Take an entire day to explore two sides of Beijing: the old and the new. Visit the modern Beijing landmarks in the form of the Beijing Zoo and the Olympic Green. While catch glimmers of the ancient side of the city at the Lama Temple, along hutongs and at Jingshan Park.
Your friendly local tour guide will pick you up from your downtown Beijing between 7 am - 8 am and get you settled in a comfortable coach to start the full-day Beijing sightseeing.
First, head on to the Beijing Zoo. The site is comprised of 16 different exhibition areas and halls, but the most popular one is the Panda Hall, which houses the lovely giant pandas. Afterwards, visit the Olympic Green and witness firsthand the grand designs of the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, instantly remarkable from the 2008 Olympics.
Continue to the Lama Temple (Yonghe Lamasery). The temple is considered the largest and the best-preserved lamasery in China. This exceptional temple is a glittering attraction, where layered roofs, fabulous frescoes, tapestries, carpentry and Tibetan prayer wheels guarded by a pair of Chinese lions mingle with dense clouds of incense.
Then enjoy a traditional Chinese cuisine lunch in local restaurant, and move on to hutong tour. Hutongs are the ancient alleyways made by the traditional courtyards. These reflect ways of the old, but are rapidly being demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. However, some are designated as protected area and some others are packed with various boutique stores offering a lively atmosphere.
Later go to Jingshan Park, a former imperial garden, and get the best and the clearest view of the Forbidden City.
Finally, complete your full-day guided tour with a visit to a silk shop, browse through some Chinese traditional silk arts and get gifts for your relatives back home. You will be then transferred back to your hotel.
The Terracotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century and it is a destination you should never miss during your visit to China. The State Council authorized to build it into a museum on site in 1975 and the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses has become the most popular landmark in Xi'an. It has put Xi'an on the map for world travelers and was listed by UNESCO in 1987 as one of the world cultural heritages.
In the morning, our tour guide and driver will pick you up in the lobby of your hotel at 9:00 am where after we will visit the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum. You will be shocked by the scale of this underground army and the life-sized soldiers and horses with vivid expressions. Lunch will be on your own arrangement and our guide will recommend some local specialties to you.
In the afternoon, you can discuss with our guide about these five options depending on your schedule and interests - City Wall, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Small Wild Goose Pagoda, Shaanxi History Museum, the Square of Bell & Drum Tower, Muslim Quarter and Great Mosque. After the tour is concluded, we will drive you back to your hotel.
The Beijing guide and driver will be holding a sign with your name written on it and pick you up from your hotel lobby at 18:20. Drive to the theater directly. Peking opera has more than 230 years of history. It is believed that Peking opera gradually came into being after 1790 when the famous four Anhui Opera Troupes came to Beijing. Peking opera developed quickly during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and the Empress Dowager Cixi under their imperial patronage, eventually becoming more common to the common people.
In ancient times, the costumes were a garish collection of sharply contrasting colors to stand out on the dimly illuminated stage only lit by oil lamps. Peking opera is a harmonious combination of the Grand Opera, ballet and acrobatics consisting of dance, martial arts and mime.
The Peking opera band mainly consists of an orchestra and percussion band. The former frequently accompanies peaceful scenes while the latter provides the right atmosphere for battle scenes. The commonly used percussion instruments include castanets, drums, bells and cymbals. One person usually plays the castanets and drums simultaneously, which conducts the entire band.
The orchestral instruments include the Erhu, Huqin, Yueqin, Sheng (reed pipe), Pipa (lute) and other instruments. The band usually sits on the left side of the stage. Afterwards, your Chinese driver will take you back to your hotel.
As a setting of Ang Lee’s classic 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', Hongcun was catapulted to international fame overnight. A beautiful village located in Anhui province, Hongcun was often frequented by painters wanting to capture the beauty of this place on their canvas in the past.
Join us on this guided day tour and explore this ancient village with a rich history and a beautiful landscape. Your English-speaking tour guide will call you one day in advance to reconfirm the details of the tour. Arrive in the lobby of Huangshan International Hotel ( Number 31, Huangshan Road, Tunxi District, Huangshan city) before 08:00 am and meet your tour guide and group members.
Enjoy a 90-minute bus ride (shared) to Hongcun Village. See various sights in the village, including South Lake, Chengzhi Hall, Lexu Hall, Shuren Hall, etc. The 150 or so houses in the village were built during the time when Ming and Qing dynasties ruled over China. Spend two hours exploring the village before making your way back to the meeting point in Huangshan.
I was able to remain in direct contact with the tour company and be sure of our plans for the day. The tour guide picked us up right at our door and spoke amazing English. The driver was also very kind. We had a great time, and the lunch was phenomenal! Would definitely recommend.
Cooking classesFood tours
Tour Type
Small Group TourSmall group tours usually have 8-12 participants and maximum up to 18 travelers
The Beijing guide and driver will hold your name on a card and pick you up at the hotel lobby at 18:20pm, then drive to Red Theater directly. The 52 strong team features a cast of young Kung Fu practitioners, dancers, and acrobats, all of them professional performers from 14 cities in China. The performers are not only skilled in Kung Fu martial arts, but are also trained in modern dance presentation.
The inspiring story of a young boy seeking enlightenment skilfully combines traditional martial arts with dance, ballet and acrobatics. The story started when the young Chun Yi was brought by his mother to the temple to start his apprenticeship to become a monk. At first he found it difficult to experience the strict discipline. At his initiation he was given the name "Chun Yi".
He studied hard, and collected vital life energy from heaven and earth. He learned to look to nature and the movements of animals. Furthermore, the Master warned him that truth could easily be seduced by ego. Chun Yi had a new-found power, and was distracted from the purity of the Buddhist life. He shunned those who were close to him, unprepared for the life he now knew and followed religiously.
Deeply remorseful, Chun Yi practiced meditation and was now truly ready to become a warrior monk, not for violence, but for peace. Several years later, his wise old Master prepared for the end of his life. Chun Yi went back to the temple where the Master passed on to him the role of Temple Abbott.
Afterwards, the driver will take you back to your hotel.
An amazing trip from start to finish! The natural landscapes and historical monuments were magnificent. Accommodation and meals were good and as expected in such corners of the planet - no surprises. Both of our Nepali and Tibetan guides were exemplary. They provided us with detailed information and responses to our questions. Our Nepali guide was very experienced with any signs of Altitude Sickness, and kept a close eye on us. I would thoroughly recommend this Adventure Tour.
Adventure
Tour Type
Small Group TourSmall group tours usually have 8-12 participants and maximum up to 18 travelers
Join us on this eleven-hour, private trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou, a city renowned for its historic relics and natural beauty, primarily the famous West Lake. Your private car will pick you up from your hotel in Shanghai early in the morning and drive you to the station from where you will board a bullet train to Hangzhou (bullet train tickets not included in the tour price). Jump into a private car on deboarding the train in Hangzhou and head out to explore the city.
Take the Buddha Road, where there are three historic temples on the way to the top of a mountain, and visit the Faxi Temple, with over 1,000 years of history. The temple is surrounded by beautiful tea plantations rolling down the hills.
For lunch, we will take you to a local restaurant that serves delicious Hangzhou cuisine. Your next destination is Longjing village, home to tea farmers since generations. Enjoy a cup of authentic Longjing tea at Hangzhou Manjue Long Scenic Resort.
The final destination on the itinerary is the iconic West Lake where you will enjoy a boat ride before its time to head back to the station for your bullet train back to Shanghai. You driver will transport you back to your hotel on arrival in the city.
Any trip to China is incomplete without a visit to the magnificent Great Wall, and one of the best places to admire the grand structure is from Beijing.
This guided bus tour will take you solely to the Mutianyu Great Wall in Beijing, so that you can thoroughly explore the structure. Mutianyu is one of the best-preserved and best-known sections of the wall, and during hotter months, it's also one of the least crowded locations--making it a relaxing visit.
Your tour guide will pick you up from your Beijing downtown hotel lobby at around 7 – 8 am based on hotel location and settle you into a comfortable, air-conditioned bus to start the trip.
It takes approximately 1.5 hours to drive up to Mutianyu Great Wall. During the drive, your English-speaking tour guide will provide you with historical and cultural context in relation to the Wall so that your trip and be all the more engaging.
Upon arrival, make a short visit to a jade carving factory to learn about the Chinese jade culture and see the unique carving craft. Then you may hike up or take a cable car at your own expense to explore the beauty of the Great Wall. You can take some epic pictures, admire the tensely distributed watchtowers, soak up the stunning natural scenery for around four hours at the Mutianyu Great Wall.
To leave you enough time on the Great Wall, lunch is excluded in this tour, but you may bring bottled water and snack. Later at around 2 pm, rejoin the group and have a relaxing transfer back to your hotel.
Discover some of Shanghai's old districts and lanes. Walk through areas which used to be bustling with interesting popular places and residences of important people. Go back in time to rediscover the history of the lanes and get a glimpse of the authentic atmosphere of old Shanghai. Meet long-time, elderly residents and interesting characters, learn their stories of the streets and neighbourhoods, and of China in the past century.
Architecture, design, artwork of the courtyards, and other cultural aspects will be discussed as well. By visiting some of the oldest and very soon disappearing backstreets in Shanghai, you will get a true feeling of the city development in Shanghai and the local Chinese people's life, experience the local food market, and even get a chance to try some interesting Chinese street food.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Shanghai was one of the most prosperous and cosmopolitan cities of East Asia, a centre of business and pleasure offering a vibrant lifestyle. On this day tour, experience the 1920’s wealthy lifestyle with your private local guide.
These decades saw the nobility of the Qing dynasty, other high-class citizens and rich, up-starters living a truly luxurious lifestyle in Shanghai. Food was always the most important part of Chinese society, and for the wealthy in the 1920s, the day always started with a delicate yam-cha breakfast, a compulsory activity for the rich. They also frequented fancy restaurants or boutique tea-houses, often with their pets (birds or crickets), and would choose their favourite dim-sum to enjoy with precious Chinese tea.
Today, you will be picked up in your hotel lobby at 7:30 am and taken to the restaurant --- Sense 8. The decoration and the food immerse you in elegant and exclusive scenes of times past— the decor of the restaurant mirrors the décor of the homes of members of the Qing Dynasty. Enjoy a range of old-school dim sum dishes like 20’s Shanghai that you can't find it anywhere else.
After breakfast, you will visit the Site-Memorial of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The well-protected historical architecture “shikumen”. The founder of the Communist Party started from here.
The bird market is the entertainment spot of old. In the market, people sell insects, bird, plants and fish. Here, different people with the same hobby. They all come here to pick their pets and exchange experiences!
The final stop is Yuyuan Bazaar, which is the old Ming and Qing Dynasty architecture market. There are various souvenir shops and restaurants. Here you can search for some small gifts for your family or friends or try some famous snacks if you're interested. Then, you will join a tea ceremony.
Yuyuan Garden is right next to the bazaar if you would like to visit, just let your guide know.
We will start our walk at the entrance of one of the oldest local Chinese parks (built in 1914). Every day, performers, artists, and martial arts performers descend on the park. Each area bustles with different types of activities such as Tai Chi, ballroom dancing, calisthenics, and music performances. After our walk in the park, we will go to a 4 storey wholesale tea market which targets area re-sellers, so the prices are very good. Here, we will have a brief discussion of tea’s history and health benefits. Learn how experts judge good quality tea by examining its leaves, and then compare and contrast Long Jing tea by sight, smell, and taste.
We also sample a special white tea, some lesser-known green tea, red tea, black tea, and flower tea, different store owners will tell us about the products and provide tips in finding the best tea and tea wares. We will have plenty of time to wander through the many tea shops and sample teas. Sampling is the best way to learn about the tea, so sit, ask questions and sip away great tea.
Buckle up for an epic adventure that checks all the travel boxes: culture, food, and nature. Explore the iconic Great Wall and come face-to-face with the legendary Terracotta Warriors. Feast on mouthwatering Sichuan dishes and dare to try quirky bites like rabbit head or chicken feet. Marvel at the jaw-dropping karst formations in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and pedal your way along the picturesque rivers of Yangshuo. This 15-day trip is China like you've never seen it before – off the beaten path and full of surprises.
Explorer
Tour Type
Small Group TourSmall group tours usually have 8-12 participants and maximum up to 18 travelers
Accommodation
Hotel, Sleeper Train, Guest House, Hostel
Age Range
18-39 yrs
Operated in
english
Destinations
Beijing, Hong Kong, Zhangjiajie
Beijing, Hong Kong, Zhangjiajie, Yangshuo, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing
18% OFF TODAY
This deal is valid for limited time. Book now to reserve your seats.
Follow in the footsteps of Babur, great grandson of Tamerlane, last of the Timurid Dynasty of Central Asia and founder of the Moghul Empire. Discover the highlights of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva as well as the stunning landscapes of Kyrgystan and northern Pakistan. Travelling across five countries, mountain ranges, remote valleys and great deserts you will encounter lands of ancient wonder and history.
ExplorerAdventure
Tour Type
Small Group TourSmall group tours usually have 8-12 participants and maximum up to 18 travelers
Accommodation
Hotel, Guest House, Home-stay
Age Range
12-90 yrs
Operated in
english
Destinations
New Delhi, Tashkent, Lahore, Isl
New Delhi, Tashkent, Lahore, Islamabad, Skardu, Gilgit, Hunza Valley, Sost, Kashgar, Sary Tash, Osh, Fergana, Samarkand, Bukhara, Mandawa, Rajasthan, Jaipur, Agra, Amritsar