Beijing (3 nights) overnight train Pingyao (1 night) overnight train Xian (1 night) air Longji (1 night) Guilin (1 night) Yangshuo (1 night) air Hong Kong
Day 1 Arrival / Beijing Upon arrival at Beijing airport, you will be met by our English speaking tour guide and transferred to hotel. Leisure on your own for the rest of the day.
Day 2 (B, L) Beijing Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, enjoy Peking duck at night.
TianAnMen Square, the symbolical heart of China and gathering place for the masses. It is the biggest public square in the world, which can hold one million people. Having a free walk there, imagining the great historic events of the 20th century took place there. You will also see legendary landmarks including the Great Hall of the People and the towering 125 foot granite obelisk, Monument to the Peoples Heroes, honoring those who died in revolution.
Walking across the Golden River Bridge, enter the Forbidden City, the inner sanctum and palace where for centuries Chinese emperors ruled their world. It has 9000-room maze of courtyards, places, and ceremonial halls, where 24 emperors used to live. Forbidden City was indeed a forbidden place, where commoners were kept out for nearly 500 years in the past. Tour the palace and imagine the mystery, intrigue and incredible power that reigned here.
Temple of Heaven was built in the 15th century, a sacred site for ancient Beijing, where the emperor and his 1000 member entourage would retreat twice a year for religious ritual. Surrounded by enormous grounds designed in accordance with fengshshui, the Temple complex consists of the Celebrated Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a unique wooden and blue-tiled structure built without a nail. It is considered the supreme achievement of traditional Chinese architecture.
Day 3 (B, L, D) Beijing Great Wall Tour, Ming Tomb, watch Peking Opera in the evening.
The Great Wall of China is the longest structure ever built. It is about 4,000 miles long, and it was built entirely by hand. About 1, 200 - 1, 500 miles of the Great Wall were built during the reign of Emperor Shi Huangdi (Qin Dynasty). The Great Wall crosses northern China from the east coast to the central part of China.
Visit the fabled Ming Tombs, the resting places of thirteen emperors and their splendid treasures, passing down the Spirit Way, a road lined with statues of dignitaries, as well as huge elephants, lions, camels and horses, you will encounter the marble tombs of the Ming Dynasty emperors. Visit one of the spectacular tombs- Dingling featuring an underground palace.
Peking Opera or Beijing Opera is a synthesis of stylized action, singing, dialogue and mime, acrobatic fighting and dancing to represent a story or depict different characters and their feelings of gladness, anger, sorrow, happiness, surprise, fear and sadness.
Day 4 (B, L, D ) Beijing / Pingyao Transfer via: Train 2519 Summer Palace, Lhama Temple, transfer to Pingyao by evening train, soft sleeper. Train 2519 2110/0737. Stay overnight on the train
The Summer Palace is the largest and best-preserved royal garden in China with a history of over 800 years. With its cool features - water, gardens and hills, it was the palace of choice for vacationing emperors and Dowager Empresses. It was badly damaged by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War (1860) and its restoration became a pet project of Empress Dowager Cixi, the last of the Qing dynasty rulers.
Lhama Temple (Yonghegong or also known as lama temple) is a renowned lama temple of the Yellow Hat Sect of Lamaism, is situated in the northeast part of Beijing city. Lama Temple, or Yanghegong, has a long and varied history. It was originally built in 1694 and originally used as official residence for court eunuchs of the Ming dynasty.
Day 5 (B, L ) Pingyao Pingyao Ancient City is one of the two best preserved ancient cities (the other is Lijiang in Yunnan province) in China. you will see Ri Sheong Chang, a former banking intitution and also rudiment of Chinese banks; Market Tower; Ancient City Wall and Ming and Qing Dynasty Street.
Day 6 (B, L ) Pingyao / Xian Transfer via: Train 2535 Visit Family Qiao's House and Double Forest Temple
Family Qiao's House - Chinese traditional lanterns can be seen everywhere where you will have a general idea of what one of the six Confucian virtues Propriety means.
The Double Forest Temple is famous for its vivid earth scuptures, Take evening train to Xian by soft sleeper. Train 2535, 1933/0656
Day 7 (B, L ) Xian Visit Terracotta Warriors, Big Wild Goose Pagoda and Bell Tower.
Today will be your highlights in Xian. The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the20th century. It has been regarded as THE 8TH WONDER OF THE WORLD! Over 2,200 years ago, the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang in search of immortality, ordered the construction of a vast army of 8,000 life-sized Terra Cotta warriors and buried with him to protect his empire after his early death. They were discovered accidentally in 1974 by farmers digging a well. For history lovers, the sight is truly breathtaking.
Visit the Bell Tower which is the most well-preserved and best-known one among many ancient cities of China. The Bell Tower was originally built in the Yingxiang Temple in 1384, at the intersection of West Street and Guangji Street. Then in 1582, it was moved to its present pivotal position, in the very heart of the city at the junction of four main streets extending to the east, south, west and north, for rebuilding and later restorations. With magnificent carved beams and painted rafters, this classical building is truly elegant.
Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Situated at south of the Xian city,as one of the main constructions in the famous Buddhist temple-Da-Ci-En Temple, the pagoda is one of the most distinctive and outstanding landmarks for Xian City.
Day 8 (B, L, D) Xian / Guilin Visit History Museum. Transfer to Guilin by air. transfer to Guilin by air. Drive to Longsheng, visit Longji Mountain Village, about 2 hours driving on road, stroll around the village. Stay in the mountain village overnight.
In the southeast of Longsheng County in Guangxi Province, there is a group of large-scaled rice terraces built into the hillside. Some of the terraces look like great chains, other look like ribbons. They wind from the foot to the top of the hill. The smaller ones are like snails and the bigger ones like towers. There are layers on layers of terraces, high and low. The outline is very smooth. Its scale is enormous.
It is called "The champion of the terrace world". It is the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. The Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces is 100 kilometres from Downtown Guilin.
Day 9 (B, L, D) Longji / Guilin Two hours hike in rice terrace. After lunch, drive for 2 hours to Guilin, visit Reed Flute Cave and Elephant Hill. You will enjoy the evening cruise through Li River, Fir lake, Banyan Lake and Peach River, which was part of the ancient moat surrounding Guilin.
Visit the Reed Flute Cave. Aside ten minutes drive (half hour bike ride) from downtown, the cave is one of the largest known examples of what each tropical karst cone conceals within it. The script writers and set designers for Star Trek would have a field day in this cavernous underground stalactite/stalagmite maze-style theater. The dropping water is rich and the dripstones are not only in various types but also in big size, displaying a wonderful cave world. This cave was called "The Art Gallery of Mother Nature". Colored fluorescent lights which cast shadows and illuminate shapes of imaginary animals, fruits and vegetables complete the unworldly effect.
Following with Elephant Trunk Hill. It is located on the west bank of the Li River by a small branch called Peach blossom River, and resembles a huge elephant standing on the bank of the river, sucking up water with its long trunk. The trunk is particularly striking and lifelike when viewed either nearby or afar. A circular foot cave called Shui Yue Dong (Moon-In-the Water Cave) separates the trunk and the body. A 3-story Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D) brick pagoda rises from the top of hill.
Day 10 (B, L ) Yangshuo Li River Cruise, visit a tiny town of Yangshuo.
Depart from your hotel in the morning to have Li River cruise to Yangshuo. Li River is by far the main reason to visit Guilin. Double-decker and triple-decker river boats which weigh anchor from a pier at Zhujiang, about 40 minutes from Guilin by bus, and meander through the sleepy countryside are relaxing way to enjoy the superlative river scenery and life along its banks. In contrast to the burgeoning cities of the north, it is quiet here; the rural scenery is magnificent. You will enjoy the picturesque mountains, peaceful green fields, farms and villages with water buffalos, cows wondering around on both sides of the river bank.
After about 4.5 hours, the one-thousand-year-old town - Yangshuo, the disembarking point, comes into sight. It is well-worth browsing around this quaint town and its environs. Explore the old town freely for the rest of the day.
Day 11 (B, L ) Yanghuo / Hong Kong Cycle for 1 hour from Yangshuo to Chaoyang village, there you carry your bike to bamboo raft for two hours rafting on Yulong River, through limestone mountains and streams to Gaotian.
Bike ride to Gaotian . This is one of the original routes and it is a very special program for family holiday. You head out towards Moon Hill on the main road but soon you divert off on to a local path and set off through small villages, rice paddies and orchards. There are some very scenic spots along the way, eventually you go back onto the main road and to Moon Hill, with the option of stopping at the big Banyan tree.
You will arrive at the Gaotian village in the noon then you continue you bike ride on the trails to Yangshuo. Later today you will be transfer to Guilin Airport for flight to Hong Kong.
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Hotel accommodation inclusive in the above package:
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