50.65 on convenience store items during our 3 week China trip, which was only 2.49% of our budget. This section needed its own category as it’s where we mostly bought our drinks and snacks.
We spent £16.84 on a few vegan savoury buns that we took to the Great Wall for lunch – we actually bought these from the Suhu buffet restaurant in Beijing, but added them onto our grocery list for some reason!
Convenience stores in China are great for small snacks, to-go lunches, noodle packs, and all the drinks in the world. In Xi’an, the 7/11’s had bao counters with tasty veggie options. They had a hot soy machine that was perfect in the colder climates.
As vegans, we didn’t get to benefit from the huge variety of noodle packs for only £1, but this is a great way to travel China on a budget. We would have knocked off a lot of our food travel costs if we found vegan-friendly lunch options in these stores!
The convenience stores in China aren’t on the same level as Japan, but they’re definitely good enough for snacks and quick bites! We used 7/11 and FamilyMart the most. We didn’t cook any of our meals in China!
Transportation Costs in China
In total, we spent £625.49 on transport during our 3 weeks in China. It was our biggest expense, taking up 31% of our budget. When we first started planning this China trip, we had no idea how expensive Chinese bullet trains would be! Here’s our mini transport breakdown:
£543.10 on high-speed trains
£39.25 on local transport
£6.20 on E-bikes
£36.94 on Didi (taxis)
When we travelled Japan on a budget, we used long-distance buses to reduce the cost of transport (as bullet trains are pricey), but China is absolutely huge and buses were out of the question for a 3 week trip if we wanted to see all the destinations we planned.
We’ve split our transportation costs into high-speed railway trains, local public transport, and taxis. Here’s all of our travel costs in China for transport:
High Speed Railway Trains in China:
- Shanghai to Beijing – £141.06
- Beijing to Xi’An – £124.77
- Xi’An to Chengdu – £56.82
- Chengdu to Leshan – £8.23
- Leshan to Chengdu – £14.57
- Chengdu to Guilin – £103.49
- Yangshuo to Guilin – £5.19
- Guilin to Hong Kong – £88.97
So we spent a total of £543.10 on high-speed trains around the country. The Chinese bullet trains we caught were amazing, though, always on time and clean. Each train station felt like an airport, and they were almost always well connected to the city centre (apart from Yangshuo).
A cheaper alternative to high-speed railway trains would be slow trains or overnight buses. Although most of the slow trains on the routes we needed weren’t great value, the price would only come down a little, but it would take double the amount of time.
We booked our train tickets 2 weeks in advance on the dot via 12306 Railway. You can also use Trip.com.
Local City Travel Costs in China:
We were so surprised by the cost of local transport in Shanghai and other cities in China. It’s so affordable! The metro is around 20-30p a ride in Shanghai compared to over £2.50 in London. We couldn’t believe it. So, luckily, you can easily stick to a budget in China when getting around each city.
We spent a total of £37 on local transport during our 3 week China trip, although Guilin and Yangshuo didn’t have great public transport for us, so we used taxis instead.
For our trip to the Great Wall of China, we only spent £4.21 on buses getting to and from the Great Wall with the help of one Didi taxi at £3.71. This meant that we only spent £4 each to get to the Great Wall of China from Beijing and back.
Metro’s in China are so affordable and perfect for travelling China on a budget. The buses are sometimes even cheaper, sometimes only costing us 10p for a short ride.
Cost of E-Bikes in China:
We spent £6.20 on an E-bike for two days in Yangshuo, and as it was electric, we didn’t have to pay for fuel! This is great for a budget trip in China! We rented our bike from the Climbers Inn.
Didi Travel Costs in China:
Didi in China is like Uber. It’s a ride-hailing app, similar to taxis. You’ll need to download the app to use it. We loved using Didi! The prices were usually affordable, and it saved us so much time getting around when the public transport wasn’t as well-connected.
We used Didi in Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin and Yangshuo, and in total we spent £33.94 on Didi (taxis). Our biggest journeys with Didi helped us get to train stations in the morning, a quick return from the bus stop after the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Warriors.
➤ Book your trains on Trip or use Railway 12306!
Activities in China on a budget
We spent £352.91 on activities in China, which is a lot higher than we expected! However, a big portion of that is Disneyland Shanghai at £85.70. This was totally worth it for us, but not something everyone wants to do. Our travel costs for activities were 17% of our budget. Here’s everything we spent on activities during our budget trip in China:
Cost of Activities in Shanghai:
- Yuan Garden – £8.63
- City God Temple – £2.16
- Disneyland Shanghai – £85.70
- Disney Game – £3.78
We bought our tickets for Yu Garden on Trip in advance!
Cost of Activities in Beijing:
- Jingshan park – £0.43
- Forbidden City – £17.25
- Audio guides for Forbidden City – £8.59
- Temple of Heaven – £7.35
- Summer Palace – £6.49
- Extra Summer Palace Ticket – £2.16
- Great Wall Tickets & Shuttle Bus – £12.95
- Great Wall Cable Car (One-Way) – £21.60
- Great Wall Toboggan – £21.60
➤ Check out our 4 Day Beijing Itinerary to find out more!
Cost of Activities in Xi’an:
- The Great Mosque – £5.40
- Terracotta Warriors – £20.76
- Big Goose Pagoda – £6.49
- Big Goose Pagoda Tower £5.16
- Xi’an Wall – £11.68
- Xi’an Bike Rental – £9.73
Book your Terracotta Warriors tickets on Trip!
Cost of Activities in Chengdu:
- Leshan Buddha – £17.32
- Chengdu Chinese opera – £21.48
- Wuhou Temple – £10.28
Cost of Activities in Guilin:
- Li River Cruise to Yangshuo – £45.15
Some of the most expensive activities we did were Disneyland, the Great Wall of China, the Teracotta Warriors, cycling around the Xi’an Wall, Leshan Buddha, Chengdu Chinese Opera and the Li River Cruise. You can see all of our activities in our 3 week China itinerary.
If you’re visiting any of these destinations on your China trip, we highly recommend all of these activities! They are worth the higher cost (you can omit Disney if it’s not your thing)!
Overall, we’re happy with what we spent on activities as we had a great time visiting all of these places, and it would be a shame not to see something all the way across the world because it costs £10. You have to really choose what’s worth your time and money when picking activities in China on a budget.
Other Travel Costs in China
The last section in our China travel costs guide is the miscellaneous section. This includes SIM cards, VPN, shopping, exchange fees, postcards and any small items picked up on the way. We keep some of these items in our guide for full transparency on how we travel, and it’s rare not to buy an item during your whole trip!
General Items – £26.48 / 1.3%
- Chinese E-Sim – £11.62
- Let’s VPN for Amy – £3.59
- Let’s VPN for Dan – £3.59
- Haircut for Dan – £5.40
- Mouthwash – £1.39
- Tissues x2 – £0.86
Dan uses Lebara for his phone, which is a UK provider that works in China and India. So we only bought one SIM card as we already had one! We highly recommend every traveller have their own data, especially for using AliPay. Get an E-sim on Airalo!
Shopping – £57.90 2.85%
Our category for shopping is for items you may not need on your trip! We’ve listed everything we bought and the price:
- Photobooth Picture in Xi’an – £3.24
- Disney Popcorn – £4.32
- Disney Fridge magnet – £6.37
- Claw Clip & Scrunchie – £1.61
- Uniqlo Jumper & Shirt (cold weather) – £26.78
- Magnet & Postcards – £4.77
- Lens Cap for our camera – £5.40
- Dan T-Shirts £5.41
Exchange Fees – £3.42 0.17%
We used AliPay for a lot of payments in China, as that’s what locals do. After 1 week, we started getting charged a 3% fee when spending over 200 yuan. Luckily, this didn’t happen much as the food was affordable, and we paid for our accommodation online already. However, we were charged the fee four times, so we spent £3.42 on fees.
Laundry: £1.74 0.09%
We stayed in a few hostels that had free laundry, and then the other times we needed to wash was very affordable at £0.90. We bought detergent from the hostel reception for ease.
➤ Still saving for your trip? Here’s our ‘How to Save Money for Travelling Guide‘
Breakdown of our Travel Costs in China
All of our travel costs are written in British Pounds. You can use XE Currency Converter to compare to your own currency. Our breakdown is for 2 people spending 22 days in China on a budget.
Accommodation – £436.47 / 21%
Restaurants – £479.69 / 24%
Transportation – £625.49 / 31%
Activities – £352.91 / 17%
Groceries – £50.65 / 2.5%
General – £28.22 / 1.4%
Shopping – £57.90 / 2.85%
Exchange Fees – £3.42 / 0.17%
Overall spend: £2,034.75 (£1,0017 per person) / ¥19,888. (¥9,944 per person)
Daily Average (22 days): £92.48 (£46.24 per person) / ¥904 (¥452 per person)
Daily Budget – £50 per person / ¥500 per person
Pre-Travel Costs for a China Budget
All of our pre-travel costs are not included in our total China Travel Costs price. However, they’re so important! They will vary a lot depending on where you’re flying from, if you need a visa for China and if you need to buy a backpack or a new pair of trainers!
Our pre-travel costs ended up being quite high due to the flight price, visa and transport booked in advance. Our visa was £130, £20 for travel costs to London and £420 for our flight! So that’s £570 each in pre-travel costs for our China trip.
Chinese Visa’s
As we’re from the UK, we had to get a visa to enter China. A tourist visa for the UK costs £130 for a minimum of 2 years. It’s the most expensive tourist visa we’ve ever bought, but at least we have the option to use it again.
On top of the visa, we had to take a trip to London twice (which we weren’t currently living in at the time), which cost us time and transport. We also had to print off all of our documents for the visa. We could have avoided the second visit, but they charge over £25 each to get the visa shipped, and our National Express buses were only £12 return.
There are a lot of countries that get visa-free entry for 30 days, the UK and China announced after the most recent PM visit that this will soon be on the cards for British citizens, so watch this space!
Flights to China
We booked our flights from London Heathrow to Shanghai, China, around 7 months in advance. The cheapest flight available was a 16.5-hour journey with a layover in Guangzhou or Beijing with China Southern. However, we booked the second-cheapest flight, which was direct to Shanghai with Virgin Atlantic.
China was the start of our Asia adventure, so we only booked a one-way flight to Shanghai and then booked a flight from Hong Kong to Taiwan (£72 each). We travelled by train from Guilin to Hong Kong.
The total cost of flights per person was £420. We noticed a return flight was only £458, which is amazing for a return flight (direct) from London to Shanghai.
Other Pre-Travel Costs
- Vaccinations – Check with your local government or doctor.
- Travel to the airport – We booked a National Express to Heathrow Airport from Bristol.
- Travel Insurance – Check out SafetyWing – Find out more here!
How to travel China on a budget
Check the time of year – Avoid Golden Week! This is the busiest week of the year!
Eat Local – It’s so easy to eat Chinese food when travelling in China on a budget. There aren’t always a lot of other options really!
Avoid Luxury Hotels – Stay in small guesthouses, hotel rooms outside of the tourist areas and try out dorm rooms!
Free Activities – Find free things to do in China to stick to a strict budget. This one’s a little harder, as we really enjoyed all of the activities we did in China and not all of them are expensive anyway.
Get outside of the major Cities – Shanghai and Beijing were expensive compared to Xi’an and Chengdu. If you want to travel China on a budget (an even smaller budget), you may want to avoid the big cities and explore the countryside or smaller cities.
Local Transport – When possible, use the public transport! Metros and buses are amazing in China and can get you really far!
Sleeper Trains – We loved using the High Speed Trains, but this is an area you can try to save some extra money. Take sleeper trains to avoid paying for a night of accommodation.
➤ Check out our things to know before visiting China travel guide!
That’s the end of our China travel costs and budget guide! We also have a South Korea Budget Guide and Japan Budget Guide! Check out our other China travel guides to plan your trip!
- 3 Week China Itinerary – The Ultimate Trip
- Best Things To Do In Shanghai
- How to Save Money for Travelling
- 4 Day Beijing Itinerary
- Xi’an Travel Guide
- 3 Day Chengdu Itinerary
- 3 days in Hong Kong
LIKE THIS POST? PIN IT FOR LATER & SHARE IT WITH OTHERS!
