Start in: Shanghai
End in: Beijing
Special Experience: Shanghai acrobatic show in Shanghai, Ancient City Wall in Nanjing, Terracotta Army in Xian, Peking Duck Banquet and Hutong tour by rickshaw in Beijing
China Ancient Capital Discovery Tour (Route B)
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Day 1 Arrive Shanghai
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown 
Transfer via: International flight on your own arrangement
Upon your arrival at Shanghai, our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free at your own leisure.
A hall of Shanghai Museum
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Shanghai Museum,Yu Garden,Yuyuan Market,Jade Buddha Temple
Gala Event: Acrobatic Show
Today, your full-day excursion of incredible Shanghai will include: Shanghai Museum, Yu Garden, Yuyuan Market and the Jade Buddha Temple. Enjoy a wonderful Acrobatic Show tonight.
- Shanghai Museum: often ranked as China's best museum, it is the biggest museum in China with a fine collection of over 120,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts.
- Yu Garden: located in the Old Town of Shanghai and laid out in 1559 AD by a powerful Ming official, Yu Garden recreates a beautiful landscape of pagodas, pavilions, rockeries, fountains, ancient trees and precious flowers.
- Yuyuan Market: outside the Yu Garden, a bustling market with different snacks and trinkets.
- Jade Buddha Temple: named after its exquisite milk-white jade Buddha brought from Burma in the 19th century by a Chinese monk, it is a spiritual oasis in the midst of a modern metropolis.
- Acrobatic Show: Chinese Acrobatics is one of the oldest performing arts with its history tracing back to Neolithic times, during its development in the history, it has been absorbing plentiful merits from the opera, dance and Chinese Kungfu, and formed its own artistic features. In Portman Acrobatic Show, in a very typical Shanghainese setting and atmosphere, you will enjoy many breathtaking and stunning programs such as Calvaria Skills, Silk Suspending, Hoop Diving and so on performed by very skillful performers, you will truly have an unforgettable experience of your life.
Acrobatic Show in Shanghai: Performers illustrate the harmonious beauty of human body when performing to the public.
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Oriental Pearl TV Tower,Children's palace,Nanjing Road,The Bund
After breakfast, you will tour the Bund and the Nanjing Road, and then visit the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the Children's palace.
- Oriental Pearl TV Tower: It stands opposite to the Bund in the Pudong area of Shanghai. Located on the bank of the Huangpu River, it is 468 meters high which makes it the highest TV tower in Asia and the third highest tower in the world. From the sightseeing floor, you can get a bird's eye view of the exciting city of Shanghai.
- Children's palace: a center for children to carry out their extracurricular activities. It arranges after-school education and recreation according to children's psychology and interest.
- Nanjing Road: known as "China's No.1 Shopping Street" with a huge selection of merchandise on sale.
- The Bund : where the great trading houses and banks had their headquarters in the 1920s and the 1930s. The Bund is about about a mile long, it is the city's fulcrum.
The Bund shows off Shanghai's outstanding Western-style buildings, most of which were erected before 1937.
Accommodations: Ramada Plaza Nanjing Yihua Hotel
Meals: B
Transfer via: Soft-seat train on our arrangement
Free in the day until our local guide escorts you to the train station to your next destination - Nanjing. Arrive at Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel.
The Yangtze Rvier Bridge is extremely charming at night.
Accommodations: Ramada Plaza Nanjing Yihua Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Yangtze Rvier Bridge,Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum,Yuejiang Tower
Today you will visit Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Yangtze River Bridge and Yuejiang Tower.
- Yangtze Rvier Bridge: the pride of modern Nanjing, it was designed and built completely by Chinese. Work on it commenced in 1961 and was finished in 1968. It is one of the longest bridges in China - a double-decker with a 4.5km-long road on top and a train line below, and it is a key point for traffic between north and south China.
- Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum: located on the Purple Mountain, it is the burial ground for Dr.Sun Yat-sen who is considered as the father of the Chinese republic. The mausoleum is 158 meters above sea level with 392 marble steps leading up to it and a five-meter-high statue of Dr.Sun Yat-sen greeting people in the entrance of the main hall.
- Yuejiang Tower: located on Lion Hill in the northwest part of Nanjing near the banks of Yangtze River, it is one of the best places in Nanjing to enjoy a view of the mighty Yangtze River. This 52 meter high pagoda is built in the style of the Ming dynasty, inside which are displays related to the Ming Dynasty and Zhenghe's sea voyages as well as a multi-storey tile mural.
Accommodations: Ramada Plaza Nanjing Yihua Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Qinhuai River,Zhonghua Gate,Confucius Temple
Today's Nanjing city tour includes Nanjing City Wall, Zhonghua Gate, Confucius Temple, Qinhuai River and its adjacent free market.
- Qinhuai River: a branch of the Yangtze River flowing through the city, the inner part of it used to be the most prosperous place in Nanjing since it was the red-light district famous all over the nation. Recently, along the river, an old neighborhood in typical southern Chinese style has been rebuilt with many shops, teahouses and restaurants, where you can feel the atmosphere of authentic Chinese market.
- Zhonghua Gate: meaning Chinese gate, one of the original 13 Ming city gates that still remain, it is the biggest and most splendid city gate of Nanjing City Wall.
- Confucius Temple: once a center of Confucian study for more than 1500 years, it has been damaged and rebuilt repeatedly, and the present buildings are late-Qing dynasty structures or completely new ones restored in traditional style.
The most charming view on Qinhuai River is the Ming-style boats with colorful balls and red lanterns.
Accommodations: Ramada Plaza Nanjing Yihua Hotel
Meals: B
Free time at your own leisure to meet friends and have fun with them.
Night view of the Bell Tower in Xian
Accommodations: Hotel Royal Garden
Meals: B
Transfer via: China domestic flight on our arrangement
Free in the day until your transfer to your next destination - Xian. Upon your arrival, our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free at your own leisure.
Accommodations: Hotel Royal Garden
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Terracotta Warriors and Horses,Ancient City Walls ,Bell Tower
Today, you will enjoy a full-day excursion to the incredible life-size Terracotta Warriors and Horses, and after lunch, visit the Ancient City Walls and then the Bell Tower.
- Terracotta Warriors and Horses: discovered in 1974 by local farmers digging a well, this is one of the most significant archeological finds of the 20th century. These 6,000 life-size painted Terracotta Warriors and Horses --individually sculpted from real-life models and arranged in battle formation have been protecting the mausoleum of the first emperor in Chinese history--Emperor QinShihuang for 2,200 years ago.
- Ancient City Walls : built during the 14th century on Tang dynasty foundations and they date from the Ming dynasty. The walls are the largest and best-preserved ancient fortress in the world. There is a gate in each of the four sides, and the gate towers built over each gate look lofty and magnificent and form a tight defence engineering system.
- Bell Tower: standing in the center of the city and built in 1582, the Bell Tower is a three-story wooden structure with traditional Chinese architectural features. It is so called because an iron bell is hung in the tower to give the correct time.
The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B
Sightseeing: Shaanxi Provincial Museum,Big Wild Goose Pagoda
Transfer via: China domestic flight on our arrangement
After breakfast, you will have a city tour to the Shaanxi Provincial Museum and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda before your onward flight to the next destination--Beijing.
- Shaanxi Provincial Museum: opened in 1991, the largest comprehensive museum in the province. The museum exhibits over 3,000 historical relics which is just a fraction of their collection. Most of the exhibited items are rare treasures, showing you the splendid Chinese culture.
- Big Wild Goose Pagoda: regarded by many as a symbol of the city Xian, the pagoda was built in 652 A.D. in the Tang Dynasty to house the sutras brought back from India by the famous monk Xuan-zang.
Ancient bronze objects are exhibited in Shaanxi Provincial Museum.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Tiananmen Square,Forbidden City,Temple of Heaven
Today you will first visit the historic Tiananmen Square, and then the magnificent Forbidden City. In the afternoon, you will marvel at Beijing's splendid Temple of Heaven.
- Tiananmen Square: the largest city square in the world and the spiritual heart of China, where the national flag is raised exactly at sunrise everyday.
- Forbidden City: located in the center of Beijing, used to be the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties with a history of around 600 years, it is the grandest integral palace complex still remaining in China.
- Temple of Heaven: the place which was visited yearly by the emperors who performed intricate rituals to insure a good harvest for the whole nation at ancient times.
A night view of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in the ancient capital Xian
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B,L,D
Sightseeing: Great Wall,Ding Tomb,Sacred Road
Special Dinner: Peking Duck Dinner
Today's full-day excursion will take you to the majestic Great Wall (Badaling section), the Ding Tomb of Ming Tombs and Sacred road. Enjoy a famous Peking Duck Banquet for dinner.
- Great Wall: the most famous symbol of China and one of the world's most remarkable architectural wonders, it was built over 2,000 years ago and stretches about 6,700km.
- Ding Tomb: the burial site of the emperor Wanli, the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty who ruled for 48 years until his death in 1620, it is the only underground tomb of the thirteen Imperial Ming tombs ever excavated.
- Sacred Road: the path lined with stone statues of animals, mystical beasts and officials who are supposed to serve the emperor in his afterlife, through which the sitting emperors would go to perform memorial rituals for the ancestors once a year.
- Peking Duck Dinner: Peking Roast Duck is regarded as one of the most delicious dishes throughout the world. A Peking Duck Dinner is usually a fixed item on any Beijing tour itinerary. At time-honored restaurants such as Quan Ju De, you can savor the mouth-watering traditional Beijing specialty, and at the same time the chefs will show you how they cuts the meat into exactly 108 slices from one duck, each having a piece of skin.
If you prefer to see the Great Wall in a relatively natural state, visit the Simatai section, 110km northeast of Beijing.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Hutongs
After breakfast, you will visit Hutongs by rickshaw, and lunch will be served in one of the local people's home during the tour, where you can learn how to make dumplings.
- Hutongs: the old narrow paths with lots of courtyard homes where common people are living. They are like villages within a megalopolis. Through the hutongs' teeming maze of alleyways, you will see the old houses and learn about the daily life of ordinary Beijing citizens.
Giant panda bears are living happily in Beijing Zoo.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Fragrance Hills Park,Beijing Zoo,Summer Palace
Full day trip to the the exquisite Summer Palace, the Fragrance Hills Park and Beijing Zoo.
- Fragrance Hills Park: Situated 28 kilometers northwest of downtown Beijing, this park is famous for its beautiful red maple leaves in autumn. Many visitors come to the hill to enjoy the crisp and refreshing autumn.
- Beijing Zoo: the largest zoo in China, where there are several examples of China's rarities such as notably pandas and Golden Monkeys.
- Summer Palace : Located on the northwestern outskirts of the city, it was an imperial summer resort of the Qing Dynasty. With its perfect layout, magnificent buildings and enchanting landscape, it is the most splendid classical garden in China.
The political area in the Summer Palace, Ren Shou Tang
Meals: B
Transfer via: International flight on your own arrangement
Free in the day until our local guide escorts you to the airport for your onward flight to your sweet home.
China domestic flights as specified in the itinerary 
Accommodations for 14 nights, including
14 nights at four star or higher hotels
24 meals, including 14 full breakfasts, 9 lunches and 1 dinners
(including Peking Duck Dinner)
1 gala evening events--Acrobatic Show in Shanghai 
Round-trip transfers---between airports, hotels and scenic spots in each city by private air-conditioned motor coaches with experienced drivers
A local English-speaking guide in each city
Entrance fees to scenic spots listed in the itinerary
Luggage transfers between airports and hotels
China Life Tourist Accident/Casualty insurance
Government taxes and service charges except tips for tour guides and drivers
In Yuyuan Garden, the Dragon sculptures on the walls are quite impressive.
My family had an excellent time in Yunnan and Guilin. My parents still haven't talking about this trip, and all the things we saw, to our familys and friends. Every place we visited had its uniqueness that we will remember. In fact, there is no place throughout our trip which anyone of us could say we like the best.
- Soe Aung Lwin,USA
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