13 Days Beijing Xian Lhasa Chongqing Shanghai Tour with 3-day Yangtze River Cruise

Welcome to Beijing! Upon your arrival in Beijing, your driver will pick you up and take you to your hotel in Beijing in a private car. Then you could have a rest in your hotel or walk around on your own.

Stay overnight in Beijing.

Your guided tour starts with a visit to the famous Forbidden City, which used to be the imperial palace from around 1420 to 1912 and now houses the Palace Museum. Then you will visit Summer Palace. Summer Palace is the largest and most well-preserved royal park in China, and is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens, and palaces. These beautiful attractions show visitors what life was like for the royal household in ancient China, and how the Chinese emperors managed their empire.

Stay overnight in Beijing.

Today, you will get up early to visit the Temple of Heaven, an imperial complex of religious building. It was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremony of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. You can visit the grand prayer hall which was built without using a single nail. Then you will visit Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Stretching 2,250 meters long and including 22 watchtowers, Mutianyu Great Wall is the longest, fully restored Great Wall section open to tourists.

After the tour, you will be drop off at railway station to board the Beijing-Xian train. You will spend a night on the train and arrive in Xian next day morning.

Stay overnight on the train.

Today, you will visit the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses Museum. As one of the world’s eight wonders, the terracotta warriors and horses are the size of a real army, and were buried alongside Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, in a vast underground palace. You will also visit Banpo Museum, the archeological site of Banpo Village, which was built more than 6,000 year ago, will allow you to see how the resident matriarchic tribe used to survive in the Neolithic age.

Stay overnight in Xi’an.

Today, you need to take a taxi by yourself to Xian airport to board the flight to Lhasa. Make sure to bring the original Tibet Travel Permit and show it to the staff to board the airplane.

When you arrive in Lhasa, your tour guide will hold a board with your name on it at the exit to welcome you. A private car will take you to the reserved hotel. You may view the Yarlung Tsangpo River/Bhamaputra River (the longest and largest river in Tibet) and Lhasa River on the way from airport to Lhasa. Then, you can take a good rest at hotel to acclimatize to Tibetan plateau environment.

Stay overnight in Lhasa.

Today, you’ll pay a visit to the famous Potala Palace, the world culture heritage and the winter palace of Dalai Lama. You can explore its audience halls, the jeweled and golden burial chortens (stupa tombs) of past Dalai Lamas, meditation cave of the 33rd Great King of Tibet, and tremendous number of Buddhist frescoes, thangkas, combinations of mandala, etc.

Then you will head to the holiest temple in Tibet, the Jokhang Temple, built during Songtsen Ganpo's reign by Princess Wencheng of Tang dynasty, 647 A.D. Here you can observe sincere pilgrims making prostration in front of Jokhang Temple. While entering inside the temple, you can see the statue of Buddha Sakyamuni at the age of twelve. On the top of Jokhang Temple, you can enjoy the panorama of old Lhasa City and great vista of Potala Palace.

Then you can do the kora with pilgrims and locals by circling the Barkhor Street around the temple, buy some souvenirs, and taste sweet tea and local snacks in local tea house. Later, you can explore farm products like yak butter in Tromzikhang, the famous farm produce market.

Stay overnight in Lhasa.

Today, you will visit two important monasteries in Lhasa, the Drepung and the Sera. Drepung Monastery, the largest monastery in Tibet, was founded by Jamyang Choeje in 1416 and used to be home to more than 10,000 monks. Hiking along the mountain steps, you can see Buddhist painting on the rock face. During Shoton Festival, locals and pilgrims swarm to Drepung Monastery to celebrate the gigantic Thangka Buddha unveiling ceremony on the Gambo Utse Mountain. Then you will stop by the nearby carpet factory to appreciate the Tibetan artisans make traditional carpets with great skills.

After having lunch, you will visit Sera Monastery, which was founded in 1419 by Tsongkapa's disciple Jamchen Choeje. The most interesting thing is to see monks debating in the courtyard at around 3-5 in the afternoon. By yelling at each other, slapping hands and rolling mala, two monks make a pair to debate on philosophical issues. You can also appreciate the delicately-made Mandala, sanding paintings, and massive Buddhist scriptures inside Sera Monastery.

Stay overnight in Lhasa.

You guide will pick you up from hotel and transfer you to the airport for your onward flight to Chongqing, the starting point of your Yangtze Cruize tour. It takes about 2.5 hours to arrive in Chongqing by flight. Upon your arrival, your local guide will pick you up, escort you to Yangtze River Pier, and assist you to board the cruise. You also have a chance to go through Chongqing City along the way from airport to the pier. The cruise departs at 21:00.

Stay overnight in the cruise.

Today you can visit Fengdu Ghost City (off cruise tour, optional) at about 9:00am. Fengdu Ghost City is a large complex of shrines, temples and monasteries dedicated to the afterlife located on the Ming mountain, in Fengdu County. With about 2,000 years' history, It’s famous for the constructions, displays of “ghost” culture and the hell, and the important function of spreading the traditional values in Confucians, Taoist, and Buddhist believes.

Then you can enjoy a Shibaozhai Shore Excursion at about 16:00. The vermillion 12-storey Shibaozhai Pagoda is a wooden pagoda built into the side of a cliff face of Shibaozhai. With a height of 56 meters, it is the existing largest wooden architecture with crossing bracket type. The whole pagoda was made of wooden, without using any single nail in the construction.

Stay overnight in the cruise.

You can visit White Emperor City (off cruise tour, optional) at 07:30. Situated at the entrance of Qutang Gorge, north of the Yangtze River, it has a series of outstanding cultural and historical relic. Then you will sail through Qutang Gorge at 10:45, Wu Gorge at 12:45, and have a shore excursion to Goddess Stream at 15:15.

Stay overnight in cruise.

Today you will sail through the TGD Ship-Elevator, and visit Three Gorge Dam at 08:15. At the world's largest dam and hydroelectric power station, you will have chance to witness the tropic man-made wonder.

The Cruise tour ends at Yichang at 12:45 at noon. Upon your arrival, a local guide will pick you up from pier tourist station and escort you to the airport to take the flight to Shanghai. After arriving in Shanghai airport, please take a taxi to the reserved hotel in downtown by yourself.

Stay overnight in Shanghai.

Today you will be escorted to visit Yu Garden, the bund, Shanghai Old Wax Figure Museum, and Old French Concession. Not only can you see Asia's most modern sky scrapers, but also you can appreciate the traditional garden and feel the life-style of Shanghai people.

Overnight in Shanghai.

Today you will take a taxi from hotel to Shanghai airport or railway station by yourself.