Day-By-Day Program: 

Day 1          BEIJING

Meet your local guide in the lobby of your Beijing Hotel **** (to be specified). In the afternoon there you are offered an optional excursion to the Summer Palace and Kunming Lake north West of the city.

This spellbinding complex was a retreat for China’s emperors and their families from the heat and intrigues of the Forbidden City. This is where they relaxed, meditated and strolled through the landscaped gardens around Kunming Lake.
   The vast and sumptuous Summer Palace provides a range of striking views, and boasts beautifully decorated buildings and courtyards, charged with history.

Admire structures whose grandeur is matched only by their wonderfully evocative names such as the Temple of Buddhist Virtue, the Hall of Jade Ripples, the Cloud-Dispelling 3 Hall and the Hall of Happiness and Longevity.

Kunming Lake is a large man-made pond, expanded over centuries, with three isles that are believed to represent the ‘three fairy islands of the Eastern Sea’.

Overnight in Beijing hotel on a bed-and-breakfast basis

Day 2          BEIJING→BADALING GREAT WALL→BEIJING (160 km, 8 hours) 

Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before leaving for a journey into China’s past with visits to the Imperial Tombs of the Ming Dynasty and the Great Wall.

   The Ming Tombs are located some 45 km north of Beijing in the valley below the Jundu Mountains. The location was specifically chosen because of its harmonious environment, and it was designed in an arc form to ward off evil spirits from the north.

This monumental and serene complex is accessed through the imposing Great Red Gate and then reached via the 7 km-long Sacred Way, which is lined with statues of guardians such as camels, elephants, lions, soldiers and imperial chamberlains. Explore the Changling Tomb, which is the final resting of the Yongle Emperor, who reigned in the early 15th century and is considered one of China’s greatest rulers.
   Break for lunch at a local restaurant. Afterwards, take to the road for a brief drive to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. This stretch was built in in 1505 in the strategically important Guan Valley in order to keep out the Mongol hordes from the north.
Nowadays, tourists flock from all over the world and it is the most visited part of the Great Wall.

This section gives a realistic vision of the Great Wall's immensity. Dinner in a local restaurant. Overnight in Beijing hotel on bed-and-breakfast basis 

Day 3          BEIJING → XI'AN (1,100 km, 12-14 hrs by train)

Breakfast at the hotel and leave for a full day visiting four of Beijing’s most famous landmarks. First up is the enormous Tian'anmen Square, one of the world’s largest urban plazas, which is the location of the Chinese parliament, Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the National Museum of China, the Zhengyangmen Gate Tower and the Tiananmen Gate (‘Gate of Heavenly Peace’) which gives access to the Imperial City, within which is the Forbidden City, hidden from the prying eyes of commoners by 10-meter-high walls.

Head inside and as you stroll along the stretch leading from the Tiananmen Gate to the Meridian Gate, which leads to the Forbidden City proper, the sense of anticipation gives way to awe as you take in the sheer majesty of this incomparable treasure – one that for centuries no commoner or foreigner could enter and live to tell the tale.
Construction began under the Yongle Emperor in the early 15th century and it was meticulously designed to be in harmony with philosophical, religious and hierarchical principles. Thus all roof tiles were yellow, which was the emperor’s colour and could not be used by commoners, while no other building in Beijing could be taller than the Forbidden City.
   
Among the city’s attractions visited are the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, the Hall of Preserving Harmony and the Palace of Heavenly Purity as well as the Hall of Union and Palace of Earthly Tranquility. Explore this beguiling UNESCO World Heritage Site and marvel at the magnificent temples, halls, pavilions, palaces and courtyards.

Enjoy a local lunch after the visit.

Adjacent to Forbidden City is Jingshan Park, which is sprawled over the man-made 45-meter-high hill of the same name.

It is the highest point in Beijing and was built as a private garden for emperors and their families.

Like all imperial projects, feng shui was to the fore in the planning process, and there are five peaks on the hill, each crowned by a pavilion.

The views over the Forbidden City and the rest of the capital are breathtaking. The last visit of your stay in Beijing is to the Temple of Heaven, located 3 km south of Tiananmen Square.

This Buddhist complex dates from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Of the three main structures, the most impressive is surely the 32-meter-high Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, which is the oldest building in the temple. After sightseeing, transfer to rail station for the overnight train to Xi’an. Overnight in soft sleeper carriage

Day 4          XI'AN 

Arrive at Xi’an railway station and transfer to your accommodation for the next two nights, the four-star Le Garden Hotel, which is located just a block away from the southeast corner of the old city. Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before venturing out to walk along the top of the 14 km-long city walls, which have protected the city for more than six centuries. From here, you have an unrivaled vantage point 12 meters above the old city and the modern metropolis beyond. Breach the walls and head to the historic Muslim Quarter to visit the famous Great Mosque. The current version dates from 1392 and the design is that of a typical Buddhist temple of the era with five successive courtyards, each with a gateway, pavilion or screen, eventually leading to the prayer hall. Lunch is at a local restaurant.

   In the afternoon an excursion to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which has stood here since the Tang Dynasty in seventh century.
It has been expanded and renovated many times but its main purpose of housing Buddhist scriptures brought back from India by the travelling monk, Xuanzang, has remained the same. Overnight in Xi’an hotel on a bed-and-breakfast basis

Day 5          XI'AN

Breakfast at the hotel is followed by a trip to the countryside outside of Xi’an to visit a priceless treasure that was unknown to humanity until some farmers stumbled upon it four decades ago. What they encountered has since become a global phenomenon, with parts of the so called Terracotta Army being exhibited all over the world. 

There are thousands of armed warriors, each one different, lined up in 4 rows according to military rank as well as hundreds of horses and chariots.
The figures were made by an army of artisans and were buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who died in 210 BC.
To see them all before your very eyes is a truly unforgettable experience.
   After lunch at a local restaurant, we return to Xi’an.
In the afternoon, visit the Shaanxi History Museum (closed on Mondays) which has a collection of more than 370,000 objects from prehistory all the way to the late Qing Dynasty, a time span of one million years.
The Shang Dynasty bronzes are exquisite while the gold and silver exhibits from Han and Tang dynasties are as dazzling today as they were when they were first crafted. Qin Dynasty terracottas also feature prominently.
Overnight in Xi’an hotel 

Day 6          XI'AN →SHANGHAI (2.5 hrs by air) 

Transfer to Xi'an Xianyang Int'l Airport after breakfast for your flight to Shanghai. Head for a guided walking tour of Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s pedestrianized commercial hub, where the thousands of shoppers are dwarfed by the neon signs and the skyscrapers of modern Shanghai. The immense energy, color and spectacle of the boulevard is a microcosm of Shanghai all condensed into one place.
   Perpendicular to Nanjing Road is The Bund, the riverside quay crammed with historic bank buildings from the decades when foreign powers controlled large swaths of Shanghai as ‘concessions’. There are 52 landmark buildings along this 1.5 km promenade, ranging in style from neo-classical to art deco.
   Among the more eye-catching structures are the eight-storey Customs House and the China Bank of Communications Building. Continue to the New Century Puxi Hotel **** (or similar). Check-in for a 2 nights' stay 

Day 7           SHANGHAI

Have breakfast at the hotel before enjoying a guided morning stroll through Shanghai’s old city, which has somehow survived China’s impressive modernization push of the past two decades. Almost huddled beneath the modern high-rises, the two and three-storey narrow streets of the earthy old city offer an astonishing contrast to the glistening new Shanghai. Mingle with pedestrians and cyclists as they weave about, heading to and fro in this warren of family-run shops and diners, before returning to your hotel.
   In the heart of the old city is the Yu Garden, a classical Chinese garden, which is crammed with richly decorated pavilions, halls, towers, rockeries and ponds, some dating from as far back as the Ming Dynasty four centuries ago. Here you will find a tranquil spot for respite from the modern pace of life in this at times hectic city of more than 24 million souls.
   Lunch at a local restaurant and then head to the Jade Buddha Temple, where you can admire jade, marble and gold Buddha statues.  

After this spiritual sojourn, continue to what was for almost a century known as the French Concession, a sector of the city controlled by French colonial authorities until 1941.    
   To this day, the area retains the charm of a French or Quebecois provincial city, with elegant boulevards and leafy residential rues as well as grandiose mansions with chateau-style roofs and turrets. Café terraces, boulangeries and bistros add to the unmistakably Gallic ambiance - a piece of a foreign country in the middle of Shanghai.

Overnight at hotel

Day 8          DEPART SHANGHAI 

Savor a final breakfast at the hotel before checking out and continuing your journey, whether it’s to your home or somewhere else in our beautiful country. Breakfast included