China Tour from Hong Kong

Welcome to Hong Kong. You will meet your guide who is holding your name sign at the airport. And then you will be transferred to your hotel. You can have a rest at the hotel.  

Free time suggestion:

If you want to go around to have a glance at the nightlife of Hong Kong, Lan Kwai Fong is the best place. The 110-meter street is filled with small Western-style restaurants, bars, Disco, night club, Karaoke club, where fashionista come to have fun every night

Lan Kwai Fong

Lan Kwai Fong

In the morning, you will visit the Wong Tai Sin Temple. This is the most popular temple in Hong Kong. The building of Wong Tai Sin Temple is full of traditional Chinese style. It looks like a Taoist building but not a pure Taoist Temple, and many classics of Confucianism and Buddhism are stored in the temple. For Example, the portraits of Guanyin Bodhisattva and Confucius are stored in the Sansheng Hall of the Wong Tai Sin Temple. And it has obtained special approval to allow couples to register for marriage here. Besides, fortune-telling is one activity that can not be missed here. The master here will tell you about your future life through the fortune-telling sticks that you get in front of the Buddha.

After that, you will visit Victoria Peak. To get to the top of the Peak, taking one of the world's oldest and most prestigious funicular railways, Peak Tram, will be an unforgettable experience. The Peak Tram was originally powered by coal, but later became electricity. The entire railway is towed by a steel cable, and the train climbs diagonally from 28 meters to 396 meters (about 1,300 feet) above sea level, offering passengers a view of Victoria Harbour along the way. Sitting in the cabin, you can't help but lean back, and the slopes of some sections range from 4 to 25.7 degrees. The tall buildings and dense trees seem to have fallen to one side, which looks amazing! This attracted Hollywood to come to the Peak Tram for filming in 1950. After arriving at the peak, you will see Peak Tower, which is like a huge bowl. It is a building integrating sightseeing, dining, leisure, and exhibition. There is the highest viewing platform in Hong Kong. Standing here, you can overlook entire Hong Kong. Because of the unique shape of the Peak Tower, many postcards are printed with photos from here. If you want to deliver a postcard to your family, friends even to yourself, you can go to the Peak Post Office.

And then you will visit Repulse Bay. There are many bays in Hong Kong, but Repulse Bay can be regarded as a big star among them. Delicate sandy beaches, tall palm trees, clear waters, perfect beach facilities, high-end seaside shopping centers, it can meet all your needs. Besides, it is also a popular barbecue place. Somebody are barbecuing, somebody are swimming, and some beautiful women wearing bikini are walking around. Repulse Bay is also one of the most exclusive residential areas in Hong Kong.  Numerous villas and mansions dot the slopes of the mountain behind the bay, including the mansion of Hong Kong tycoons Li Ka-shing.

After that, you will visit the Stanley Market. The goods sold in Stanley Market are various, such as Hong Kong authentic handicrafts, postcards, T-shirts and accessories printed with Hong Kong attractions. On the second weekend of each month, the performance venue next to the Stanley Market Shopping Center will become the "Stanley Art Market", which includes fine painting, art performance bands, creative handcrafts, etc. If you don’t want to buy anything, you could also have a coffee in a riverside coffee shop. After that, you will be transferred to your hotel.

Tips:

1. Wear sunscreen and sunglasses during your stroll on Victoria Peak and the Repulse Bay.
2. Bring spare clothes in case you get wet while playing at the beach.

Victoria Peak

Repulse Bay

In the morning, you will take an estimated train G408 12:05/15:25 to Guilin. Your guide will wait for you at the Guilin train station. Your guide will take you to your Guilin hotel and check in.

Free time suggestion:

You will have some free time today, and don’t waste it if you are not tired. Zhengyang Pedestrian Street in Guilin is a popular place for shopping and enjoying local snacks. Among all the snacks, I recommend the Guilin rice noodles for you, which is a specialty of Guilin. It was invented by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, with a history of 2200 years. Adding sour bean curd, sour bamboo shoots, peanut, barbecue pork, smoked sausage into cooked soup rice noodles, it has attracted countless people to have a taste of it.

Zhengyang Pedestrian Street

Zhengyang Pedestrian Street

After breakfast, you will take the Li River Cruise to Yangshuo. The Li River is the essence of Guilin's scenery. The beauty of the Li River lies in the different characteristics in different weather. On sunny days, there are mountains reflecting on the water; on cloudy days, it makes the mountain and river like fairyland; on rainy days, the rain curtain covers the mountains and rivers like a light gauze. The two banks of Li River are mostly karst landscapes. The peaks on both sides of the river stand straight up as if they were cut from the top by a knife. There are many shrubs and small flowers on the stone peaks, from a distance, the surface of the mountain looks like a beautiful woman's clothes. You will stay 4 hours on the cruise. During the tour, you will see local people rowing bamboo rafts for fishing or grazing cattle on the shore. You will also see villagers in the distant hills, dressed in ethnic minority costumes, carrying their daily necessities up the hills. There are still many people who have lived in the mountain villages for generations and do not want to leave. You will have lunch on board. 

When you arrive in Yangshuo, you will visit the Yangshuo West Street. With a history of 1400 years, the Yangshuo West Street is the oldest street and also the most prosperous street in Yangshuo. This is the place where Chinese and Western, tradition and modernity collide. You will see that almost every shop’s signboard is in both Chinese and English. On the roadside, there are ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties as well as fashionable bars. The Ming Dynasty city wall, inscriptions, ancient temples, ancient pavilions, former residences of famous people, and other ancient buildings are all well preserved. And you could taste the most representative local food, Beer Fish, at Yangshuo West Street. By the way, the fish is from the Li River. At last of the day, you will spend about 90minutes, and drive about 70KM to go back to your Guilin hotel.

Li River Cruise

Yangshuo West Street

After breakfast at hotel, you will meet your Guilin guide at hotel lobby. Then you will take an estimated flight CZ8617 10:55/12:55 to Xi’an. Your guide in Xi’an will wait for you at Xi’an airport. And then you will be transferred to your hotel. The rest of the time will be yours, and you can take a rest or walk around the city by yourself.

Free time suggestion:

1. Muslim Quarter is the area where more than 60,000 Muslim people live and where you can find any kind of local snacks. Among them, I will recommend you to taste the Mutton and Bread Pieces in Soup or Chinese hamburger(hotcake with mutton or beef in the middle).
2. Tonight, if you don’t want to waste time at the hotel, then go to Great Tang All Day Mall, and it won’t let you down. It’s a free cultural street. Here you can see a girl in Tang Dynasty costume playing the Guzheng (Chinese zither). And you can also see the Tang-style statues but pretended by real people. I bet you would not recognize which one is stone and which one is a real man. You will love here.

Muslim Quarter

Great Tang All Day Mall

After buffet breakfast at hotel, you will first visit the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses Museum. It needs a one-hour drive, and is about 45KM away from the city center. The Terracotta Army are known as the eighth wonder of the world. It is also one of the ten most treasured tombs in the world. There are currently more than 8,000 terracotta warriors and horses unearthed. Most of them are warrior figurines. They were armed with bronze weapons and wore armors. And they are differences in the shape, figure, expression, eyebrows, eyes, or age.

After that, we will visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is the earliest and largest existing quartet-style brick tower in the Tang Dynasty. The seven-story tower has a height of 64.517 meters. The Buddhist scriptures brought back from India by Xuanzang, a famous monk in the Tang Dynasty, are stored here. At the same time, Indian Buddhism also spread to China. Now the square around the Big Wild Goose Pagoda is also a good place to see. There will be four musical fountain performances every day on the Big Wild Goose Pagoda Square. If you are lucky, you will see the largest musical fountain in the world.

At last, your guide will take you to see the City Wall, which was built in Ming Dynasty, and is the largest and best-preserved ancient city wall in China. Xi’an City Wall is built by the first emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, for his son, who was sent to Xi’an as a vassal king.

Optional activity:

1. Xi’an was the capital city in Tang Dynasty and was named Chang’an. Tang Dynasty is one of the most prosperous dynasties in ancient China. If you want to have an intuitive feeling of the Tang Dynasty, a Tang Dynasty Dancing and Singing Show(20:30-21:40) will be your best choice. Before the show, you will have a dumpling dinner at the palace-style restaurant.
2. The City Wall is 12 meters high, 12-14 meters wide at the top and 15-18 meters wide at the bottom. So it is wide enough to ride a bicycle on it. You can rent a double-riding bicycle, and ride with your beloved boyfriend or girlfriend, wife or husband, while enjoying the sunset view of Xi’an.   

Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses Museum

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

In the morning, your guide and driver will escort you to Xi’an Airport. Your guide will help you to check in and register your luggage, and nothing needs to be worried about here. And then take an estimated flight 9C6402 11:55/14:15 to Shanghai. Your local guide in Shanghai will hold your name sign and wait for you at the airport. You will be told the guide’s contact number in advance, so if you need any help, just make a call. After the guide picks you up, you will be transferred to the hotel.

Free time suggestion:

1. If you want to have a leisurely afternoon or night in Shanghai, Tianzifang is a good place to go. There are lots of lanes, with galleries, photography exhibitions, cafes and handicraft shops in it.
2. If you want to know the young’s nightlife in Shanghai, then Hengshan Road is the right place. Hengshan Road is in the Former French Concession area. There are lots of bars along the road, where you will see many local young boys and girls.  

Tianzifang

Hengshan Road

In the morning, you will visit the Yu Garden (closed each Monday). Yu Garden is a famous garden in Shanghai. “Yu” means safe and peaceful. Yu Garden was built by Pan Yunduan, a Ming Dynasty official, who spent twenty years building the Yu Garden for his retired father to have a peaceful old age. There are many old trees. The ancient ginkgo tree in front of Wanhua Tower is more than 430 years old and 26 meters high. It looks like a giant from a distance. Besides, the style of Yu Garden is a typical southern Chinese garden style. Exquisite pavilions, curved bridges, a calm lake, and uniquely shaped stones, all of these make the Yu Garden attractive to all the visitors to Shanghai. 

After that, we will visit the Jade Buddha Temple. There are two jade Buddha statues in the temple. One is a sitting Buddha and is as tall as one adult. The other is a reclining Buddha, about one meter long. Both jade Buddhas were carved from a single piece of white jade in Myanmar. For the sitting Buddha, the edge of the Buddha's robe and the armlet on his right arm are decorated with more than one hundred jadeite, onyx and other precious stones. Buddhism ceremonies are held in the temple every year to save the souls of the deceased person.

After that, you will be transferred to visit the Shanghai Tower. The Shanghai Tower is 632 meters high and is the tallest building in Shanghai, even in China. The shape of the Shanghai Tower is spiraling, which can reduce the influence of wind on it. The interior is mainly divided into five parts: exhibition, tourism, business, hotel and office. The 118th and 119th floors are opened as the main sightseeing floors for tourists to have a bird view of Shanghai. Shanghai Tower has 3 super high-speed elevators with an ascending speed of 18 meters per second, which take only 55 seconds to go from the 2nd basement level to the 119th-floor observation deck. Besides, there are 4 types of light shows, corresponding to normal days, weekends, holidays, and special performances. The light show echoes the landscape lights of the Bund buildings, which is very amazing.

And then you will be transferred to visit the Bund. Some people say that the story of the Bund is the story of Shanghai. This shows that the Bund is the epitome of Shanghai with the essence of the buildings, including classic Asian building, the classic British building, the classic European eclectic customs building, and so on. For example, Shanghai Peace Hotel is classical Gothic Architecture. General Marshall of the United States once stayed here. Although these buildings are not by the same designer or built in the same period, their architectural colors are basically uniform and the overall style is very harmonious.

And then you will visit Nanjing Road. In the course of more than 100 years of development, Nanjing Road has created buildings of various styles. This is one of the earliest and most prosperous streets in Shanghai. There are more than 700 shops on both sides. In the middle of the road, there are also jingle cars for sightseeing. It is one of the ten most beautiful pedestrian streets in China. As an absolute "golden location" in Shanghai, it is also a must-see. Here you can taste Shanghai local dim sum, meat-stuffed mooncake. You can also buy beautiful silk clothes at the centuries-old department stores.

Tips for visiting Yu Garden:

1. There are uneven walkways, steps, stone bridges, ramps, ponds, rockeries, caves, low trees, moss, and so on, so please pay attention to the safety warning signs at various places in the gardens and pay attention to safety at all times.
2. The ecological environment in the park is good, and there are wild animals occasionally, so if you encounter them, it is recommended to go around and avoid them.
3. In rainy and snowy weather, the paths in the garden are very slippery, so avoid slipping and getting injured.
4. Yu Garden is suitable for walking, if you need to use a child stroller or wheelchair, please pay attention to safety at all times.

Jade Buddha Temple

Shanghai Tower

In the morning, you will be transferred to the train station and take an estimated train G12 11:53/16:38 to Beijing. Your guide in Beijing will wait for you at the train station. And then you will be transferred to your hotel. On your way to the hotel, you can ask the guide any questions about Beijing.

Free time suggestion:

1. If you're energetic and want to join the young people of Beijing, head to Sanlitun Bar Street, one of the "busiest" entertainment streets in Beijing for nightlife. There are more than 40% of the bars in Beijing.
2. If you just want to stroll around, and enjoy the night view of Beijing, then go to Wangfujing Street. Here you can taste many authentic Beijing snacks as well as buy local handicrafts as souvenirs for your families.

Sanlitun Bar Street

Sanlitun Bar Street

After breakfast, you will visit Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City (closed each Monday).

Tian’anmen Square is the largest city center square in the world and the most important square in China. This is the city center of Beijing, and it is also the place where many major celebrations are held. China's important National Day military parade is held here each time.  Walking on the Tian’anmen Square, you will see the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, and the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. You will also see the portrait of Chairman Mao hanging on the Tian’anmen Gate Tower. The portrait is 6 meters high and 4.6 meters wide, and with the frame, the total weight is 1.5 tons, which is the largest hand-painted portrait in the country, in Asia, and even in the Eastern Hemisphere. This portrait has to be replaced once a year.

Walking through Tian’anmen Square, you will enter the Forbidden City. As the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there are more than 9,000 rooms in the Forbidden City and it is one of the largest existing wooden palaces in the world. Walking into the Forbidden City, you will have a feeling of traveling back 600 years ago. The red wall and yellow tiles can be only used for the royal family in the Qing and Ming dynasties. During your stroll in the Forbidden City, you may notice that there is no bird on the roofs of the palace. Considering the bird droppings on the palace walls, which are both unsightly and smelly, Ming Dynasty craftsmen carefully calculated the slope and width of the tiles when building the palace so that birds could not stand on them. Thus, no bird can be seen on the roofs of the palaces. You may also encounter a few tourists wearing traditional Chinese costumes here, who are big fans of Chinese traditional culture. You could take pictures with them if they agree.

After lunch, you will visit the Temple of Heaven. China was a big agricultural country in ancient times, so good weather and plenty of rain every year are very important. The ancient emperors prayed for good weather and a good harvest every year here in the Temple of Heaven. Every winter solstice, the emperor held a sacrifice ceremony at the circular mound altar. It is a building carefully designed by the ancients. The speech sound of the Emperor, standing at the circular mound altar, will be reflected back to the emperor himself three times by the surrounding railings, forming echoes from all directions to him, creating an atmosphere of "dialog between heaven and man", so as to complete the worship of heaven.

Then you will go to visit the Summer Palace, which was built in the Qing Dynasty. Here is the place for emperors and their families to escape the heat in the summertime. There is a place I want to introduce to you, Suzhou Street, also known as Buy and Sell Street. It was built to please the royal family in imitation of the water towns of Southern China. There were all kinds of stores, such as jade antique stores, silk stores, snack stores, teahouses, gold and silver jewelry buildings. The shopkeepers were pretended by the eunuchs and palace maids, and they would pretend to peddle when the emperor came. After that, you will be transferred back to your hotel.

Tian’anmen Square

Temple of Heaven

Today, you will visit the world-famous Great Wall. It needs to drive for about 100 minutes(75KM) to get there. We will suggest you wear comfortable shoes. Someone once said that the Great Wall can be seen at space. Although this statement was later proved to be false, it also shows that the Great Wall is a very huge project. With a length of 21,196.18 kilometers, the Great Wall is the largest military defense system in the world. Spanning over more than 2000 years, the Great Wall has lost its military function. Some parts have been damaged or collapsed. However, a large part of the Great Wall is still well-preserved for modern people to appreciate how grand it is. You will have the opportunity to take the cable car to reach the Great Wall. If you are physically fit, you can also try to walk to a higher part of the Great Wall by yourself. Walking along the Great Wall, you will see many watchtowers, so you could peek through it while imagining the ancient wars.

After lunch, we will drive to visit the Ming Tombs. As the tombs of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Tombs covers an area of about 120 square kilometers and is the largest royal cemetery in the world. The Ming Dynasty lasted 236 years and there were 16 emperors. Among them, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, established the capital in Nanjing, and he was buried in Nanjing after his death. The whereabouts of the second emperor were unknown, and the seventh emperor was eventually buried in the prince’s grave due to a coup. The remaining 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty are buried here. Today, your guide will take you to visit the Ding Tomb, which is tomb of Emperor Wanli, the 13^th emperor in the Ming Dynasty. Ding Tomb is the only one of the thirteen tombs that has been excavated and can be visited in the underground palace. After that, you will be transferred back to your hotel.

Ming Tombs

Great Wall

Today, your guide and driver will say goodbye to you. You will be transferred to the airport according to the schedule of your return flight. Your guide will help you to check in and register the luggage. I trust the China experience will make your future life better. See you again!