China Luxury Beautiful Scenery Tour

Upon arrival, you will meet your guide at the airport. After giving you a warm welcome, your guide will escort you to your hotel in Hong Kong (in southern China). Covering some 1,100 square kilometers, Hong Kong is home to more than 7.4 millions people of different descent, with the bulk of them being Chinese. Hong Kong, also praised as the “Pearl of the Orient”, is usually discussed due to its Cantonese traditions, food, and architecture. If it is your first time to visit Hong Kong, you will by no means miss its mouth-watering food. A popular one is char siu bao, a type of distinctive Cantonese baozi (steamed bun) with juicy barbecued pork as its filling. You will  rave about it if you take a bite of the fluffy, sweet char siu bao. The magic juice of barbecued pork inside is like the icing on the cake, adding a rich flavor to the soft bun.   

After having your breakfast, you will head to Victoria Peak, a must-visit attraction in Hong Kong. Located in the western part of Hong Kong, Victoria Peak represents the highest point on Hong Kong Island, standing at 552 meters. When you arrive there, you will take a Peak Tram to the top of Victoria Peak, where you will see Peak Tower. Peak Tower is composed of various shops, restaurants, and entertainment facilities. It is very popular to enjoy mouth-watering food in a restaurant against the magnificent backdrop of Hong Kong. For most visitors to Peak Tower, Sky Terrace 428, which commands a panoramic view of the city, is the reason why they visit here. Sky Terrace 428 is a good option if you want to capture the best view of Hong Kong. Standing on the sightseeing platform, you will be able to admire the splendid ocean, the busy Victoria Harbor as well as the far-away Lamma Island. And you are suggested to post the pictures that you take here on your Facebook, and you will surely get a lot of likes from your friends. A few years later, when you review these beautiful pictures, you may miss the beautiful Hong Kong.         

After lunch, you will visit Repulse Bay in the southern part of Hong Kong Island. Many rich people lived here. Besides, Repulse Bay also boasts the most expensive residences in this international metropolis. And if you ask which place is the most popular attraction in Repulse Bay, Repulse Bay Beach should be the first one to be mentioned. With the best water quality globally, the crescent-shaped beach attracts hordes of visitors from all parts of the world. In addition, its mild waves, warm seawater, and fine-grained sand are also what so many sunbathing lovers come here for. After swimming or sunbathing, you can also rent a barbecue grill if you feel hungry.

Then you will explore Stanley Market, one of the most popular open-air markets in Hong Kong. Stanley Market offers Chinese paintings, silk products, postcards, etc. You may have a chance to experience one of the most popular services in Stanley Market that have your name translated into Chinese and then have it written on a traditional Chinese folding fan. You can also customize the fan by adding any content you like to it. Different from conventional fans in the western world, a Chinese folding fan is made of paper and wooden fan ribs, which can both function as a fan and an ornament. When you don’t need it for cooling, you can also fold it up and put it in your handbag.                   

After you complete your Hong Kong tour today, your guide will drive you to your hotel, where you can enjoy your private hours and have a good rest.

Stanley Market

Peak Tram

After breakfast, it is time for you to wave goodbye to Hong Kong. Your Hong Kong guide will help you check out and escort you to the train station, where you will take the estimated train G408 12:05/15:25 to Guilin of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (in southwestern China). On arrival, you will see your Guilin guide waiting for you at the train station. After giving you a warm welcome, your guide will escort you to your hotel in Guilin. After the check-in at the hotel, you may stay in your room and have some private hours. Or you can also make use of your free hours to stroll around the Guilin city area. With more than 70% of it covered by forests, Guilin is frequently mentioned together with its clear waters and lush mountains. Notably, Guilin is blessed with a distinctive karst landscape. Besides, you will also find some food that you have never seen, such as Guilin rice noodles, beer fish, and steamed Li River fish. As the most popular local staple for the morning, Guilin rice noodles are composed of rice noodles, specially-made soup, and multiple side dishes. The essence of rice noodles in Guilin lies in its distinctive soup, which consists of more than 20 ingredients, including more than 10 types of herbs, pig and cow bones, as well as Chinese spirit.          

After breakfast, your guide will drive you to Zhujiang Pier, which is approximately 24 kilometers southeast of the Guilin city area. It is estimated that you will spend 40 minutes to get there. During this period, you are welcome to ask whatever you want to know about your tour. As you are the member of our China luxury tour, you will, instead of taking a three-star Li River cruise ship, board a four-star Li River cruise ship, which provides you with more sumptuous buffet lunch and more comfortable sofa seats than what a conventional 3 star Li River cruise ship provides. Before arriving at Yangshuo, you will spend 4 pleasant hours on your luxury cruise ship enjoying the picturesque views along the Li River. With a total length of more than 170 kilometers, Li River is reputed as the most beautiful place in Guilin. The picturesque Li River distinguishes itself from other rivers by its different landscapes under different weather conditions. You will enjoy the reflections of the lush mountains along the Li River on a sunny day. While on a cloudy day, you will be enchanted by the unworldly fog above the Li River. And on a rainy day, you can admire the hazy mountains veiled in the mist, which looks like a traditional Chinese ink painting.    

At Yangshuo, you will disembark and go to visit Yangshuo West Street, a pedestrian street enjoying a history of more than 1,400 years. Situated in the center of the Yangshuo Ancient Town, Yangshuo West Street is about 800 meters long and 8 meters wide. You can discover China’s largest foreign language corner on this prosperous street, with a lot of foreign visitors here making acquaintance with new friends. Every day, more than 1,000 foreigners will visit Yangshuo West Street. Moreover, this ancient but inclusive street is reputed as “earth village” for its over 20 stores run by foreigners and the locals’ good command of several foreign languages. Many shop assistants here can speak fluent English.  

After your visit to Yangshuo West Street, your guide will drive you back to your hotel in Guilin, where you are suggested to have good rest in preparation for your flight tomorrow.  

Li river

Yangshuo west street

After breakfast, your guide will help you check out and then escort you to the airport, where you will take the estimated flight CN7128 11:45/15:00 to Beijing in northern China. Upon arrival, you will meet your Beijing guide at the arrival hall. And then your guide will escort you to your hotel in Beijing. As one of the most populous cities in the world, Beijing, the capital of the People’s Republic of China, has a population of more than 20 million, about 1/3 of the British population. In this city steeped in history, you can easily find a lot of local specialties. For example, Ludagunr is a popular Beijing local snack, which is originated from Man ethnic group in China. It had been one royal dish for many years. Ludagunr is made of red bean paste, sticky rice, and soybean flour.             

After breakfast, you will head to your first destination in Beijing, Tian’anmen Square, which witnesses new China’s establishment process. With a length of 880 meters and a width of 500 meters, Tian’anmen Square is one of the largest squares in the world, as evidenced by its capacity of accommodating as many as 1 million people for major gatherings. When you visit Tian’anmen Square, you may marvel at a couple of finely-carved stone lions in front of the Golden Water Bridge. And you may wonder why there is a deep hole in the belly of a lion. As a story goes that when Li Zicheng, the head of the rebel army that overthrew the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), led his army to the front of the very stone lions and was about to conquer the royal palace, two lions suddenly appeared and snarled at them. With his army falling into disarray, the enraged Li wrested a spear from one of his soldiers beside him and poked it deep into the belly of one of the lions. Scared by the unstoppable Li, the lions stepped back and turned into two stone lions miraculously, but the resultant wound remained.   

Then you will visit the Forbidden City (closed each Monday), the imperial palace that has witnessed the reigns of more than 24 emperors of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1636-1912) Dynasties. The Forbidden City was built from 1406 to 1420, covering a total area of about 720,000 square meters, about 13.8 times the size of the White House. There is an aggregate of more than 70 palaces and over 9,000 rooms in the Forbidden City. And a popular one of them is the Gallery of Clocks, in which more than 1,000 exquisite clocks are displayed. Since the reign of Qianlong Emperor(1736-1795), the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, a huge influx of clocks were widely used in the royal palace. Most of them were imported from the British Empire as well as other European countries, and some of them were manufactured by Chinese craftsmen. As these clocks were introduced to please the emperors and their concubines, clocks with decorations of all sorts, such as valuable jewels, animals that symbolize good luck, and sophisticated carvings were customized. A representative one of them is a golden clock, on the top of which erects a finely-carved gold lion with its left front claw stepping on a ball. Such design embodies the supreme power of the Emperor.                        

After lunch, you will take a walk in the Summer Palace, which is located in the western suburb of Beijing. Completed in 1764, the Summer Palace was built as an imperial garden, covering a total area of about 2.9 square kilometers, about 6.5 times the size of the Vatican. Built with the Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill as the basis, the designer of the Summer Palace added a number of buildings with recreational, spiritual, and residential functions to this area in accordance with Fengshui (the traditional Chinese architectural philosophy). Do you know when the once inaccessible garden was opened to the public? There is a story about the opening of the Summer Palace. After the abdication of Puyi (the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty), more and more people appealed for opening the Summer Palace to public. Facing pressure from the public, the then government announced to open this imperial garden from 9 am to 6 pm on the 6th, 16th, and 26th of each Chinese lunar month. However, only high-ranking officers of the army and elites of all political parties were eligible for entry. Worse still, women were not allowed to enter the Summer Palace. The discriminatory announcement soon sparked the social outcry from the public, the women community in particular. Later, another announcement, which allowed the entry of women with special permits, was made. In 1914, two years after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the then government started to sell the Summer Palace tickets to the public due to worsening financial conditions.           

The Forbidden City

Summer Palace

After breakfast, you will explore the Hutongs, a cluster of traditional Beijing residences. Composed of maze-like valleys and lines of siheyuans (traditional Beijing residences), the hutong is frequently mentioned together with its twists and turns. An outlander is very likely to get lost in a twisty hutong despite the fact that it is not his first time to visit here. As a result, we will arrange for you a rickshaw so that you can experience the daily life in a hutong without losing your bearings. Notably, what is also interesting is that the naming of hutongs is closely related to social production. For example, if a hutong is frequently visited for its funeral industry, it is very likely to be named “Coffin Hutong”. Once “Mahua Hutong” got its name as there were many shops selling mahua (a popular local snack) in this hutong.    

Then your guide will drive you to Mutianyu Great Wall, which is approximately 72 kilometers southwest of the Beijing city area. It will take you about 80 minutes to get there. During your time in the car, you are welcome to ask your guide about your tour at the Mutianyu Great Wall. Built during the Ming Dynasty, the Mutianyu Great Wall is the longest section of Chinese Great Wall, meandering as long as 5,400 meters. There is no denying that Qinshihuan, the first emperor of ancient China, ordered to build the Great Wall to ward off the invasion of nomadic people. The completion of the Chinese Great Wall was at the cost of a great deal of money and countless human lives. Studies show that the expense of building the Great Wall in the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-201 BC) alone amounted to more than 150 billion US dollars. As a result, some historians believe that the construction of the Great Wall may be responsible for the fall of the Qin Empire.    

After lunch, you will experience the privilege peculiar to our luxury Great Wall tour, which is exploring the Mutianyu Great wall by taking a helicopter. You will sit in the helicopter flown by our handpicked veteran pilot to admire the fabulous landscapes. It is estimated that your helicopter journey will last about 10 minutes. After your helicopter journey, you will take a cable car to explore the Mutianyu Great Wall and feel the majesty of the architectural wonder.     

Mutianyu Great Wall

Hutong

After breakfast, your guide will help you check out and escort you to the airport according to your flight. China Tour Star looks forward to your next meaningful China tour with us.    

Author: Yuxin Zhou

Proofreader: Yan Liu