12-Day China Essence with Chengdu Pandas

Welcome to Beijing! On your arrival, your private tour guide will meet you and put you at ease with a warm smile and professional service. It will take about an hour from the airport to your downtown hotel. Along the way, your tour guide will give you a brief introduction to Beijing. After settling down at the hotel, enjoy some free time to recover from your long journey.

Departing from the hotel as planned, your private guide will take you to see Tiananmen Square, followed by the Forbidden City, which was the seat of power from 1406 to 1912, more than five hundred years. Your Forbidden City heritage tour includes the regular visit of three main palaces on the central axis, and an in-depth visit to some other places that most tourists don't go.

After that, visit Jingshan Park and climb up the artificial coal hill to enjoy a full view of the grand royal building complex of the Forbidden City.

You will visit the famous Great Wall today. To give you a better experience, we arrange for you to visit the less crowded Great Wall at Mutianyu section, about 2 hours from your hotel by road. The Great Wall here is a little steep, so a two-way cable car is included for you to get up and down easily and safely. On the wall, you can do some moderate hiking further up to enjoy the majestic landscape.

Later on, visit Changling Tomb and a jade store before going back to the city.

This morning you will visit the elegant Temple of Heaven where once the Emperors prayed for good harvests. Today this is a popular park where you can see how local people enrich their daily life after retirement and even follow a master to play Chinese Tai Chi with others.

After the tour, be transferred to the airport for your flight to Xi'an. On arrival, be met and escorted to your hotel.

Today's highlight is the awe-inspiring Terracotta Warriors. You have enough time to marvel at the grand array of thousands of life-size clay soldiers, horses, and chariots. The interesting thing is that you will find that each statue of a soldier is unique and they are all from an original image of Qin people. You can even know their different stories when you look at their faces.

Later, stop at the Art Ceramics Factory to learn how the warriors were made and then drive back to the city. Before ending the day tour, you will visit the 600-year-old City Wall and take a relaxing stroll around the narrow bazaar streets in the Muslim Quarter.

Enjoy your leisurely time in the morning before transferring to the railway station by 4 hours' high-speed train to Chengdu.

Optional：You could visit a local family in Xi'an and learn how to make dumplings, noodles and make some simple but delicious homely dishes. It is a good chance to know the local people's daily life.

Chengdu is the home of Giant Pandas. When you are in Chengdu, you can't miss the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. From 8:00 am to 9:00 am is the most active time for pandas, so you'd better start the tour a little earlier in the morning to ensure seeing more pandas exercising or having breakfast.

In the afternoon, have a city tour to River Viewing Tower Park where you can get up to Chongli Pavilion to get a better view of the surrounding area, try a cup of local tea and join locals to play Chinese Mahjong.

After breakfast, the guide and driver will escort you to the airport for your flight to Guilin. On arrival, your personal guide in Guilin will pick you up and transfer you to your hotel. En route, you will have a detour to the most famed and beautiful Karst cave in south China - Reed Flute Cave - and a pearl store.

The Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo is no doubt the highlight of any tour to Guilin. Today you will spend 4 hours riding the Li River boat from Zhujiang Pier to Yangshuo town. The charming landscape along the Li River will open your eyes.

After the cruise, be transferred to your hotel, have a short break and then drive out of Yangshuo to visit a hand-painted fan workshop, where you can see and participate in the production process.

As an old saying goes in China: "Guilin landscape tops those elsewhere, and Yangshuo landscape tops that of Guilin". The idyllic countryside of Yangshuo is the reason why so many visitors come here. If you're like cycling, the best way for you is to enjoy the pastoral view formed by tranquil rice paddies, towering karst peaks, clear waters, and small villages; if you prefer not to cycle, your private driver and guide can show you around the countryside by van.

Later on, take your flight to reach Shanghai which takes two hours.

Today's tour starts from the Bund and includes Yu Garden, Yuyuan Market, Jade Buddha Temple, a silk workshop, a walking tour from Fuxing Park to Bugaoli. Through such a tour, you can get an understanding of the vibrant, dynamic and complicated urban landscape hidden behind the blazing face of Shanghai.

Time to say goodbye now. When you are ready, your guide and driver will pick you up and transfer you to the airport for your flight departing from Shanghai.