China Best Tours in Metropolis

You will arrive in Beijing today. Beijing is the capital of China and is also the most cultural city in China. After your arrival at the airport, your guide and driver must be already there and waiting to take you to the hotel. Today, you will have a rest at the hotel.

Free time suggestion: If you want to have a glance at Beijinger’s local life by yourself today, you could go to Sanlitun Bar Street or Houhai Lake Bar Street. Go to Wangfujing Street if you just want to stroll around.

After a buffet breakfast at the hotel, your guide will take you to start your Beijing tour. First, you will see Tian’anmen Square. The original name of Tian'anmen was Chengtianmen, which was built in the 15th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1417). In 1651, the eighth year of the Shunzhi Emperor in the Qing Dynasty, it was renamed Tian'anmen. At that time, Tian'anmen was just a closed T-shaped palace square, which was an important place for the governments of Ming and Qing Dynasties to hold big celebrations and issue decrees to the nation. Tian'anmen Square represented the majesty of the imperial power at that time. On October 1, 1949, the founding ceremony of the People’s Republic of China was held at Tian’anmen Square. Then Tian’anmen was designed as a part of the national emblem of China.

Walking forward, you will visit the Forbidden City(closed each Monday), which has a history of 600 years. The Forbidden City witnessed the highs and lows of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The World Heritage Organization says of the Forbidden City, "The Forbidden City was the supreme center of power in China for more than five centuries, and with its landscaped gardens and a vast complex of 9,000 rooms housing furniture and artifacts, it stands as a priceless historical testament to Chinese civilization during the Ming and Qing Dynasties." It is also the biggest, the most complete ancient building complex existing in the world.

You will have lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch, you will see the Lama Temple. The Lama Temple, also known as Yonghe Palace, is mainly composed of three exquisite pagodas and five magnificent halls. With a history of more than 300 hundred years, it was built as a palace for the fourth son of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. It covers a total area of 66,400 square meters and has more than a thousand halls. Its architectural style is very unique, blending Han nationality, Man nationality, Mongol nationality and other ethnic architectural art in one. In the ninth year of Emperor Qianlong(1744), it was changed to a temple. There were two emperors in the Qing Dynasty who used to living in Yonghe Palace, so it was called the blessed place.

Then you will have a visit to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a large landscape garden based on the design of the West Lake in Hangzhou. It is the most completely preserved royal garden, known as the "Royal Garden Museum". The main attractions of the Summer Palace include Hall of Happiness in Longevity, Wenchang Gallery, Kunming Lake, Longevity Hill, Seventeen-Arch Bridge, Hall for Listening to Orioles (Tingli Guan), Long Corridor, Suzhou Street (Suzhou Jie), etc. Among these spots, I want to introduce Kunming Lake to you. Kunming Lake is the biggest lake among the lakes of imperial gardens, covering an area of 2,000,000 square meters. You could have a boat tour on the Lake.

Option: Have a taste of Peking Roast Duck at an authentic roast duck restaurant after a full-day tour, and it would be enjoyable.

Tian’anmen Square

Summer Palace

After breakfast at the hotel, you will have sightseeing at the Ding Tomb of the Ming Tombs. Covering an area of 182,000 square meters, Ding Tomb is the only one of the 13 Ming Tombs that has been excavated. The construction of the Ding Tomb began in 1584 and took six years to complete. Ding Tomb is the tomb of Emperor Wanli and Empresses Xiaojing and Xianduanxian in the Ming Dynasty. Inside the underground palace of Ding Tomb, you can see the emperor’s coffin surrounded by funeral objects, including jades, vases, and wooden cases.

Then you will visit the Great Wall. The Great Wall was not just a wall, but a defense system in ancient times. With the wall as the main body, combined with a large number of beacon towers, pavilions and markers, the Great Wall had been a guardian of ancient China for more than 2000 years. The Great Wall is one of the longest and most extensive ancient defense projects not only in China but also in the world. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, it had been continuously built for more than 2,000 years over a vast area of land in northern and central China, with a total length of more than 20,000 kilometers. Today, you will step on it. “One who fails to reach the Great Wall is not a hero.” Conquer the Great Wall, you are a hero today.

Option: You could watch a Kungfu Show(19:30-20:50), and see the real Kungfu heroes. All the actors on the stage are real Kungfu masters, and it is definitely worth the ticket.

Ming Tombs

Great Wall

After breakfast at the hotel, you will visit the Temple of Heaven. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Temple of Heaven was a place for the emperors to worship heaven and pray for good weather and good harvest. Since the 19th year of Emperor Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, a total of 22 emperors have personally worshipped and paid homage to the god of heaven in the Temple of Heaven. After appreciating the cultural buildings, you could have a walk in the park. There you will meet lots of local people, who are doing morning exercise, playing pokers, and so on. If you are conversable, you could make friends with them. Then, you will take the estimated high-speed train G3 14:00/18:28 to Shanghai. After your arrival in Shanghai, your local guide will wait for you at the Shanghai train station. Then you will be transferred to the hotel.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven

Your Shanghai local guide will come and meet you after your breakfast at the hotel. Today you will first see the Jade Buddha Temple. The architecture of Jade Buddha Temple inherited the style of Song Dynasty temples, with a construction area of 8,856 square meters. This temple is famous for the two jade Buddha statues, which were carved in Burma and brought to Shanghai in Qing Dynasty. To protect the buildings and make more space for the believers, the Great Buddha’s Hall was moved 30 meters to the north in 2017. Now there are more and more believers to pray and worship the Buddha here. Then you will have a visit to Shanghai Museum.

After lunch, you will see Yu Garden (closed each Monday) and Shanghai Old Street. Yu Garden was originally a private garden built in the Ming Dynasty and has a history of over four hundred years. The owner of the garden, Pan Yunduan, a minister of government in Sichuan, built the garden for his father to spend the retired life. It is a classical Chinese Southern Garden with water, trees, and rockery. Besides, you could also see the exquisite traditional carvings on the wall, on the gate. Then you will have a stroll on the nearby Shanghai Old Street. Located in the northern end of the Yuyuan Mall, south of the Yu Garden, with a total length of more than 100 meters, it gathered more than thirty stores rich in Chinese ethnic characteristics. These stores sell furnishings, craft gifts, festive items, and traditional souvenirs. Besides, you could also try some local snacks here, like steamed dumplings and sweet green rice balls.

At last, you will have a bird view of Shanghai at Oriental Pearl TV Tower. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower has three spheres: the lower one, the upper one and the top one. The top sphere is called the Space Hall, with a height of 342 meters, a sphere diameter of 16 meters. Today you will see is the upper level at the height of 263 meters. There are the transparent glasses underfoot in the observation deck. The revolving restaurant in the height of 267 meters is a buffet restaurant, where you can enjoy the beautiful night view while having lunch or dinner.

Options:

1. Exploring the Huangpu River further through Huangpu River Night Cruise, you will have a full view of the two sides of the Huangpu River. The cruise is open from 19:00 to 21:00, and the duration is one hour.
2. If you want to sit down and watch an acrobatics show, then I will recommend ERA - Intersection of Time(19:30-21:00) for you.

Yu Garden

Oriental Pearl TV Tower

This morning, you will drive 1 hour and 50 kilometers to visit the Zhujiajiao Water Town. Zhujiajiao is one of the ancient cultural towns in Shanghai. Here you can walk on the small bridges while the water flowing under the bridge. Sitting on a boat, you will be awarded with the most beautiful water town scenery. The Fangsheng Bridge is the landmark here, and almost all visitors to Zhujiajiao will walk on the bridge and take a photo to keep as a souvenir. Besides, you would also have opportunities to try some local snacks, like stinky tofu and fresh meat rice dumplings.

Then you will go back downtown to see the Bund. The Bund is 1.5 kilometers long, starting from Yan'an East Road in the south to the Waibaidu Bridge on Suzhou Creek in the north, with the Huangpu River in the east. In the west is the place of concentration of financial and foreign trade institutions in old Shanghai. After Shanghai was established as a commercial port, foreign banks, merchant organizations, associations and newspapers began to gather here, and the Bund became the financial center of the country. If you want to do more than just walking around on the bund, you can go into one of the old buildings, like Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai. It was built in 1929, and was the highest building at that time. Step inside, there are a lot of artworks and old pictures on the wall and corridor. The whole building is an exhibition of old Shanghai.

Then you will walk to Nanjing Road, and have some free time. Nanjing Road originated from an alley in 1851, being extended in 1854, and commonly known as Dama Road then. 1945, the end of World War II, the concession was abolished, and the new government named it Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road is the earliest commercial street in Shanghai. There are lots of time-honored brands like Shen Dacheng, Zhang Xiaoquan, and Cai Tongde. You could taste the Shanghai authentic dim sums at Shen Dacheng Restaurants. And then buy several pairs of chopsticks at little shops, try to use them with your families after you return back to your sweet home.

Nanjing Road

the Bund

After breakfast at the hotel, you will be transferred to the airport and fly back to your sweet home.

Editor: Summer Hou