FOUR CORNERS OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM

Day 1: Arrive Shanghai 
Transfer to the hotel.

Day 2: Shanghai
Dominating the Yangtze Delta, Shanghai is the pulsating commercial heart of China. You will walk along the famous Bund past the facades of the colonial buildings lining the Huangpu River and look across to the soaring TV tower and fantastic skyscrapers of the Pudong district on the opposite side. Following this we visit the beautifully maintained Yu Garden, an outstanding example of a classical garden dating from the 16th century. Later you will take a cruise across the Huangpu River to ascend the Grand Hyatt tower, one of the world’s tallest buildings, for an astonishing view over the whole city. Tonight you will be entertained by an Acrobatic Show. (B/L/D)

Day 3: Shanghai
This morning you will visit the renowned Shanghai Museum, famous for its collection of paintings, sculptures, porcelain, costumes, ancient bronzes and other artefacts. The afternoon is at leisure. Perhaps you will explore old Shanghai, do some serious shopping, or stroll through the French Concession. (B/L)

Day 4: Shanghai – Suzhou
Today you travel by train to Suzhou, a famed silk production centre and home to China’s most famous gardens. It was once regarded as the Venice of the East on account of its ancient canals spanned by quaint hump-backed bridges. Suzhou’s gardens are works of art — a fusion of nature, architecture, poetry and painting. The key elements of these famous gardens are rocks and water. You will visit the Master of the Nets Garden where the main garden space is a lake surrounded by rockwork, halls, covered walkways and pavilions—one of the most charming and tranquil garden scenes in China. In the afternoon you will join a Canal Cruise to enjoy the bustling and unique canal scenery. (B/L/D)

Day 5: Suzhou – Hangzhou
This morning you will visit another popular garden, the Humble Administrators Garden. This large garden was originally built in the early 16th century. It consists of three sections and is entered through the easternmost of these, a park-like area where there are often displays of bonsai and other plants.
After lunch you travel to Hangzhou by train. (B/L)

Day 6: Hangzhou
This morning you will visit the Lingyin Temple. One of the most famous Chan (Zen) temples in China, the Lingyin Temple, was founded in 327 AD beside a mountain believed to have arrived miraculously by air from India. Carved into its side are the most famous Buddhist sculptures south of the Yangtze. Then you will take a cruise on the incomparable West Lake, for centuries one of China’s best known scenic attractions. It was originally an inlet from the estuary of the Qiantang River, famous for its tidal bore which swept up and periodically flooded the city. (B/L)

Day 7: Hangzhou – Guilin
Today you travel by air to Guilin, renowned for its fantastic landscape of limestone peaks, and visit the magnificent Reed Flute Cave. This is Guilin’s largest and most impressive cave, filled with stalactites and stalagmites, and gets its name because local people used to collect reeds here to make their unique flutes. You will also take a chairlift to the peak of Yaoshan and enjoy a spectacular view of the city’s limestone hills and peaks (B/L/D)

Day 8: Guilin
This morning you begin the cruise down the Li River from Guilin to the picturesque town of Yangshuo. The cruise provides a unique opportunity to view the array of extraordinary peaks which rise side by side along the banks. Here you will also see picturesque villages, bamboo plantations and fishermen using cormorants. Lunch is included and the return to Guilin is by road. (B/L)

Day 9: Guilin – Lijiang
Transfer to the airport for your flight to Lijiang via Kunming, an 800-year-old city lying at 2400 m at the foot of the imposing Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. (B/L/D)

Day 10: Lijiang
Today we drive north along the eastern flank of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and take the chairlift to 3200m, descending again after a short walk around an alpine meadow. Later we will visit the Black Dragon Pool Park with its interesting plants, architectural features and stunning mountain back drop, and go on to tour around the small town of Baisha, 8km north of Lijiang. Here there are several buildings with fascinating murals depicting Buddhist and Daoist scenes painted in the 15th and 16th centuries in a style with Tibetan, Naxi and mainstream Chinese elements. You will also visit the Minority Village to see examples of authentic ethnic cultures. (B/L)

Day 11: Lijiang
At leisure. (B)

Day 12: Lijiang – Chengdu
Fly to Chengdu via Kunming and tonight enjoy a colourful Sichuan Opera (B/L/D)

Day 13: Chengdu
Today you travel to Leshan, 167km south-west of Chengdu, to view the Giant Buddha statue, 71m high, carved into a cliff on the bank of the Min River at Leshan. It was carved between 713 and 803 AD in the hope that its presence would exert an influence to subdue flooding. (B/L)

Day 14: Chengdu – Xian
This morning you will visit the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in the northern suburbs of Chengdu. A visit to this institution provides an opportunity to see a large number of the endangered giant pandas, both adults and cubs. Fly to Xian this afternoon and tonight enjoy the lavish spectacle of the Tang Dynasty Show. (B/L/D)

Day 15: Xian
After breakfast there is a walk along the massive Xian City Wall, one of the best preserved in China. The rectangular old part of Xian remains completely surrounded by this magnificent wall, complete with impressive gates and towers, built during the reign of the first Ming emperor in the late 14th century. Next you will travel to the renowned archaeological site of the Terracotta Warriors & Horses, buried over 2200 years ago to guard the tomb of the first emperor. (B/L/D)

Day 16: Xian – Beijing
Fly to Beijing. One of the world’s great cities, Beijing has a history dating back some 3000 years. Your orientation tour will be a stroll in Tiananmen Square where you will look across this vast space to the Great Hall of the People and stand before the massive Tiananmen (Heavenly Peace) Gate bearing a huge portrait of Mao Zedong, who stood here to proclaim the People’s Republic on 1 October 1949. (B/L)

Day 17: Beijing
Today you will pace the ramparts of China’s famed Great Wall, originally built over 2000 years ago to keep invaders from the north at bay.
Following this you will visit the Temple of Heaven, where the emperors carried out the most important sacrifices and ceremonies of the year. Set in a huge park planted with conifers, the buildings here represent the epitome of Ming architecture. (B/L)

Day 18: Beijing
This morning you will visit the Forbidden City, as the former imperial palace is called, where the magnificent marble courtyards, huge halls, gilded temples and ornate pavilions frequented by the emperors and their families are now open to your gaze. In the afternoon there will be a rickshaw tour of Beijing’s old Hutong District, a fascinating maze of narrow alleys and hidden courtyards. (B/L)

Day 19: Beijing
Your tour today is to the Summer Palace, originally constructed by the emperor Qianlong to celebrate his mother’s 60th birthday in 1751 and later the favourite retreat of the dowager empress Cixi until her death in 1908. Languid willows and painted pavilions surround a scenic lake, across which are enchanting views to the pagoda-capped Jade Spring Hill and the mountains beyond. In the afternoon you will have leisure time. Visit some of Beijing’s wonderful museums, art galleries or Buddhist temples, shop for silk, jade or other treasures on famous Wangfujing Street, visit an antique market or stroll round Beihai Park. (B/L)

Day 20: Depart Beijing:
Transfer to the airport for your onward flight. (B)

COST PER PERSON – Land Only

The prices of above tour are quoted on the basis of a minimum of 2 persons travelling together.