China Adventure to Avatar Mountains

Welcome to Beijing!

Beijing is the capital of China which is also the political and cultural center of China.With a history of more than 3,000 years as a city and 850 years as a capital, Beijing is known as the ancient capital of the East with its many glorious imperial landscapes and rich cultural heritage. It is a must-visit destination for a trip to China.

Upon arrival, the guide will meet and greet you at the airport. Then you will take a private vehicle to the centrally located hotel to check in. It takes around 1 hour from the airport to the centrally located hotel.

The rest day would be your free leisure time. You could stay at hotel for saving energy for the tomorrow’s adventure, or you could stroll around to discover the surroundings.

Today, your Beijing adventure will start from the center of the Beijing city - the Tiananmen Square.It is the largest central square in the world.

The most exciting thing on the Tiananmen Square is the daily flag-raising ceremony. A lot of travelers come here in the early morning to watch the ceremony. The flag-raising (lowering) ceremony of Tiananmen Square is divided into holiday flag-raising ceremony and weekday flag-raising ceremony. The ceremony holds every morning together with the same time of sun raising.

Through the Tiananmen Square, we will pass the Chang’an Street by an underground passage to reach the gate of the Forbidden City (Closed on each Monday).

Forbidden City is the residence of the royal family during Ming and Qing Dynasties.It is the largest surviving ancient palace complex in the world with a history of more than 600 years. In the Forbidden City, you will see a lot of big water tanks which real names is called auspicious tank or peace tank. These tanks have a very practical role, that is to put out the fire.

Forbidden City building materials used are basically wooden materials.In the dry season or artificial arson, it is easy to form a spreading fire.If a fire broke out,the water in these large water tanks can play its important role during the fire.It can be the fastest tool to prevent the spread of fire aggravation. So, at that time the eunuchs and palace maids often have to do one thing is to fill the tank with water, as a precautionary measure.

You will spend about 2 hours in the Forbidden City.

Then we will have lunch at a local restaurant.

In the afternoon, we will visit the Temple of Heaven which is the place where the royal family worship the god during Ming and Qing Dynasties. In ancient times, people believed in the gods and prayed for their blessings.From the emperor to the people, they all had to hold rituals on fixed festivals.But the difference was that the royal rituals were more detailed and grander.The place where they held the rituals called the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, also known as the Hall of Prayer for the Valley. It is one of the most representative buildings in the Temple of Heaven Park.

We will spend about 1.5 hours in the Temple of Heaven.

Then we will go to the Hutong.The hutong tour includes a ride on a rickshaw through the hutong alleys, which is the most authentic way to experience the culture of old Beijing. During the rickshaw tour, we will visit a local family in the Hutong. You could meet the owner of the old house face to face. The owner would happy to answer all your questions and tell you some interesting stories of the old house.

Today, our last stop will go to the famous Wangfujing Street which located east of the Forbidden City. It is home to a number of large-scale shopping centers such as Oriental Xintiandi, APM, Yintai, and Beijing Department Store, making it a long-established shopping destination in Beijing.There is also a snack street with a collection of cuisines from all over China, making it a popular place to go for shopping and tasting street food in Beijing.

After spending some free time on the Wangfujing Street, we will drive back to the hotel.

Option activities:

1. Peking Opera at Liyuan Theatre would be a good choice for the opera lovers. (19:30 – 21:00)
2. Kungfu show at Red Theatre would be a nice chance for you to have a deep view of the Chinese Martial Arts. (19:30 – 21:00)

Forbidden City

Hutong

After breakfast, we will drive about 1 hour to visit the Ming Tombs which is45 miles away from the city center.

Ming Tombs is located in the northwest of Beijing, surrounded by mountains on three sides. It buried 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644) together with their 23 empresses, 2 princes and more than 13 concubines. Ming Tombs is a general name of all the tombs of the emperor’s tombs of the Ming Dynasty. Each tomb also has their specific name. Today we will visit the Chang Tomb which is the largest, earliest and the most well-preserved in terms of ground-level architecture.

After visiting, we will have lunch at a local restaurant.

Then we will keep driving to the Badaling Great Wall which located 35 miles from Ming Tombs. It takes around 1 hour to reach the entrance of the Badaling Great Wall.

The Badaling Great Wall is a typical example of the majestic and precipitous appearance of the Great Wall of China. It is also the earliest section of the Great Wall to be opened to visitors. Many celebrities have been there before. Such as Nixon, Reagan, Thatcher, Gorbachev and Elizabeth, and many other world figures.

There are 12 Towers on the North Side of the Badaling Great Wall. It takes about 3 hours to complete the hiking from the No.1 Tower to the No.12 Tower on the North Side of the Badaling Great Wall.

If you prefer a lazy day, you could take the cable car directly to the No.7 Tower on the North Side. That would be way simpler. It takes 5 minutes from the foot of the Great Wall to the No.7 Tower on the North Side. If you are young, we suggest you climb the Great Wall. Because the view on the way to the top is stunning.

After the tour, we will go back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel, we will take a photo stop at the Beijing Olympic Village for you to take a look at the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube from the outside.

Optional activity:

Have you ever experienced the feeling of flying in a helicopter over the Great Wall?

If your budget allows, use a helicopter to free your perspective from flat and elevated views and take you from the air to enjoy the natural magnificence and humanistic brilliance of the Badaling Great Wall.

Dinner suggestion:

What can be better than a dinner at Peking duck restaurant after hiking on the Great Wall?

The taste would blow your mind. We suggest you to have Peking duck at Quanjude Peking duck restaurant.

Also, a foot massage would be a great choice after dinner. Our guide could give you some suggestions.

Ming Tombs

Badaling Great Wall

This morning, you will take the estimated flight CA4102 11:30/14:45 to Chengdu. The guide will take you to the airport according to the time.

Chengdu is a famous cultural city with a history of more than 2,000 years. It is also the hometown of pandas. With its beautiful environment, pleasant climate, warm folk style, numerous cuisines, and unique teahouse culture, it is a city that you will never want to leave once you come.

The local guide in Chengdu will pick you up from the airport and take you to the hotel for overnight.

After checking in at the hotel, the rest day would be your free time. Our hotel usually centrally located, so feel free to walk around and discover the surroundings. In China, it’s very safe for you to hanging around at night.

Today we will start our tour a little bit early to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. If we arrive late, we will miss the panda’s breakfast time. You don’t want to miss that.

The panda base covers an area of 1,500 acres. It is famous for protecting and breeding endangered wild animals in China, such as giant pandas and red pandas.It is known as "the natural paradise of national treasures" with its mountains, blue lakes, dash forests and hundreds of birds.

You will get a close look at the pandas and get to know them better at the Giant Panda Scientific Exploration Center. You could also visit the panda kitchen and panda hospital. It’s a unique experience that you cannot have at anywhere else.We will spend the whole morning in the panda base.

Lunch will be at a local restaurant.

In the afternoon, we will drive to the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum which is located at the west of the Chengdu city. It was the former residence of Du Fu, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Du Fu lived here for nearly four years and composed more than 240 poems.Du Fu's influence on classical Chinese poetry is so profound that he has been called the "Poet Saint" and his poems are known as the "History of Poetry". So, the Du Fu Thatched Cottage is considered a sacred place in the history of Chinese literature. After his death, the poet Wei Zhuang found the site of the Thatched Cottage and rebuilt it. Therefore, it could be well preserved until now.

Before we head for the hotel, we will go to the Kuanzhai Alley. To enjoy Chengdu and its cuisine, there is no better place than KuanzhaiAlley.Authentic snacks, exquisite dishes, luxurious meals, exotic western food...... Kuanzhai Alley is simply like a universal food fair.The numerous cuisines here will make you complain that your stomach is too small!We will leave you some free time in the Kuanzhai Alley.

After, we will head for the hotel.

Dinner suggestion:

Chengdu's hot pot is spread all over the streets and alleys. Hot pot in Chengdu is like Peking duck in Beijing, Dim Sum in Shanghai. It’s a must-taste cuisine while you are travelling in Chengdu. So, it is often said that "not having eaten hot pot in Chengdu is equal to not having been to Chengdu".So, we will suggest you Top 3 Chengdu Hot Pot restaurants as below:

No.1 Xiaolongkan Hot Pot: This is the most popular hot pot restaurant in Chengdu. And there is opera performance every night. You could enjoy the show while eating.

No.2 Haidilao Hot Pot: This is the hot pot restaurant with the best service. They also have dancing noodle show if you order noodles.

No.3 Yuanli Hot Pot: This is a hot pot restaurant with the most beautiful decorations. Combining garden, industrial loft and literary elements, the dining environment is a five-star standard in Chengdu.

Kuanzhai Alley

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

After breakfast, our guide will take you to the airport and catch the estimated flight CA4764 11:44/13:30 to Guilin.

For thousands of years, Guilin has been a populardestination for people to travel. There are vast and verdant primeval forests, majestic and dangerous peaks and valleys, rushing streams and waterfalls, and the world's most amazing terraces ......

Upon arrival, we will drive about 1 hour to visit the Elephant Trunk Hill which is located at the confluence of Li River and Taohua River in the center of Guilin, 30 miles from the airport. It is shaped like a giant elephant, and between the trunk and the legs is a round hole with an area of about 150 square meters, through which the river water passes.

After visiting, you will go to the hotel for overnight.

Elephant Trunk Hill

Elephant Trunk Hill

We will experience a Li River Cruise tour today.

When it comes to the Li River, most people will choose to cruise all through the 64 kilometers of this golden waterway, to see the complete scenery, but also do not have to worry about the weather or the problem of rising water.

During the cruising, you will see a special stone which located on the west back of the Li River, in front of the Doumi Beach. The shape of this stone looks like a woman carrying a baby on her back and waiting for her husband to come back home, hence the name “Wang Fu Stone”. (“Wang” in Chinese means waiting, “Fu” means husband.)

The whole cruising lasts about 4-5 hours. Lunch is on board.

In the afternoon, we will reach Yangshuo, and pay a visit to the Yangshuo West Street which located in the center of the Yangshuo ancient town. It is an old street with a history of more than 1,400 years, and the buildings along the street still retain the classical style of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is famous for its different styles of bars, restaurants and coffee shops, which are literary during the day and lively at night.

After visiting the West Street, we will drive back to the hotel for overnight. It takes 1.5 hours drive to get back to the hotel which is 70 miles away from the Yangshuo.

Li River Cruise

Yangshuo West Street

This morning, after checking out from the hotel, we will visit the Reed Flute Cave.

Known as the "Palace of Nature's Art", Reed Flute Cave is very famous in Guilin's landscape. Reed Flute Cave is located in the south side of Bright Mountain, 240 meters deep, nearly 500 meters, the cave is full of stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars, stone mantle, stone flowers. The whole cave is like a magnificent underground palace.

After visiting, the guide will take you to the airport to catch the estimated flight FM9350 12:50/19:50(including transit stop of 2H15) to Zhangjiajie.

Zhangjiajie is a tourist city. It belongs to the central subtropical mountain prototype monsoonal humid climate with four distinct seasons. There are four national and one provincial forest parks, two national nature reserves and three provincial nature reserves in the city. The whole nature reserve covers an area of 1,066,500 acres, accounting for 10% of the total area of the city.Zhangjiajie landform, karst landform and Danxia landform are like a landscape painting with different styles.

Your Zhangjiajie adventure will start from tomorrow.The local guide in Zhangjiajie will wait for you at the airport and take you to the hotel for overnight.It takes around 40 minutes to reach the hotel in the Wulingyuan district.

Reed Flute Cave

Reed Flute Cave

Today you will spend a full day at Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.

After breakfast, the guide and driver will pick you up from the hotel and visit theZhangjiajie National Forest Park which is famous for its "strange peaks, curved rocks, deep valleys and beautiful water". It is the core scenic spot of Zhangjiajie, which is praised by the world as "enlarged bonsai, shrunken fairyland".

We will take the Bailong Elevator up to Yuanjiajie Scenic Area to enjoy the view of the world’s first bridge, the same spot appears on the movie “Avatar” and the beautiful scenery of the Mystic Terrace. When riding the elevator, you can enjoy the stunning peaks and forests of Zhangjiajie through the glass, which is a perfect combination of natural beauty and man-made wonders.

We will cross the “First Bridge in the World” which is a natural bridge formed by connecting two peaks by a promenade, and the depth under the bridge is unfathomable, which is really a miracle of nature.

Then you will see the Qiankun Pillar, also known as “Hallelujah Mountain", is the location of the floating mountain in the movie Avatar, which a vertical height of about 150 meters.

Then we will take the scenic bus to the Tianzi Mountain Scenic Area. The highest point of Tianzi Mountain is 1,262.5 meters above sea level and the lowest point is 534 meters above sea level, where you can enjoy the four wonders of clouds, moonlight, sunset and winter snow. After enjoy the nice view, we will take a cable car down the mountain and take a small train to visit the Ten-Miles-Gallery.

Lunch will be at a local restaurant on the mountain.

The Ten Mile Gallery is a typical peak canyon landform, with peaks and peaks following each other, layers upon layers, magnificent and stunning. In the midst of ten thousand mountains, the forest is lush and flowers are colorful all year round. When you look at it, it looks like a natural landscape painting, so it is called Ten Miles Gallery.

In the middle of the Ten-Miles-Gallery, you will see a stone which likes an old man walking with a basket on his back. Hence the stone named “the old man of medicine”. It is one of the best views in Zhangjiajie.

After visiting, we will go back to the hotel to rest.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

Tianzi Mountain Scenic Area

In the morning, we will drive to the Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park. We will go up to the Tianmen Mountain by cable car, which is the longest and most fast in the world.

The top of the mountain is relatively flat and has a complete primitive forest with many precious and unique plant species, with a forest coverage rate of 90%. There are ancient trees, vines, moss, stalagmites and buds everywhere, like a bonsai made by god. It is known as the most beautiful sky garden and heavenly wonderland in the world.

You will see the Tianmen Cave which is a high-altitude natural cave.

Of course, we won’t miss the Glass Skywalk. You will stand at an altitude of a thousand meters above sea level, with your feet clearly visible. When you look down, it’s like you are floating in the air. Will the heart beat faster, breathing difficulty or legs trembling? This is a best place to test your courage. That would be a even more romantic place if you propose to your lovers. That will be a life time remembering commitment.

Tianmen Mountain, with its rich history and culture, has always been regarded as a sacred mountain by local people, and is also known as "the first sacred mountain in western Hunan" and "the soul of Wuling".

Lunch will be at a local restaurant.

After visiting, the guide and driver will take you to the airport to catch the estimated flight MU8344 20:40/22:30 to Shanghai.

The local guide in Shanghai will hold your name sign and wait for you at the airport.

Upon arrival, you will go to the hotel for overnight.

Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park

Glass Skywalk

This morning, our Shanghai adventure will start from the famous Yu Garden(Closed on each Monday).

Yuyuan Garden was built during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty by Pan Yunduan, a minister of government in Sichuan during the Ming Dynasty, and has a history of over 400 years.This is the only Ming style garden in Shanghai. At the gate of the Yuyuan Garden, you will see the YuyuanZigzagBridge which has nine curves and eighteen bends. Each bend of the Zigzag Bridge is carved with a seasonal flower on the stone slab, such as daffodils in January, apricots in February, peach blossoms in March ...... until winter sweet in December. It is a must-visit spot for a trip to Shanghai.

When you finish visiting the Yuyuan Garden, we will walk to the Shanghai Old Street which is next to the Yuyuan Garden. Historically known as Temple Street, it brought together a number of Shanghai's earliest banks, gold stores, silver stores, wine shops, teahouses, theaters, and merchant houses. We will spend some free time here.

Lunch will be at a local restaurant.

After lunch we will drive to the Xintiandi Area. Walking through Xintiandi is like walking backwards in time, you will feel like being in Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. But inside of each building is very modern and fashionable. The old Shikumenhouses, which reflect the history and culture of Shanghai, were transformed into a fashionable, leisure and cultural entertainment center with dining, shopping and performing arts.

Walk through the Xintiandi Area, we will reach the Former French Concession. This is the most European style district in Shanghai, with a collection of garden houses and a wide variety of online celebrity snack stores.It is also a veritable "celebrity road", where the literary master Ba Jin, Huang Xing and Song Qingling lived.This is a perfect place to know the building history of Shanghai.

Before sunset, we will move to the Shanghai Tower which is the tallest building in Asia. Shanghai Center is the best place to see Shanghai old city and the Huangpu River from its 119th floor. It's a must-see place if you are in Shanghai. Especially during the sunset, the view is amazing.

After the tour, we will go back to the hotel.

Local snack recommendations at Yu Garden Old Street area:

Xiao Yang Pan-fried Steamed Buns

Xiao Yang's pan-fried buns are thin-skinned, stuffed and juicy.And the buns are served with beef vermicelli soup, which is delicious. It is a classic snack store in Shanghai, with dozens of chain stores in Shanghai

Nanxiang Steamed Bun Shop: Xiao Long Bao

Nanxiang Steamed Bun Shop is a century-old store with many people lining up to buy Xiao Long Bao every day.The crabmeat dumplings, fresh meat dumplings, and crab dumplings with soup are all very delicious, making them one of the most popular snacks in God’s Temple area.

Yu Garden

Shanghai Tower

After checking out from the hotel, the guide and driver will take you to the airport to catch your flight.

Our service will end here.

Editor: Lexie Jia