Start in: Shanghai
End in: Beijing
Special Experience: Acrobatic show in Shanghai, Yangtze River cruise, Tibet adventure
Tibet and Yangtze River Adventure Tour
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Day 1 Arrival / Beijing
Meals: B
Transfer via: International Flight on your own arrangement
After breakfast,you will be met and transferred to the airport for your flight back to your sweet home.
Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai - a two-meter-high white jade sitting Buddha encrusted with jewels
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown 
Meals: B
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 at the Shanghai Baiyulan Theater 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.
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Meals: B
Sightseeing: The Bund ,Nanjing Road,Oriental Pearl TV Tower
After breakfast, you will tour the Bund and the Nanjing Road, and then visit the Oriental Pearl TV Tower。
- 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.
- Nanjing Road: known as "China's No.1 Shopping Street" with a huge selection of merchandise on sale.
- 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.
Pavilions outside of Yuyuan Garden, exquisitely beautiful
Accommodations: Tibet Hotel
Meals: B
Transfer via: China domestic flight on our arrangement
Free in the day until our local guide escorts you to the airport for your flight to your next destination--Wuhan. Upon arrival, be met and transferred to Regal China Cruise.
The spectacular riverside scenery at Shennong stream - Yangtze River cruise
Accommodations: On the Cruise
Meals: B,L,D
Sightseeing: Three Gorges
Shore excursion to Three Gorges Dam site.
- Three Gorges: spanning the Yangtze at Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei province, China. Construction began in 1994, and the 'Three Gorges Dam' is now the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. The Dam will be 2,335 meters long, 18 meters wide, and its bottom will be 130 meters wide after completion in 2009. When completed, the water level will rise to 135 meters above sea level. The reservoir began filling on June 1, 2003, and it will occupy the present position of the scenic Three Gorges area, between the cities of Yichang, Hubei, and Fuling, Chongqing Municipality.
Accommodations: On the Cruise
Meals: B,L,D
Sightseeing:
Shore excursion to Lesser Three Gorges or Shengnong stream by smaller vessels.The ship company will choose one of the scenic spots as your excursion destination.
- Lesser Three Gorges: indicating three separate valleys along the Daning River, the chief tributary of the Yangtze River, they are called "Dragon-Gate Gorge", "Misty Gorge" and "Dicui (Emerald) Gorge" respectively. You can take a small boat to enjoy the spectacular views and experience a water-borne sensation you have never had before when the natural scenic wonders unfold in front of you with clear water flowing fast through the gorges, sheer cliffs and steep mountains rising on either side to create one fine art gallery.
- Shennong Stream: a small tributary of the Yangtze River is 60 kilometers long and is famous for its picturesque scenery. Shennong Stream is beautiful and ancient. When you take a sampan drifting along it, which is not without risk yet exhilarating and a challenge to battle with the nature. You will be attracted and surprised by its crystal clear steam flowing swiftly from north to south through deep gorges, steep ridges and peaks, thick vegetation and wild flowers, flying birds and a plank road built along a cliff and ancient hanging coffins. Sweet love songs will be presented to you by the local ethnic people.
Sunset at the Lesser Three Gorges of the Yangtze River
Accommodations: On the Cruise
Meals: B,L,D
Sightseeing: Wan County(Wanxian)
Shore excursion to Wan County.
- Wan County(Wanxian): founded about 1,900 years ago, received its present name during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644AD) and became a foreign Treaty Port in 1902, the city is known as the Gateway to East of Sichuan Province.
The Jokang Temple is a four-storey timber complex with a golden top.
Accommodations: Tibet Hotel
Meals: B
After breakfast, you will disembark the ship in Chongqing at 09:00AM. Be met and transferred to the hotel.
Accommodations: Tibet Hotel
Meals: B
Sightseeing: Lhasa
Transfer via: China domestic flight on our arrangement
Free in the morning until be met and transferred to the airport for your flight to Lhasa. Upon your arrival at Gonggar airport, you will be met by your local guide and transferred to the hotel in Lhasa city (2-hour drive), and you will view the Stone Giant Buddha engraved in the mountain face en route. After checking in the hotel, rest in the afternoon to get adapted to the high altitude.
- Lhasa: the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region with an elevation of 3650 meters (12,000 feet) above the sea level, is nicknamed Sunlight City. It is the highest city in the world. This ancient sprawling city, settled 1,300 years ago, is the region's political, economic and cultural center as well as a sacred place of Tibetan Buddhism.
Potala Palace is a 13-story palace complex.
Accommodations: Tibet Hotel
Meals: B
Sightseeing: Potala Palace,Jokhang Temple,Barkhor Street
Your sightseeing today will include the Lhasa's cardinal landmark -- Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and flourishing Barkhor Street.
- Potala Palace: the symbol of Lhasa, perched upon Marpo Ri Hill, 130 meters above the Lhasa Valley, it is the greatest monumental structure in Tibet and one of the most famous architectural works of the world. The construction was started in 641 AD and it was rebuilt by the Fifth Dalai Lama in three years, while the Thirteenth Dalai Lama extended and repaired it into what it is now. As the religious and political centre of old Tibet and the winter residence of Dalai Lamas, the palace witnessed the life of the Dalai Lamas and the important political and religious activities in the past centuries. The Potala Palace also houses great amounts of rare cultural relics including the gold hand-written Buddhist scriptures, valuable gifts from the Chinese emperors and a lot of priceless antiques.
- Jokhang Temple: located in the center of the old section of Lhasa, built in 647 AD by Songtsen Gampo and his two foreign wives, and later extended by successive rulers. It has now become a gigantic architectural complex and it is the spiritual center of Tibet.
- Barkhor Street: a circular street around the Jokhang Temple in the center of the old section of Lhasa, it is the oldest street in a very traditional style in Tibet, where you can enjoy bargaining with the local Tibetan vendors for the handicrafts which are rarely seen elsewhere in the world. Barkhor Street is one of the most important religious paths along which pilgrims walk around Jokhang Temple while turning prayer wheels in their hands. They have been doing this for countless centuries. Buddhist pilgrims walk or progress by body-lengths in a clockwise direction. This walk can continue all day and well into the night.
Shopping on the Barkhor Street, you will find interesting local items.
Accommodations: Tibet Hotel
Meals: B
Sightseeing: Norbulingka Park,Sera Monastery,Tibetan Family
The whole day tour will first bring you to the Norbulingka Park, and then the Sera Monastery. Pay a visit to a Tibetan Family.
- Norbulingka Park: Norbulingka means "Jeweled Garden", built in 1751 AD as a summer palace for the Dalai Lama where they handled political affairs and practiced religious activities. It is now a large-scale palace complex and garden in Tibetan style covering an area of 40 hectares. The whole complex 370 rooms of different sizes and lawns shaded by green trees and enclosed by various flowers. Before 1959, commoners had no access to this park. Nowadays, on festivals and holidays, the local people in their colorful costumes come here with food and tents to sing and dance overnight.
- Sera Monastery: Sera means "Wild Rose Garden" in Tibetan because lush wild rose woods once grew around it. The monastery is one of the three largest monasteries in Tibet. Located at the northern outskirts of Lhasa, it was built in 1419 AD by Jamchen Choje (or Sakyayeshe), one of the eight disciples of Tsong Khapa who was the founder of the Gelugpa Sect. The Sera Monastery houses three colleges built in the 15th and 16th centuries, and it is famous for the "Buddhism Scriptures Debating".
- Tibetan Family: where you will be greeted and warmly welcomed by common Tibetan people in their traditional way and entertained with their typical food.
The major focus of the monasteries in Tibet is education, not worship.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B
Transfer via: China domestic flight on our arrangement
Free in the day until our local guide escorts you to the airport for your onward flight to your next destination--Beijing. Upon your arrival at Beijing airport, our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free at your own leisure.
The Summer Palace features hilly and water scenery.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B
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 the exquisiteTemple 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.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Sacred Road,Ding Tomb,Great Wall
Today's full-day excursion will take you to the majestic Great Wall(Badaling section), the Ding Tomb of Ming Tombs and Sacred road.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 is the only of the 13 Ming Tombs whose underground palace has been excavated and open to public.
Meals: B
Sightseeing: Summer Palace
Transfer via: International Flight on your own arrangement
After breakfast,you will visit Beijing's splendid Summer Palace until our local guide escorts you to the airport for your onward flight to your next destination--your sweet home.
- 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.
Great Wall in autumn. The valley is covered with red and yellow leaves.
China domestic flights as specified in the itinerary 
Accommodations for 15 nights, including
10 nights at four star or higher hotels, 4 nights at five star yangtze cruise ship
25 meals, including 16 full breakfasts, 5 lunches and 4 dinners
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
Oriental Pearl TV Tower, with a giddy height of 468 meters
I had a wonderful trip to China! I very much am looking forward to returning for another visit, perhaps in2008. Meanwhile, I will tell everyone I know/meet that China Odyssey Tours is an outstanding travel/tour agency.
- Bruce Alan Wallce,USA
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