The honest summary
China is better than its reputation and worse than its policy documents. Infrastructure built since roughly 2008 is often genuinely step-free: metros, high-speed rail stations, new museums, big malls, managed scenic areas. Older streets, historic sights and anything involving a pavement are another matter. The usual experience is a good lift followed by a bad kerb.
If you use a folding manual chair, can transfer into a car seat and have a companion, a trip through Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Zhangjiajie is realistic. If you rely on a large power chair and must stay seated in transit, plan harder and shorter.
Metros
Shanghai is the strongest: lifts are reported at every station, with designated wheelchair space beside the doors. Two caveats that matter daily. A station often has several entrances and only one has a lift, and street-level lifts are easy to miss. Some are locked for security, with an intercom button — staff generally come within a few minutes.
Beijing is patchier and leans on staff. Alongside ordinary lifts it uses many vertical platform lifts and stair climbers, which means an operator must come and work the machine. The network runs a hand-off system: tell staff at your entry station and they alert the interchange and destination to meet you. It works, but it is slow and depends on people being where they should be.
Elsewhere, newer systems in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Hangzhou are mostly lift-equipped because they were built that way. Chongqing is the cautionary tale: a vertical city where users report subway lifts broken, locked or absent, with long waits for help.
Buses are the weak link. Low-floor ramped buses exist in Shanghai and a few other cities, but many still have several steps and no ramp or tie-down. Treat them as a bonus, not a plan.
High-speed rail
This is the part of China that works best. Stations are new, large and step-free, and trains have accessible toilets with grab rails and SOS buttons. Many sets have a designated wheelchair space with floor tie-down straps, next to that toilet.
The mechanism is the railway's priority passenger reservation service, for passengers already holding a ticket who travel with a wheelchair or stretcher. Book it through the 12306 app or website at least six hours before departure, or at the station's 12306 service desk up to 60 minutes before. You then get priority entry, priority security and ticket checks, staff guidance, help boarding and alighting, free use of a station wheelchair, and staff keeping an eye on you during the journey. You must be at the agreed meeting point 60 minutes before departure with your documents; proof is waived for an obvious physical disability or sudden illness.
A small number of reserved accessible places are also sold separately from the ordinary seat map and do not appear in a normal search. We could not confirm the release window or quantity officially, so ask the 12306 hotline rather than assuming.
The major sights, specifically
The Great Wall. Go to Mutianyu. The approach from the car park to the cable car is step-free, the gondola is an enclosed cabin designed for easier boarding, and from the top station there is a short, reasonably flat stretch of wall by watchtower 14 where you can be on the Wall without climbing. Beyond it, steps. Badaling has a dedicated accessible route of a few hundred metres at most, but is so crowded that it removes mobility rather than adding it.
The Forbidden City. A step-free route runs the central axis, roughly a kilometre from the Meridian Gate to the Gate of Divine Prowess, and a published map marks accessible paths and buildings. Stair lifts serve the three main halls. Two warnings: large areas of surface are old uneven stone and cobble, and the real distance with detours is well over a mile, so start with a full battery. The grandest interiors, including the Hall of Supreme Harmony, sit up big flights of steps and can only be seen from outside.
Potala Palace, Lhasa. Be realistic. The route through the palace is long flights of steep stone stairs and is not wheelchair accessible in any meaningful sense, though reports mention a limited wheelchair loan at the west entrance and some lift provision. Lhasa also sits above 3,600 m and the palace climbs several hundred metres higher again. Altitude alone rules this out for many people with reduced respiratory or cardiac reserve, regardless of the stairs.
Zhangjiajie. Surprisingly good. The Bailong lift, the cable cars, the Ten-Mile Gallery tram and the eco-buses between park entrances all work with a manual chair and staff help, and much of the top circuit is paved path and boardwalk with accessible toilets. It is still a mountain of sandstone pillars: steps appear between viewpoints, some older paths are steep or narrow, and you will need a companion.
Toilets
Squat toilets remain the default in older public facilities, station general blocks and many restaurants. Where an accessible cubicle exists it is normally Western-style, and the reliable places are metro and high-speed rail stations, airports, large malls, international hotels and newer managed scenic areas. Hangzhou has put around 1,500 accessible public toilets into Amap's data, so searching a Chinese map app is worth trying. Outside those categories, assume nothing.
Chairs, taxis and DiDi
Ordinary taxis and DiDi cars will take a folding manual chair in the boot, and that is the normal way to get around. Drivers are generally willing; nobody is trained. Vehicles you can roll into are scarce and must be booked ahead. Shanghai has around 50 ramped London-style cabs, best arranged through a hotel concierge because of the language barrier; they can be tight for a heavy power chair. Beijing launched a booking service for accessible vehicles in late 2025 reportedly needing several hours' notice, but we could not open the municipal page to verify it. There is no national wheelchair hire network for visitors. Bring your own chair, spare parts and a puncture kit.
Pavements and kerbs
This is where the day gets hard. Tactile paving and ramps exist in volume, but are routinely blocked by parked scooters, bicycles, delivery boxes and vendor stalls. Users describe ramps too steep to use, ramps facing the wrong way, and ramps that end in a step. Dropped kerbs are inconsistent even in central Beijing and Shanghai, and worse in Wuhan, Guangzhou's older quarters and anywhere hilly. Budget extra time, expect to cross the road to find a usable kerb, and accept that strangers will offer to lift you before you have asked.