China Tour

Enjoy an impressive trip around China: majestic buildings of ancient times, fantastic landscapes and modern metropolises. Highlights of the tour are: the Great Wall in Beijing, the Army of the Terrakotta Warriors in Xi'an, the river cruise on the Yangtze River and the pulsating metropolis Shanghai.



Itinerary:

Visit the Yu Garden and the Tea House in the morning. Then you experience the religious life in the Jade Buddha Temple, where a 2m Buddha statue made of one single piece of rare white Burmese jade, is housed. After lunch, visit the Bund, a street along the Huangpu River, with its European colonial architecture of the 1930's. Stroll up the Nanjing Road, the busiest shopping street of Shanghai.

The morning is at your disposal. Transfer to the airport and go to Yichang (or to Wuhan, then transfer to Yichang) by plane in the afternoon. Then you get on the Yangtze Cruise Ship****.

Enjoy the fascinating Yangtze River Cruise through the impressing Three Gorges. It will last for three days from Yichang up to Chongqing. All-inclusive service is provided on the ship, which includes three meals per day and two onshore tours. One brings you to one of the Yangtze River tributary gorges. The other tour takes you to one of the culturally and historically most important cities on the riverside.

After the arrival in Chongqing, you visit the Chaotianmen Esplanade at the dock, which is shaped like a ship bow. It is located on a peninsula, which is formed by the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. Then visit the Eling Gongyuan (Goose Hill Park) on the bluff of the Jialing River. You can stand on the top of the look-out and get a beautiful overview of the city. Transfer to the airport and fly to Xi'an. Arrival in Xi'an and transfer to the hotel.

In the morning, you go to the excavation site of the Army of TerraCotta Warriors. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The excavation is located close to the subsurface grave of the first emperor of China. There are thousands of life-size Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses watching over the Tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (BC 221-210), especially two bronze models of horse carriage and warrior. In the afternoon, you return to the city by bus and visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (Da Yan Ta) in the Dacien temple built in 652 A.D., which is considered as Xi'an's landmark. Transfer to the train station in the afternoon. You will go to Beijing by train in a first class sleeping wagon.

Visit the world-famous Tian'anmen Square in the morning. Enter the palace of the emperor, which the Chinese officials call the Palace Museum (better known as the Forbidden City) through the Tian’anmen Square Gate. The Forbidden City is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, too. It is a masterpiece of Chinese palace architecture and it demonstrates the integration of traditional architecture in ancient northern China into the art of palace building. After lunch, visit the Temple of Heaven, where the Ming and Qing Emperors worshiped the heaven and prayed for good harvests. It is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is an unique expression of the Chinese concept of the relationship between heaven and earth.

Visit the Badaling Great Wall in the morning. You can climb up it and enjoy the scenery from above. Visit the Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan) after lunch. It is an imperial garden where the Chinese gardening is perfectly reflected. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Suggestion for the evening: Peking Opera.

Visit the Lama Temple (Yong He gong) in the morning. It is one of the largest and most beautiful temples in Beijing. It is a successful mixture of Han, Manchurian, Mongolian and Tibetan culture and architecture. And then you see the Confucius Temple (Kong Miao). The rest of the day is at your disposal.
Some suggestions for you: Take a walk through the Wangfujing Dajie or taste the most famous speciality of Beijing - the “Beijing duck”.

Transfer to the airport after breakfast and fly back home.

End of the travel.

B: Breakfast     L: Lunch     D: Dinner

Number of participants	Peak season	Single room extra charge	Single cabin extra charge	book
2-5 pers.	1285 USD	195 USD	220 USD
	Shoulder season	Single room extra charge	Single cabin extra charge
	1205 USD	170 USD	195 USD

If you are a group with more than 5 persons, you can get more favourable prices. Please note that the prices may vary due to exchange rate fluctuations (RMB to USD) slightly. The prices above were computed by the rates as 1 USD= 7.9 RMB.

Peak season: May, September and October
Shoulder season: March, April, June, July, August, November

The hotels:
Shanghai Pacific Luck Hotel***
Xi'an Jianguo Hotel****
Beijing Qianmen Hotel***(*)

Price includes:
-- All overnight accommodation in double rooms shared by two adults with    breakfast
-- Meals as listed in the itinerary
-- All transfers and entrance tickets as listed in the itinerary
-- Inland flight tickets including all fees
-- With Yangtze Cruise Ship****
-- Local English-speaking tour guides

Price does not include:
-- International flight tickets
-- Visa for China
-- Personal expenditures, tips etc.

Note:
-- All prices quoted above are in USD (please note the exchange rate     fluctuations).
-- The cruise ship always sets off on Monday morning from Yichang, so that     the itinerary must be planed according to that.
-- Children less than 12 years old can be given discounts.
-- The hotels, trains and flights listed in the itinerary may be changed into the     ones of similar category if necessary.
-- The prices do not apply to the period of the Formula 1 racings in Shanghai    (25th Sep.–5th Oct. 2006).
-- If you want to change the itinerary, please contact us.