Start in: Shanghai
End in: Shanghai
Special Experience: Acrobatic Show in Shanghai, Hutong tour by rickshaw and Great Wall at Mutianyu in Beijing, Giant Panda Bear in Chengdu, Li River Cruise in Guilin
China Golden Ring Tour
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Day 1 Arrival/Shanghai
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown 
Transfer via: International flight on your own arrangement
Upon your arrival at Shanghai, China's most cosmopolitan city, our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free at your own leisure.
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Shanghai Museum,The Bund ,Nanjing Road,Yu Garden,Yuyuan Market
Gala Event: Acrobatic Show
Today, your full-day excursion of incredible Shanghai will include: Shanghai Museum, the Bund and the Nanjing Road, Yu Garden and Yuyuan Market. Enjoy a wonderful Portman Acrobatic Show at the Shanghai Centre Theatre 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B,L
Transfer via: China domestic flight arranged by us
Today you will take your flight to 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.
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.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Great Wall,Ding Tomb,Sacred Road
Today's full-day excursion will take you to the majestic Great Wall (Mutianyu), the Ding Tomb of Ming Tombs and Sacred road.
- 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.
Accommodations: Jianguo Garden Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Hutongs,Lama Temple(Yonghe Lamasery),Beihai (north lake) Park
Today,you will enjoy a full day Hutong Tour by rickshaw plus Yonghe Lamasery (Lama Temple) and Beihai Park.
- 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.
- Lama Temple(Yonghe Lamasery): the largest preserved lamasery in Beijing, a Buddhist lamasery of the Yellow Hat sect, a sect that's mainly associated with Tibet, it is an extravagant building of some beauty. Inside the temple, in the center of the Hall of Infinite Happiness (Wanfuge), stands a grand statue, an 85-foot-tall Tathagagata (Maitreya) Buddha made from a single Tibetan sandalwood tree.
- Beihai (north lake) Park: the oldest ancient imperial garden in Chinese history, built around the bei hai (north lake), the park's charms include pavilions and gardens, a stunning Tibetan-style pagoda and an elaborate Nine-Dragon Screen.
Accommodations: Hotel Royal Garden
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Fragrance Hills Park
Transfer via: China domestic flight arranged by us
Today you will visit Fragrant Hills Park and the Monastery there before our local guide escorts you to the airport for your onward flight to Xian. Upon your arrival at Xian, our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free at your own leisure.
- 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.
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. 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.
Accommodations: Hotel Royal Garden
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Shaanxi Provincial Museum,Big Wild Goose Pagoda,Forest of Stone Steles Museum
After breakfast, you will have a city tour to the Shaanxi Provincial Museum and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. And then the Temple of Confuious to see the large Steles.
- 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.
- Forest of Stone Steles Museum: With 900 years of history, this treasure house holds a large collection of the earliest stone steles of different periods.
Accommodations: Tibet Hotel
Meals: B,L
Transfer via: China domestic flight arranged by us
Free in the day until our local guide escorts you to the airport for your onward flight to your next destination--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). 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.
Accommodations: Tibet Hotel
Meals: B,L
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.
Accommodations: Tibet Hotel
Meals: B,L
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.
Accommodations: Yinhe Dynasty Hotel
Meals: B,L
Transfer via: China Domestic flight arranged by us
Free in the day until our local guide escorts you to the airport for your onward flight to your next destination--Chengdu. 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: Yinhe Dynasty Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Giant Panda Breeding Research Base,Du Fu's Thatched Roof Cottage,Marquis Wu Shrine
Today's full-day tour will bring you to Giant Panda Breeding Research Base first, and then Du Fu's Thatched Roof Cottage and Marquis Wu Shrine. After the sightseeing, enjoy a cup of tea at one of the local tea houses.
- Giant Panda Breeding Research Base: 18km from the city center, housing 12 pandas in natural environments: it is the best place to see Chengdu's most famous residents and you can get to know more about this precious species in the museum there.
- Du Fu's Thatched Roof Cottage: located on the side of the Flower Washing Brook in the western suburbs of Chengdu. It is the former residence of the celebrated Tang dynasty poet, Du Fu (712-770AD) who was born in Henan province. At the age of 20 he left his home to travel within China. He used to be an official for 10 years in Chang'an (present Xian), the capital of the Tang dynasty, and was captured by rebels after an uprising. He then fled to Chengdu where he built this humble cottage and stayed for about four years.
- Marquis Wu Shrine: built by Li Xiong in the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316AD) in memory of Zhuge Liang, prime minister of Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280AD). Zhuge Liang (181-234AD) was not only a great statesman and military strategist but also the hero of the novel Sanguo Yanyi (the Romance of the Three Kingdoms).
Accommodations: Guilin Park Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Elephant Trunk Hill ,Reed Flute Cave
Transfer via: China domestic flight arranged by us
Free in the day until our local guide escorts you to the airport for your onward flight to your next destination--Guilin. Upon your arrival at Guilin, the most scenic city in China, our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. After rest for a little while, you will have a city tour to the Elephant Trunk Hill and the Reed Flute Cave.
- Elephant Trunk Hill : the symbol of Guilin, which resembles a giant elephant drinking water from the Li River.
- Reed Flute Cave: 5 kilometers away from the city center, famed as "A Natural Palace of Art", in which you can see lots of stalactites & stalagmites illuminated by the lights of different colors. You will also learn how they were formed.
Accommodations: Guilin Park Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Li River Cruise,West Street(Yangshuo)
After breakfast, drive to Zhujiang Pier (about 40-minute drive) to start the boat cruise along the tranquil Li River, the highlight of your sightseeing tour in Guilin, until you get to Yangshuo County. At Yangshuo, after roaming through the West Street, drive back to Guilin (1.5-hour drive).
- Li River Cruise: Along the river, you will be inspired by the breathtaking views of peaks and pinnacles, crystal-clear water and reflections in the water together with the serene pastoral views of rice paddies and water buffaloes.You will certainly feel like you are walking into a traditional Chinese painting by cruising on this wonderful river.
- West Street(Yangshuo): a busy and exotic slate street in Yangshuo County, about 2km long crammed with shops, pubs, cafes and hotels, where you can relax yourself and do some souvenir shopping.
Accommodations: Lakeview Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: Elephant Trunk Hill ,Fubo Hill,Reed Flute Cave
Transfer via: China domestic flight arranged by us
Today's excursion will bring you to the Elephant Trunk Hill, the Fubo Hill and the Reed Flute Cave before your transfer to the airport for your flight to Hangzhou. Upon your arrival at Hangzhou,our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel.
- Elephant Trunk Hill : the symbol of Guilin, which resembles a giant elephant drinking water from the Li River.
- Fubo Hill: where you can see lots of Buddha statues left about 1000 years ago in the Returned Pearl Cave and have a birds' eye view of the whole city after climbing up to the very top.
- Reed Flute Cave: 5 kilometers away from the city center, famed as "A Natural Palace of Art", in which you can see lots of stalactites & stalagmites illuminated by the lights of different colors. You will also learn how they were formed.
Accommodations: Lakeview Hotel
Meals: B,L
Sightseeing: West Lake,Lingyin Temple,Feilai Peak (Peak Flying From Afar),Dragon Well Tea Plantation,Six Harmonies Pagoda
The city tour in this beautiful city will include: West Lake by boat, Lingyin Temple and Feilai Peak, Dragon Well Tea Plantation and Six Harmonies Pagoda.
- 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.
- Six Harmonies Pagoda: first built in 970 AD in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) to calm down the tide of the Qiantang River, it is a pavilion-style tower made of brick and wood with a height of 59.89 meters. The name "six harmonies" comes from the six Buddhist ordinances, meaning "harmonies of the heaven, earth, east, west, south and north".
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Shanghai -Downtown
Meals: B
Transfer via: Bus arranged by us
Free in the day until our local guide escorts you to the bus station for your bus to Shanghai. 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.
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 19 nights, including
19 nights at four star or higher hotels
36 meals, including 19 full breakfasts, 17 lunches and 0 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
Sinbba, thanks for your organization, we have had a wonderful experience in a country where we had never been and never expected to go, I can tell you that this will not be the last time that we will visit China and when the time comes for us to visit again you can rest assured that I will call you at Odyssey to organize another memorable tour for us
- Charles and Doris Gatt,Australia
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