China Dreams Tour

A warm welcome in arrivals, your personal guide and driver will be ready to transfer you in comfort to your hotel. They go the extra mile, making sure you have everything you need.

Good to Know:

• Always Connected – We offer Free cell phone rental (includes 30 free minutes) or Pocket Wi-Fi (also called MiFi) It will be ready and waiting at the hotel front desk.
• Evening Plans – Your guidings from about 9 to 5, we leave the evenings free for you to explore. Here are some ideas, Discover More, your guide is happy to offer some tips.

Free-time Ideas: If you’ve arrived in good time and still fresh why not visit the former US embassy for a night cap.

Hotels – Choose a Beijing Hotel (3 nights) to suit you, we recommend:
Days Inn Forbidden City / Sunworld Hotel / Crowne Plaza

After breakfast your private car, driver and guide await, ready with drinks, snacks and a map, ready to maximize your time in Beijing. First up, the world’s largest city square, Tiananmen Square. Then explore a 200 acre maze of courtyards and palaces, the Forbidden City.

Enjoy a lunch at top Sichuan Restaurant before strolling to the largest imperial garden in China. The Summer Palace featuring lakes, pavilions, stunningly painted corridors, and surrounded by hills. It’s no wonder it was the courts summer retreat. Climb the hill or take a scroll around the garden, this is a lovely place to explore before we’ll take you on a dragon styled boat tour.

Good to Know:

• Boat Tour – Most tours companies don’t include these types of experiences as standard.
• Face Changing – The Sichuan restaurant often has a traditional face changing performance. Trip advisor ranks it 4.5/5. It’s also great for families.

Free-time Ideas:
1. Best Acrobatics Show in Beijing at Chaoyang Theatre. Breathtaking performances make it Beijing’s #1 attraction after the Great Wall. If you’re interested your guide can help you buy tickets.
2. Wangfujing is a good place for trying street food and shopping in the evenings, shops close 10pm.

Stroll among the 60,000 ancient trees in the Temple of Heaven’s Taoist grounds. Watch the locals exercise, practice martial arts, play traditional instruments as your walk to the Temple of Heaven. The Round Altar, Echo Wall and Imperial Vault of Heaven are rated as key sights.

We’ll drive up into the mountains, and on route have lunch at a farmhouse garden restaurant, famous for trout & salmon. A short drive along the mountain backbones and you’ll arrive at the Great Wall. A cable car takes you to this less crowded section, where you can enjoy superb views, seeing it snake across the hills.

The road home brings a chance to stop at Shahe Cloisonné, see how craftsman make this copper wire enamel vases and visit the shop. If this is not your cup of tea, just let our guide know.

Good to Know:

• Review as #1 Section – The Mutianyu section is No.1 of 900 attractions in Beijing on TA.
• “A Guide is Essential” – Beijing based travel writer Sara Naumann recommends Mutianyu “the views are awesome and the wall itself is in great shape”.

Free-time Ideas: This evenings meal is left for you to arrange, but we think a Peking Duck Banquet is an ideal ending.
1. Fangzhuang are famous for outstanding with locals for quality and our top choice for value and taste.
2. DaDong the most famous place for roast duck, this Ming Dynasty décor and it’s best to reserve. Ranked#8 of 3695. Rated 4.5/5 and features highly in most guides books.

Customization does not always increase costs, although this tour visits Olympic Park, here are some other ideas you may prefer:
1. Olympic Park – An exterior visit to the National Stadium, Bird's Nest and National Aquatics Center.
2. Beihai Park – Often overlooked but said to be the most beautiful park in the country. It’s just north of the Forbidden city, edging the Hutongs.
3. The Ghost Market – the most popular flee market, ranked highly with travellers & contains some gems of history, photographers enjoy!
4. Lamma Temple – One of the few active temples, this Tibetan Buddhist temple contains a sandalwood Buddha, the largest in the world.

• Any itinerary can be customized!

We have lunch at Jing Mian Da Wang, renounced for Kung Po Chicken and Sweat and Sour pork. Then we’ll hop on a rickshaw or bike in Beijing’s Hutongs, after riding through the narrow alleys to visit a local family, try your hand at Chinese Paper Cutting. Then we’ll transfer you to the airport. Our local Xi’an guide will be ready and waiting to pick you up at the airport and transfer you to the hotel.

Hotels: – Choose your Xi’an hotel to suit you. (2 nights in Xi’an)
Xi'an Skytel Hotel / Grand Noble Hotel / Sofitel On Renmin Square

Visit the Terracotta Warriors, known as the most exciting archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. We’ll stop off at a handmade pottery factory before enjoy lunch a restaurant known nationwide for its Hunan & Sichuan dishes and carefully sourced produce.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda was constructed in AD652 and show cases Chinese-style architecture with Buddhist ancient murals, scriptures.

Good to Know:

• No Tricks (Big/Little) Pagoda – Look closely at other companies and large group tour operators and you’ll see they take you to the free Little Goose Pagoda, - experience + profits.
• “+Adrenaline” – Add an extra day and put your head in the clouds on Hua Shan. Test your nerves on its crazy cliff hanging path, your quickly understand why it went viral on the internet.

Free-time Ideas: The Tang Dynasty Show is rated the best show in China. Your guide can help you buy tickets. Or you might like to take a relaxing evening stroll in the beautifully lit park and grounds of the two Pagodas.

Shaanxi Museum is a perfect overview of Chinese history and not to be missed. Next cycle on Xi’an’s city wall; it encircles the city and is perfect for sightseeing, not to mention fun. Lunch is a literal taste of history, try some Tang Dynasty dishes.

Today ends with the included flight to Guilin. Your private car, drive and guide handle all the transfer for you at each end. Sit back and relax.

Good to Know:

• Xi’an City Wall – The city wall and ride are ranked no. 2 and 3 attractions on most websites after the Terracotta army. Rickshaw, ride, or walk, you decide on the day.
• Bell Town – Our recommended hotels are very close to the Bell Tower, so it’s easy to see in your own time. Preserving your guided time for Xi’an’s very best.

Free-time Ideas: You’ll arrive in the Guilin hotel in latter evening. All these three hotels are a short walk from the central shopping street, called ‘Walking Street’ which has bars and coffee shops.

Hotels: – Choose your Guilin hotel for the 2 night stay.
Guilin Osmanthus Hotel / Guilin Bravo Hotel / Sheraton Guilin

Transfer to Longsheng about 2 hours' drive in the morning. Walk on the spectacular Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces, which have been carved from the mountains for hundreds of years.

After lunch, experience local life in a rural village, home to a few minority people groups. Zhuang and Yao minority villages feature traditional architecture where no nails are used in construction. Their fabrics, language, folk songs, and warmth make a lasting impression. You’ll return to your Guilin hotel for the evening.

Good to Know:

• Head Office – We’ve guide US presidents, Bill Gates, Buffett around Guilin, our head office is located here. No one knows Guilin like we know it!
• Customization – Our coffee shop & restaurant guide, written by a local British expat might be useful to pick a restaurant tonight.

Free-time Ideas: Four Rivers Two Lakes is a charming lake area featuring two beautiful pagodas in the heart of the town, the Sun and Moon pagoda are a pretty feature in the center of the lake. It’s the perfect evening walk, and beautifully lit. You could even take a boat tour, its best done at night. Your guide can help you buy tickets.

Relax on the famous Li River cruise to see the spectacular limestone peaks, graceful bamboo groves and farmers tending rice paddies. A buffet lunch is served on this four hour cruise. In the afternoon, join a cookery class at the local market where ingredients for the dishes are chosen by students. A covered rooftop terrace-classroom, you have an opportunity to learn three dishes and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Good to Know:

• Guilin – a jewel of China, its natural beauty and dramatic mountain and river scenes are a perfect contrast to China’s cities and history and as become one of the top destinations in China.

Free-time Ideas: Take a small bamboo raft down the river for an hour, see the small old ruin of a town called Fuli. Then meander through West Street, called a world village, with shops, bars, coffee shops, it has a real buzz.

Hotels: Yangshuo Aiyuan Hotel / Green Lotus Hotel

Experience countryside cycling in Yangshuo, biking alongside the paddy field and orchards that surround the dramatic karst mountains will give a fascinating insight into life in rural China. We will even stop off and visit a local family. It’s an opportunity to see a real country life and talk to the local farmers.

Enjoy a romantic style café serving western food. The balcony overlooks West Street. Perhaps try the wood-fire oven pizza or its special fresh ground coffees. We will transfer you directly to Guilin airport for a flight to Shanghai. Our guide will pick you up at Shanghai airport and transfer you to the hotel.

Good to Know:

• A Smart Choice – Our private transfer (direct to Guilin’s airport) means you not only save time but avoid the need to return via Guilin city, like many independent travellers.

Free-time Ideas: The Bund - Great for an evening walk until the skyline lights go out at 10pm, then head over to Glamour for a Shanghai Cocktail in real style.

Hotels: – Choose your Shanghai hotel for the 2 night stay.
Kingtown Hotel PLaza Shanghai / The Bund Hotel / Radisson Shanghai New World

The panoramic views from the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, standing at nearly 500 meters, gives an impressive introduction to the city of Shanghai. Walk through Shanghai’s Old Alleys to experience a bye-gone age. We’ll have lunch at Old Shanghai Restaurant but first, a quick visit to a charming silk workshop. After lunch visit enchanting Yuyuan Garden, one of the most beautiful Suzhou style gardens in China, before we walk into another era, the Bund, which still retains its colonial charm.

Good to Know:

• Old Shanghai Restaurant – 130 years old, serving traditional typical Shanghai foods.
• From Expat Food Guide – Customize the trip to suit you. E.g. A history and art fan might like to visit Shanghai Museum; it’s rated by many as the best Museum in China.

Free-time Ideas: Sky Lounge - The world’s highest bar was named by Newsweek magazine as one of ‘The World’s Great Gathering Places’. It can be found on the 88th floor of the world’s tallest hotel, Shanghai Grand Hyatt. Even better, its 87th floor has a bar called Cloud 9, with a 360 degree view of Shanghai.

Sit back and relax as your private guide, driver and guide get you to the airport on time. They will take you right to check-in and say goodbye at the security gate. We take the stress, you take the tour!