Golden Triangle & Yangtze

After breakfast, your guide and driver will escort you on a seamless transfer to Tiananmen Square. Situated at the core position of the Beijing central axis, it is undoubtedly the most important square in China. When the announcement of the founding of the People’s Republic of China spread throughout the country from the Tiananmen Tower, the square has been regarded as the heart of the nation by generations of Chinese. Your guide will accompany you to take photos with landmarks on the square, including the Great Hall of the People, the Monument of the People’s Heroes, and the grand Tiananmen Tower.

Next, we’ll enter the Forbidden City, the world’s largest ancient wooden palace complex. Over the 500-year span of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911 AD), 24 emperors lived and handled state affairs here. The Three Great Halls are the complex’s centerpiece, with the Hall of Supreme Harmony being the most magnificent. It served as the main venue for imperial assemblies. Princes and ministers could stand on the three‑tiered terrace, while other officials had to kneel in the courtyard below. Standing at the foot of the terrace and looking up at the 35-meter-high (115-foot) hall gives you a true sense of the perspective of ordinary officials at the time. This deliberate height difference created both visual and psychological distance, amplifying the emperor’s supreme authority to its fullest. Beyond the grand architectural shell, you can also see preserved items such as bronze censers, the throne, and porcelain, offering a deeper glimpse into everyday life of the imperial court.After a local flavor lunch, we’ll continue to the Temple of Heaven, the imperial altar of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Each year, the emperor performed sacrificial ceremonies here to pray for bountiful harvests. Then, enjoy a cultural evening featuring a breathtaking acrobatic show and an a la carte welcome dinner. 

★ Authentic Cultural Experiences Beyond the Monuments 

1. Watch an Acrobatics Show: Take a seat at the Red Theater. On stage, the high‑chair acrobat handstands on a stack of ten chairs, as nimble as a dragonfly. The contortionist bends their body into impossible angles, as supple as a snake. In the plate‑spinning act, plates and bowls spin on slender bamboo poles like blooming flowers. About 2,000 years ago, these pulse‑stopping skills were merely a “street hustle” performed at temple fairs or festivals, and were a means of earning a living. Today, traditional acrobatics has risen from the grassroots to the grand stage, becoming a theatrical art representing national excellence. When the lights dim and applause erupts, you witness not just a performance, but a millennia‑old chronicle of civilization written with the human body.
2. Enjoy an A La Carte Welcome Dinner: After the show, your guide will treat you to a well‑selected restaurant for an authentic a la carte Chinese meal, valued twice the local average and included in our price. Beyond the must-try Peking Roast Duck, you can also taste other local specialties according to your taste, such as Noodles with Soybean Paste and Pea Flour Cake.

After dinner, your guide and driver will offer you a smooth ride back to your hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, lunch, a la carte welcome dinner with Peking Duck

After a hearty breakfast, let’s embark on a 1.5-hour drive to the majestic Mutianyu Great Wall. To save your energy, today’s itinerary includes a choice of seamless transport options: take the convenient round-trip cable car, or opt for the chairlift ride up paired with the exhilarating toboggan ride down – both options are fully included.

Once on the rampart, enjoy a 2.5‑hour hike along the mountain ridges. The Great Wall of China is the oldest, longest, and best‑preserved of its kind in the world. The German Limes, one of the earliest walls in Europe, was built about four centuries later. The world’s second‑longest wall, Iran’s Gorgan Wall, is less than one percent of the China Great Wall’s total length. Hadrian’s Wall of Britain, once the Roman Empire’s frontier defense, now lies mostly buried, with only scattered ruins hinting at its former glory. In contrast, China Great Wall remains remarkably intact. You can even enter the watchtowers, examine their interior, and enjoy sweeping mountain views through the lookout openings.

★ A Great Wall Victory Toast: 

After the hike, your guide will offer you glasses of red wine. Raise your goblets to celebrate conquering this world wonder.

Following a buffet lunch at the foot of the mountain, we’ll return to downtown Beijing. On the way, stop at Olympic Park to see the colossal steel structure of National Stadium known as the Bird’s Nest and National Aquatic Center nicknamed the Water Cube. 

★ Delve into Authentic Beijing Culture: Hutong Rickshaw Tour & Local Family Visit

The remainder of the day will be spent in Beijing’s traditional Hutong alleys and courtyard homes. Board a rickshaw, leave the metropolis bustle behind, and enter a tranquil world of plain, old‑fashioned lanes. Your guide will accompany you to visit a local family. Open the red wooden door, and you’ll first encounter a “spirit screen.” In traditional Chinese culture, a straight path from the entrance to the yard may invite misfortune, while the spirit screen wards off evil spirits and blocks outside views, protecting the family’s privacy. The screen is often carved with exquisite patterns: pine trees and cranes symbolizing longevity; bats representing good fortune; fish standing for abundance; and persimmons expressing the wish that “everything goes as you desire.” Passing the screen, you’ll enter the yard. Take this opportunity to chat with the homeowner and learn about the courtyard’s layout and their daily life with your guide’s translation. 

After the visit, your guide and driver will escort you back to your hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, buffet lunch

This morning, we’ll visit the Summer Palace, a 300‑year‑old royal resort. Centered around Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, and dotted with pavilions, halls, palaces, and pagodas, it feels like a colossal 3D puzzle. In 1750, when Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796 AD) ordered the garden’s construction, the decision faced opposition from many officials, as large building projects were often seen as omens of dynastic collapse in Chinese culture. Ironically, in the late 19th century, Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908 AD) diverted naval funds to rebuild the Summer Palace, leading to a naval defeat and accelerating the empire’s downfall.

After lunch, your guide and driver will accompany you to the high-speed railway station. Your guide will escort you to the correct platform, and a porter will help with your luggage. Once settled, enjoy the experience of China’s high-speed train, widely praised on social media. The train races at 350 km/h (217 mph), covering the 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) from Beijing to Xi’an in just 4.5 to 5.5 hours. Western countries had their first high‑speed rail 50 years before China, yet in less than two decades, China caught up and surpassed most nations. Today, the total length of China’s high‑speed rail network exceeds the circumference of the equator.

Upon arrival in Xi’an, your local guide will meet you at the railway station and, together with a driver, escort you to your hotel for check‑in.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, lunch

After breakfast, your guide and driver will accompany you on today’s Xi’an tour, beginning with the world‑famous Terracotta Army Museum. More than 8,000 life‑sized, vivid terracotta figures, crafted 2,200 years ago by order of China’s first emperor to guard his afterlife, will leave you in awe. Standing before the archaeological pits, you can see the ancient military formation come to life, as if transported back to a battlefield of the past. In the museum’s exhibition hall, you can observe some of the figures up close. Among them, the general figures are particularly striking. Unlike the chiseled, lean physiques often seen in Western sculpture, these generals have rounded abdomens and chests. Some experts suggest this “heavier” physique reflects the ancient custom of drinking large quantities of alcohol to bolster courage before battle. Others jokingly point to Xi’an’s status as the “capital of carbohydrates,” where an abundance of delicious flour‑based foods might have contributed to a bit of extra abdominal fat! Regardless of the cause, this layer of fat over firm muscles proved to be surprisingly advantageous in ancient combats. The outer fat acted as natural padding, while the underlying muscles provided strength and resilience, like an inborn biological armor that increased a general’s chances of survival in close-quarters fighting. After visiting the museum, we’ll serve a local flavor lunch for you.

★ Deeper Exploration beyond Clay Figures:

1. Family Visit to the Discoverer of Terracotta Army: The Terracotta Army was unearthed in 1974 and became world-famous after its rebirth, but few know about its discoverer. Accompanied by your guide, you’ll have a unique visit to the home of Mr. Yang, the discoverer. Just chat with him or his family to learn details about the discovery. You can also witness the hoe and the wooden cart he once used to dig out the first warrior. 
2. Make a Terracotta Warrior on Your Own: Then, at a local workshop, get your hands on a piece of clay and use a mold to shape a terracotta soldier under the guidance of a local artisan. In addition to realistic models, cartoonish versions are available.In the afternoon, let’s drive back to downtown Xian and stop at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda to take photos of this seven‑story, square, pavilion‑style brick pagoda built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

★ A Cultural Journey Back to the Tang Dynasty

Afterwards, we’ll head to a local theater restaurant to enjoy a dumpling banquet. During the meal, accompanied by live performances on traditional Chinese instruments, you’ll sample dumplings in a variety of flavors, colors, and shapes. Once the banquet concludes, sit back and enjoy the Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show, which tells the legendary story of Wu Zetian (624-705 AD), China’s first female emperor, from her days as a palace maid to her rise to the throne. You may notice that the actresses playing Tang‑era women all wear tall, elaborate hairstyles. During the Tang Dynasty, a high coiffure was considered a symbol of beauty, as it helped create an elegant, upright posture, accentuating a straight neck and lifted chest, making the overall bearing more graceful and dignified. To achieve such impressive height, women often used wigs or even wooden hair‑crowns. 

After the performance, your guide and driver will escort you back to your hotel.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, lunch, dumpling dinner

After breakfast, your guide and driver will escort you to Xi’an International Airport for a 2.5-hour flight to Chongqing. Upon landing, your local guide will pick you up and accompany you to delve into this “8D magical city.” Unlike Xian’s orderly grid layout, Chongqing is built into the mountains, creating a complex, ever-changing urban puzzle.

Our first stop is Liziba Light Rail Station, where a train passing right through a residential building will give you a first taste of this cyberpunk mountain city. You might wonder: doesn’t the train disturb the residents? Not at all. The building acts like a box around the tracks, with a 20‑centimeter (20-inch) safety gap between the rail and the structure. Moreover, the light rail uses inflatable rubber tires and air springs, making its noise softer than normal conversation, so residents barely feel any vibration or noise.

Such structures seem to belong only in sci‑fi films, but they are common in Chongqing. Kuixing Tower is another example. Standing on the square, you might think you are on the ground floor, but if you walk onto the skybridge and look down, you’ll realize you are actually on a high platform 22 stories up. Then head to Hongya Cave, where stacked stilt houses sprout from the cliffside like wooden coral. Wandering in the building, you never know what awaits around the next corner: an old teahouse or a sudden view of the river. Here, you can also sample authentic Chongqing street food at your own expense, such as rice cakes with brown sugar syrup, spicy noodles, and grilled sweet potato noodles.

★ Embark on a 4-Day and 3-Night Yangtze Cruise

After exploring Chongqing’s magical city of hills and unexpected turns, your guide and driver will escort you to the pier and assist you in boarding your luxury Yangtze River cruise ship. We have selected the newly-launched Century Cruise to provide you with consistent 5-star service. In addition to tonight’s buffet dinner over a welcome wine party hosted by the captain, you’ll also enjoy exquisite themed meals, along with beverages and night snacks each day.

► Cruise Options: Luxury & Standard
The aforementioned luxury Century Cruise is for our group tour, while guests on a private tour may choose between luxury and standard cruise ships based on your own preferences. Both cruises follow the same route. Where they differ is in the shore activities, and the standard cruise skips tonight’s dinner and the daily night snacks. If you choose a standard option, please have a quick meal or pack some food before boarding. 

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, buffet dinner

After a night of drifting, the cruise ship will dock at Fengdu Ghost City for you to explore traditional Chinese beliefs about the afterlife. In Mexican culture, as depicted in the film “Coco”, the Day of the Dead is a warm, family-friendly celebration that connects the living and the departed with marigolds and colorful papel picado. By contrast, the Chinese underworld recreated at Fengdu Ghost City feels more like a fully functional, strictly hierarchical “hell administrative center.” Here, the souls of the deceased are judged or rewarded based on their deeds in life, functioning more as a “moral court” to remind the living to restrain their actions. You can walk the very path that ghosts are said to follow, learning step by step about the traditional Chinese process after death: from passing through the “Gate of Hell,” to being judged, punished, and finally reincarnated. Along the way, sculptures and scenes vividly illustrate this thousand‑year‑old code of the underworld.
► Guests on luxury cruise can either choose to visit the Ghost City or go to Xiaoguanshan Ancient Folk Culture Park to explore the relocated and reconstructed ancient architectural complexes and enjoy immersive cultural experiences, while standard cruise guests will head to Shuanggui Mountain to take in natural forest scenery and historical temples. 

After the visit, return to the ship for lunch. The afternoon is free for you to enjoy at your leisure. You may relax in your cabin or join onboard cultural activities, such as flying a kite on the deck, attending a lecture about the Three Gorges, or learning how to tie a silk scarf from the crew.

In the evening, the luxury cruise invites you to take a shore excursion to watch a 70-minute live performance “War Fire of the Three Kingdoms”. The standard cruise excludes the performance, but guests can book the ticket directly on the spot if they would like to watch it.

Meals: Full board served in buffet style

As the cruise ship enters the Three Gorges, your Yangtze River journey reaches its climax today. The first to come into view is Qutang Gorge, the gateway to the Three Gorges. Cliffs rise on both sides like colossal giants guarding the river gate. The waters here are so swift that in ancient times, and even without engines, downstream boats could move faster than a galloping horse, like “arrows flying over water.”

While entering Wu Gorge, the scenery becomes softer and more graceful. Twelve peaks stand along the riverbanks, some as straight as swords, and others as gentle as jade. Legend has it that a goddess once brought rain for the local people, so these peaks are often shrouded in clouds and mist, casting a mysterious veil over the gorge. We’ll transfer to a smaller sampan and sail into a tributary of the Yangtze: the Goddess Stream, for a two to three hours’ scenic ride. With peaks staggered on both sides, sunlight cuts geometric patterns of light and shadow across the water’s surface.

Reboard the cruise ship and continue to the final section, Xiling Gorge, which was once like a maddeningly difficult obstacle course, full of jagged rocks and turbulent rapids. The most treacherous is Kongling Shoal, where submerged reefs were once as dense as a minefield, and a slightest mistake would wreck a ship. However, there’s no need to worry today. After the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, those reefs have been submerged, leaving only the rushing water.

Tonight, the captain will host a farewell dinner on board. Besides enjoying a buffet feast, you can also watch performances carefully choreographed by the crew.  

Meals: Full board served in buffet style

Your Three Gorges cruise ends this morning. Please pack your luggage and check out. After disembarking, your guide will accompany you to the Three Gorges Dam, one of China’s greatest modern engineering feats. This dam has not only tamed the Yangtze, which had flooded for centuries, but also demonstrated to the world the wisdom of the Chinese people in living in harmony with nature. Standing on the viewing platform, you can witness firsthand this concrete giant, stretching over 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) long and more than 200 meters (656 feet) high, locking the Yangtze River in its grip. The total volume of concrete used for the entire project would be enough to build six Pyramids of Egypt. If you’re lucky, you may also see ships passing through the “five‑step ship lift,” where each lock gate is the size of a regulation basketball court. 

After visiting the dam, the cruise ship company will provide a seamless transfer to the Three Gorges Tourist Center in Yichang, where your local guide and driver will escort you to the high‑speed railway station for a 6.5‑hour train ride to Shanghai. Since lunchtime will be tight with no time for a sit‑down meal, we’ll provide a free boxed lunch, including a burger, fruit, and a soft drink, for you to replenish energy on the train. Upon arrival in Shanghai, your local guide and driver will meet you and escort you to your hotel for check‑in.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, packed lunch for the train

Today will begin at Yu Garden, a 460-year-old classical Chinese garden where pavilions, rockeries, ponds, and streams are woven into a harmonious landscape. What you see now is only one‑fifth of its original size, yet the garden is still filled with hidden treasures. In front of Yuhua Hall stands the Exquisite Jade Rock, a naturally sculpted stone riddled with hundreds of holes like a honeycomb. It is said that if you light incense beneath it, smoke will curl out of every opening; if you pour water over it, the water will trickle down through all the holes as well. Exiting the garden brings you to Yuyuan Bazaar, where souvenir shops and century‑old restaurants gather. Stroll among stalls offering traditional Chinese heritage crafts, or explore authentic Shanghai flavors at your own expense – try soup dumplings at Nanxiang Steamed Bun Shop or scallion‑oil noodles at Dexing House.

Next, let’s move on to the Shanghai Museum, home to artistic treasures spanning 4,000 years, including ceramics, jade, paintings, and calligraphy. Don’t miss the Bronze Gallery. In ancient Greece and Rome, bronze was cast into lifelike human or divine figures as an expression of worship. In ancient China, however, bronze was considered an auspicious metal capable of communicating with spirits, so it was used primarily in rituals. Chinese bronze vessels were not concerned with realistic portrayal; instead, they carried the memories and honors of families. A prime example is the Da Ke Tripod, the museum’s crown jewel, cast over 3,000 years ago. Its owner inscribed on its inner wall a record of the king’s awards and appointments, intended to inform his ancestors through sacrificial rites. Through the mottled green patina of the vessel, what you see is not merely an object, but a soul from three millennia ago.Leave the museum and let’s head to the Bund, Shanghai’s most vibrant waterside promenade. Famous for its “International Architecture Exhibition,” the promenade is lined with 52 Western‑style buildings from the last century, bearing witness to the city’s transformations over more than 100 years. Among them, the iconic Bell Tower of the Custom House, modeled after London’s Big Ben, was once the tallest building in Shanghai, whose chimes still ring out every hour. 

★ Huangpu River Cruise: See the Fusion of the Past and Future

Walk to the pier and board a sightseeing cruise. From the middle of the river, you can directly experience the contrast between the elegant Western architecture on the west bank and the futuristic skyscrapers on the east bank. An old saying in Shanghai goes: “Better a bed in Puxi (west of the Huangpu River) than a room in Pudong (east of the river).” As China’s first port opened to the world, the west bank was once the most advanced and prosperous area, while the east bank was largely mudflats. However, over the past few decades, a forest of skyscrapers has risen; Pudong’s value has soared. A former wasteland has been transformed into Shanghai’s financial hub, where young people pursue their dreams.

After disembarking, your guide and driver will escort you back to your hotel. Alternatively, you can stay longer at the Bund by yourself to watch the lights come on, or head to the adjacent Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street to experience Shanghai’s vibrant nightlife. The way for returning on your own is easy – just about 15 minutes to your hotel by taxi.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

Today marks the end of your tour. After check‑out, private tour guests will receive a hotel‑to‑airport transfer by private car, while group tour guests should make their own way to the airport. Shanghai has two airports - Pudong (PVG) and Hongqiao (SHA). Please confirm your departure airport in advance.

► Transport Reference:
1. To Pudong Airport (PVG): A taxi from the hotel takes about 1-1.5 hours and costs USD 30, ideal for those with large luggage. Metro takes 1.5 hours and costs USD 1, with two transfers: walk 8 minutes to International Cruise Terminal Station → Line 12 to Dalian Road → transfer to inner Loop of Line 4 → change at Century Avenue to Line 2 → airport.
2. To Hongqiao Airport (SHA): A taxi takes 40-60 minutes and costs USD 15. Metro takes 1 hour and costs 70 US cents: International Cruise Terminal Station → Line 12 to Tiantong Road → transfer to Line 10 → airport.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast