Amazing 8 Day Group Tour of Beijing, Xian & Shanghai

Tour Highlights

Price Per Person

Month	Hotel Category	minimum 2 pax	Single Room Supplement
MAR-DEC		1,156 USD	238 USD

Departure Dates

Notes:
*Please kindly check with us, if you would like to take the tour on a different date.
*The prices are based on twin sharing of the hotel rooms. Any traveler who takes a single room has to pay a single room supplement.

Day 1Beijing

Meals: no meals

Accommodation:

• Holiday Inn Express Beijing Temple of Heaven    or similar class

When you arrive in Beijing, the capital city of China, you will meet one of our English speaking guides at the airport who will escort you to your hotel.

Day 2:  Beijing

Meals: Breakfast, Chinese lunch, Peking Roast Duck dinner

Accommodation:

• Holiday Inn Express Beijing Temple of Heaven    or similar class

The history of Beijing City can be traced back to 3000 years ago. It was then known as Ji, a city state from the 11^th century to 7^th century BC. Ji was conquered by the State of Yan and was renamed as Yanjing. Beijing’s glory started in the early Ming Dynasty when Emperor Yongle decided to establish it as the capital city of the empire. From then till now, Beijing has served as China’s capital for around 600 years. The fast developing economy has seen quick shrinking of its historical part to give way to modernity. But there are still many places where travelers can look into the city’s ancient past.

Your adventure begins from Tiananmen Square in the central location of Beijing. It is an important meeting place for political events. And it is aligned with many buildings such as the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the Great Hall of the people and the National Museum of China. Each morning China’s national flag is raised in Tiananmen Square with the rising sun.

The tour will then take you inside the National Museum of China. It houses a permanent collection of more than 1 million items. Many of them are priceless artifacts found nowhere else in the world. Among them, there is a Han Dynasty jade burial, suit laced with gold thread undeniable to the eye.

Then, we walk our way to the Forbidden City, the imperial palace of both Ming and Qing Dynasties, which was in ancient times a highly exclusive space and off-limits to commoners in the past. The construction of Forbidden City started in 1406 and ended in 1420, under the reign of Emperor Yongle. The total 24 emperors together viewed it as their home. Most of them were born and raised up in the Forbidden City, came to the throne and worked diligently to rule the country, and eventually died. The palace itself is like a long-living old man who has witnessed many stories happening. From heart-touching love stories to competitions between rival concubines for the favor of emperors to battles of wits and courage between princes for the throne to scandalous murders -- this Sublime China tour offers many interesting stories waiting for you to discover. Main palaces, the imperial garden, the treasure gallery, the clock & watch exhibition hall and more are all historic and epic visits.

Then we move to visit a tea shop to enjoy a tea ceremony and onwards to explore yet another classic landmark of Beijing, the Temple of Heaven. It was built at the same time with the Forbidden City by Emperor Yongle. In ancient China, the emperors claimed themselves as the son of Heaven and they ruled the country on behalf of gods in Heaven. The temple was built to hold sacrificing ceremonies to show respect to the gods in Heaven and pray for good harvests.

Finally, before returning back to the hotel, you will enjoy a hearty Peking Roast Duck dinner at one of the famous Quanjude Restaurants, a time-honored brand for the iconic dish: Peking Roast Duck. When you are enjoying your dinner, you will have a chance to watch many traditional performances, such as Peking Opera, Acrobatic Show, etc., all in short snippets.

Day 3 Beijing

Meals: Breakfast, Chinese lunch

Accommodation:

• Holiday Inn Express Beijing Temple of Heaven    or similar class

In the morning, we whisk you away to the suburb of Beijing to visit a less-traveled section of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu Great Wall. Here, we'll spend time exploring and walking the Great Wall, taking pictures and admiring its grandeur. No words can describe the experience and feeling -- it's breathtaking. The construction of the Great Wall started as early as the Spring and Autumn period between 8th and 5th century BC. During that time and the following Warring States period, different states such as Qin, Wei, Zhao, etc. built several walls to defend their own borders. At the end of Warring States period, Ying Zheng, King of Qin State, conquered his opponents and united China again as a great empire. He then joined the walls together. Ever since, the Great Wall has been rebuilt, made bigger and stronger. The current wall was mainly built during the Ming Dynasty.

In the afternoon, the tour group will visit a jade factory and then continue to explore the mysteries of the Ming Tombs. In total 13 emperors from Ming Dynasty were buried here, together with their empresses and concubines. Only two tombs are open to travelers. We will visit Changling, the tomb of Emperor Yongle, the father of the Forbidden City. The tomb is not excavated so the tour group will visit the on-ground museum which houses many artifacts unearthed from another tomb: Dingling. After that, we drive back to Beijing and stop to do an outside tour to the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube.

Day 4 Beijing/Xian by super high-speed train

Meals: Breakfast, Chinese lunch

Accommodation:

• Days Inn City Centre Xian    or similar class

This morning you will take a leisure tour to the Summer Palace, which was built in 1764 by Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty for his mother’s 60^th birthday. Severely damaged during the second Opium War in 1860, the palace was restored in 1888 by Empress Dowager Cixi with funds originally planned for upgrading the navy. Cixi (1835-1908) was a concubine of Emperor Xianfeng. After the emperor’s death in 1861, her son succeeded to the throne at the age of 6, as Emperor Tongzhi. Cixi thereafter became the empress dowager and the actual regent in late Qing Dynasty who controlled the government for around 47 years till her death. Occasionally she came to the Summer Palace to beat the heat.

After exploring the palace and discovering that period of history, we will continue to the old town area of Beijing. Here we'll board a human-powered rickshaw and travel through the old hutongs (alleys). First hand you will find out what it's like to live like a local, visiting a local vegetable market and a local courtyard family to know about local people’s daily life. At last, we will drive you to the railway station and you will take a super high speed train to Xian. When we arrive in Xian, we take you back to the hotel.

Day 5 Xian Tour

Meals: Breakfast, Chinese lunch

Accommodation:

• Days Inn City Centre Xian    or similar class

Xian is the capital city of Shaanxi Province. It served as the ancient capital for 13 Chinese dynasties and was the economic, cultural and political center of China for more than 1000 years. Now it is a fusion between the ancient and the modern and has many interesting historical sites.

You will kick off the day with a discovery tour to a terracotta warriors workshop, learning how a terracotta soldier is made whilst exploring the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum and the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang of Qin Dynasty. These life-sized terracotta warriors, chariots and horses were discovered in 1976 by local farmers who were digging a well, after being hidden underground for around 2000 years. They were built by Emperor Qin Shihuang of Qin Dynasty as a part of his mausoleum after claiming the throne in 246BC. He believed the terracotta army could protect him in his afterlife. These clay warriors have different uniforms, hairstyles and even facial expressions. This incredible archaeological finding is surely one of the man-made wonders of the world.

We return to Xian after that and the tour group will get to have a leisure walk along the Ancient City Wall which was built in Tang Dynasty. It is the most complete city wall in China. It encircles the inner city of Xian and its perimeter is 13km. The tour group will then move on to the largest Muslim Quarter in Xian. You will go through the narrow alleys lined with lively markets, food stalls, restaurants, etc.

Day 6 Xian/Shanghai by plane

Meals: Breakfast, Chinese lunch

Accommodation:

• Holiday Inn Express Shanghai Zhabei   or similar class

The tour group will start the day with a visit to Shaanxi History Museum, a great place to learn all about Xian’s history. Then the tour takes you to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Erected by Xuan Zang, a prestigious Buddhist monk in Tang Dynasty, the pagoda was meant for keeping the precious Buddhist sutras brought from India by Xuan Zang, who spent 17 years on a pilgrimage to India to seek for real Buddhist sutras. His journey to India inspired the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West. Later, you will be driven the airport. On the way, you will take some time to check out the Tomb of Emperor Jing (188–141BC) of Han Dynasty. It is a museum and meanwhile an archeological site. More than 40,000 clay figurines were discovered here and they were one third life-size. Fly to Shanghai and when you arrive in Shanghai, you will be driven to your hotel from the airport.

Day 7 Shanghai

Meals: Breakfast, Chinese lunch

Accommodation:

• Holiday Inn Express Shanghai Zhabei   or similar class

Shanghai, located in the southeastern coast of China, is a well-developed modern metropolis that has a reputation of the Oriental Paris and is also an important financial center of China.

Today you will take a full day city tour in Shanghai to explore the major attractions. Firstly, you will start from the Jade Buddha Temple, built in 1882. It is a popular Buddhist temple in Shanghai. Inside the temple, there are two Jade Buddha sculptures imported from Burma. One of them is a sitting Buddha statue of Sakyamuni which is 1.95m high. And the other one is a reclining Buddha statue which is 96cm long. And there is another larger reclining Buddha sculpture made of marble, which is 4m long. It was donated from Singapore.

We then move over to a silk shop and learn silk history and culture, heading our way to the Yuyuan Garden, a garden style architectural complex built around 450 years ago. Its inner layout design incorporates the key elements of a typical Chinese garden. They are ponds, rockeries, pavilions, corridors and exquisite carvings everywhere. After that, you will take a leisure walk on Shanghai Old Street to do some shopping and move to Shanghai Museum which is one of the most important museums in China. It has a big collection of bronze ware, porcelain, ethnic costumes, ancient furniture, and more -- a museum lovers dream come true.

Afterwards, the group tour will be guided to the Bund to have a look at the colonial buildings, one of Shanghai's most-prized landmarks. Finally, we will spend some time trekking through trendy Xintiandi where you will see local Shikumen houses. After years of development, it is now one the trendiest places in the city, home to many boutique shops, high-end restaurants, bars and hotels.

Day 8 Shanghai

Meals: Breakfast

Relax and enjoy free time before your trip to the airport for your flight to home.

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