17 Days Beijing Xian Chengdu Guilin Chongqing Yangtze Yichang and Shanghai Tour

Board your international flight to China. Arrive in Beijing, China’s legendary capital, and meet your private guide and driver at the airport. See Beijing for the first time on the way to your luxurious hotel. Spend the remaining of the day to counteract jet lag.

• Hotels: Beijing Aman Summer Palace, Beijing Double Happiness Courtyard Hotel, Beijing Fairmont Hotel

Forbidden City

The UNESCO-protected Temple of Heaven is the most important religious site in ancient China, where the emperors worshiped heaven and earth. Furthermore, it is a piece of Chinese architecture art works dating to the 15th Century.

Wander the Panjiayuan Weekend Market in a good mood. See local craftsman, vendors, antique lovers and buyers have fun with those old stuffs.

From Tiananmen Square, see Tiananmen Rostrum, the symbol of China with portrait of Chairman Mao hung from the gate. Walk into Forbidden City, the royal palace during Ming and Qing Dynasty but a restricted area for nearly 500 years, but now open to the public as a grand Palace Museum. Admire its architectural beauty and listen to the history and stories that had happened here.

Regarding your dinner meal, Beijing Roast Duck is highly recommended (optional).

Get to the top of Jinghan Hill that offers a superb full view of Forbidden City.

Enjoy a wonderful evening with a show of Kungfu or Peking Opera (optional).

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Temple of Heaven

One of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall of China was mainly built between the 3rd Century BC and the 17th Century for over 2000 years. Today you’ll reach Mutianyu Great Wall on the mountain top by cable car, and overlook the mountain view of Beijing’s outskirts.

Sit on a rickshaw to traverse the labyrinth of hutongs, which is a deeply rooted part of old Beijing. Surrounding the Forbidden City with small alleyways, hutong is the best place to experience real Beijing life and discover many cultural sites.

Feast on Beijing Roast Duck at dinner time (optional).

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Great Wall

Have a relaxing, happy morning on a boat cruising Kunming Lake inside Summer Palace - the summer resort for Qing Dynasty royal family to enjoy the cool. And admire the grand palace built against Wanshou Hill, incorporating one of China’s finest classical gardens.

Take a high speed train to Xian, an enticing city enveloped in history and culture.

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

Summer Palace with Dragon Boat Cruise

Visit the three excavation pits of Emperor Qinshihuang’s accompanied tomb, and face to face with thousands of Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses, who are outfitted with armors, weapons and chariot.

Get in China’s best-preserved ancient city wall – the Xian Old City Wall. 14km long and 12m high, the wall encloses the ancient imperial city (Xian used to be the Chinese capital for over 1000 years).

Then delight in Muslim Quarter’s casual atmosphere and varied street foods.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner,

Xi'an Ancient City Wall

Visit Da Cien Temple and admire the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The iconic structure of ancient Xian, the pagoda was built in 652 during Tang Dynasty to contain the valuable Buddhist classics and Buddha statues brought back from ancient India by eminent Monk Xuanzeng, who had experienced lots of legendary things along the Silk Road.

Later visit a local family and learn from the enthusiastic host to make authentic dumplings, a unique traditional Chinese delicacy. Enjoy the dumpling you make for lunch.

Take another high speed rain to Chengdu, where to meet giant pandas, a unique treasure of China.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,
• Hotels: Buddha Zen Hotel Chengdu, Fairmont Chengdu, Grand Hyatt Chengdu

Dumpling Making Experience

18km away from Chengdu, Dujiangyan Panda Base is home to over 30 giant pandas. The panda keeper program allows the volunteer to have an intimate contact with those cute furry balls.

You will not only learn knowledge, history and current living situation of giant pandas, but also you will feed the pandas with the yummy foods you prepare, have fun with them, and help to improve the pandas’ household. You can even hug a panda and take photos (with additional fee).

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center

The culturally rich Chengdu is famous as being the land of ease.

Join the locals to experience a casual and comfortable life in Chengdu People’s Park, where you can see people playing mahjong, dancing, drinking tea, having their hair cut at the extremely simple barbershop (with only one chair and some hair cutting knives)…

Then visit Jinli Old Street, lined with vintage west Sichuan architecture, and Wide and Narrow Alley, the Chengdu style hutongs dating to 18th Century, with traditional courtyards of black tiles and grey brick walls.

Afterwards, visit Wenshu Monastery, Chengdu’s best-preserved temple, initially built in the 7th Century. It is a treasure house of Buddhist relics, and also a graceful garden.

Fly to Guilin.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,
• Hotels: Jolie Vue Boutique Hotel Guilin, Sheraton Guilin, Guilin Shangri La Hotel

A tea house in Chengdu

Escape the disturbingly noisy city with a day trip to Longji Rice Terraces, a stunning cultural landscape created on the mountain slops by Zhuang and Yao tribes. With clean fresh air and magnificent view, it is a great place for sightseeing, hiking and photography. Meet local minority people at Longji Ancient Zhuang Village, to experience the exotic mountain tribal life and admire their wooden diaojiaolou dwellings.

Relax in the evening – enjoy yourself a walk around the central river systems to see Elephant Trunk Hill.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Longji Rice Terraces

Board a luxurious ship down Li River to Yangshuo. You’ll cruise the most beautiful section of Li River, pass by rows of limestone peaks, lovely islands, vast farmlands, pristine villages and have the chance to see cormorant fishing.

Disembark, go through the West Street of a relaxed, bustling atmosphere, and spend a half day exploring the intoxicating countryside of Yangshuo on a bicycle ride or in your private vehicle. Your guide can lead you to visit a local family in an old village. The friendly host will share with you the local way of living.

Enjoy Impression Liu Sanjie night show, performed in the outdoor with real landscape as the backdrop (optional).

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

Li River cruise

Taste the popular Chinese food made by yourself by taking a cookery lesson in Yangshuo, with beautiful setting. With your teacher’s step-by-step guide, you’re about to cook Yangshuo beer fish, stir fried eggplant, pork stuffed tofu…, which are the dishes for you lunch.

Move to Chongqing with a bullet train ride. Transfer to the wharf and embark your luxurious ship. Your 3 nights/4 days Yangtze cruise gets started.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Yangshuo Cookery Lesson

Wake up in clean fresh air and enjoy the tea, coffee and hearty breakfast. Free at leisure, or join the others to do morning exercise – practicing Taiji on board. Get to known the history of the Yangtze when listening to a lecture. In the afternoon, enjoy a shore excursion to Shibaozhai Pagoda, a must-visit sight along Yangtze River and a mighty ancient Chinese architecture masterpiece.

In the evening have fun at the Captain’s Welcome Party and enjoy the fabulous performances.

Optional site visit: the over 2000-year-old Fengdu Ghost City, with various kinds of “the nether world” structures.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner,

Yangtze River Cruise

Enjoy another day on board, embraced with beautiful Three Gorge sceneries all along. The ship gradually sails through Qutang Gorge and Wu Gorge, and you can see high mountains and steep precipices along the banks. Then get out of your ship and take a small boat to float through pristine Shennv Stream (Goddess Stream).

Attend the Captain’s Farewell Party in the evening and relax.

Optional site visit: White Emperor City, a famous cultural site with Ming and Qing temples and architectures, and lots of poetry inscriptions dating to Sui and Tang Dynasty.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner,

Yangtze River Cruise

Disembark at Yichang Maoping Wharf and escorted to have a visit of Three Gorge Dam, so far the biggest and most cost-effective water conservancy in the world and creating a striking vista.

Your private local guide will meet you at Yichang Three Gorges Center Cruise Terminal and continue your China holiday. Visiting Sanyou Cave Cliff will allow you to appreciate ancient Chinese poetry and inscription art inside natural caves. Visit other historical sites in the scenic area before taking an evening flight from Yichang to Shanghai.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,
• Hotels: Four Seasons Hotel Pudong Shanghai, Grand Central Hotel Shanghai, Grand Hyatt Shanghai

Yangtze River Cruise

Visit Yu Garden, a picturesque 16th-Century garden with a combination of architecture technology and garden art. Have a delightful stroll around Shanghai’s old streets of Town God Temple, where you will find traditional shops, street food stalls and beautiful Mid-Lake Pavilion surrounded by vintage architectures.

Walk the Bund, where Shanghai began its modernization, and today it has become a symbol of Shanghai. See 52 colonial architectures of different classical styles and get to know Shanghai’s colonial history. Then ascend Shanghai Tower, here from Shanghai city’s highest observation deck to savor stunning high-altitude views.

Discover Shanghai’s creative, vibrant modern art at M50 Creative Park, known as the fashion landmark of Shanghai. Artists from different parts of the world have converted the industrial buildings into art studios.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Shanghai Tower

Travel out of busting Shanghai to ancient Nanxun Town, with a history of over 750 years. One of best water towns in East China, Nanxun is perfectly-retained, relatively less-visited and offers a rare chance of relaxation. Enjoy a short boat cruise floating on the calm river and see the riverside residential houses, corridors and stone arch bridges throwing their shadows in the water.

You’re encouraged to watch Shanghai’s most eye-popping acrobatics show in the evening (optional).

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Nanxun Water Town

You will be picked up and driven to the airport by private transfer – the end of your 17 days China holiday. Board your international return flight home.

• Meals: Breakfast,

Shanghai Pudong area