All inclusive China Tour with Giant Panda

Today, the guide will pick you up at the Beijing airport and take you to the hotel. As an ancient capital with a history of more than 3,000 years, Beijing covers an area of nearly 16,411 square kilometers, with a permanent population of 21.89 million. Beijing is listed as the eighth-largest food city in the world by Forbes. Here you can enjoy a great variety of flavor snacks, such as, tanghulu (made by stringing wild fruits with bamboo sticks and dipping them with maltose), pea cake, lvdagun (sticky rice cake with red bean paste). In addition, Peking Opera, crosstalk and stage play are also very famous.

We will first visit Tian’anmen Square, located in the center of Beijing. Covering an area of 440,000 square meters, the square is enough to accommodate 1 million people. The national flag pole, the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall stand on the square from north to south along the central axis of Beijing. Besides, you can see a picture of Chairman Mao hanging above the middle door of the Tian’anmen Gate Tower, with a huge slogan on both sides. Built in 1417, Tian’anmen Gate Tower used to be the main gate of the imperial city in the Ming and Qing Dynasties(1368-1912).

The Forbidden City (closed each Monday) is just one kilometer north of Tian’anmen Square. It was the royal palace in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1636-1912). Covering an area of about 720,000 square meters, the Forbidden City has more than 70 palaces and more than 9,000 rooms. You will visit three main royal halls (Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Central Harmony, and Hall of Preserving Harmony). Besides, there are more than one million historical relics, including famous calligraphy and painting works, porcelain, bronze wares, and jade. All these will help you get to know the history and life of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Then we will head to visit the Temple of Heaven. Built in 1420, it is located in the south of Beijing, covering an area of about 2.73 million square meters. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was a place for emperors to worship Heaven and pray for good harvest. Imperial Vault of Heaven, Circular Mound Altar, Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, and Hall of Imperial Zenith are the main buildings of the Temple of Heaven. On the paved path outside the Imperial Vault of Heaven, there are three special flagstones called “Three-Tone Stone”. It is said that when you stand on the first flagstone and clap your hands, you can only hear an echo; when you stand on the second flagstone and clap your hands, you can hear two echoes; when you stand on the third flagstone and clap your hands, you can hear three continuous echoes.

The Summer Palace, a royal garden in the Qing Dynasty, is about 30 kilometers northwest of the Temple of Heaven. It covers an area of about 3 square kilometers and the water area accounts for about three quarters of the whole area. There are lots of exquisite attractions in Summer Palace. Among them, the Kunming Lake, the Longevity Hill, the Marble Boat, the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, the Suzhou Street, the Long Corridor are representative attractions. Here, you can not only admire classic royal garden landscape, but also appreciate precious royal relics.

Forbidden City

Summer Palace

After breakfast, we will visit Hutongs, which refer to small streets and alleys. In our Beijing all inclusive tour, visiting Hutongs is the thing you cannot miss. Beijing Hutongs can date back to Yuan Dynasty(1271-1368), with a maximum number of more than 6,000. We will take a rickshaw to visit the Hutongs. You will find similar houses standing on both sides of the Hutongs. These houses are called Siheyuan, which refers to the traditional Chinese courtyard building. It is usually a courtyard with houses on all sides. Our China all inclusive tour will offer you an opportunity to visit a local family. 

Then you will be transferred to the Lama Temple, located in the northeast of Beijing. Built in 1694, it is mainly composed of three exquisite archways and five magnificent halls. The temple covers an area of 66,400 square meters with more than 1,000 buildings. The main buildings of the Lama Temple were originally made of green-glazed tiles. Later, these tiles were changed to yellow-glazed tiles. The Lama Temple is a combination of Han Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. You can not only see the statue of big-belly Maitreya of Han Buddhism but the gilded bronze statue of Master Tsongkhapa of Tibetan Buddhism here.

After having lunch in a local restaurant, we will drive northwest for nearly 1 hour to the Badaling Great Wall. In China, there is an important saying about the Great Wall that one who fails to reach the top of Great Wall is not a hero. It is an important part of the Great Wall. And it was an important military pass in the Ming Dynasty. Standing on it, you will have a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains. There is also a legend about its name. It is said that when Li Zicheng led his uprising army to fight against the army of Ming government at the end of the Ming Dynasty, they were blocked here. He was very anxious. At this time, the cavalryman scout said that there were eight dangerous passes ahead. After hearing this, Li Zicheng sighed and ordered the army to change the way. Since then, when mentioning this section of Great Wall, people would call it Badaling Great Wall for the eight passes(Badaling means eight passes in Chinese.). After dinner, you will be escorted to the hotel.

Hutongs

Lama Temple

Today’s first attraction is Beijing Zoo. The zoo was built in 1906. And it covers an area of about 860,000 square meters. It is the earliest zoo open to the public in China. There are more than 15,000 animals of more than 1,000 species, such as panda, white-lipped deer, red-crowned crane, Siamese crocodile, Tapirus bairdii, and Caribbean manatee. We will visit the Panda House, which was built in 1990. Covering an area of 10,000 square meters, it is designed in the shape of a bamboo shoot, with 11 pairs of arches resembling bamboo knots. You may see pandas chasing other pandas, eating bamboos on the ground, or sleeping on tree trunks. It is said that a long time ago, pandas were snow-white without any black. Four beautiful shepherd girls accompanied pandas all day. One day, a panda was attacked by a leopard, and the four girls fought against the leopard to save the panda. The panda was saved, but the four girls died because of serious injury. Later, at their funeral ceremony, the pandas wore black armbands to pay tribute to the four girls. All pandas cried sadly. They wiped their tears with black armbands, and their eyes’ rim turned black. They hugged each other and then their ears, limbs and chest were dyed black miraculously. It is said that, since then, the giant pandas have become white-black pandas.

Then you will be transferred to the airport and take the estimated flight NS 8001 16:00/19:00 to Chengdu. The guide will pick you up at the Chengdu airport and escort you to the carefully selected restaurant. Delicious dinner will be provided for you. After dinner, you can have a good rest in your room.

Beijing Zoo

Panda House

This morning, we will go to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. As the world’s largest panda protection base, there are panda museum, panda hospital, panda kitchen and other buildings. You can not only watch pandas closely, but also learn the knowledge about pandas, including the origin of pandas, the achievements of panda breeding and the daily life of pandas. When you visit these pandas, you may see some pandas eating bamboo, some sitting against a tree in a trance, some sleeping lazily on the ground, some climbing trees and some turning somersaults. You can take some photos and share them on your Facebook. These chubby pandas will surely win you many likes.

After lunch, you will visit Jinli Street, one of the oldest and prosperous streets in Sichuan. With an area of more than 30,000 square meters and a total length of 550 meters, it integrates tourism, shopping and entertainment. Walking along the street, you can see buildings imitating the architecture style of buildings in Ming and Qing Dynasties on both sides. Some of these buildings are teahouses, theaters, restaurants and handicraft workshops. You can taste Zhangfei Beef, Sandapao (a traditional Sichuan snack made of glutinous rice), Feichangfen (sweet-potato-made noodles with stewed pig’s intestines as the ingredients) and other special foods. You can also buy Chinese-style chopsticks, tea, lanterns, and other souvenirs for your friends and relatives. Besides, you may see craftsmen kneading clay figurines, making sugar figurines and making paper-cut works.

Next to Jinli Street is Wuhou Shrine Museum, covering an area of 150,000 square meters. Built in 221, it was originally called Zhuge Temple and used to commemorate Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang was a statesman, strategist, and prime minister of the Kingdom of Shu in the period of the Three Kingdoms (220-280). Later, Zhuge Temple became the only temple in China for worshiping the emperor and his official. The emperor worshiped in this museum is Liubei (the emperor of Shu Kingdom, 221-263). Although Liubei, as the emperor, is worshiped in this museum, this museum is famous for Zhuge Liang. There are many stories about Zhuge Liang. One is about the Seven Captures of Meng Huo (the leader of Nanzhong district, part of Shu Kingdom). In 225, Meng Huo rebelled, so Zhuge Liang led troops to fight against Meng Huo’s troops. Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo seven times, and released him seven times. Finally, Meng Huo admitted being defeated and promised he would be loyal to Shu Kingdom for evermore.

Then we will head to People’s Park, nearly 3 kilometers away from the Wuhou Shrine Museum. It is built in 1911. In the park, there are Jinshui Stream, Goldfish Island, Bonsai Garden and other popular attractions. Jinshui Stream is 355 meters long and 6 meters wide. Along the banks, there are peach trees, willows, begonia, wintersweet and other plants. Goldfish Island is located in an artificial lake and it is connected with a tea house through a bridge. In this park, people can not only admire various attractions, but also can have a cup of tea in the tea house.

After dinner, we will go to the Shufeng Yayun Sichuan Opera House to watch Sichuan opera performance, which is a special part of our Chengdu all inclusive tour. Here you can enjoy traditional Chinese opera while drinking tea. You will be surprised at the content of Sichuan opera, such as Puppet Show, Hand Shadow Puppetry, Bian Lian(Chinese art of face-changing). Bian Lian is the most unique and mysterious part of Sichuan Opera performance. The performer will wear vividly colored masks. And he can change the mask on their faces into one totally different mask in an instant through a movement of the head, or a wave of the hand. You must be impressed by the performance and you can share this precious experience with your relatives and friends.

Jinli Street

Peoples Park

Today, we will drive southwards for about 2 hours to visit the Leshan Giant Buddha, which is about 150 kilometers away from downtown Chengdu. It is a seated statue of Maitreya Buddha, 71 meters high. It is the largest seated Buddha statue carved out of a mountain in China. It was first excavated in 713 and completed in 803, which lasted about 90 years. The Buddha’s head is almost flush with the mountain with his hands on his knees and feet on the ground. Besides, there are two statues of Guarding Gods with a height of more than 16 meters on both sides of the giant Buddha.

After lunch, we will head to the Huanglongxi Ancient Town, which is located in the north of Leshan Giant Buddha and it takes about two hours (110KM) to drive there. It has a history of more than 1,700 years. There are ancient cliff tombs, three well-preserved ancient temples, 76 ancient residences, etc. There is a story about this town, which was called Chishui in ancient times. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named A Xi. She saved a deer. Actually, this deer was a fairy lived in the heaven. In order to thank the girl for saving her life, the fairy borrowed a treasure from the Jade Emperor(the supreme god in the heaven) to help fight the drought in this town. At that time, this town was suffering from serious drought. But the treasure was stolen by a dragon. After knowing this, the fairy fought against the dragon bravely, unfortunately, both the fairy and dragon died in this cruel fight. But miraculously, the place where the dragon died became a river, meanwhile, the blood of the fairy flowed into the river and dyed the river water into red for many days. Later, to commemorate this fairy, people called both the river and town Chishui(chi refers to red and shui refers to water). After visiting this town, we will drive back to downtown Chengdu.

Leshan Giant Buddha

Huanglongxi Ancient Town

Today, your all inclusive tour is coming to an end. After breakfast, you will be transferred to the airport according to your flight schedule. We wish you a safe journey and look forward to seeing you again in your next China tour.

Author: Xuelei Zhang

Proofreader: Yan Liu