Culture Immersion Tour from Beijing

Your fascinating culture immersion tour will begin the moment you set your feet in Beijing, the capital of China. You can find our tour guide in no time as he/she will hold a welcome sign and wait for you in the most conspicuous position. After picking you up, our driver will take you to the hotel in downtown Beijing. Then you can spend some time arranging your belongings or exploring the neighborhood nearby the hotel. Your fascinating trip will officially start tomorrow.

After breakfast, your guide will meet you in the lobby. Our first stop of today’s visit is the Summer Palace. This attraction is one of the must-visit destinations in Beijing. As the best-preserved imperial garden in the world, the Summer Palace is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. Completed in 1764, the Summer Palace was built in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912) by Emperor Qianlong to please his mother. It covers an area of 293 hectares and has more than 3,000 palaces and gardens inside in various forms with different designs, functioning in three different ways: administration, living, and sightseeing. Within the Summer Palace, the ancient Chinese philosophy of harmony between nature and human can be discerned everywhere from its harmonious combination of plants and paths, water and land, as well as architecture and horticulture. Many interesting activities are waiting for you to explore inside the place such as walking along the Long Corridor and watching some traditional Chinese performances.

When the time for lunch approaches, our guide will take you to the nearby restaurant to enjoy a delicious meal. In the afternoon, you will be visiting Mutianyu Great Wall after a little more than an hour’s drive (74 KM) from the Summer Palace. The Great Wall, as the most outstanding symbol of the city of Beijing as well as of whole China, can be best explained by the saying that, “He who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true man.” With a span of 2,000 years’ construction, the Great Wall is an ancient Chinese military fortification, distributing over a vast area of northern and central China with a total length of more than 20,000 kilometers. The Mutianyu Great Wall, constructed in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), is a 5,400-meter-long Great Wall section. The reason why we prefer Mutianyu Great Wall to other sections is that it has the most watchtowers distributed along and that the surrounding natural scenery is breathtaking. Besides, it has fewer tourists. As for some challenging activities, you can take toboggan and slide from the top to the bottom of the mountain to have fun and save energy.

Night Options: One’s trip to Beijing cannot be fulfilled unless he eats the local famous dish - Peking Roast Duck. To put a perfect end to your day, you can choose a Peking Roast Duck dinner. Anyone who has eaten it, whether they are heads of state, government officials, or tourists, all speaks highly of it. It is traditionally a royal dish with a history of about 1,500 years. Our guide will show you the correct way to relish the meal.

Mutianyu Great Wall

the Summer Palace

Today, we will first visit the Temple of Heaven after breakfast. It is known as the largest and most representative ancient Chinese sacrificial building. In history, the Temple of Heaven was built as the site for emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911) to hold the heaven-worship and harvest-praying ceremonies. Now it is opened to the public as a park where you may see many people doing Tai Chi and other morning activities.

After learning about the Temple of Heaven, our second destination is Tian’anmen Square located in central Beijing. With 440,000 square meters, Tian’anmen Square can accommodate up to a million people for large gatherings when the national flag-raising ceremonies and the celebration of the national holidays take place here. Along Beijing’s medial axis inside the square from north to south stand the national flagpole, the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, and the Zhengyangmen Gate Tower.

Your next stop will be the Forbidden City (closed each Monday), also known as the Palace Museum. Lying in the city center of Beijing, it was once home to 24 emperors and their families and functioned as the ceremonial and political center of the ancient Chinese government throughout the 500 years. There are many things worth exploring inside the roofs, such as carvings, building materials, and structure. If you are interested in Chinese Feng Shui, our guide is also glad to tell you how Feng Shui is shown in the Forbidden City.

After lunch, you are going to say goodbye to the capital of China and end your cultural tour here for a while. Our guide will send you to Beijing Train Station. Your next amazing culture immersion tour will soon restart in Xi’an, one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. You will take the estimated high-speed train G349 15:13/19:42 to Xi’an, and after arrival, your Xi’an guide will pick you up at the Xi’an North Railway Station and take you to the hotel.

Temple of Heaven

the Forbidden City

After breakfast, you will visit one of the Eight Wonders of the World - Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses Museum after an hour’s drive (41 KM) from the downtown area. It is the most significant historical and cultural site accidentally found by a farmer while doing farm work. The museum is a mausoleum built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang who, upon ascending the throne at the age of 13, had begun to build his mausoleum. The whole project took an astonishing 11 years to finish. Many treasures and sacrificial objects were buried to accompany the emperor in his afterlife. The terracotta figures are of a real person’s size and vary in height, uniform, hairstyle, and weapons in accordance with their ranks.

After lunch, it will take us about one hour (45KM) to go to Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Built in 652 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), the pagoda is well-known for its Buddhism-related history. It is the place where Buddhist materials taken by the Master Xuanzang from ancient India were collected and where Sanskrit in sutras was translated by 50 hierarchs and Xuanzang himself.

Then you will visit the ancient City Wall. As the best-preserved city wall in China, this wall is a good testimony to the wisdom the ancient Chinese people had shown in engineering and construction skills. The existing Xi’an Ancient City Wall was built from 1,370 to 1,378 under the order of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty for military defense, food storage, and other purposes. Standing at the top of the wall, you can have a nice view of the old city and feel the cultural atmosphere here. Then you can walk around or rent a shared bicycle with your family or friends to ride on this ancient city wall.

Night Optional Activities:

1. To kill your time at night, you can choose to go to Muslim Quarter. It is a local famous food quarter with intersecting roads that sell foods and snacks. As its name suggests, the Muslim cultural atmosphere is profound here. Your appetite will be satisfied by a series of delicious food such as flatbread in mutton soup, Xi’an meat burger, cold noodles, and Biangbiang noodles.
2. Spending time at Great Tang All Day Mall (next to Big Wild Goose Pagoda) is also a good option. It is a comprehensive culture center and shopping mall with buildings featuring the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) architecture and sculptures telling the Tang stories. You can enjoy street performances, a variety of food, and shopping here.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Terra Cotta Warriots and Horses Museum

After a short stay in Xi’an, we will be heading for Shanghai. Our guide will send you to the airport and you will take the estimated flight HU7841 15:30/18:00 to get to this fabulous and influential city in China. As always, your Shanghai guide will be waiting for you at the Shanghai Pudong (or Hongqiao) International Airport and take you to the hotel after picking you up.

Free time option: How to seize your valuable time while you are in Shanghai? We recommend that you go to Tianzifang during your first evening. Tianzifang is an artsy area transformed from an old residential design called “nongtang”. It now houses various stores from bars and cafes to crafts shops, galleries, and snack vendors. You can spend time staying a while to see whether you can taste something delicious or purchase some meaningful souvenirs.

After having breakfast, your first stop in Shanghai will be Jade Buddha Temple. As one of the top ten tourist attractions in Shanghai, it is peacefully situated in the bustling Shanghai downtown area. According to history, a monk named Huigen went on a pilgrimage to Burma during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty and brought back five jade statues of Sakyamuni, leaving two jade statues here. So, the temple was specially built as a shrine for these two statues in 1882. Now the temple you are going to see was renovated on the present site in 1928 after a huge fire.

About half an hour’s drive from the temple, you will next visit Yu Garden (closed each Monday). Yu Garden is a famous classic garden built in 1559 in the Ming Dynasty. It is a private garden under the request of the Pan family and it was built for his parents as a tranquil place to spend their remaining years in comfort and happiness. Covering an area of 20,000 square meters, the garden offers surprisingly beautiful sceneries containing chambers, pavilions, halls, rockeries, terraces, and waters as well as holding various exhibitions of flowers, calligraphies, paintings, and other recreations.

After lunch at a local restaurant, you will be enjoying breath-taking views in the world's 2nd tallest building - the Shanghai Tower. As a Shanghai landmark and financial icon, it has 128 floors above ground and 5 underground with a total height of 632 meters (2,073 feet). When you reach the 118th or 119th floor which has the world’s highest observation deck (561 meters), you can have a panoramic view of the whole of Shanghai under the sunset or radiating and illuminating especially at night.

When the dawn approaches, you will start heading for the Bund, or Shanghai Waitan. As a symbol of Shanghai and one of the must-visit destinations in Shanghai, it is one of the best places to enjoy Shanghai night views including Shanghai Jinmao Tower, the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower, and Shanghai World Financial Center, etc. Strolling along the waterfront avenue, you can behold the vigorous and vibrant buildings and feel the real charm of Shanghai as a metropolis. 

Starting at the Bund, the 5.5-km-long Nanjing Road is a famous shopping street in China that you must see. This is a place where thousands of merchants gather; it is a window of Shanghai’s reform and opening up and a paradise for shoppers at home and abroad. There are most of Shanghai’s oldest and largest department stores, as well as a variety of domestic retail outlets, and some savoring snacks of time-horned brands. Besides, the night skyline of this lively city is also very impressive here.

Optional Activities:

1. In the evening while on the Bund, you can choose to take a Huangpu River Night Cruise (duration: 60 minutes), watching the two sides of the high-rise, and various styles of building groups. The cruise will enable you to touch the beauty of Shanghai more closely.
2. Acrobatics is another distinctive feature of China. In Shanghai, there is one famous acrobatic show: ERA - Intersection of Time (19:30 - 21:00). The show uses high-tech means to create amazing and magical effects and deploys special devices such as sound, light, electricity, water curtain, smoke, etc. to make the stage multi-dimensional. It will show you what an authentic Chinese acrobatic show looks like and open a new acrobatic world for you.
3. As for the food, you can have a Shanghai Dim Sum dinner. There are quite a few appetizing local snacks such as fried steamed buns, pot stickers, mini steamed dumplings, spring rolls. Enjoy your last meal in Shanghai. You will not be disappointed.

the Bund

Yu Garden

On the 7th day of this trip, you will be transferred to Shanghai International Airport. Our guide will take you to the airport and you will take the estimated flight CA1969 16:10/18:45 to fly to the place full of natural scenery. Your Guilin guide will pick you up at the airport and drop you at the hotel. You can then arrange your free time as you wish.

After breakfast, our guide will pick you up and head for today’s first item - Li River Cruise. As the old saying goes, east or west, Guilin landscape is the best. This can be exemplified by the Li River. While sitting on the cruise ship heading for Yangshuo, you will have to use your imagination to resonate with the stunning natural scenery the Li River is presenting for you. This area is the most typical karst landscape, blessing with flushing mountains, green and peaceful water, beautiful stones as well as natural creatures such as buffalo grazing on the bund. Seize this rare chance to appreciate this uninterrupted masterpiece of nature and make peace with the world.

The lunch will be provided for you on the ship. When we reach Yangshuo, our next destination will be Yangshuo West Street. This street is not as simple as it sounds. It is called “a foreigner street” or “the global village” because you can often see many foreigners here and hear people talking in English or other languages everywhere even for the local elderly women. It is the most prosperous district in Yangshuo, containing various shops including craftworks shops, painting and calligraphy stores, backpack shops, and Chinese Kung Fu academies. The street will satisfy you not only by sight but also by taste. You will be tempted by the Beer Fish, Ciba (a kind of Chinese rice cake), and Stuffed Escargots, etc. After staying at this place for a while, we will drive back to Guilin. The return trip will take an estimated one hour (80 KM).

Optional Activity: For more interesting and exciting activities, you can take Bamboo Rafting on the Yulong River. The raft, a special Chinese vehicle on water driven by manpower, will allow you to appreciate the essence of the beautiful natural scenery. Along the route, ancient villages, various old stone bridges as well as quaint watermill row upon row will gradually come into sight, structuring a beautiful countryside landscape painting.

Li River Cruise

Yangshuo West Street

After breakfast, we will first visit the Reed Flute Cave in Guilin. As a fascinating gallery of natural sculptures found in every travel itinerary, the Reed Flute Cave got its name from the verdant reeds growing outside, with which people make melodious flutes. The cave is characterized by stalagmites, stalactites, and rock formations in bizarre and fascinating shapes. When illuminated by colored lights, it can be mysterious and dazzling, presenting to you what the “Nature’s Art Palace” looks like. In addition, based on the inscriptions written in ink inside the cave, it can be inferred that the cave has been an attraction as far as 792 in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907).

After lunch, your guide will take you to the train station and you will take the estimated high-speed train G410 13:36/16:57 to Hong Kong. Your guide there will wait for you at the train station and transfer you to the hotel. The rest of the time is all yours.

Reed Flute Cave

Reed Flute Cave

After breakfast, your guide will pick you up and head for Victoria Peak. The peak is in a peculiar bowl shape and is the highest point on Hongkong Island. To get a panoramic view of the metropolis and city landscape, you will take the Peak Tram which will ascend you to Sky Terrace 428 where the entire city is within your view.  Having been put in service since May 30, 1888, the tram is the earliest tram rail system in Asia with a history of more than 130 years. It was also used as a setting for many Hollywood films.

After visiting Victoria Peak, you will see the beach and sea at Repulse Bay. It is the most representative bay in Hong Kong, enjoying the reputation of “Hawaii of the East”. Repulse Bay is said to have got its name from a British royal warship that was stationed in the bay to repel pirates. The beach stretches along in a crescent shape. The sun shines on the shimmering sea; the clear, blue water gently laps the seashore; the breeze whispers around your ear. What a relaxing scene it is!

Optional Activity: At night, you can choose to go to Temple Street Night Market. The night market is a common place for Chinese people to spend their night time. For this market place in Hong Kong, you can enjoy snacks or a full dinner of fresh fish, spicy crab, and other unique dishes. In addition, one of its differences with others is that it has become a regular place for people to seek knowledge of their future. Whether you are a believer in fortune-telling or not, it is interesting to see the fortune tellers lining their stalls at the side of the market.

Victoria Peak

Repulse Bay

After breakfast, our driver will take you to the airport according to the time of your flight. The day will eventually come when you fly back home and say goodbye to this memorable trip to China. Have a pleasant journey. Hope to see you again!

Editor: Jingjing Liu

Proofreading: Tina Jia