18 Days Historical and Natural tour: Beijing-Xi’an-Guilin-Zhangjiajie-Shanghai

Once landing at the airport in Beijing, be greeted by a private guide at the arrival hall, who is holding your name sign. A comfortable vehicle (non-smoking) with an experienced driver will transfer you directly to your hotel. Your guide will help you check in.

Meals: No meal, advice freely available

• Hotels: Hilton Beijing Wangfujing, Regent Beijing, Park Plaza Beijing Wangfujing, Beijing Double Happiness Courtyard Hotel

Beijing

After a sound sleep, your 15-day tour starts from the Tian’anmen Square, where many historical and significant events happened. Walk through the square; you will step in the Forbidden City, where many emperors in Ming and Qing dynasty live and work.

After lunch, take a leisure walk in Hutong and visit a local family to gain a better understanding of people’s life. Try your hands at Chinese characters by taking a calligraphy lesson at Hutong area.

End the first day tour with the climbing to the Jingshan Park. Here you will gain a panorama of the Forbidden City.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch at Jindingxuan Dim Sum Restaurant with a la carte menu

Feature Dinner option: Peking Roast Duck (Dadong Peking Duck, Qianmen Quanjude Peking Duck), Fangshan Restaurant, Mei Family Restaurant, Bai Family Restaurant

Optional evening activity: Peking Opera, Kungfu Show

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Chinese hutongs

Considered the supreme achievement of traditional Chinese architecture, Temple of Heaven is a large religious complex for emperors in Ming and Qing Dynasty to pray for harvest. Now it is a popular park for locals doing morning exercises. You will have an hour Taichi lesson here with the guidance of the master.

After that, drive to Mutianyu Great Wall, a marvelous masterpiece of mankind. It is one of the most famous and developed existing part of the Great Wall. The round ways cable car or chairlift & slide way is included.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Mutianyu Great Wall

After breakfast, drive to the outskirts of Beijing to spend an enjoyable time in the Summer Palace, the largest and best-preserved royal garden in China. A boat cruise will be included if not during the winter time. Be transferred to the train station and ready to head to Xi’an, a city telling the history of China.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,
• Hotels: Sofitel Legend Peoples Grand Hotel Xian, Wyndham Grand Xian South

Summer Palace

As a category of ancient tomb sculptures, Terra-Cotta Warriors has become a golden card of China's ancient splendid civilization and is honored as one of the rare treasures among world's ten ancient tombs.

Muslim quarter is a fascinating area where you can find exotic food, interesting people (some of the residents are still look like their Arabian cousins) and great souvenir stalls. You can taste many authentic Islamic snacks there. Besides this, you will visit Gao’s Family Courtyard with delicate construction design, where you will watch the traditional shadow play.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch at Real Love Qin Culture Themed Restaurant

Feature Dinner option: Defachang Dumpling Restaurant, Lao Sun Jia Muslim Restaurant, First Noodle under the Sun

Optional evening activity: Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show with Dumpling Banquet

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Terra-Cotta Warriors

Take a morning tour to Xi’an Ancient City Wall where you will ride a bike for about an hour. By riding the bike, you could see the scenery around the city wall. You may hungry after a whole morning tour. Next you will learn to make Chinese dumplings in a local family with the host’s guidance. Do not miss the chance to talk with the locals and learn about the local life.

Instead of the big Wild Goose Pagoda, Small Wild Goose pagoda is arranged, which includes the Xi’an Museum with 130, 000 fine cultural relics are kept here, most of which were unearthed in the important tombs and the capital sites of the Zhou, the Qin, the Han, and the Tang Dynasty.

After lunch, you will be transferred to the airport for your flight to Guilin, a small city famous for its natural beauty.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,
• Hotels: Guilin Shangri La Hotel, Jolie Vue Boutique Hotel Guilin, Aroma Tea House

Xi’an Ancient City Wall

Climb up to Folded Brocade Hill for a panorama of Guilin city and Li River, which can be a very good morning exercise. Make your neon dream come true in the Reed Flute Cave, which is unmissable for the first timers. Feast your eyes with the stalactites in various shapes under countless multi-colored lights.

After lunch, you will visit one of the four most famous ancient towns in Guangxi, Daxu Ancient Town. As you stroll around this town, you will have a real touch of its time-honored history as well as the local life. There are many vendors selling local snacks.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch at Mc Found Restaurant with a la carte menu

Feature Dinner option: Xiaonan Guo, Gold Dragon Village Restaurant, Yilu Restaurant, The Taste-Made Restaurant

Optional evening activity: Night cruise in Two Rivers and Four Lakes Scenic Area

Note:

• Wear antiskid shoe when climbing the hill and visit the cave as the ground can be slippery in the cave.
• Sedan chair is available at the entrance if there are senior having difficulty in moving in the cave with many steps.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Folded Brocade Hill

After Breakfast, drive about 1.5 hours from the city area to Longji Terraced Rice Field and Minority villages, one of the important agricultural heritages in the world. The Terraced rice fields are like chains, circling the mountain peaks into giant snails. Take a 90 minutes’ hiking from Longji Ancient Zhuang Village to Ping’an Village and feel their culture and custom. What obviously different are their house, which made from wood and called stilt-houses (Diaojiaolou Houses). Learn to make the bamboo rice with the locals and have lunch in a local house in Ping’an Village. You will finally know how it tastes like when the rice combined with the bamboo.

Before going back to the city area, try the exciting rafting tour in Longji Valley. Feel your heartbeats while appreciating the scenery along the valley.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Longji Terraced Rice Field

After an hour private transfer from the hotel to Yangdi Pier, you will take the private bamboo raft combined with some hiking along the Li River to Xingping. It offers you a great chance to get close to the water.

Stroll in Xingping Ancient Town and buy some souvenirs if you like. Wait till the sunset to have a photo taking of the cormorant fishing in Li River. After that, go to Yangshuo for overnight.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch in the local restaurant with a la carte menu

Optional evening activity: Impression Show of Sanjie Liu

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,
• Hotels: Yangshuo Banyan Tree Hotel, Yangshuo Mountain Retreat

Li River

Immerse yourself in nature by hiking along Yulong River, during which you will see the rural scenery along the Yulong River and the paddy fields & tranquil Villages. Afterwards, change a way to explore the town – a biking tour in Yangshuo countryside, which will give a fascinating insight into life in rural China. You will have a family visit on the half way. It is an opportunity to see a real country life and talk to the local farmers.

When you ride the bike to Moon Hill, stop there and climb up to the Moon Hill for a panorama of Gaotian Town Yulong River.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Yulong River

No tour is arranged for you today. Be met by the guide at the hotel lobby and transferred to the airport in Guilin. Take the flight from Guilin to Zhangjiajie, a city famous for the mountain peaks.

• Meals: Breakfast,
• Hotels: Zhangjiajie Pullman Hotel, Santa Domingo International Hotel

Zhangjiajie

In the morning, get some fresh air and do some hiking in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Start from Huangshi Fort by using the cable car. The main attractions include Trail in Fir Woods, Imperial Edict and the Precious Box, Needle Peak, the Southern Gate to Heaven, and Five-Finger Peak.

Take a relaxing walk along Jinbian Brook and enjoy the natural scenery along the way.

Note: Do not feed the monkeys you see on the way.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Jinbian Brook

Today is your second day in the park. Tianzi Mountain offers breathtaking scenery, with peaks rising one after another. It is called the ‘Monarch of the Peak Forest’. On the top of the mountain, visitors can see the whole picture of Wulingyuan Scenic Area.

Go up to Yuanjiajie Scenic Area by taking the Bailong Sightseeing Elevator, the highest, fastest, fully exposed outdoor double-decker sightseeing elevator with the largest capacity in the world. Yuanjiajie Scenic Area speaks for landscape, famous for the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain, in honor of the eponymous film.

Optional activity:Folklore performance of Xiangxi

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Yuanjiajie Scenic Area

Walk on the glass bridge skywalk and hike along the wooden planks along the stream in Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon.

After that, drive to Baofeng Lake and take a peaceful and relaxing boat cruise there, which is surrounded by karst rock formation.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Grand Canyon Glass Bridge Skywalk

Reputed to be the world's No. 1 spot for whitewater rafting, Mengdong River flows 200 kilometers in Yongshun County and forty kilometers from Hibiscus Town. Quite different from the soft rafting tour in Yulong River in Yangshuo, this one is more thrilling.

Afterwards, you will have lunch and take the flight to Shanghai.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,
• Hotels: Shanghai Fairmont Peace Hotel, Les Suites Orient, Bund Shanghai, Central Hotel Shanghai

Mengdong River

Welcome to Shanghai for the sightseeing. Do some morning exercises, Taichi, badminton, singing or dancing in Fuxing Park in the morning. After the morning exercise, you will visit a classic man-made garden, Yuyuan Garden. Although repaired for many times, each hall, pavilion, stream, stone and so on in the garden expresses the essence of the landscape design of the Ming and Qing Dynasty in Southern China. Follow on is the visit to Shanghai City God Temple (Chenghuang Miao), a Taoist temple known for its long history and grand architecture. You can also find a range of shops, restaurants, teahouses at the temple area.

After lunch, you will visit Currently China's tallest building (and the second tallest in the world), Shanghai Tower. It is a great place to overview Shanghai city and the Bund from its top floor. Today’s tour will end with a leisure walk along the Bund.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch at Xiangyefu Teahouse Restaurant with a la carte menu

Feature Dinner Option: Nan Xiang Mantou Dian, Green Wave Gallery, Lost Heaven-Yunnan Restaurant Bund Branch

Optional evening activity: Era Time or Shangcheng Acrobatic Show

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Fuxing Park

Enjoy a free day on your own.

• Meals: Breakfast,

the Bund

Weave your hands to the guide and driver. Wish you a safe flight home with great China tour memories.

• Meals: Breakfast,

Shanghai