7 Days Metropolis Luxury Tour

Welcome to Beijing! As the capital of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing is the political center, cultural center, international exchange center, the center of scientific and technological innovation of China, as well as the world’s key city. The total area of Beijing is 16,410.54 square kilometers. According to the seventh census, more than 21,893,095 people now live in Beijing as of November 1, 2020. Moreover, Beijing has a temperate climate with four distinct seasons. The average temperature in spring and autumn is 20 degrees, in summer it is 30 degrees and in winter it is 3. If you want to come to Beijing in winter, you have to wear thick clothes such as cotton-padded clothes and a fur-lined jacket. People in Beijing have their own dialect——the Beijing Dialect, and they are proud of it. While other dialects are popular locally, the Beijing Dialect is spoken all over the country. People everywhere can understand it and always learn to speak it. When you come to Beijing, you can hear the authentic Beijing dialect and learn a few of it, which will surely make your visit to Beijing more interesting!

When you arrive in Beijing, the local guide will meet you at the airport and take you to the five-star hotel in downtown Beijing.

After breakfast, you will visit Tian’anmen Square. Located in downtown Beijing, Tian’anmen Square is the political and cultural center of Beijing. After more than 500 years of vicissitudes of life, the square is the largest city square in the world, covering an area of 440,000 square meters. It has witnessed Chinese people’s fight for democracy and freedom over and over again, as well as their struggle against foreign invaders and reactionary rule. Now, it is an important place for new China to hold major celebrations and meet foreign guests. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Tian’anmen Square has gone through three large-scale reconstructions, making the ancient square even more magnificent and becoming a symbol of the cohesion of the Chinese nation and the prosperity of the country. When you come here, you must notice the flagpole in the square. The flagpole is 32.6 meters high, but the national flag is only raised to 28.3 meters every time. Why? This is because the Communist Party of China was founded in July 1921, and it took 28 years and three months for the party to establish the new China (October, 1949). To commemorate the CPC’s 28 years and three months of hard struggle, the flag was only raised to 28.3 meters.

Next, you will go to the Forbidden City. (Closed on Mondays) Covering an area of 720,000 square meters, the Forbidden City has red walls and yellow tiles, which make it extremely spectacular. 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties lived here. Among them, Emperor Kangxi made great achievements. During his reign, the social economy was developed and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. But he was most admired for his composure and wisdom, which began when he defeated Oboi. Oboi was a minister of the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912). Kangxi was still young when he ascended the throne, he relied on Oboi to handle some state affairs. But Oboi was arrogant, defiant, and arbitrary, which seriously threatened Kangxi’s rule, so Kangxi secretly decided to kill Oboi. Outwardly Kangxi is respectful to Oboi outwardly to make him not suspicious. On the other hand, he was training elite soldiers to help start his plan. After a few months, the soldiers were well-trained. One day, Kangxi summoned Oboi to the palace. As soon as he entered the gate, he was captured and finally was imprisoned. Since then, no one could threaten Kangxi anymore.

Then, you will head for Hutongs. Hutongs seem like the veins of the city. Although they cannot be found all over Beijing, they are like one of the precious ornaments of contemporary Beijing. Hutongs are the place where residents live. Each hutong has its own story, and you will appreciate its charm as long as you feel it by heart. Built in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Nanluoguxiang Alley has a history of more than700 years and now has become a famous hutong in Beijing. You can see many distinctive shops here. Moreover, it is a typical bar street as well as the best-preserved area of traditional courtyard housing in Beijing. Shops of the whole bar street are opened in quadrangle courtyard, and their decorative style is more traditional. Most of the bars here are close to life, quiet, and harmonious. Though they are located downtown, they don’t make you feel noisy. Dongjiaominxiang Alley is the longest hutong in Beijing. It used to be a famous legation quarter, with buildings of different styles. And it is the only hutong with many foreign houses in Beijing. We’ve also arranged a rickshaw tour and Hutong Family visit for you.

Your final stop is the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace, a royal garden in the Qing Dynasty, is located in the western suburbs of Beijing. It is 15 kilometers away from downtown Beijing and covers an area of 3.009 square kilometers. It is the most complete royal palace and known as “the Museum of Imperial Gardens”. The largest area of the Summer Palace is the Kunming Lake, which covers an area of two million square meters, which amounts to three quarters of the total area of the Summer Palace. Moreover, the Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty loved the scenery of the South, especially the West Lake in Hangzhou. So, the sights around Kunming Lake are modeled on those around the West Lake (a beautiful lake in Hangzhou). There are many lotus flowers in the lake, and some people grow rice in the paddy fields around the lake. Several temples stand Beside the lake. All the sights make the scenery pleasant. In addition, a dragon boat will enable you to enjoy the scenery of Kunming Lake.

After finishing your visit, you will be transferred to your hotel.

Forbidden City

Summer Palace

After breakfast, you will go to Mutianyu Great Wall to start your luxury Great Wall tour. Mutianyu Great Wall has rich vegetation cover and abundant plants. The scenery in Mutianyu outshines others in China. Spring, summer, autumn and winter seasons have different views. The Great Wall is full of blooming flowers in spring, and you can see luxuriant trees all over the mountains in summer. It is stained with red by leaves, and covered with snow in winter. Moreover, the Great Wall has double-sided crenel, which serves as shelter for guarding soldiers to fight against the enemy, while others only build the crenel in the lateral side of the Great Wall. Double-sided crenel enables soldiers to fight on both sides of the wall, which is enough to prove the important strategic position of Mutianyu Great Wall in history.

Then, you will be transferred to the hotel for a good rest.

Mutianyu Great Wall

Mutianyu Great Wall

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Temple of Heaven was a place for emperors to worship heaven to pray for good harvest. It has outer wall and inner altar. The north of the wall is round, representing the heaven, while the south of the wall is square, symbolizing the Earth. Inner altar has key buildings with Circular Mound Altar in the south and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest in the north. In ancient times, emperors came to the Temple of Heaven to offer sacrifices to heaven three times a year. Every year, on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the emperor would pray to heaven for good harvest at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, which was the first sacrifice. In the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the emperor prayed for rain at Circular Mound Altar, which was the second sacrifice. Every winter solstice, the emperor would thank heaven and earth for their blessing at the Circular Mound altar, which was the third time.

The Temple of Heaven is a gathering place for Tai Chi enthusiasts. After visiting the Temple of Heaven, you can also take a Tai Chi class. We provide you with English-Speaking Tai Chi Master and Tai Chi clothes.

Today is the end of your luxury Beijing tour.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven

Yu Garden (Closed on Mondays) is the start of your luxury Shanghai tour. Known as “Wooded Hill in City”, Yu Garden is a private garden of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and a famous classical garden in the South of the Yangtze River. The word “Yu” in the name of the garden means family’s safety and happiness. The builder of the garden, Pan Yunduan, named it Yu Garden in the hope that his parents would be healthy to enjoy their old age in peace. The garden was awe-inspiring in its scenery, and the brick sculptures, stone carvings, clay figurines and woodcut scattered throughout the garden have a long history and are very exquisite. Here, we have to talk about the Nine-dragon Pond in this garden. You may wonder, are there really nine dragons in the pond? In fact, there are four stone-made dragon heads on the east and west sides of the pond, and their reflections in the water are exactly another four dragons. In addition, the winding water of the pond looks like a dragon, so there are altogether nine dragons in the pond. At last, the pond gets its name Nine-dragon Pond. There are also lotus flowers in the pool. If you come here during the blooming season, you will be fascinated by the wonderful sights in the pond. You will also have an opportunity to enjoy the Tea Ceremony.

Next, you will go to Shanghai Old Streets, which is more like a history book about Shanghai, showing the cultural evolution of old Shanghai from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the period of the Republic of China. There are not only hundred-years-old stores, but also various shops with rich traditional features. “Song Yuelou” is one of the oldest vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai. Its specialty is steamed bun with vegetable stuffing, which has been awarded “Famous Chinese snacks”. Sometimes more than 20,000 buns are sold a day! With the fluffy wrapper, the bun has fillings made of cabbage from Shanghai, mushrooms from Anhui, home-made special gluten, and dried tofu. After putting a few drops of vegetable oil and sesame oil into the fillings, the bun will let you to endless aftertastes. Built in the Reign of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, Lv Bolang is a restaurant famous for its authentic Shanghai cuisine. The main dishes are fried water eels with black vinegar sauce, braised fishtail in brown sauce, and pan-fried turnip cake. When Queen Elizabeth II visited Yu Garden in 1986, she tasted all kinds of pastry in Lv Bolang and was full of praise for them.

After lunch, you will head for Tianzifang Market, which has a strong atmosphere of arts and humanities. It is a place to convene a variety of creative shops, galleries, photographic exhibitions, as well as all types of cafes. Besides those, you can also meet street artists, who are very good at painting. If you are tired, you can ask one of them to draw a picture of yourself. You can also see the green mailboxes used in the 1980s, the most retro glasses and old music boxes, which are sure to bring you artistic aesthetic feeling. Here you can buy vanishing cream, a unique product in Shanghai, which can nourish and moisturize the skin. There are many flavors of this cream, such as peony, magnolia, night willow herb, gardenia, jasmine, osmanthus, etc. You can choose according to your own needs.

Then, you will go to Shanghai Tower. As the landmark of Shanghai, Shanghai Tower has a total height of 632 meters and rises above the clouds. The skyscraper has such height because of its strong foundation. The tower was built on a river delta with soft soil and a lot of clay, making it extremely difficult to lay the foundation. Before erecting steel girders, engineers laid 980 piles, which have a depth of 282 feet, and then poured 2.15 million cubic feet of concrete to reinforce, creating a 20-foot-thick foundation slab that kept Shanghai Tower standing still. In addition, its spiraling shape can reduce the strength of the wind, allowing the tower to withstand typhoons and adding a new skyline to Shanghai. Here, you also have the chance to experience the world’s fastest elevator.

Finally, your guide will take you to your hotel.

Yu Garden

Shanghai Tower

After breakfast, you will visit Zhujiajiao Water Town. The town is crisscrossed with rivers and alleys. Besides those, it also has bridges, boats and stones of various shapes, which are the unique sights of Jiangnan water town (the south of the Yangtze River). If you appreciate it carefully, it is not difficult to find that it is a complex of historical relics, architecture and art. There are luxurious Fangsheng Bridge teahouses, ancient club teahouses, more antique teahouse named “Miaoqu”. There are also peasant tea houses with simple decorations: several tables and benches. In addition, the teahouse on the pleasure boat will surely make you surprised! Moreover, some of the boats here have their own stories, taking the “Luoguo” boat as an example. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, both Wang Chang, a famous scholar in Zhujiajiao Water Town, and Liu Yong (Liu Luoguo) served in the court, and became lifelong friends. At the age of seventy, Wang Chang submitted his resignation to Qianlong and returned to his hometown, Zhujiajiao Water Town. Later, Liu Yong went to the town specially to see his friend Wang Chang, who meet Liu on the boat. In honor of their friendship, the boat on which they met was called “Luoguo” (the nickname of Liu Yong) boat. By the way, you also have a boat tour to visit the town. You will enjoy your lunch in Zhujiajiao Water Town.

Then, we will drive you back downtown to visit the Bund. With a total length of 1.5 kilometers, the Bund is the starting point of Shanghai’s modernization and the financial center of China and even the Far East. The HSBC Building, now known as Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, was located here. It is the largest building in the Bund and is lavishly decorated. And the Bund is home to the headquarters of the China Pacific Insurance Company, previously named Asia Building. Besides these buildings, Bund Lover’s Wall will also arise your interest, which is a good place for young men and women to have a date. In the past few decades in Shanghai, a large family lived in a small house, making it difficult for young couples to meet at home. Moreover, cafes and bars were closed at night, so couples had to walk on the streets, which were always crowded and noisy. Finally, the Bund Lover’s Wall emerged naturally. When you come to the Bund and see the love wall, you will feel very romantic.

Then, you will visit Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road was one of the earliest business streets in Shanghai with row upon row of shopping malls. It is a rather flourishing street and there are many time-honored shops on it, such as “Bao Daxiang” (a teenage children shopping center), “Lao Jiefu” (a shop that specializes in silk goods), and “Heng Yuanxiang” (a shop selling a variety of textiles). Park Hotel is also located here, which is one of the oldest hotels in Shanghai, and was known as the tallest building in Asia in the 1930s. The hotel has elegant decoration and is fully equipped. Also, it faces a picturesque park. In addition, it is conveniently located to go shopping. Most importantly, it is the first hotel that was funded by a group of Chinese bankers and built by a Chinese construction company. As the headquarters of the four major northern banks in China, it was almost more imposing than all the foreign banks, except HSBC’s global headquarters on the Bund. And the Chinese people’s ambition and confidence were greatly increased when it was built.

Next, you will be transferred to your hotel to have a good rest.

Zhujiajiao Water Town

The Bund

Today, you will be transferred to the airport for your returning.

Author：Yan Ran