11 Days Beijing Lhasa Xian Tour with Beijing-Tibet Train

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.

No tour of China would be complete without a visit to the Great Wall, the largest man-made structure on the planet. After breakfast, 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.

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 move to the Imperial Ancestral Temple, or Taimiao of Beijing where sacrificial ceremonies were held on the most important festival occasions in honor of the imperial family's ancestors during both the Ming and Qing Dynasties. After that, you will visit Beihai Park, one of the oldest, largest and best-preserved ancient imperial gardens in China. The structures and scenes in the Beihai Park are described as masterpieces of gardening technique that reflects the style and the superb architectural skill and richness of traditional Chinese garden art.

Stay overnight in Beijing.

In the morning, you can explore Nanluoguxiang yourself. Built in the Yuan Dynasty and neighboring many typical narrow streets known as hutong, Nanluoguxiang has become a popular tourist destination with coffee shops, souvenir shops, and some old siheyuan associated with famous historic and literary figures. In the afternoon, you can do some shopping if you like and prepare for the Bejing-Tibet train departing at 20:00 from Beijing West Railway Station.

Stay overnight on the train.

It takes Beijing-Lhasa train 40:45 hours to ride through as far as 3,757 kilometers to get to Lhasa Railway Station. On the journey, you will cross over 8 provinces and appreciate the various landscapes of China. However, the essential scenery of the train lies in Golmud-Lhasa section.

Stay overnight on the train.

Upon your arrival in Lhasa, your tour guide will hold a board with your name on it at the exit. A private car will take you to the reserved hotel, and the guide will give a brief introduction of the itinerary as well as dos and don'ts in Tibet. 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 Xian. It takes about 3 hours to arrive in Kunming by flight. Upon your arrival, your local guide will pick you up and escort you to the reserved hotel. You can have a good rest at hotel in the rest of the day.

Stay overnight in Xian.

Your tour guide will pick you up at Xi'an Railway Station upon your arrival in the morning. Today, you will 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. You will also 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.

Stay overnight in Xi’an.

You guide will pick you up from your hotel, drop you off at airport or railway station, and help you to get on board.