Day 1     Hong Kong / Shanghai

Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Recommended Local Food: Sheng Jian

Transfer via: Flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai on our arrangement

Today you will take the flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Upon you arrive in Shanghai, you will be escorted to your hotel. The rest of the day is free at your own leisure.

- Sheng Jian: Locals in Shanghai often go to "Xiao Yang Sheng Jian", which is a tiny little stall which sells pork buns, for the best xiaolongbao (small steamer bun). It also sells other types of dumplings, such as Sheng Jian Bao (literally "fried bun") and Guo Tie (pot sticker) - all eaten dipped in black vinegar.

Day 2     Shanghai

Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Meals: B
Sightseeing: Yuyuan Market,Yu Garden,Shanghai Museum
Gala Event: Acrobatic Show

Today you will visit the Shanghai Museum, Yu Garden, Yuyuan Market and enjoy a wonderful acrabatic show tonight.

- Yuyuan Market: outside the Yu Garden, a bustling market with different snacks and trinkets.

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.

Day 3     Shanghai

Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Meals: B
Sightseeing: Children's palace,Oriental Pearl TV Tower,Nanjing Road,The Bund

Today you will visit the Children's palace, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Nanjing Road and the Bund.

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.

Day 4     Shanghai / Suzhou

Accommodations: Bamboo Grove Hotel
Meals: B
Sightseeing: Lingering Garden,Humble Administrator's Garden,Tiger Hill Park,The No.1 Silk Factory

Transfer via: Soft-seat train on our arrangement

You will be escorted to take train to Suzhou which will take around two hours. After your arrival, be met by your local guide, and your tour in Suzhou includes: the classical Humble Administrator's Garden and the attractive Lingering Garden, the ancient Tiger Hill Park and the No.1 Silk Factory.

- Lingering Garden: is one of the four most famous gardens in China and was constructed in 1593 during the Ming Dynasty. It is famous for its artistic way of dealing with the spaces between various kinds of architectural forms and garden courts.

- Humble Administrator's Garden: covers 10 acres and is the largest garden in Suzhou. It was built in 1509 during the Ming Dynasty and is divided into the eastern, middle and western parts. All of this centers upon the broad expanse of a lake to form the poetic and picturesque garden landscapes and waterscapes with exquisite buildings and luxuriant vegetation.

- Tiger Hill Park: a symbol of the city, with a history of over 2,500 years, the Tiger Hill has had the reputation of being the No.1 sight of Suzhou, with a Song-dynasty leaning pagoda on top which was built in brick to imitate wood architecture.

- The No.1 Silk Factory: Suzhou is famous for its silk production. In the factory you can learn more about silk production and detailed steps of the silk making process, and you will have an opportunity to purchase some of the incredibly delicate works as well.

Day 5     Suzhou / Hangzhou

Accommodations: Lakeview Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: West Lake,Lingyin Temple,Feilai Peak (Peak Flying From Afar),Dragon Well Tea Plantation

Transfer via: Soft-seat train on our arrangement

You will take train to Hangzhou. After your arrival at Hangzhou, you will be met by our local guide. The city tour in this beautiful city will include: West Lake by boat, Lingyin Temple, Feilai Peak and Dragon Well Tea Plantation.

- West Lake: There are 36 West Lakes throughout China, but the one in Hangzhou is the inspiration for them all. The name of the West Lake originated during the Tang Dynasty from its lying to the west of Qiantang County. Another saying is that the lake is also named after Xi Shi, a famous ancient beauty, because of the apt comparison made between the two by the famed poet Su Dongpo (1037-1101AD). Originally a lagoon, the lake was dredged in the 8th century and later diked. The entire lake is ringed on three sides by mountains and one side by the city proper. With the green hills, willow trees, elegant bridges and clean spring water around, the view of the West Lake is simply enchanting.

- Lingyin Temple: a celebrated Chan (Zen) Buddhist temple founded in 326AD, despite being destroyed and rebuilt 16 times, it remains one of Hangzhou's main attractions. The current structure dates from the late Qing dynasty. Its highlights are the Great Hall with its 65 foot camphor-wood statue of the Buddha and the FeilaiPeak opposite the temple.

- Feilai Peak (Peak Flying From Afar): opposite the Lingyin Temple, 209 meters (about 700 feet) high,it is a hill covered with inscriptions and reliefs carved into the rock dating from the 10th to 14th centuries.

- Dragon Well Tea Plantation: Dragon Well Green Tea is one of the most famous brands in China. In this Tea Plantation you can pick the tea leaves, taste a nice cup of tea and learn the history and processing procedure of tea.

Day 6     Hangzhou / Wuzhen / Hangzhou

Accommodations: Lakeview Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Wuzhen

After breakfast, drive to Wuzhen(about 75km away from Hangzhou), where you can pay a visit to Jiangnan Hundred Beds Showroom, Indigo-Blue Printed Calico Workshop, Mr.Yu Liuliang's Coin Display Room, Shadow-puppet Theatre, Ancient Stage, Pawn Museum, Visiting Lu Pavilion, etc. Drive back to Hangzhou after the visit.

- Wuzhen: one of six ancient water towns south of Yangtze River with 1200-year-old history, there residential houses are built beside rivers, while on both sides of streets, abundant ancient architectures of Ming and Qing Dynasties still remain as they were. Strolling along the ancient slabstone-paved streets, looking at its black tiled, tung oil painted timber framework houses, it seems you are walking into a traditional Chinese wash painting and experiencing an atmosphere of antiquity.

Day 7     Hangzhou / Huangshan

Accommodations: Huangshan Media Hotel
Meals: B,L

Transfer via: Soft-seat Bus on our arrangement

You will be escorted to take public bus to Huangshan which will take around 3.5 hours. Upon you arrive in Huangshan (Tunxi), our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free at your own leisure.

Day 8     Huangshan Mountain

Accommodations: Beihai Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Mt. Huangshan

After breakfast, drive 80 kilometers (1.5 hour-drive) to Huangshan Scenic Area and take cable car at Yungu Station to the top of the mountain. After check-in and lunch, you will view Brush Pen Peak, tour Lion Peak and Xihai Grand Canyon, enjoy the sunset glow at the Cloud Dispelling Pavilion, etc. Stay overnight at the summit.

- Mt. Huangshan: located in the southern Anhui Province, extending about 40km from north to south and 30km from east to west, the Huangshan Scenic Area is comprised of numerous peaks of various heights and grotesque rocks of different formation, and is well known for its extraordinary aesthetic mountainous features. Here we can find all of the beauties of nature, with its charm lying especially in its oddly-shaped pines, fantastic rocks, sea of clouds and hot springs--the four supreme sights on the mountain. The picturesque Mt.Huangshan has been a famed destination for scholars, poets and the occasional hermits in Chinese history, and has long been effusively described as "awesome," "a wonderland" and "Heaven on Earth."

Day 9     Huangshan Mountain

Accommodations: Huangshan Media Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Ink Stone Factory,Tunxi Ancient Street

Try to get up early in the morning to catch the magical sunrise, after breakfast, tour the Begin-to-Believe Peak to see the grotesque pinetrees. After all the exercise, take the cable car down to the foot of the Mt. Huangshan, drive back to the city of Huangshan to visit Tunxi Ancient Street and Ink Stone Factory.

- Ink Stone Factory: ink stone is the important part of "Four Treasures of the Study" in China. Because of its solid texture, the ink stone can be handed down from one generation to another. The Ink Stone Factory in Huangshan is one of the most famous ink stone factories in China, where you can see the whole working process.

- Tunxi Ancient Street: a well preserved bustling center of trade since the Southern Song Dynasty. It is paved with slabs of stone and is one mile long with old shops lining both sides of the street. These old shops are in perfect order and an unmistakable Huizhou architectural style.

Day 10     Huangshan / Shanghai

Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Hongcun,Xidi

Transfer via: China domestic flight on our arrangement

The tour today will bring you to Yixian County, 54km away from the city of Huangshan (about 1-hour drive), where you will visit two ancient villages--Hongcun and Xidi. After the tour, get back to the city of Huangshan and be escorted to the airport for the flight to Shanghai. Upon you arrive in Shanghai, you will be escorted to your hotel.

- Hongcun: a model of the ancient villages in China with the features of beautiful lake, first class old dwellings, peaceful streets and lanes, and the perfect natural background, where the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was partly shot. Hongcun was first built during the Southern Song Dynasty, about 900 years ago, by the Wang Clan. The layout of the village resembles the outline of an ox, hence it is popularly called as "Ox-shapedVillage". The early ox-shaped village came into being in the Ming Dynasty when Wang Siqi, their 76th generation ancestor, hired a famous fengshui expert He Keda as their advisor. His advice resulted in the construction of ponds and water channels flowing through nearly every household within the village so as to keep the "internal Yang (masculine) water" and assure for "eternal prosperity extending to all later generations". Due to the scientific construction, the buildings in the Hongcun are in great harmony with nature, showing the traditional Chinese philosophy that Nature and Man are one.

- Xidi: with a history of over 1000 years, Xidi is 700 meters from east to west, 300 meters south to north, 300 old dwellings in the village left from Ming and Qing Dynasties form the shape of a boat. Embraced in the mountains, abundant in resources and autarkic inhabitants who are accustomed to a life of leisure, all these make Xidi famed as "the reclusive utopian land".

Day 11     Shanghai / Hong Kong

Meals: B

Transfer via: International Flight on our arrangement

You will be free until you are escorted to take your flight back to Hong Kong.

Outdoor Cafe in Shanghai

- Bruce Alan Wallce,USA

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