15 Days Beijing Xi'an Lhasa Chengdu Guilin Shanghai Tour with Xi'an-Tibet Train and Li 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 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.

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. In the evening, you will be transferred to the Beijing West Railway Station for the overnight train to Xi’an.

Stay overnight on the train.

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.

Today, you will board the Tibet train at Xian Railway Station to experience the highest train ride in the world. The train journey will take you about 32 hours.

Stay overnight on the train.

You can experience the famous sky train and appreciate land of snows, desert, immense grassland, snow-capped mountains, and beautiful lakes along the way.

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.

You guide will pick you up from hotel and transfer you to the airport for your onward flight to Chengdu. It takes about 2 hours to arrive in Chengdu by flight. After arriving in Chengdu, please take a taxi to the reserved hotel in downtown by yourself. You can have a rest at hotel or explore Chunxi Road, Jinli Street or Kunzhai Alley in the downtown.

Stay overnight in Chengdu.

In the morning, you will be escorted to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda. Morning is the panda’s feeding time, you can visit both adult and baby panda houses and watch them eating fresh bamboo if arriving there during their feeding time.

Then, you will take a 2 hours’ car ride to Leshan City to visit the famous Leshan Giant Buddha. Built in the year 713 - 803, this 71-meter/233 feet high statue took people more than 90 years to carve. You can hike to the Buddha or watch it from the cruise. Afterwards, you will go back Chengdu and end the tour at Tianfu Square. Then, you need to take a taxi to the reserved hotel by yourself.

Stay overnight in Chengdu.

Today, you need to take a taxi to Chengdu airport for your onward flight to Guilin, Guangxi Autonomous Region. It takes about 2 hours to arrive in Guilin 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 or explore attractions in Guilin City by yourself such as Elephant Trunk Hill, and 2-River 4-Lake Park.

Stay overnight in Guilin.

Longji Terraced Fields (Dragon Backbone’s Rice Terraces) are located north of Guilin City with a driving time of 2 hours from the city center. The scenery of terraces vary from season to season. It looks like great chains or ribbons hung on the hillsides when irrigated in spring, and like green waves rushing continuously down the mountainside from the heaven in summer. It is decorated with the golden ripe rice in autumn, and covered with white snow in winter.

You will visit Pang’an Village to experience China’s ethnic minorities' culture. The Zhuang and the Yao people live here with their unique and colorful costumes. Afterward, you will go back to Guilin.

Stay overnight in Guilin.

Today, you will appreciate the stunning scenery of Li River on the 4-hour cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. When in Yangshuo, you could stroll in Xi Street, or experience Yulong River Bamboo Raft, or cycle in the countryside.

Afterward, you will be transferred to Guilin airport for your onward flight to Shanghai. It takes about 2 hours to arrive in Shanghai by flight. Upon your arrival, you need to take a taxi to the reserved hotel by yourself.

Stay overnight in Shanghai.

In the morning, you will visit Shanghai Museum which houses an incredible collection of bronzes, sculptures, ceramics, coins, paintings, calligraphy, costumes in different dynasties. Then, you will go to Yu Garden which used to be a private residence about 400 years ago, you can stroll inside this beautiful Chinese garden, and savor some local flavor snacks at the Yu Garden Bazaar. 

You can appreciate the stunning panorama of skylines of Shanghai and Oriental Pearl TV Tower at night, and get amazed at the spectacular Huangpu River and dazzling light from buildings of Pudong when strolling along the Bund.

Stay overnight in Shanghai.

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