Local guide will greet the group at the airport hall with signage of the end user. During transfer to hotel, guide on each a/c coach will give brief introduction on Shanghai and travel tips in Shanghai.

Special area in the hotel lounge bar blocked for our group private usage; Check in at the Hospitality Desk with Keys ready for each room.

Start our gourmet trip at Lv Bo Lang restaurant with Shanghai-style food lunch. This restaurant is well-known for carefully selected raw materials and meticulous preparations, highly praised by gourmands from home and abroad. Especially their famous dim sum, like the signature dish “osmanthus cake” is so sticky in texture that gets stuck on plate or chopsticks but not on tooth and feels smooth in the mouth carrying faint fragrance of rice wine.

 

After lunch, discover a classical garden in downtown Shanghai, Yuyuan Garden boasts a history over 400 years. Over forty spots, divided by dragon walls, wound corridors and beautiful flowers, form an unique picture featuring “one step, one beauty; every step, every beauty.” It's reputed to be the most beautiful garden south of the Yangtze River. Free stroll at the Old Town God Temple area which deserves the name of “Shanghai Snack Kingdom”. It is a time-honored and the largest snack street featuring the most famous restaurants and eateries in Shanghai.

Early evening, we’ll take a cruise on Whampoa River, which is a symbol of Shanghai. When the sun set, Whampoa River is veiled in the glittery neon lights on its banks.

 

 

In the morning, have a Tai Chi class with local master in a park. Taichi which is sometimes referred to as “Shadow Boxing”, was developed many centuries ago. Its graceful movements help to balance the Yin and the Yang, doing as much for the mind and soul as for the body.

 

After that, transfer to Pudong New Area. Pudong is fashionable and modern. She has China's No.1 Building - Jinmao

Tower, and Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the highest in Asia and the third highest in the World, also the tallest building in the world—Shanghai World Financial Center. Pudong New Area was born with the development and opening up of Pudong. Pudong New Area is increasingly displaying its fascinating charm and attraction.

 

 

Check out hotel in Shanghai and flight to Xi’an, which is one of the oldest cities in Chinese history and is praised as “the capital of table delicacies”

Xi’an local guide will greet guests at Xian Xianyang International Airport and assist to hotel for check in. Buffet lunch at hotel.

 

Afternoon tour begin at Xi'an ancient City Wall, which stretches just outside the railway station.The city wall is massive – it is tall, long and thick. The South Gate and North Gate are the two main entrances to the inner city. The city itself is neatly arranged along the city wall. The city wall of Xi'an is an extension of the old Tang Dynasty structure, as a result of this wall building campaign. Xian's city wall after its enlargement in the Ming Dynasty stands 12 meters high. It is 12-14 meters across the top, 15-18 meters thick at bottom and 13.7 kilometers in length. There is a rampart every 120 meters.

 

The Dynasty Show is the first initiated show of song and dance in the imperial style of the Tang Dynasty in China since1982. This performance enjoys a high reputation both from home and abroad. It’s one of the best choices to spend a evening time.

 

The musicians present the music with the Tang-dynasty-style musical instruments and the dancers wear a Tang dynasty-style robe with long white silk sleeves. The most famous item is the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Coat Dance. Accompanied with dinner, you will enjoy a national art that reflects the glory and richness of the Tang Dynasty.

 

DAY 4

 

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was built in Tang Dynasty under the order of Tang Regime as a chamber for the translations of Buddhist scriptures. Originally built in 589 A.D. of Sui Dynasty (581A.D.-618A.D.), the Da Ci’en Temple was restored in 648A.D. by Emperor Li Zhi, who was still a crown prince then and sponsored a repair project on the temple. This was a symbol of thanksgiving to his mother for her kindness. It was finished in 652 A.D. Its five storeys are 60 meters in height. The decay of the earth-cored pagoda caused the new construction of a 10-storey pagoda from 701 to 704.

Nowadays, under the direction of Xi’an municipal Government, the biggest music fountain square in Asia was built to the north of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

 

 

DAY 5

 

The Baijiadayuan Restaurant lies within the famous “Yuejia Garden”. It is famous for imperial court cuisine and the unique Baifu dishes. The restaurant is in the garden style of the Qing Dynasty. The garden where the restaurant located in was once the residence of Prince Li of the Qing Dynasty. It was built in the reign of Emperor Kangxi, by the offspring of Prince Li, who was the second son of the first emperor of the Qing

Dynasty, Nu’erhachi.

As you walk into the restaurant, leisurely ancient music is lingering and reverberating in the air, and the fragrance of

flowers and grasses is prevailing here and there. The garden restaurant, with its Qing-Dynasty styled garden and royal

cuisine, which makes the guests comfortable and forget to leave.

 

The Summer Palace is a magnificent imperial garden located 12 km northwest of the old Beijing City. It is the largest ancient garden well preserved in China and a former summer retreat for Emperors and the chosen few. The site has long been a royal garden and was considerably enlarged and embellished when Dowager Cixi began rebuilding in 1888 using money that was supposedly reserved for the construction of a modern navy academy. The lovely Kunming Lake occupies three quarters of the area. Guests will take a nice walk along the Long Corridor. Somewhat similar in style to the covered bridge in Lucerne, this 728-meter long open sided corridor is decorated with 8,000 scenes including many from the emperor’s travels around the country. As cameras were not available, the emperor would have artists paint scenes that caught his eye and then have them repainted on the corridor’s beams and sides.

 

 

 

The Forbidden City, also called the Palace Museum, is located in the center of Beijing. The former imperial palace was the home to twenty-four Chinese emperors over 500 years between 1420 and 1924, as the ritual center of two dynasties of Ming and Qing.

The palace is 960 meters long and 750 meters wide. It has 9,999 rooms - a room being the space between four pillars. The well-guarded palace, covering 74 hectares, is surrounded by a moat 3,800 meters long, 52 meters wide, 6 meters deep and 10 meters high. The wall has a gate on each side. At each corner there are watchtowers for protection from possible invaders .

 

Tian'anmen Square is one of the largest city squares in the world. It is situated in the heart of Beijing. Tian'anmen was built in 1417 and was the entrance gate to the Forbidden City. Now the square stretches 880 meters from north to south and 500 meters from east to west. The total area is 440,000 square meters. That's about the size of 60 soccer fields, spacious enough to accommodate half a million people.

 

Hotpot is popular in China especially in the winter. It consists of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, dumplings and sea food. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce.

Now, more and more dishes can put into the hotpot and you can choose many different soup as soup base. Beijing is known for its lamb hotpot; Sichuan hotpot is very famous with its “spicy and hot”.

 

DAY 7

 

One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall is a breathtaking sight and an awesome experience. Started in the fifth century BC and gradually extended over the centuries, particularly during the Ming Dynasty, it served as a defensive boundary against marauding Huns and other nomadic tribes. A system of bonfires communicated military information to the emperor at a speed considered rapid for that period. It’s a challenging hike from the valley floor to the top rampart but the reward is a spectacular view of the wall snaking for miles over mountainous terrain. Comfortable

rubber soled hiking boots are strongly recommended.

 

Commune by the Great Wall is a private collection of contemporary architecture designed by 12 Asian architects. It was exhibited at the 2002 la Biennale di Venezia and awarded a special prize. Commune by the Great Wall was named “A New Architectural Wonder of China” by Business Week in 2005.

We have introduced four food series of classic Beijing, Sichuan and Cantonese cuisines. It's most enjoyable to taste the mixture of Chinese and Western culinary cultures in orthodox traditional Chinese food plus red and white wines from around the world in refined and modernistic surroundings.

 

The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest is the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics . The stadium is 330 metres long by 220 metres wide, and is 69.2 metres tall. The 250,000 square metre (gross floor area) stadium is to be built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes.

   

The total surface area of the National Aquatics Center covers 80,000 sq m. During the Olympic Games, the venue hosted the swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming events, with 42 gold medals to be awarded here. It has indoor seating capacity for 17,000, including 6,000 permanent seats and 11,000 temporary seats.

The "water cube" now has a protective "overcoat" composed of a high tech membrane structure. The venue contains a range of other high tech features including in the steel structure, indoor environmental systems, ETFE membrane installation, etc., which embody the concept of a "High tech Olympics.“ Upon completion the "water cube" will be the world's largest ETFE project.