Tour Type: Private tour, all parts customizable
Guide: English-speaking private guide
Transportation: Air-conditioned private car with experienced driver
Meals: 13 western buffet breakfasts, 5 lunches with some in a la carte style

Highlights:

• Meet ancient wonders of the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Terracotta Army.
• Explore Zhangjiajie for cinematic monolith peaks and the grand Glass Bridge.
• Morning visit to Giant Panda Base in Chengdu to see pandas goof around.
• Cruise on the Li River, past world-famous karst landscapes to rural Yangshuo.
• Visit native Chinese homes in different regions to immerse in local life.

Your 14 days China tour officially starts today. In the morning, your guide and driver will pick you up from the hotel and take you to central Beijing to visit the Tiananmen Square, the world's largest city square. Walk northward to the Forbidden City, aka the Palace Museum, the opulent palace complex home to Ming-and-Qing-era (1368 - 1911) Chinese emperors, in which you will spend at least two hours touring and hearing your guide relating histories, stories and secrets of the imperial life.

★ Special Arrangement: A La Carte Lunch
This noon, enjoy an a la carte lunch with authentic local dishes, at CNY 150.00 per person and included in our price. Jump at the opportunity to order famous Chinese dishes like Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet and Sour Fish, and particularly Peking Roast Duck! Peking Roast Duck, it not only represents Beijing cuisine, but also has become a symbol of Chinese culture. Bite into the crispy skin to feel the tenderness inside, and impress its delicious memory on your mind!

In the afternoon, your guide will accompany you to visit Yonghe Temple and Temple of Heaven. The latter, as old as the imperial palace, was where the emperors used to worship Heaven and pray for an abundant harvest and peace for the next year. As a lively park for local people now, it provides your first chance to witness Chinese life. Let’s call it day now and we will take you back to the hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, A la carte lunch

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Today, your guide will escort you to visit Mutianyu Great Wall, built during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and the most beautiful and best-preserved part of the entire Great Wall of China.

★ Special Arrangement: Up and Down the Wall via Round-Way Cable Car
We have arranged for you a cable car today up and down the Great Wall to spare you the grueling efforts to climb on foot. Trust us, with energy saved, you could focus more on hiking on the wall and appreciating how marvelous both it and surrounding nature are.

We do not arrange lunch for you today as the local restaurants do not meet our service standard, but your guide is happy to give you some advice.

On the way back to downtown Beijing, we will drive by the spectacularly-designed Bird's Nest, the National Stadium where the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony was held. Continue to explore old Hutong alleyways on a rickshaw to get the real deal of local life; here, you will be taken to visit one of those traditional courtyard houses packed on either side. Later, transfer back to your hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

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Be ready for a full day’s Xi'an tour. Your guide will first escort you to visit Terracotta Army Museum, which is based on the site of Qing Shi Huang (reigned 246 - 210 BC)’s mausoleum, the Eighth Wonder of the World. Inside, be awestruck by more than 9,000 life-size pottery figures of warriors, horses and chariots! An interesting story about the warriors, as your knowledgeable guide may tell you, is that their head and body were actually separately crafted, which is why there are many headless figures unearthed after the tomb’s collapse - the archeologists just have yet to pick the right heads to mount on their necks! Recently, a lasting exhibition, the Archaeological Discoveries at the Mausoleum Complex of China’s First Emperor, was launched for you to be able to actually check out such details through merely glass. It was set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the excavation of the Terracotta Warriors, displaying 230 most essential cultural relics ever unearthed, some of which are shown to the public for the first time, including camels in gold and silver, big bronze birds, and painted clothes and body parts, like purple sleeves and pink lips. Let’s immerse in the great Qin era by going through the eight units of the exhibition covering art, life, economy and other aspects one by one!  

★ Special Arrangements: Mini Terracotta Warrior Crafting Session
Out of the museum, we will take you to a workshop to gain hands-on experience in crafting a cute clay warrior of your own! Don’t sweat it! There will be an instructor and a mold to help you. Take your little masterpiece home to show off to your friends and family.

Return downtown for Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. This nine-story pagoda was first built in the Tang Dynasty more than 1,300 years ago to collect Buddhist scriptures and relics, many of which are now on display for you to appreciate. Continue to stroll the adjacent Great Tang All Day Mall, a prospered long street inspired by Tang-era culture, where you can stay as long as you want until you think it’s late to go back to your hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

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The first destination of today's tour is Xi'an City Wall, the most complete city wall in China dating back to the Ming period. You will go up to overlook Xi’an’s cityscape and marvel at its scale and strategic features, with commentaries from your guide. If you’re interested, enjoy a self-financed rental bike ride on it, which from our guests is an experience you can’t miss. After that, your guide will take you to visit the Tang-era Great Mosque (please wear shoulder and knee-covered clothes today or you won’t be allowed in the mosque). Have a stroll later through Muslim Quarter where the mosque sits, a blend of living area and bustling bazaar to browse for various local street food. For your lunch, perhaps choose a stand to try Roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) over Liangpi (cold rice noodles), a match every Shaanxi local would consider classic.

Then, head to the Railway Station for a 4-hour high-speed train ride to Chengdu. Your local guide will transfer you to the hotel on your arrival.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

► Dinner Suggestion:
If you didn’t know, now you know - Chengdu was named by UNESCO as the City of Gastronomy. Seize your first opportunity to taste it! We recommend you to try dumplings at Zhong Shui Jiao, a brand established in 1893 and now a local specialty. You can find the flagship restaurant at People’s Park, where ingredients are prepared as early as 4 am and dumplings wrapped on the spot. Spicy Dan Dan Noodles and cute Panda Glutinous Rice Balls are also signature dishes of the restaurant. You can hire a taxi to go there which will drop you off in 20 minutes and 4 bucks is enough to get your belly full. Later, maybe hang around People’s Park (open until 10 pm) to help digest and observe local life to top it off.

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Welcome to the home of giant pandas! We will start today from Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding for you to have a close encounter with lovely giant pandas. Observe them eating and fooling around and take enviable pictures to post on Instagram! The next spot is Wide and Narrow Alley, a historical and cultural block in Chengdu offering Sichuan cuisine known for its popular spicy flavors. This afternoon, head for Jinsha Site Museum to learn about the enigma of the ancient Shu civilization, which thrived 3,000 years ago and vanished for unknown reasons, from the relics unearthed. You will pass stone figurines, ivory crafts, and potteries among others with your guide to arrive before the Gold Foil of Sun and Immortal Bird, the flagship exhibit. Don’t judge a relic by its size - although the foil is only 12.5 cm (0.4 feet) wide, a study has made sure there was state-of-the-art craftsmanship involved that even became a puzzle to be solved. The meaning behind the foil with a glowing sun in the middle also matters greatly for Chinese people, as it represents their dream of chasing the light. But the sun worship isn’t exclusive within China; instead, take the ancient Egypt for example, it worships more than one sun gods and deems scarab the holy symbol of the sun.

After the tour is completed, you will be escorted to the airport to take a flight to Guilin. Your Guilin guide and driver will pick you up and transfer you to the hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

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Today's Guilin tour starts with a 4-hour cruise journey along the Li River to Yangshuo. Revel in sceneries along the river, some of which are so famously beautiful as to have a name of their own, such as the Yellow Cloth Shoal and the Mural Hill.

► Tips for Lunch:
Today the cruise company offers a box lunch which you might think too simple, so we suggest you have a hearty breakfast at the hotel and pack some snacks in advance for supplement. But rest assured that you will have an amazing overall experience, since the company receives rave reviews and is selected after on-the-spot research based on cost-effective standards!

★ Special Arrangement: Visit to Local Peasant’s House
Upon arrival at Yangshuo, go on a tour to the countryside and perfect it with a visit to a peasant’s home. You will chat with the peasant’s family, get permitted to fiddle around with traditional tools used in their daily life, and learn about local rural lifestyle. Stay here until the late afternoon, when you will be transferred back to Guilin.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

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In the morning, follow your guide to Elephant Trunk Hill, Guilin’s landmark, with a shape like a giant elephant drinking water from the Li River. Next on our agenda is Reed Flute Cave, a representative karst cave with colorful lights enhancing stalagmites and stalactites in varied curious forms.

After the sightseeing, your guide will see you off at Guilin’s railway station, from which you will take a 7.5-hour high speed train to Zhangjiajie. After arriving in the evening, the local guide and driver there will pick you up and transfer you to the hotel. Rest up for tomorrow’s journey of Zhangjiejie’s core scenic area.

Meals: Western buffet Breakfast

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After breakfast, hop in our private car for 40 minutes to Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, which attracts travel enthusiasts from home and abroad with its Yuntiandu Glass Bridge. In 2007, the U-shaped glass viewing platform of the Grand Canyon of Colorado was opened, allowing visitors to appreciate the nearby mountains, glaciers and valleys from a full 360° perspective, which undoubtedly inspired the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon. Since then, Yuntiandu has gone through 10 years from conception to perfect presentation. Spanning over the 300-meter-high (981-foot-high) canyon, this world’s highest and longest transparent glass bridge will make you feel like you are in the air and get your blood plumping. Perhaps lie on the floor and frame yourself and the lush canyon beneath you in a picture like others who are good at photography! Of course, if you are afraid of heights, you can just stand on the opacity on either side of the bridge for a panoramic view of the canyon. After that, your guide will escort you back to the vicinity of East Gate of Zhangjiajie Forest Park for lunch.

This afternoon, re-enter the Park and embark on a pleasant hike along the Golden Whip Stream, which is praised as a “bright necklace” of the park. The 7.2-kilometer-long (4.5-mile-long) stream runs through the park from west to east, and the area through which it flows is known as one of the most beautiful valleys in the world. Start from Shuirao Simen with your guide and wake up your senses, breathe the fresh cool air, observe valuable ancient trees and flowers and listen to the birds singing. During your hike, stop to enjoy the “twinkling eyes” of the stream, which refers to the Zicao Pool and Jumping Fish Pool. The former is a wonderful place to watch the bottom water grass take on a dreamy purple against the surrounding vegetation, while the latter is perfect to see the fish including the endemic giant salamander in groups jumping high out of the water. After enjoying the most beautiful section here, the guide will send you back to the hotel. Go to bed early to restore your energy.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

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Today, your Zhangjiajie tour will extend to Tianmen Mountain, which is the first famous mountain to be recorded in Zhangjiajie’s history and also the highest peak in Zhangjiajie. The top of the Mountain is relatively flat, growing intact primitive secondary forest, in which there are many precious and unique plant varieties like the Chinese dove tree. To admire the “natural bonsai” everywhere at the summit, your guide will first lead you to take the world’s longest Tianmen Cableway at the downtown lower station. At the beginning of riding in the cable car, you will be submerged in the city scenery to feel the bustle and hustle of modernity; after rising slowly for some time, the mist-shrouded mountains gradually appear in front of your eyes, and you will feel the serenity and mystery of nature. Once out of the carriage, test your mettle on one of the prides of Zhangjiajie, the Glass Skywalk hanging from the cliff side. It is clear enough to see the breathtaking landscape under the feet. On it, you will definitely harvest the pleasure of walking on clouds, especially in cloudy weather. Next, take the 7-level escalator down to behold the natural wonder Tianmen Cave, aka the Portal to the Heaven, a giant hole through the mountain often made surreal by fog. Want to witness it in its entirety? Then take the 5-level downhill escalator to Tianmen Square. After lingering here for a while to take pictures, take the express cable car to descend the mountain.

In the afternoon, make our way to 72 Tujia Stilted Buildings to see what the highest stilted architecture in the world looks like. The main building is as high as 109.9 meters (360.6 feet), with a huge hole in the middle, facing the Tianmen Cave several kilometers away. Into this magical building, prepare to be dazzled by all kinds of specialty snacks, folk cultural performances, and entertainment projects. Perhaps start from the intangible cultural heritage workshop street, where you will see vendors dressed in Tujia costumes set up stalls with small tables or baskets, selling local traditional silver items like earrings and bracelets.

After the visit, your guide will take you to the airport for an evening flight to Shanghai. When you arrive, your Shanghai guide and driver will warmly greet you and transfer you to the hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch

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Today's Shanghai tour is the last sightseeing day of your 2 weeks private China tour package. We will first visit Shanghai Museum, one of the most prestigious museums in China home to 120,000 pieces, including famous ancient bronzewares, calligraphy works and paintings. Then, head to the Yu Garden, an exquisite classical Chinese garden aged over 400.

In the afternoon, join a one-hour Huangpu River cruise to enjoy the modern landscapes of Shanghai on either bank. Then your guide will take you to the Bund and leave you some free time to explore the kaleidoscopic streetscape, where the ensemble of colonial western-style architectures stand. The last spot is Tianzifang, a historical cultural street full of art galleries, cafes, bars and souvenir stores. After today’s trip, we will escort you back to the hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

► Dinner Suggestion:
For dinner, you will want to try Sheng Jian Bao (pan-fried pork buns), an intangible cultural heritage and local specialty every local would recommend, to cap off your visit to Shanghai. Crispy like cookies on the outside, succulent on the inside, seasoned with special vinegar that tastes more aromatic, these buns will make for a lovely time. Of many providers, the century-old Dong Tai Xiang is strongly recommended, as it ranks among the top with special attention to details in making process such as humiture and sanitation. It is located close to Tianzifang and would cost around 4 bucks to get yourself well stuffed.

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