Travelling in China with Elderly Parents

China is a good destination for older travellers and most itineraries written for it are not.

The country itself is easy: safe, clean, cheap, with the best rail network in the world and a culture that treats older people with visible respect. Someone will give up a seat on the metro. Priority queues exist and are used.

The problem is that a standard China itinerary involves eight to twelve kilometres of walking a day on hard surfaces, three cities in seven days, and heritage sites that are structurally built around steps. That is a young person's trip written for a general audience.

Fixing it is mostly subtraction.

The three rules

1. Halve the number of cities. Two cities in ten days, not four. Every intercity move costs a packing day, a transfer, a check-in and a re-orientation, and those costs land harder on older travellers than the sightseeing does.

2. One thing per day. A morning attraction and an afternoon rest, or an afternoon attraction and a slow morning. Not both. The standard advice to "see the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven in a day" assumes seven kilometres of walking on stone with no shade.

3. Book the middle of the day for sitting down. Tea houses, parks, long lunches. In China this is not a compromise — it is what people actually do, and the Chengdu tea house afternoon is one of the better experiences available.

Where the walking actually is

Numbers worth knowing before you commit.

The Forbidden City is 72 hectares. South gate to north gate with detours is three to four kilometres, on stone, with almost no shade and few places to sit. Wheelchair loan is available at the entrance and is worth taking even for someone who walks normally at home — this is longer than it looks. Allow three hours and treat it as the whole day. See the ticket guide.

The Great Wall is stairs of uneven height up a mountain. Mutianyu with the cable car both ways gets you onto the wall with minimal climbing, and the walkway itself still has steps. Twenty minutes on the wall and a cable car back down is a completely respectable Great Wall visit. Badaling is comparable. Jinshanling is not an option. See the section comparison.

The Terracotta Army is three large halls with ramps and lifts, spread out, with long connecting walks. Manageable, and a wheelchair or a rest plan helps.

The Summer Palace is enormous and hilly. There are boats on the lake, which changes the calculation entirely — arrive by boat, see the corridor and the lakeside, leave.

Temples and gardens have raised door sills — the wooden or stone thresholds you step over — throughout. These are a trip hazard for anyone unsteady.

Old towns — Pingyao, Lijiang, Fenghuang — are cobbled and uneven.

A good ten-day itinerary

Days 1–5, Beijing. Arrival and nothing. Forbidden City and Jingshan, one full day. Great Wall at Mutianyu with the cable car, one full day. Temple of Heaven park in the morning, hutong rickshaw in the afternoon. One flexible day.

Day 6, train to Shanghai. Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao, about 4.5 hours on the fastest services. Take the train rather than flying — no security theatre, walk around, a toilet at the end of the carriage, level boarding, and porters available. Book first class on this leg; the wider seats and quieter carriage are worth the difference on a long journey.

Days 7–10, Shanghai. The Bund in the evening. One museum. One walk in the former French Concession. A day trip to Suzhou — 25 minutes by train, and the gardens are compact and full of places to sit. Depart.

Two cities, one move, ten days. This produces a better trip than the standard three-city route for almost anyone over seventy.

If you have more time, add days rather than cities.

What to sort out before booking

Medical

Talk to their doctor. Long-haul flight, time zone shift, walking load, and any altitude on the itinerary.

Bring all medication in original labelled packaging, in hand luggage, in more than the quantity needed. Carry a doctor's letter listing the medications and the conditions. Some medicines that are unremarkable at home are controlled in China — check the customs guide before packing, particularly for anything containing codeine, strong painkillers or psychiatric medication.

Write down the generic names, not the brand names. Brands differ; the molecule does not.

Know where the international hospitals are in the cities you are visiting. See the medical care guide.

Emergency medical number is 120. See the emergency numbers guide.

Insurance

The single most important item on this page.

Declare all pre-existing conditions. An undeclared condition invalidates the claim that matters.

Check the age limit. Many standard policies cap cover or price sharply above 70, and some above 65.

Check the medical evacuation limit. Repatriation from China is expensive and this is the cover you are actually buying.

Check any altitude limit if Tibet, Shangri-La, Jiuzhaigou or Emei is on the itinerary. Many policies cap the elevation they cover.

See the insurance guide.

Altitude

Avoid unless there is a specific reason. Tibet at 3,650 m, Shangri-La at 3,200 m, Jiuzhaigou at 2,000–3,100 m, and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain cable car at around 4,500 m are all significant.

Altitude tolerance does not correlate with fitness, and cardiovascular and respiratory conditions make it materially riskier. If it is on the list, that is a conversation with a doctor rather than a decision to make on the ground.

The Yunnan itinerary can be stopped at Dali, around 2,000 m, which is comfortable for most people.

Practical measures

Book first class on the trains. More space, quieter, easier to get to a toilet.

Use station assistance. Chinese railway stations run a priority passenger service that will meet you, take you through a separate channel and board you before the crowd. Arrange through 12306 or the station service desk. It is free and it removes the worst part of Chinese rail travel.

Hire a car and driver for the day rather than using taxis. In Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu this costs less than most people expect, and it means no walk to the metro at the end of a tiring afternoon.

Book hotels with lifts, near a metro station, with a step-free entrance. Confirm by message. See the Beijing neighbourhood guide and the booking platforms guide.

Borrow a wheelchair at major sites. The Forbidden City and other large attractions lend them. There is no reason not to use one for a three-kilometre stone courtyard just because someone walks fine at home.

Carry a folding stool or a walking stick with a seat if standing is the issue. Queues in China can be long.

Toilets. Squat toilets are still common in older public facilities, and they are genuinely difficult for anyone with knee or balance problems. Plan around known seated facilities — modern shopping centres, hotels, high-speed rail stations and international chains. See the toilets guide.

Tissues and hand sanitiser, always.

Avoid the holiday weeks. Golden Week in early October, the May holiday and Chinese New Year turn every major site into a crowd-management exercise. See the holiday calendar.

Season. Spring and autumn. Summer heat and humidity in the Yangtze cities is genuinely dangerous for older people, and northern winters are severe.

Food

Generally easy. Chinese food is soft, cooked, warm and served in shareable portions, which suits older eaters well.

Watch the chilli in Sichuan and Hunan. Ask for 不要辣 (bú yào là) and mean it. See the regional cuisines guide.

Salt levels are high in restaurant food. Worth knowing for anyone managing blood pressure.

Tap water is not drinkable. Bottled water and hot water dispensers are everywhere. See the street food safety guide.

Have a plan for if something goes wrong

Ten minutes of preparation that you will probably never use.

Write a one-page medical summary for each parent, in English and translated into Chinese: conditions, medications with generic names and doses, allergies, blood type if known, and the name and number of their doctor at home. Print it, and put a photograph of it on everyone's phone.

Know which hospital. Identify the nearest international or foreigner-facing hospital in each city before you arrive, not while something is happening. See the medical care guide.

Save the numbers. 120 for medical emergencies, 110 for police. Your insurer's 24-hour assistance line. Your embassy. See the emergency numbers guide.

Understand the payment model. Chinese hospitals generally expect payment at the point of care and then you claim it back, rather than billing your insurer directly. Have a card with headroom on it and know your insurer's process for pre-authorising a large treatment.

Carry passports. Hospital admission is real-name and the passport is required.

Agree who does what. If one person is dealing with a hospital, someone else is dealing with the hotel, the trains and the insurer. Deciding that in advance is worth a lot.

Insurance documents on everyone's phone, not just in an email somewhere.

What older travellers usually enjoy most

In practice, not the monuments.

Parks in the morning, where retired Chinese people do tai chi, dance, sing opera and play cards, and where a foreign visitor of similar age is welcomed with genuine warmth. The Temple of Heaven park, People's Park in Chengdu, Green Lake in Kunming.

Tea houses. Boat trips. Markets. The train journey itself.

Build the trip around those and use the monuments as punctuation.

Related

• Accessible Travel in China: Wheelchair Users and Limited Mobility
• Medical Care in China for Tourists
• China Travel Insurance
• 5-Day Beijing and Shanghai Itinerary

Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.