Walk Dihua, not the whole city
Enter Dihua from Beimen or Daqiaotou. Only the new-year weeks justify the whole street; on a normal day half the dry-goods stretch is enough. Enter Yongle Market only if you want cloth. Xiahai can be the morning — one stretch of incense, then leave. Jincai Hotel is the north end of the street. The Grand Hotel is a different north roof — do not treat both as today's base. Turn Dihua around at Yongle or Xiahai. Do not walk the north and south ends the same day. Stop the day here. Leave the other district for tomorrow. Do not add a stop before the last train, and trust the station board over this guide.
The wharf at dusk, dinner only at Ningxia
Close the afternoon at Dadaocheng Wharf — the river and the warehouse exterior. Do not also ride the riverside to Yuanshan. Dinner is only Ningxia; stop when you have eaten enough. Do not add a second sitting at Yanping or the Circle. If the theater and the Circle are only a pass-by, do not loop back for a stamp. Fifteen minutes at the wharf. Enter only Ningxia, and leave from Shuanglian or Zhongshan. Keep this stretch inside two hours. Note the metro exit before you start, leave as soon as you have seen or eaten, and do not queue a second door.
Do not append Zhongshan or the Palace
Chifeng, Shuang Yue and Xingtian are another Zhongshan day. If dinner was Ningxia, do not also go to Shuangcheng or Liaoning. The Palace and Shilin Night Market are the other north axis. Baoan and the Confucius Temple can sit on a Yuanshan day — do not rush there after the wharf. Dihua ends at the wharf. Dadaocheng ends when Ningxia is done and you go back. The Palace bus should not appear tonight. Stop once in the middle. When you have eaten or looked, walk on. Do not turn passing shops into a list, and go back by the station you came in on.