China Essential Tour with Buddhism Discovery

Itinerary

• Day 1: Arrival, Beijing

  Upon your arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport, your personal tour guide will meet you and escort you to the hotel. The drive from the airport to the downtown hotel will take about 40 minutes.

  The rest of the day is yours to relax and recover from jet lag. Before leaving you free, the tour guide will appoint the pick-up of next morning with you.

  • Beijing

• Day 2: Beijing

  After breakfast, your tour guide will pick you up at the hotel lobby and accompany you to do the city exploration.

  The first stop is Tiananmen Square, the badge of the Chinese political center. From there, you can walk to the Forbidden City where the feudal emperors worked and lived. Usually, you will spend 2-3 hours in the Forbidden City to appreciate the classics of Chinese ancient architecture and absorb Chinese history knowledge.

  Afterward, continue to visit the Jingshan Park and climb up the artificial hill to enjoy a panoramic view of the royal palace.

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  • Beijing

• Day 3: Beijing

  Today, you will be driven about 1.5 hours to visit the magnificent Great Wall at Mutianyu section. Get on the wall by cable car and do some hiking on it to enjoy the majestic scenery.

  After that, drive back to the city and have a stopover en route to take some pictures of the Olympic Birds Nest and Water Cube from outside.

  Note: If you are a hiking lover and prefer some less tourist section, we would like to recommend you the Jinshanling Great Wall with some extra drive. Please discuss with your personal travel consultant in advance for more details about the visit and cost.

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  • Beijing

• Day 4: Beijing

  Today's tour will start by visiting a morning food market where you can taste some local flavors. Continue to the Temple of Heaven - another masterpiece of Chinese architecture and a sacred place where ancient Chinese emperors visited yearly to pray for good harvest.

  Explore the local hutongs and Summer Palace. While walking through the narrow paths of the hutong, you will get a deeper understanding of local people's daily life. In the royal garden of Summer Palace, you also have a chance to take a relaxing boat ride on the Kunming Lake.

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  • Beijing

• Day 5: Beijing - Datong

  Get to the airport and take the one-hour flight to Datong. The present coal city will surprise you by its clean and blue sky, and plenty of historical sites.

  On arrival, your local tour guide will pick you up and escort you to visit the Huayan Temple firstly, a Buddhist temple over 800 years old and Yungang Grottoes, a treasure house of rare and splendid Chinese sculptures and ancient Buddhist art. After the tour, you will be transferred to the hotel to have a rest.

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  • Datong

• Day 6: Datong - Mt. Wutai

  This morning, you will head south for Mount Wutai. After around 1.5 hours, stop and visit the incredible Hanging Temple, a complex of wooden architecture inlaid on the cliff. You can spend around one hour to appreciate the architectural miracle and then another 3 to 4 hours' drive to Mt. Wutai.

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  • Mt. Wutai

• Day 7: Mt. Wutai - Pingyao

  Today's excursion around Mount Wutai includes Xiantong Temple, Pusading (Bodhisattva Summit) Temple, the Big White Pagoda, and Wanfu Temple will put you into a thick Buddhist atmosphere.

  After enjoying a Buddhist Vegetarian lunch, you will drive about 4.5 hours to Pingyao.

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  • Pingyao

• Day 8: Pingyao

  In the morning, pay a visit to the Wang Family Compound out of the town firstly and then get back to Pingyao Ancient Town to savor the old charm: the ancient City Wall, the first bank of China - Rishengchang Exchange Shop, and Ming and Qing streets.

  Besides that, you can also spend some time roaming through the old small lanes for a glimpse of local people's life.

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  • Pingyao

• Day 9: Pingyao - Xi'an

  Be transferred to the railway station for high-speed train to Xi'an. When arrival after 3 hours, your local tour guide will pick you up and transfer you to the hotel. After checking in, have a relaxing strolling through Muslim Street with a visit to the Great Mosque.

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  • Xi'an

• Day 10: Xi'an

  In the morning, head for Lintong County after an hour's drive to visit the incredible life-size Terracotta Warriors. You can spend two to three hours there doing spiritual communication with the clay soldiers with different postures and expressions and listening to stories of them and their Emperor Qinshihuang. On the way back to the city, you can take a chance to visit a jade souvenir shop if you have any interest.

  In the late afternoon, you will visit the Ancient City Wall. If you are good at biking, it will be a nice idea to do a cycling tour of the city wall. If you would like to do that, please check with your travel consultant how much it will cost to hire a bicycle.

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  • Xi'an

• Day 11: Xi'an - Dunhuang

  After breakfast, go to the airport for a 2 hours' flight to Dunhuang. Upon arrival, you will be picked up and transferred to the hotel, and then enjoy some relaxing time on your own. You may like to do a slight adventure to the famous night market.

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  • Dunhuang

• Day 12: Dunhuang

  Visit the Mogao Caves in the morning to please your eyes and mind with the rich treasures of Buddhist sutras, murals and sculptures in the morning.

  After that, continue to the Mural Tomb of Western Jin Dynasty, Crescent Lake and the Singing Sand Dunes.

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  • Dunhuang

• Day 13: Dunhuang - Lanzhou

  Fly around 1.5 hours to Lanzhou in the morning.

  Upon arrival, be picked up and escorted to the hotel, and then go sightseeing in the city with the symbolic Sculpture of Yellow River Mother, Iron Bridge of Yellow River and Lanzhou Waterwheel Park.

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  • Lanzhou

• Day 14: Lanzhou - Shanghai

  Drive around 1.5 hours to Liujiaxia irrigation storage, where you will take another one hours' yacht to get to the entrance of Bingling Temple. The grottos of Bingling Temple were hollowed out in the precipitous cliffs above the Yellow River, contains 183 grottoes and shrines stretching for two kilometers. After that, transfer to the airport for your flight to Shanghai. 

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  • Shanghai

• Day 15: Shanghai

  After breakfast, start today's tour with a private vehicle transfer to the Shanghai Museum for tracing the past from its thousands of collections, and then the Yu Garden - a traditional Chinese garden of a local reputation family in old times, a silk workshop and the former French Concession. Finally, have a relaxing walk along Huangpu River while appreciating the historical colonial style architectures on the Bund.

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  • Shanghai

• Day 16: Shanghai, Departure

  You will be free on this day until your personal guide escorts you to the airport for your departure flight.

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