11 Days Leisure China Tour with Yangtze River Cruise

With a sunny smile, your private guide will be on time and waiting for you at the arrival hall. A comfortable private car (non-smoking) & experienced driver are ready and will transfer you to the hotel. Get the first impression of China.

Hotel:
Crowne Plaza Beijing Chaoyang U-Town (5-star)
Sunworld Hotel Beijing (4-star)
Dongfang Hotel Beijing (3-star)

Meals: None

Good to Know:
Don't worry about being late. Your guide will be there no matter when you arrive. This tour can be customized just for you.
Our tour guides are not only good at English, but also knowledge of the Chinese culture and history. Most importantly, they are nice people, friendly. You'll enjoy a nice time with them.

Free-Time Ideas:
If you are not suffering from jet-lag, we recommend the following activities:
A: Visit Beijing Zoo to see the cute giant pandas. Zoo opening times:
April 1–October 31: 7:30 to 18:00;
November 1–March 31: 7:30 to 17:00.
B: Watch a fabulous night show, such as the Kungfu Show or the Acrobatics Show.
Ask your China tour guide to help you with tickets.

You will first visit Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City in the morning. Then, have lunch in a local restaurant.

Later, you will get on a rickshaw and the rider will take you into the beating heart of Beijing: the hutongs (old alleyways). Follow up by spending some quality time with a local family in a hutong.

Hotel:
Crowne Plaza Beijing Chaoyang U-Town (5-star)
Sunworld Hotel Beijing (4-star)
Dongfang Hotel Beijing (3-star)

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Good to Know:
The Forbidden City is the most popular attraction in Beijing, so usually visitors have to take at least half an hour to queue up for entrance tickets. Only 80,000 tickets are sold per day. During the high season, if you don’t get up early to buy the tickets, you may well be shut out.
When you travel with us, however, our tour guide will buy the tickets in advance for you, so that you won’t waste any time standing in a queue and won’t need to worry about whether or not you can get in.

Optional Activities:
Cultural experience: If you are interested in learning to make facial masks for Peking Opera, learning Chinese calligraphy or learning Chinese paper-cutting, just ask us to make a reservation for you. (Each activity takes about 40 minutes and US$5-18.)

In the morning, take a relaxing visit to the Temple of Heaven, where Chinese emperors used to worship God.

Later, visit the Mutianyu Great Wall (2.5 hours' drive from downtown Beijing). This is a less-crowded section of the Great Wall. A cable car takes you up to a good spot, where you can have an easy walk along the wall.

You can return either by cable car, walking down or tobogganing down. Tobogganing down is actually the most popular.

Hotel:
Crowne Plaza Beijing Chaoyang U-Town (5-star)
Sunworld Hotel Beijing (4-star)
Dongfang Hotel Beijing (3-star)

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

The Great Wall Travel Tips:
Toilets are accessible from the Wall. They are clean and hygienic. You should of course always bring some tissues and wet wipes with you when travelling in China, as there are no tissues at most toilets in China.
Put on your hiking shoes. You can hike at your own pace. If you don't much like hiking, you can take some nice pictures of and from the Great Wall.
Cultural experience: Weather-permitting, at the Temple of Heaven you’ll see locals doing tai chi, making calligraphy and playing traditional instruments, and you can join them if you wish, for experiences you could probably never have in your own country.

Optional Activities:
If a 2-hour hike on the Great Wall at Mutianyu is not enough for you or you want to hike along other parts of the wall, let us know in advance. We can arrange the day according to your preferences.

After breakfast, you will be transferred to visit Summer Palace. The Summer Palace, initially built in 1888, is also known as the Royal Garden Museum. The long gallery, where there are over 8000 paintings about ancient Chinese stories, is the must-see in the Summer Palace.

After a fair well lunch with your Beijing tour guide at the charming traditional Chinese restaurant, later on be transferred to the airport, in just a few hours you'll be in Xi'an, meeting your local Xi'an tour guide.

Hotel:
Wyndham Grand Xian South (5-star)
Grand Noble Hotel (4-star)
Titan Times Hotel (3-star)

Meals: Breakfast

Free-Time Idea:
Quanjude Roast Duck is world-famous. You can taste it at brunch, if you wish. Ask your guide, who will help you to arrange this.

Optional Activities:
Beijing is a big city with many famous attractions not listed above, like the Bird’s Nest, Jingshan Park, the Bell and Drum Tower, the Yonghe Lama Temple and the Fragrant Hills Park. If you’d like to explore the city more, tell us on your inquiry form. We can customize a tour to meet your requirements.

The first Emperor united all of China. Stand face to face with 6,000 statues at the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, created by the first Emperor. It is said the warriors were all sculpted in the shape of powerful or rich people of the time.

After a dumpling lunch, explore the Ancient City Wall, which surrounds the city center. The wall was built in the 13th century on the foundations of the original Tang Forbidden City.

Later, visit the Muslim Quarter. Many souvenir shops, cafés and bars there are operated by Muslim people. At its heart is one of the largest Islamic mosques in China, remarkable for its combination of Chinese architecture and Islamic practice.

Hotel:
Wyndham Grand Xian South (5-star)
Grand Noble Hotel (4-star)
Titan Times Hotel (3-star)

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Free-Time Ideas:
Visit the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. When night falls, the towers are lighted, becoming beautiful and romantic. They are not far from your hotel, so you can walk there and back.
The Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show is also recommended. If you’d like to see it, your guide will help you buy tickets.

Optional Activities:
Weather-permitting, you can bike on (or right round) the city wall.

After breakfast, you'll head to Chongqing by air. On arrival we will make a trip to Ciqikou Old Town.

After lunch at Caixiangyuan Restaurant we'll go to the Three Gorges Museum. Afterwards take in the charm of this mountain city, before the cruise sails in the evening.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Good to Know:
Dinner is not included. It will be offered on board, which is expensive. It is suggested that you have dinner in the city center before boarding the cruise.

Hope you enjoy your first day on your Yangtze cruise ship. You can admire and landscapes on the balcony of your cabin first. Later, you will join in a shore excursion to the Shibaozhai Mountain Village, initially built 400 years ago. Shibao means precious stone in Chinese. The village looks like a precious stone when you overlook it from your cruise ship. The 56-meter-high tower in the village offers you a much better view of the Yangtze River.

There is an optional tour the Fengdu Ghost City after Shibaozhai Mountain Village. You can learn traditional ghost culture in the city. The price of the tour is 290 RMB (Around 45 US Dollars). You can join in a welcome banquet at night. All the shows during the banquet are performed by the crew of the ship.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Good to Know:
Please check out every day’s schedule on your ship. There might be a Taichi Lesson on the terrace on the top of the ship around 7:00 AM.

In the morning, the cruise will pass the magnificent Qutang Gorge and Wu Gorge. Different seasons offer different views for these gorges. The Three Gorges is an area of huge cliffs and high mountains with the Yangtze winding its way through on its progress toward the sea many kilometers away. The gorges are usually 250 meters to 350 meters wide.

There are also one free shore excursion and one optional tour today. The shore excursion brings you to the Shennong Stream, where you can see boatmen's performances, and the optional tour's destination is the White Emperor City, a famous site for the story of the Three Kingdom Period (220-280). The Price for the tour is also 290 (45 UD Dollars).

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today is your last day on board, and your last free shore excursion to the Three Gorges Dam might be the most unforgettable one. The Three Gorges Dam, the largest water containment project ever undertaken.

In the afternoon, a flight will take you to Shanghai. Just in time to catch the neon lights lighting up. Capture the city's glamour through your lens and feel the city's pulse.

Hotel:
Radisson Blu Hotel Shanghai New World (5-star)
The Bund Hotel (4-star)
Kingstown Hotel Plaza Shanghai (3-star)

Meals: Breakfast

Today worlds collide, starting at the history exhibition (under the TV tower) watch Shanghai literally rise, at nearly 500m it's a breathtaking panoramic view from the Oriental Peal TV Tower. Lunch is arranged at Old Shanghai. After lunch, take a relaxing walk to ancient Yuyuan Garden, followed by the Bund, a must-see colonial waterfront area.

Hotel:
Radisson Blu Hotel Shanghai New World (5-star)
The Bund Hotel (4-star)
Kingstown Hotel Plaza Shanghai (3-star)

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Your car, driver and our guide will be ready and waiting at your hotel to get you to the airport on time. Sit back and relax, they will help you check-in and escort you to the correct security gate.

Good to Know:
You may want to add Zhujiajiao Water Town for your last day of the tour, if your flight takes off in the evening or later.