China Connoisseurship in Middle Kingdom Tour
Exploring the Refined Arts of Chinese Furniture, Porcelain & Jade, Tea & Silk

Duration: 10 day tour • 1 domestic flight
Priced From:   $5,910 pp, do.
Single Sup Fee: $2,270
Visits: Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai

Beijing Restaurants

Da Dong              Peking duck and northern delicacies style
Ken de Rouge      Chinese fusion style
Shanglinyuan       Imperial style

Hangzhou Restaurants

Hubin 28  Yangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou style  

Shanghai Restaurants

Dingxiang            Shanghai style     
Lu Bo Lang          Shanghai dim sum style

The key for a successful tour is to choose the best hotel locations.  In our view hotels should be located in historic districts where city life is so rich.  A few steps outside the lobby, we enter a completely new world.  We have selected hotels with this idea in mind; and below you’ll find some of the highlights you’ll enjoy during free time:

Grand Hotel in Beijing  So much to explore here, including: Tiananmen Gate (you can ascend to the observation deck) • Tiananmen Square and Mao’s Mausoleum • lovely Changpuhe Park • shopping on neon-lit Wangfujing Street • Legation District and fine western dining • new Qianmen culture street with old-time cable cars • National Performing Arts Center and 3 world-class theaters

Hyatt Hotel in Hangzhou Explore:  Picturesque views of West Lake • water fountains choreographed to music • Hangzhou people’s lakeside cultural life • elegant fashion boutiques • lively arts-and-crafts market

Ritz Carlton in Shanghai Explore:  Huangpu River and Shanghai lovers’ lane • colonial Bund and its old cosmopolitanism  • audacious Pudong skyscrapers • city life at People’s Park

Day 1-2 • U.S.A. – Beijing
Independent departure from the U.S. on a flight to Beijing. Cross the international dateline and arrive in China the next day. Transfer to the Grand Hotel located in the heart of Beijing.

Day 3 • Beijing
Old and new China beckon outside our hotel and nearby is the imperial architectural axis that runs from Qianmen Gate, to the grand halls of the Forbidden City, to Jingshan Hill. This line demarcates the center of the Chinese universe–which is to say, all things cultural, social, political, and spiritual find their source here.  For the next few days we will experience the immense power of the city that radiates from a layout designed years ago in the Ming Dynasty.

After breakfast, we begin our China exploration with a tour to the new Capital Museum, jointly designed by French architect Jean-Marie Duthilleul and Chinese architect Cui Kai. Tour the museum’s special collections of art and antiquities from the early dynasties.

Then, go to the picturesque Houhai District, where well-preserved courtyard homes and narrow hutong alleys border tree-lined lakes. Tour the district by “pedicab” for a closer and more engaging experience of traditional Chinese life. We enjoy delicious home cooking at a local family’s home.

In the afternoon visit the Summer Palace.  Explore the beautiful grounds, cruise the lovely Kunming Lake, and stroll through the royal gardens. Also, walk the Painted Gallery, the longest covered walkway in China famous for its exquisite landscape paintings. 

We then visit Guanfu Classic Art Museum, a private museum of Chinese furniture, screens and doors, paintings and ceramics, and much more.  This is the one museum that everyone leaves saying “wow!”

This evening, savor the imperial city’s most famous delicacy, Peking duck, at the renowned Da Dong Restaurant. (b,l,d)
Breakfast (b), lunch (l) and dinner (d) are included in the day’s program.

Day 4 • Beijing
An optional early-morning walk to Changpuhe Park offers an opportunity to observe local residents practicing taiji and qigong.   This newly-constructed park features numerous traditional buildings and pavilions facing onto a variety of Chinese gardens, one of the most successful landscape creations in the country.

Our touring begins today as we enter the gate of the Forbidden City, the abiding symbol of imperial China. Truly one of the great achievements of civilization, its construction employed hundreds of thousands of workers between 1406 and 1420. Marvel at its expansive architecture, magnificent imperial gardens, and many museums of Chinese antiquities and treasures. 

Lunch is at Ken de Rouge, specializing in Asian fusion cuisine.

Then, visit the huge Panjiayuan Antiques Building, with its countless private dealers selling their wares.  These dealers are more often great lovers of their specialty than calculating businessmen and often exhibit a detailed knowledge of connoisseurship that puts the so-called experts to shame.  We will be amazed at the rich variety and quality of what is found here.

Next, we explore the Temple of Heaven, one of the finest creations of the Ming Dynasty. This stunning
architecture realizes the great Chinese desire to incarnate heaven in material form, and represents the most advanced principles of mechanics and geometry of the time.

Dinner is on one’s own this evening. Your guide can assist with recommendations and arrangements.

** Our recommendation is to explore the fine restaurants at the Legation Quarter.  After dinner, walk to the nearby Qianmen emporium, a newly renovated old market district complete with cable car.

** Or, you may choose to attend a performance at the new National Grand Theater, lovingly dubbed the “Big Egg.” Designed by French architect Paul Andreau, the building took ten years to construct. This complex is built with 25,000 titanium plates and 15,000 glass panels and houses three state-of-the-art theaters.  Not unexpectedly, it is the most expensive theater facility ever built in the world. (b,l)

Day 5 • Beijing 
Today, we head north from Beijing for the Great Wall of China. Encounter this extraordinary rampart at Mutianyu, a rugged section of the wall that offers easy access by foot or cable car. As is usually the case, the Great Wall presents a visual experience that dramatically exceeds visitors’ expectations. Construction of a few miles of the wall on such jagged peaks seems near miraculous, but the rampart stretches for 3,700 miles and passes through 16 provinces.

Lunch is at Xiao Long Pu Restaurant, a local favorite with foreigners.

If time allows, we go to Silk Alley and get carried away by the enthusiasm to buy world-class clothes at bargain-basement prices.

Tonight, we enjoy a special banquet at Shanglinyuan Restaurant in lovely Beihai Imperial Park. (b,l,d)

Day 6 • Hangzhou
This morning, we fly to Hangzhou and check in the Hyatt Hotel located on West Lake.  Lunch is on one’s own.

Then, tour the National Silk Museum, the best museum in the country for the history and cultivation of silk production.

Next, we visit the Qing Dynasty Guo Zhuang Garden.  This is an important expression of high garden art, particularly its use of architecture to hide and frame aesthetic views.  Guo Zhuang situates itself on the West Lake and so focuses its attentions outward for panoramic views as well as inward for the delights of ponds and rockeries.

Next, we stroll through lovely Quyuanfenghe Park and end our walking tour on Su Causeway built by the famous Song Dynasty artist Su Dong-po.

Afterwards, enjoy a boat ride to the elegant Santanjingyue Isle in the middle of West Lake.

Dinner is at the Hubin 28 Restaurant, one of the best restaurants in Hangzhou, and located in the Hyatt Hotel. With the emphasis on the very best, freshest ingredients, the menu features uncomplicated, seasonal fare highlighted with classic dishes prepared by specialty chefs from the surrounding cities of Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou and Wuxi. An example may be Beggars Chicken, a dish served at the table still encased in clay and cracked open with a mallet.  (b,d)

Day 7 • Hangzhou
Morning walk through Huagang Park, a lovely tree-lined park along West Lake.

For lunch, we visit Meijiawu Tea Plantation where Chinese longjing tea is grown.  Meet tea farmers and learn about this ancient cultivation.  Enjoy lunch at a tea farmer’s home.

Then we tour the Buddhist Lingyin Temple. Built in 326 CE, this temple gained importance during the Five Dynasties (907-960 CE) and remains a significant Chan Buddhist center in south China today.

Before dinner, tour the grand mansion of the famous Qing Dynasty merchant, Hu Xueyan. There are hundreds of courtyard rooms with traditional architecture and landscape. Renovation work is newly finished and the old grandeur returns to this lovely place.

Dinner is on one’s own this evening. Your guide can assist with recommendations and arrangements. (b,l)

Day 8 • Shanghai
Drive to Shanghai, about three hours via expressway. Upon arrival, check in the Ritz Carlton Hotel located in the heart of downtown.

After lunch, go to Yuyuan Gardens, which is designed in six unique parts, making the garden seem much larger than it really is.  We find one of the best Ming rockeries here, and wending the zigzag bridge to Huxingting Teahouse is a delight.

This evening tour Xintiandi–a stylish restaurant, gallery, and shopping complex in the old French Concession. The developer Ben Wood is famous for recycling the original warren of the old apartments torn down for this new development. You may enjoy dinner here on your own from a wide selection of restaurants. (b,l)

Day 9 • Shanghai
In the morning, tour Shanghai Museum, viewing its extensive and superb collections of Chinese jade, ceramics, furniture, painting and calligraphy. This is where we get an overview of the periods and styles for the art objects we have been studying for the last days.  There is rich aesthetic variation in all Chinese artistic traditions.

Lunch is at Lu Bo Lang Restaurant, famous for Shanghai dim sum.

Since there is so much to do in Shanghai, and so little time to do it, the afternoon is free for shopping and personal exploration.  There is an optional visit to #50 Moganshan Artists Compound, where many of Shanghai’s leading artists showcase their works.

This evening we enjoy our farewell dinner at the Dingxiang Restaurant, one of the most sought-after dining experiences in the city.  Here Shanghai cuisine is the specialty.

After dinner enjoy a final walk on the Bund, taking a last look at the European-styled bank buildings and trading houses on one side of the river and the brand new contemporary Pudong skyline on the other. (b,l,d)

Day 10 • Shanghai – U.S.
Today transfer to the airport for your flight home.  Arrive in the U.S. on the same day.  (b)

This tour features both pre- and post-tour extensions.

Our tour extensions are based on the travel principle of focusing on distinctive regions of China to absorb their individual character.  Rather than rushing through the country, we prefer to spend an extended period in one place and get to know the nuances of its culture and natural environment.  China lends itself to this kind of touring for its regions vary immensely from each other, and so reward the traveler interested in the subtle beauties to be found there.

Pre-tour extensions include the 1-day What’s New in Beijing Day Tour & the 3-day Imperial Grandeur at the Chengde Imperial Resort.

Post-tour extensions include the 5-day Grand Mountains and Ancient Villages in Anhui & the 5-day Elegance of South China in Guilin. 

Please see promotional literature for each of these extensions.

12/09