9 Days Chinese New Year Tour

Day 1 Arrive in Beijing

Transfer via:International Flight on your own arrangement

Upon your arrival, our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. Then you will spend the rest of the day exploring the nearby streets, or resting and catching up on your jet lag. Beijing is a city of amazing contrasts – an ancient capital with incredible historical sites as well as a bustling modern metropolis.

Day 2 Beijing (B, L )

Sightseeing:Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven

Unique Cultural Performance: Peking Opera Show

Today we will take a Beijing highlight city tour. In the morning, we will join with local people who practice Tai Chi Chuan at the Temple of Heaven before breakfast. You can have a try if you like or just watch. The Temple of Heaven, built in 1420A.D, is the place where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties offered sacrifice to God and prayed for good harvests.

Then we will go on visiting Tiananmen Square, the biggest square in the world that lies in the center of the city and can hold about one million people. It’s the symbol of Beijing and is ranked as the No. 1 among the 16 new scenic highlights of Beijing. Then you will have the privilege to experience ancient emperor’s daily life. In the afternoon, we will visit the Forbidden City, in which the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties governed for over 500 years. It is the essence as well as a must for sightseeing in Beijing; the magnificent and solemn palaces can arouse your imagination of the ancient Chinese emperors’ life.

In the evening you will be transferred to the Liyuan Theatre to enjoy Beijing’s spectacular Peking Opera Show.

Day 3 Beijing (B, L, D)

Sightseeing:Badaling Great Wall, Ming Tomb, Sacred Road

Special Dinner: Peking Duck Dinner

Today we will depart from your hotel after breakfast and spend about 1.5 hours transferring to the surrounding countryside to visit the Badaling Great Wall, one of human being’s remarkable feats built over 2,000 years ago. You can climb and walk on one of the best preserved sections of the ancient wall, admiring the splendid mountain scenery.

After having lunch at a local restaurant, we will continue to visit the Ming Tombs, the resting places of Ming Dynasty’s thirteen emperors and their splendid treasures. Passing down the Sacred Way, a road lined with statues of dignitaries as well as huge elephants, lions, camels and horses, we will see the marble tombs of the Ming Dynasty emperors and visit one of the spectacular tombs – Dingling.

Later you will be transferred back to Beijing city. On the way back to your hotel, you will be transferred to visit the main 2008 Beijing Olympic venues to take an exterior visit of both the Beijing National Stadium (Bird’s Nest/Olympic Stadium) and the National Swimming Centre (‘The Water Cube’), and feel free to take some photos of the stadium In the evening, enjoy the famous Peking Duck Banquet for dinner.

Afterwards we will make a walk through Seven Star Park. It is one of the best urban parks in China. The park is in the east bank of Lijiang, the largest park in Guilin with the theme of rock caves.

We’ll continue to visit Fubo Hill. You will see lots of rock stone carvings & Buddha statues from since Tang Dynasty. If you climb to the summit, you will have a wonderful bird’s-eye view of Guilin city.

In the evening, you will have the highlights to visit a local family. Stay with the family and learn how to make dumplings, then have the united dumplings dinner for the Spring Festival’s Eve.

Day 4 Beijing (B, L )

Sightseeing: Hutongs tour by Rickshaw, Summer Palace

Special Lunch: Traditional Chinese Dumpling lunch

Today we will start the visit with Hutongs tour by Rickshaw, a maze of historic alleyways between old single storey traditional courtyard houses. Dotted around the Hutongs are the Drum and Bell Towers, Tea House, and local people’s houses. You will sit in the rickshaw to enjoy the local common Hutong life. The tour also includes a visit to a local family and enjoying the dumplings lunch; the housewife will teach you how to make dumplings if you are interested in that. Dumpling is a kind of main food for Chinese people, and it is also the traditional food for Spring Festival.

Then we continue to visit the Summer Palace. The palace is positioned in the west suburb of Beijing, about 12 kilometers northwest of the city center. Equally famous as the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is called ‘Yiheyuan’ (Garden of Nurtured Harmony) in Chinese. It is up to now the best preserved and the largest imperial gardens in China. One may regret it if he comes to Beijing without visiting this grand imperial garden.

In the evening, it is your own leisure time; you can walk around to the famous Wangfujing Street.

Day 5 Beijing / Xi’an (B, L )

Sightseeing: Temple Fair, Xiushui Market

Unique Visiting: Spring Festival Temple Fair

After breakfast, you will be arranged to visit a famous Beijing Spring Festival Temple Fair. The ancient temple fairs in Beijing now are only held during the Spring Festival, reliving the traditions of the past as well as being the opportunities for celebration and entertainment in the present day. You can expect folk performances such as stilt-walking and drum performances, etc. You can also taste many kinds of snacks displayed in lines of booths; Shop around: most of the temple fair places are full with stalls providing various cheap products. It’s a great insight into the lives of Beijing people in the past and present.

Then after a typical Chinese lunch at a nice restaurant, you will enjoy a very popular shopping site in Beijing – Xiushui Street. The market near the embassy area where you can find a number of duplicates of clothing in traditional Chinese style such as clothes, caps, gloves. Enjoy bargaining with the sellers and pleasant surprise of finding some baubles you like.

Later you will be transferred to the airport for your flight to Xi’an. On arriving in Xi’an, you will be met and transferred to hotel by our local guide.

Day 6 Xi’an (B,L )

Sightseeing: Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Bell Tower

Unique Cultural Performance: Tang Dynasty Show

After breakfast in the hotel, we will set off for the incredible 2000-year-old Terracotta Warriors and Horses. It is the greatest archaeological findings of the century: the army of terracotta warriors and the bronze chariots entombed in vast underground vaults of Emperor Qin’s tomb. More than 7000 figures in full battle array are formed for battle in several large pits. This is a mummy tour in China instead of Egypt.

Then we will continue to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda where Famous Buddhist Master Xuanzang (Monk Tripitaka) stored his well-preserved collection of classic Buddhist artifacts brought from India in Tang Dynasty.

Later we go on to visit the Bell Tower, a 36 meters (118 feet) high wooden tower which is the largest and best-preserved of its kind in China.

This evening you will enjoy a very spectacular and elaborate Tang Dynasty Show with traditional Chinese dance, music and beautiful Chinese girls in Tang-style dress.

Day 7 Xi’an / Shanghai

Transfer via: China Domestic flight on our arrangement

Sightseeing: Ancient City Wall, Great Mosque, Shanghai Bund, Nanjing Road

Today you will experience a half-hour’s hike along the Ancient City Wall. It is the largest and best-preserved ancient city wall in China today and is probably the best military battlement in the world. You can rent a bicycle for a ride along the top of the 1000-year-old city wall.

Then we continue to drive to the Great Mosque of Xi’an, the largest and best-preserved old mosque in China. It was built primarily in the Ming Dynasty when Chinese architectural elements were synthesized into mosque architecture facing Mecca with its courtyard from east to west. This is the sacred place for Silk Road traders and travelers to worship Allah. It is a popular tourist site of Xi’an and is still used by Chinese Muslims (mainly the Hui people) today as a place of worship.

In the evening you will fly to Shanghai. Arriving in Shanghai, you will be met and transferred to hotel by our local guide. Then you can take your time walking along the Bund and the Nanjing Road for relaxation.

Day 8 Shanghai (B, L )

Sightseeing: Shanghai Museum, Jade Buddha Temple, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Yuyuan Garden, Town God’s Temple

Today we will start the day with a visit to Shanghai Museum. It is the biggest museum in China, with a collection of over 120,000 pieces of Chinese art & cultural relics. It is especially famous for its treasures of bronzes, ceramics, paintings and calligraphy.

Then we will head to the Jade Buddha Temple, the old-time and classical architectural style makes the temple unique and inimitable in this world-famous metropolis. Both the Sitting Buddha and the Recumbent Buddha are carved with whole white jade. If we are lucky enough, we can watch the monks holding a Buddhist ceremony in a side room.

After lunch, we will visit the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the highest TV Tower in Asia, creating a picture of “twin dragons playing with pearls”. The entire scene is a photographic jewel that excites people’s imagination and attracts thousands of visitors all year round.

Then we will take a relaxing walk to the lovely Yuyuan Garden, which was finished in 1577 and is the most beautiful garden by the south of the Yangtze River. Wandering in the area of Yule Pavilion and Wanhua Chamber, you will find pavilions, corridors, streams, courtyards as well as many other natural feature.

Later we will walk to the Town God’s Temple. Old City God’s Temple is a major yet relatively inactive, Taoist temple in Shanghai. A spring temple fair will be open in the Town God’s Temple Square. Various old works of art and all kinds of folk performances are staged to show the traditional Shanghai flavor.

Day 9 Depart from Shanghai ( B )

Transfer via: International Flight on your own arrangement

Today you will be free until the guide escorts you to the airport for your flight to your next destination.

Your special Chinese Spring Festival tour ends here.