14 Days Shanghai Chengdu Lhasa Xian Beijing City Tour with Dujiangyan Panda Volunteer

Night view of Yu Garden

Shanghai World Financial Center

Afterbreakfast, we will launch our Shanghai tour. The first stop is Shanghai Museum, one of the Best Four Museums in China. The magnificent 4-story building houses an incredible collection of bronzes, sculptures, ceramics, coins, paintings, calligraphy, costumes and other exhibits in different dynasties. It’s the perfect place for fans of Chinese history and art.

The following stop is the Yu Garden. Built in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty, the Yu Garden used to be the private residence of a senior Government administrator in the Ming Dynasty. For passionate photographer, never miss the chance to photograph Old Street of Yu Garden.

Having finished the visiting of Yu Garden, we’ll have a rest to have lunch. In the afternoon, we will move on to visit Nanjing Road. Famous Nanjing Road features historic Chinese sculptures at the "Golden Belt" and is an equivalent of New York's Fifth Avenue. Hang around here, you can get a taste of bustling Chinese commerce where retailers from all over the world display their products on streets. And next we will head to the Bund, one of the things you should never miss when on a tour to Shanghai. The Bund displays Shanghai's classic skyline views of colonial architecture and skyscrapers along the 500m wide Huangpu River, which dissects the city into two.

Stay overnight in Shanghai

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center

Jade Buddha Temple

In the last day in Shanghai, we will firstly go to see Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center after breakfast, which is very near to Shanghai Museum. It’s a six-storey building with two basement levels that displays Shanghai's urban planning and development. Looking around in the center, you will obtain a overall knowledgement of Shanghai from history to architecture and urban planning and tourist attractions. The huge miniature model of the city almost covers the whole floor area. Once you browse in this hall, you are ready to go into details of this modern city.

Stepping out of the Center, we will head to a temple hidden in this bustling city - Jade Buddha Temple. In Jade Buddha Temple, there is enshrined the largest jade Buddha in the world and numerous religious artifacts, ancient statues and Buddhist scriptures. You can view the beautiful gold buddhas and fabulous wooden architectures here. The lying Jade Buddha is spectacular and breathtakingly beautiful sculptured in delicate art. The temple is an oasis of peace in this city, and you can immerse yourself briefly in this peaceful kingdom of Buddhism.

After lunch, you will depart from Shanghai to fly to Chengdu in airplane. The whole journey takes about 3 hours and 20 minutes. You can have a rest on flight. Upon arrival of Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, our tour guide will meet and escort you to your hotel in Chengdu downtown.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Jinsha Site Museum

Jinli Ancient Street

Today, your Chengdu trip will begin from Jinsha Site Museum. After having breakfast, we will take a meaningful visit to Jinsha Site Museum. Constructed on the Jinsha ruin site which reveals the unique bronze civilization of the mysterious ancient Shu Kingdom (approximately 2900-3200 years ago), Jinsha Site Museum is a large park complex covering 74 acres of land and contains 3,000 years-old artifacts. Visiting in the museum, you can see many of the thousands of gold, bronze, jade, and stone objects reflecting the level of productivity and how people lived in Sichuan 3000 years ago.

After lunch, we will drive back to downtown and visit Wenshu Temple, the famous Buddhist monastery of western Sichuan in which conserves many precious cultural relics and ten thousand of Buddhist scriptures and literature. You can have a taste of the famous snack bean jelly and other gourmets outside the temple. Coming out of the temple and driving for about 20 minutes, we will reach Renmin Park, a park with a history frequented by local people to enjoy their leisure time. Here, you can see many people taking exercises, playing majiang, drinking teas and chatting with friends or boating on the lake. Parallel of teahouses crowded with guests drinking teas and enjoying the good weather constitutes an unique scenery of the park.

In the afternoon, we will reach Jinli Ancient Street, another must-see destination for travelers and a business street built by traditional western Sichuan dwellings characteristics. Here you will gain a lot of interesting experience like seeing handicraftsman making sugar figures or hanging around in quaint stores or having a rest in various bars, teashouses and cafe houses. When night approaches and lamps are lighten up, you will witness the true beauty of this traditional street. It’s a good time for you to take some pictures.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Feed Panda with Staff

Dujiangyan Panda Base

In this special day, you will get a rare chance to have an intimate contact with giant pandas in Dujiangyan Panda Base as a volunteer.

In the early morning, your tour guide will pick you up from your hotel and then drive to the Dujiangyan Panda Base. In the base, you will get a uniform, gloves, and a volunteer’s card. Your guide will introduce you to the professional panda keepers who can speak simple English. Your guide will be there all the time to help you to translate and take memorable photos with the adorable pandas.

During your work, you need to clean panda enclosures. Panda keepers need to supply fresh bamboos to these national treasures three times each day. The pandas usually eat only 30% of the bamboo, wasting 70% of it. You will need to sweep out the leftovers, replace it with fresh bamboo, and clean out the feces. Besides, you also need to feed pandas, offering them panda cakes, apples, and carrots four times a day. The panda keepers will show you how to feed a panda with your own hands at close proximity.

In the noontime, you will have lunch and take a rest in the base. You will also see a special documentary (40 minutes) about how the shy pandas mate, give birth, grow up, and are returned to the wild.

In the afternoon, you will continue your work to do more cleaning and feeding, and learn to make panda’s cakes. The bamboo you supplied in the morning will have become dry by the afternoon. You should remove and replace it with fresh bamboo and then feed the pandas with some more panda cakes and apples. Having fed the pandas with panda cakes, aren’t you curious as to how they are made? It is time to make some panda cakes with your own hands. The ingredients will be prepared in advance. Get creative about the shapes of the cakes.

At about 4:00pm, your volunteer work will end and you will receive a certificate for this unforgettable day. Say goodbye to the pandas you take care of. Your guide will escort you back to your hotel in Chengdu.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Barkhor Street

Jokhang Temple

Today's tour will first bring you to the Potala Palace which is the winter palace of the Dalai lama. It was put to use since the 7th Century by the 33rd great king of Tibet. The most valuable collections of Potala Palace are the gilded burial stupas of former Dalai Lamas and meditation cave of the 33rd great king of Tibet.

Then after lunch, tourists head to Jokhang Temple which was founded by the 33rd great king of Tibet in the 7th century, in order to promote the Buddhist religion. Inside you can see the statue of Buddha Sakyamuni at the age of twelve, perhaps the only most venerated object in Tibetan Buddhism. Around the temple is Barkhor Street where you can do kora (a religious circle of a building or mountain) with pilgrims and locals, in the meantime you can buy all kind of Tibetan souvenirs.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

Drepung Monastery

Sera Monastery

After breakfast in your hotel, you will be picked up to visit Drepung Monastery, one of the "Great Three" Gelug monasteries of Tibet. Drepung Monastery is situated at the foothill of a mountain and was founded by Jamyang Choeje in 1416. It was once home to 10,000 monks and Ganden podrang. Drepung is famous as it was the government centre while later was moved to the famous Potala Palace during the fifth Dalai Lama.

After lunch, continue to visit the Sera Monastery, which is another one of the "Great Three" Gelug Monasteries founded in 1419 by Tsongkapa's disciple Jamchen Choeje. The most attractive of Sera is its Buddhist Scriptures debating held in the courtyard mostly around 3:00-5:00 in the afternoon. You will be infected by the enthusiastic atmosphere in debating courtyard.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

Fly from Lhasa to Xian

Xian Xianyang International Airport

Today, you will take a flight in Lhasa Gonggar International Airport and fly to Xian Xianyang International Airport. The flight journey lasts about 3 hours. After arriving, your local tour guide will pick you up and send you to your hotel in Xian. The rest of the day is for you to take a good rest, or you can also explore Xian at your leisure.

Stay overnight in Xian

Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum

Ancient City Wall

Today we will initiate our sightseeing in this ancient city. In the morning after breakfast, we are about to visit the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum. You will not only be attracted by the life-sized warrior figures and horses, each of which has distinct facial expressions and positions, but also be astonished by various kinds of ancient weapons which reflect the highly advanced technology in weapon-making 2,200 years ago.

After lunch, return to Xian downtown to take a wonderful stroll on the Ancient City Wall or you can also cycling on top of it. The wall around the city centre of Xian is a massive construction, about 14 kilometers in perimeter. With 98 defensive ramparts, four main gates, and a moat around it, the ancient city wall is a wonderful example of ancient defensive building. Standing on it, you can enjoy panoramic views of modern Xian. Near its center are the Bell Tower and Drum Tower.

Late in the afternoon, we will travel to Muslim Quarter, the most famous gourmet street and largest Muslim business street in Xian, for local specialties. It’s the perfect place to have close chat with street venders of Muslims and buy the exquisite handicrafts and enjoy various local snacks.

Stay overnight in Xian

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Shanxi History Museum

In the morning, we will head to Da Cien Temple, a famous Buddhist sutra translation site during the Tang Dynasty in which towers the well-known Big Wild Goose Pagoda. In AD 652 during Chinese Tang Dynasty, to preserve the Buddhist scriptures brought back by Xuanzang, the famous Buddhist master in Tang Dyansty, to Chang'an through the Silk Road, Big Goose Pagoda was built. As a marvel in world architectual history, Big Wild Goose Pagoda was built with layers of bricks without any cement. On the top of Pagoda, you will have a very nice view of Da Cien Tempel and Xian city.

After lunch, we are expected to visit the last stop in Xian - Shanxi History Museum, the best place to take a glance at the glorious history of ancient Chinese civilization. The precious exhibits dates from the Paleolithic era to the Qing Dynasty. The breadth and depth of the artifacts and quality of artwork from each time period and dynasty are breathtaking! The museum is crowded, so be prepared to go with the flow of the people in front of each display.

Now, our Xian tour ends and you will be drop off at the Xian North Railway Station to board the high-speed train to Beijing. The train journey will last 4-6 hours. You can have a rest on it. Upon arrival, our guide will greet you at Beijing West Railway Station and escort you to the hotel to check in.

Stay overnight in Beijing

Forbidden City

Summer Palace

Today’s tour begins with the exploration of Tiananmen Square after breakfast. Tiananmen Square is located in the center of Beijing city, also the biggest city square in the world. It’s on the gate tower of the square that Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong declared the foundation of People's Republic of China.

When you move forward and pass through several doorways under the gate tower of Tiananmen Square, magnificent Forbidden City willbump into your eyes. Forbidden City is the best preserved imperial palace in China and the largest ancient palatial structure in the world. It has more than 9,000 rooms where 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties have lived. The splendid architecture of the Forbidden City represents the essence and culmination of traditional Chinese architectural accomplishment.

After lunch, you’ll have a short break and then drive to the Summer Palace lying in the outskirts of Beijing. This is the largest royal garden in the world built in The grandeur. In the ancient time, it mainly served imperial royals in Qing Dyansty to spend summer and enjoy leisure times. Built with exquisite layout and amazing architectural technique, the beauty of the Palace is overwhelming and is sure to impress anyone. The palace takes an area of 290 hectares and comprises diversified buildings, you are about to spend 4 hours in it.

When you finished your day tour, you have optional choices of your night activities according your interests: 1.Watch the Chinese traditional Kungfu Show in the Red Theater. (from 19:30 to 20:40) 2. Boat on Kunming Lake, the major lake of Summer Palace, to cruise around and enjoy the pleasant night scenery.

Stay overnight in Beijing

Mutianyu Great Wall in autumn

Mutianyu Great Wal

In the morning after breakfast, we will drive to the suburb of Beijing to witness the grand world architectual wonder - Great Wall. Great Wall proves that China was one of the strongest countries in its history. Stretching thousands of kilometers, the Great Wall protected the ancient Chinese against the invasion of the enemy from its north side for more than 1000 years. The Great Wall was listed as one of the world's eight wonders. Mutianyu Great Wall, featured “graceful”, enjoy the best quality among all Wall sections, 80km north-east of Beijing with 22 ancient watchtowers, about one every kilometer. (Cable car is optional if you do not want to walk)

You’ll take a cable car to ascend the Great Wall, then hike the most beautiful and interesting part of Mutianyu, which usually impresses tourists by its spectacular natural scenery and abundant vegetation. After the exciting tour, descend Mutianyu Great Wall by cable cars and drive back to the hotel to end the pleasant day.

Stay overnight in Beijing

Temple of Heaven

Beijing Hutongs

Today’s journey begins with the sightseeing of Temple of Heaven, a famous ancient architecture constructed in Ming and Qing dynasties. Temple of Heaven consists of two parts and is the place for emperors in Ming and Qing Dynasties to sacrifice to god and pray for harvest. Excepting for the intricate architecture of the various halls, you’ll also marvel at the ingenious design of the echo wall and the three-tone stone.

After lunch, you will get back to the central city to enjoy a relaxing and peaceful afternoon hanging about in Beijing Hutongs. Hutong is a kind of ancient urban alley unique to Beijing. Different from rows of high-rise buildings, winding and narrow alleys and cozy quadrangle courtyards, Hutongs will represent you what the past of Beijing is like. Taking ride of a jinricksha or a bicycle to shuttle through silent Hutongs, you’ll feel like wandering the river of history and find how tradition and modernism is mingled in this city.

In the afternoon, the 14-day tour ends. You’ll be escorted to airport for your flight to next destination or home.