10 Days Beijing Xian Chengdu Shanghai Train Tour with Panda

Tiananmen Square

Forbidden City

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 will bump 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 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

The Mutianyu Great Wall

The Mutianyu Great Wall in Autumn

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 hotel to end the pleasant day.

Stay overnight in Beijing

Temple of Heaven

Hutong in Beijing

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.

Next, you will get back to the central city to enjoy a relaxing and peaceful time 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.

After lunch, your Beijing tour will come to an end and you will be drop off at the Beijing West Railway Station to board the high-speed train to Xian. The train journey will last 4-6 hours. You can have a rest on it.

In the night of Xian, music fountain in the northern square of Great Wild Goose Pagoda, one of the most-famous ancient architectures in Xian, is a must-see for many travelers which usually starts at 9:00 pm and lasts about 20 minutes. It’s the biggest music fountain in the world. When music starts and the water columns jumps and fluctuates with the rhyme, Great Wild Goose Pagoda right behind the water screen is like covered with a fancy veil with the illumination of colorful lights, and you will enjoy a breath-taking scene of ambiglow.

Stay overnight in Xian

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

The Shanxi History Museum

Xian to Chengdu by High-speed Train

In the morning, 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.

After having lunch, we will take ride of the high-speed train in Xian Northern Railway Station to board the high-speed train to Chengdu. You’ll spend about 3-4 hours on train. Upon arrival, you will be welcomed by local tour guide, then transferred to your downtown hotel in Chengdu.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

Jinli Ancient Street

In the morning, drive for about half an hour to Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center, the home to giant pandas, where you will catch pandas' feeding time. They are at their most active, both Adults and Babies. There's a wealth of information and a panda museum in this 230-hectare park 10 km (6 miles) north of Chengdu. It takes about 2.5 hours to visit this site.

After lunch, we will drive back to downtown and visit some incity popular spots. The first is 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 snacks 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. 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

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport

Shanghai Hongqiao Airport

Today we will leave Chengdu to Shanghai in airplane. You will board at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport to fly to Shanghai. And it spends about 3 hours on the way. After arriving , you will be picked up and sent to the hotel for a rest. The rest of the day is free to do a little exploration at your leisure.

Stay overnight in Shanghai

Night review of Yu Garden

Shanghai World Financial Center

Today you will take a full day of visitation to explore the past and present of Shanghai. After breakfast, we are firstly about to visit 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.

Next, we will move to Shanghai World Financial Center, the tallest building in Shanghai until 2014. It’s 492 meters tall (1,614 feet), 101 floors above ground and 3 floors below. Taking an elevator to have a bird’s-eye view of Shanghai city will be a memorable experience for you. On the 100th floor observation deck, you can enjoy a best view of Shanghai.

After lunch, we will have a short break before leaving for 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.

When night falls, you will enjoy a night cruise on Huangpu River. On the cruise, you will see the distinctive contrasts between the classical European buildings and soaring modern skyscrapers from the two sides of the Huangpu River. The prismy buildings along the river sides will lead you to witness the modernism and vitality of this International metropolitan.

Stay overnight in Shanghai

After that, the 10-day tour ends. You’ll be escorted to airport for your flight to next destination or home.