14 Days Shanghai Chengdu Lhasa Xian Beijing Food Tour with Panda Visits

Golden Monkey in Shanghai Wildlife Park

Yu Garden

Today, you will first visit the Shanghai Wildlife Park. This is a theme park integrating wildlife breeding, exhibition, breeding and protection, popular science education and entertainment. You will see the Golden Monkey, Golden Antelope, Crested Ibis, Asian Rhinoceros Unicorn, very rare species, the park was made mainly to protect, breed and extend rare and endangered animals, popularize animal knowledge to the public, meanwhile, cultivate awareness of animal protection.

After visiting Shanghai Wildlife Park, you will go to Yu Garden, a private garden built in the Ming Dynasty, about 400 years ago. After meticulous care for over 20 years, the owner named it “Yu Garden”, expressing the wishes of safety and harmony. you can experience the ancient culture in Yu Garden, viewing the magnificence of wisdom of Ancient Chinese.

Stay overnight in Shanghai

Today you will be escorted to airport and take the flight to Chengdu, our guide will pick you up and take you to your hotel, after settling down, you will go to downtown Chengdu to see the capital of Sichuan Provence, you can have hot pot if you want!

Stay overnight in Chengdu

You may have a chance to feed the panda.

Pandas in Dujiangyan Panda Valley

7:00am Picked up by your tour guide
In the early morning, your tour guide & driver will pick you up from your hotel in Chengdu and then drive to the Dujiangyan Panda Base.

8:30am - 09:00am Arrive at the Dujiangyan Panda Base and sign up
In the base, you will get a uniform, gloves, and a volunteer’s card with the assistance of your guide. Your guide will introduce you to the professional panda keepers. The panda keepers can speak simple English but your guide will be there for you at all times, helping to translate and taking memorable photos of you with the lovable pandas.

9:00am - 10:00am Clean the panda enclosures 
Panda keepers need to supply fresh bamboo 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.

10:00am - 11:00am Take a break and tour around the panda base
Have a relaxing walk in the well-paved base and listen to the legendary stories of these pandas. You will also have a chance to meet four naughty red pandas.

11:00am - 11:30am Feed a panda 
Pandas are supplied with 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.

11:30am - 1:00pm Have lunch and a rest in the base

1:00pm - 2:00pm Watch a panda movie that lasts for about 40 minutes
You will see a special documentary about how the shy pandas mate, give birth, grow up, and are returned to the wild.

2:00pm - 3:30pm More cleaning and feeding, and making panda’s cakes
The bamboo you supplied in the morning will have become dry by the afternoon. Remove it and replace it with fresh bamboo. 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.

3:30pm - 4:00pm Get a certificate, and drive back to Chengdu
The volunteer work ends here and you will receive a certificate for this unforgettable day. Say goodbye to the pandas you take care of.

Your guide and driver will escort you back to your hotel in Chengdu.

Notice:
A donation program that allows you to take pictures with a panda next to you for about one minute is not included in the Panda Volunteer Program. It is only available in Dujiangyan Panda Base and the donation amount is CNY1,800 per person. Only 30 tourists are allowed to take close-up photos with pandas each day. If you would like to do, please feel free to tell us or reserve 1 Day Dujiangyan Panda Holding Tour from Chengdu.

The age restriction of volunteer program is between 12 to 65 years old ( there is no restriction for holding a lovely panda ). Even though the pandas look harmless, they are carnivores. Parents must ensure that they prevent their children from coming into direct contact with the pandas.

If your children are between 2–11 years old, you can still take them with you during the program. Your guide will help to take care of them. If your children are under 2 years old and you take care of them throughout the day.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Jinli Ancient Street

Chengdu Panda Base

In the morning, our tour guide & driver will pick you up from your hotel, and drive to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (known as Chengdu Panda Base) which is the best possible environment for rearing and breeding. Here, you can explore the daily life of the cute pandas, and see them eating bamboo at their active time (from 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock).

In the afternoon our guide will escort you to the Jinli Ancient Street, one of the oldest streets to appreciate the local snacks and artifacts. The elegant style of the architectures tells you what Sichuan looks like during the Qing Dynasty. Then visit Wuhou Temple, where people in Chengdu commemorate Zhu Geliang, you can learn many stories of this sagacious man.

After tour, be transferred back to your hotel.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

The Famous Pixian Chili Bean Paste Ferments in the Courtyard

Sichuan Cuisine Cooking Class in the Cuisine Museum

After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up from your hotel in and drive to the Sichuan Cuisine Museum, which is located in Pixian County in western Chengdu. As the first museum with a theme of regional cooking culture in the world, Sichuan Cuisine Museum is the best place to learn the history of the famous Sichuan cuisine, as well as experience how to make an authentic Sichuan dish.

When you arrive in Sichuan Cuisine Museum, you could visit the main hall houses, where thousands of relics of cooking utensils hold. You could learn the history of Sichuan cuisine that dating back to about 2,500 years ago, in the Hall of Classical-collection Exhibition. There are great collection of books and records that vividly show the portrait of the rich culture of Sichuan cuisine, one of the most popular regional cuisines in China, even among the world.

Keeping on visiting the museum, you will see many antique treasure of the ancient Sichuan. And in the small farm in the courtyard, you could see how the famous Pixian Chili Bean Paste ferments in clay jars.

The most fantastic part of this foodie tour is to take a cooking class there and learn the authentic Sichuan dishes from local chefs. There is an English menu for you to choose, once you decided which to learn, the chef will teach you hand by hand. When you fished, you could sit down and enjoy the dish you just made. What a wonderful experience!

After the tour, our guide will take you back to Chengdu.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Welcome to Lhasa! The tour guide will meet you at the airport to get to the hotel where you stay. On the way to the hotel, you will be accompanied by the upper stream of the Brahmaputra River and Lhasa River. Certainly, there are also snow-capped mountains, enchanting lakes, and yaks.

Then, when arriving in Lhasa, you should have a rest in your room to acclimatize yourself to this high altitude. If time and energy are full, you can wander to the Potala Square to appreciate the fountain show and the urban nightscape.

Notice:
In order to get acclimatized to the high altitude in Tibet and avoid the altitude sickness, especially the first-visit to Tibet, you should have a good sleep in your hotel. Do not rush to visit attractions inside Lhasa city.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

The Splendid Potala Palace

Jokhang Temple

After your delicious breakfast, you will start your Tibetan Buddhist journey today. Certainly, the Potala Palace, reputed as the landmark of Tibet, must be the first site. It is enclosed with the White Palace and the Red Palace ancillary buildings of the Potala Palace which rise from Red Mountain in the center of Lhasa Valley (3700m). The most valuable burial stupas of former Dalai Lamas and meditation Cave of the 33rd great king of Tibet are housed inside.

Having a lunch, you will continue to visit the "spiritual heart of the city" and the most sacred monastery in Tibet - the holy Jokhang Monastery. The monastery is located at Barkhor Square in Lhasa, in general, considered as the most important and sacred monastery by Tibetan. In fact, it is packed with pilgrims from four corners to pray. Therefore, not only will you see the statue of Buddha Sakyamuni at the age of twelve, also the pilgrims making prostrating in front of Jokhang Temple.

After visiting the monastery, you can stroll along the Barkhor Street surrounding the monastery where you can take part in the pilgrimage to do kora, a religious circle around a building or mountains, or wandering to buy some Tibetan handicrafts and so on.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

Drepung Monastery

Scriptures Debating in Sera Monastery

Today, you will go on basking in Tibetan Buddhism. Drepung Monastery, as the beginning site of today’s journey, is one of the “great three” Gelug monasteries of Tibet. It is founded in 1416 by Jamyang Choge, one of the Tsongkhapa’s main disciples, also the biggest monastery among Tibetan Buddhist buildings. Here, we will offer you an opportunity to visit the biggest monastery kitchen, and enjoy the rock paintings, then, the tour guide will lead you to see Buddhist Sculpture Carving workshop near Drepung Monastery.

In addition, after your meal, continue to visit another Gelug monastery in Tibet - Sera Monastery. As we all know, the highlight of touring Sera Monastery is to watch an excellent Monks Debate lasting from 3 pm to 5 pm. Then, you can explore the Choding Khang which is the hermitage located just behind the Great Assembly Hall (on the hill slope of Sera Utse).

Stay overnight in Lhasa

You will take the flight from Lhasa to Xian, our guides will pick you up at the airport.

Stay overnight in Xian

Grand Mosque

Ancient City Wall

Upon your arrival in Xian, you will be transferred to the reserved hotel and have a good rest. In the afternoon, you will be able to enjoy the Ancient City Wall of Xian by bicycle tour. The wall around the inner part of the city was built in the 14th century and is 14km long. It is an amazing example of ancient defensive structures. Then you will head to the Grand Mosque, a Chinese traditional Alhambresque architecture, with a great combination of Islamic and Chinese culture.

Stay overnight in Xian

Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

The next morning will see you visiting the Museum of Qin Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses, a must-see when in Xian. Around 8,000 ancient, life-sized figures were created to accompany the first Emperor of China to the afterlife, and were part of his mausoleum. Each figure has a unique facial structure and expression, as if they had been made from living people. The warriors were buried with the Emperor in 208BC and were not discovered until 1974.

After the warriors, you will head to another of the most visited sites in Xian, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Built in 652, the pagoda is a repository of Buddhist figures and scriptures brought to Xian from India by, Xuanzang, the first abbot of Daci'en Temple.

You will take flight from Xian to Beijing.

Stay overnight in Beijing

Great Wall

Ming Tombs

Today you will visit the majestic Great Wall (Badaling section) and the Chang Tomb of Ming Tombs. You will be taken on a group tour to the Great Wall, the most famous symbol of China and one of the world’s most remarkable architectural wonders. This section was first built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). The Ming Tombs is also known as the “13 Tombs”, and it is a collection of mausoleums of the 13 out of 17 of the Ming Dynasty emperors.

Stay overnight in Beijing

Forbidden City

Tiananmen Square

Today you will first visit the noted Temple of Heaven, which is a royal sacred site where prayers for good harvests, prosperity and harmonious life are offered. Then we will head to the historic Tiananmen Square which is the largest city square in the world and the spiritual heart of China, and then the magnificent Forbidden City which located in the center of Beijing and used to be the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties with a history of around 600 years.

You will take flight from Beijing back home, our guide will drop you off at the airport. Also you can take a cab on your own.