Day 1:  Depart USA 

Board your international flight for your journey into China.

Day 2: En route

Day 3: Arrive in Beijing

The excitement begins as your plane touches down in Beijing, China’s incredible capital.  Your representative welcomes you and takes you to your deluxe hotel in the heart of the city.  Remainder of the day at leisure. Choice of Hotels

Day 4:  Beijing

No visit is complete without a walk through Tiananmen Square and the phenomenally beautiful Forbidden City. Superlatives fail to do justice to the complex of palaces and hidden places, where Emperors held court for 500 years. Then travel to Empress Dowager’s extravagant Summer Palace on serene Kunming Lake. Choice of Hotels

Day 5:  Beijing

A highlight of any Beijing stay is a walk on the Great Wall.  Stroll ancient promenades, step into watchtowers, and photograph the wall rising and falling over impossibly steep mountain ridges.  Visit Ming Tombs and grotesque Spirit Way on your return to town. Choice of Hotels

Day 6:  Beijing 

Today’s activities in the Hutong area are designed to offer a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people.  Take a rickshaw ride through the narrow streets, visiting a local kindergarten. After a private lunch with local family, continue to the sublime Temple of Heaven, a 15th century Ming architectural masterpiece.  Venture northeast to Yonghe Gong Lama Temple, Palace of Peace and Harmony.  Now the foremost Buddhist temple in China, it was a center of learning for the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Lamaism.  It houses a fine collection of Tibetan art, including a 75-foot sculpture carved from a single tree. Choice of Hotels

Day 7:  Beijing / Xian 

Fly from Beijing to the arid plains of Xian, gateway to the ancient Silk Road that once linked China with travelers from as far away as Rome and Istanbul. The capital of eleven dynasties, Xian exemplifies the continuity of Chinese
civilization.  Explore Xian’s past in such scenic antiquities as  Ming Gate and Bell tower and Tang Dynasty Big Goose Pagoda.  Shangri La Golden Flower

Day 8:  Xian

Xian’s most spectacular archaeological site – the army of lifelike terra cotta soldiers and horses – is the focus today. The discovery of this unlikely army astounded the world in 1974.  This 2,200-year-old wonder was part of the Tomb of Qinshihuang, China’s first emperor of China. Now enclosed beneath a protective hangar, the site contains some 8,000 individually sculpted warriors and horses.  Step into the adjoining museum to see a fantastic bronze chariot and figures that still have some of the original bright paint.  End the day with a Chinese banquet and stage show at Tang Dynasty Theater.  Shangri La Golden Flower

Day 9:    Xian / Guilin 

Fly to the green hills of Guilin, China’s great scenic city on  poetic Li River. Check into your riverfront hotel before setting out on a memorable tour of the city and Reed Flute Cave, with its unusual lantern-lit formations. Finish with a tour of Elephant Trunk Hill. Daewoo Guilin Hotel

Day 10:    Guilin

A pleasure cruise on Li River fills your day, passing through unique scenery around which many folktales and legends have been woven. Floating past cormorant fishermen, valleys and bamboo groves, misty limestone pinnacles, and rock formations resembling horses and elephants, you feel you are in a Chinese scroll painting. Daewoo Guilin Hotel

Day 11:    Guilin / Shanghai 

Today you’re off to cosmopolitan Shanghai. After hotel check in, begin your tour in this vibrant, trend-setting metropolis. Stroll Bund waterfront lined with Art Deco buildings from colonial era and the sleek new skyscrapers of her futuristic Pudong District. Step into the past as you cross zigzag bridge into Yu Yuan Gardens. See mystical Jade Buddha Temple and teeming lanes of Old Quarter. See a charming display of cultural skills mastered by youngsters at the Children’s Palace. Tonight, enjoy the daring performance of Shanghai’s famous Acrobats. Choice of Hotels 

Day 12:    Shanghai / Suzhou

Depart this morning to Suzhou, an ancient cultural city built 2,500 years ago in the Yangtze River Region. Visit the grand canals and the Humble Administrator’s Garden. Private gardens built during and after Song Dynasty made the city famous. Sheraton Suzhou

Day 13:    Suzhou / Shanghai

Return to Shanghai via train. This afternoon is free for independent activities.  Choice of Hotels 

Day 14: Shanghai / Depart 

With images of this timeless land leaping toward modernization, you depart on your homebound flight.