China Tour from Boston

Please get to the airport by yourself on the departure day of your flight. Currently there is no direct flight between Boston and Beijing, so you might consult fight trackers to make your connecting itinerary.

On arriving at Beijing Capital International Airport, meet your guide at the arrival hall. Then your driver will transfer you to the hotel. The rest of the day is free on your own arrangement.

Accommodation: Hotel New Otani Chang Fu Gong

The morning excursion will start with Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The City, one of the greatest imperial palaces and largest wooden structure in the world, is still kept as what it looked like in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368 - 1911). You will have a chance to appreciate the Treasure Gallery there. Apart from marveling at the grand places for emperors or empresses, you can also discover interesting stories at small subordinate buildings housing eunuchs. Sadly enough, at ancient times, only boys from the poorest families would be sent to the court. They would spend a lifetime there serving the imperial family, in order for salaries, food rations, and rewards from emperors and their concubines.

An a la carte lunch with Peking Roast Duck will be served at a noted local restaurant. Next places for this afternoon are Yonghe Temple, once the center of Tibetan Buddhism under the direct rule of the Qing government, and Temple of Heaven, a royal sacrificial building complex. This evening, appreciate a Peking Opera Show at Liyuan Theatre; we will arrive earlier to see the artists showing the art of face painting.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, A la carte welcome lunch

After breakfast, we will set off to Mutianyu Great Wall, the most beautiful section of the Great Wall of China - one of the Seven Wonders of the World. A round-trip ride via cable car is included. We will also treat you to a bottle of red wine to celebrate the moment of your landing at the Wall.

For the unsatisfactory quality of surrounding restaurants, lunch for today is not included in our service. You might prepare some fast food or snacks, or eat at a nearby restaurant with the help of your guide.

Go back to downtown Beijing in the afternoon. On the way, have a photo stop in front of the Olympic National Stadium. Go on a ride via rickshaw into the Hutong area, a can’t-miss to experience the essence of Beijing’s traditional life. Hutongs are lanes among rows of courtyard houses one next to each other. You will wonder at the wisdom revealed in their design: the houses are facing southwards so they can let more sunlight in; and, to facilitate communication, large hutongs are connected with each other by smaller ones. In fact, the entire old Beijing city also resembles a courtyard house, with eye-opening meticulous layout and east-west symmetry.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

This morning, visit giant pandas at Panda House in Beijing Zoo and take a stroll at Summer Palace. A vast and well-preserved royal garden, the Palace offers not only elegant sceneries to take in, but also cultural relics and curious statues to appreciate.

Later, you will be transferred to the airport for a flight to Xi'an. Our local guide will meet you outside the baggage claim area of Xi'an’s airport and take you to the hotel for check-in.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Crowne Plaza Xi'an

The first stop of today's Xi’an tour is Terracotta Army, known as the Eighth Wonder of the World. As funeral objects, the terracotta warriors and horses are housed in the burial pits of the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259 – 210 BC), First Emperor of China. Compared to sculptures of ancient Greek of the same times, those of ancient China might be fresh to you, and both are extraordinary cultural heritage for mankind. You will harvest a brand-new aesthetic experience from the terracotta statues, which were born from a geologically and culturally different society, and crafted with techniques distinct from those applied for their Grecian counterparts.

Out from the museum, we will learn about the discovery of the Army at the house of its first discoverer. Later, follow steps instructed by an artisan to create a mini terracotta warrior and bring it home.

In the afternoon, visit Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. Enjoy a splendid evening by feasting on a dumpling dinner while watching a Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Dumpling dinner

Tip:
Since the theater is usually closed in January, February, March and December, the show and dumpling dinner shall be cancelled for tours starting during the periods. Guests will enjoy a free evening to relax.

After breakfast, take a stroll around City Wall Park, a popular place where you can find locals doing morning exercises, such as Tai Chi martial art. We will invite a master to teach you some basic moves of Tai Chi. After that, ascend the City Wall, a well-preserved fortification built during the Ming Dynasty and the symbol of Xi’an. Have fun riding bicycles (rental fee is at your own expense) on the Wall if you like.

Afterwards, you will be transferred to the airport for a flight to Chongqing. Upon arrival, meet your guide and board the luxury Century Cruise Ship for check-in. Enjoy a buffet dinner onboard and expect your captain to throw a Welcome Party

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Dinner
Cruises: Century Victory

Warm up your body by doing some Tai Chi before breakfast and then come ashore for a thrilling tour of Fengdu Ghost City.

Enjoy a whole afternoon’s free time to relax onboard. The cruise company has prepared some cultural activities, which you can join for fun!

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This morning, either wake up late on your luxury bed or breathe some fresh morning air on the deck. The ship will sail into the Three Gorges from around 11 o’clock. You will pass by the Qutang Gorge first and then the Wu Gorge, where a side shore excursion to Shennv Stream, famous for a blend of tribal culture and primitive beauty, awaits.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Check out of the cruise ship after breakfast to visit the majestic Three Gorges Dam. As the world’s biggest hydropower project, the dam has created a reservoir with an area involving over twenty cities or counties of Hubei and Chongqing. From 1994 to 2010, more than 1.3 million people have been relocated – that’s the population of a small-size European country!

Later, head for the Three Gorges Tourists Center in Yichang City, where our local guide will meet you and take you for a 7.5-hour ride on bullet train to Shanghai. Upon arrival, our local guide will pick you up and transfer you to the hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast
Accommodation: Radisson Blu Hotel Shanghai New World

Let’s kick off your Shanghai tour with a visit to Shanghai Museum, a window into China’s art history through various collections of ancient paintings, calligraphies, and ceramics. Then, explore age-old Yu Garden and its nearby bazaar. In a typical classical Chinese garden like this, you get to appreciate traditional Chinese architecture, beautiful rockeries, as well as ponds reflecting them.

At noon, an a la carte lunch will be served at an elegant local restaurant. In the afternoon, while away some time at Duo Yun Bookstore on the 52nd floor of Shanghai Tower, to enjoy a sweeping view of Shanghai’s landscape. Go down to visit the Bund area and get on a ship to cruise on the Huangpu River. Off the ship, you will be left some free time to enjoy what the Bund has to offer at your own pace. Interestingly, Shanghai had another name - “Wall Street of the Far East”- in the 1930s and 1940s, for an economic boom that was only second to New York and London at that time. Take a look at the bronze bull on the Bund, which was designed by no other than the same person who invented the Charging Bull of the Wall Street. Cast in 2010, the bull here is a symbolic witness to the re-rise of the Bund and the blossoming of Shanghai international financial center.

Later, we will transfer you back to the hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, A la carte farewell lunch

Your China tour from Boston draws to a close today. Please head to the airport on your own to board the flight home. We suggest you ask hotel concierge at the front desk to book a taxi for you beforehand. As there is no direct flight between Shanghai and Boston, you may consider making a flight plan according to real-time information given by flight trackers. Wish you a nice journey home!

Meals: Western buffet breakfast