12 Days China Family Tour of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guilin and Beijing

Summary

D1 Shanghai Arrival: Make your own flight arrangement to Shanghai
D2 Shanghai: Yu Garden, The Bund, Zhujiajiao Water Town
D3 Shanghai: Full day have fun at Disneyland Park
D4 Shanghai-Hangzhou by train: Take train to Hangzhou, West Lake Boat Ride, Fish Viewing Park, Dragon Well Tea Plantation, Hefang Street
D5 Hangzhou: Hangzhou Art & Crafts Museum; Wuzhen Water Town
D6 Hangzhou-Guilin by flight: Fly to Guilin, Elephant Trunk Hill, Reed Flute Cave
D7 Guilin-Yangshuo by cruise: Li River Cruise to Yangshuo; West Street
D8 Yangshuo-Guilin by priavte vehicle: Yangshuo Countryside cycling experience; drive back to Guilin
D9 Guilin- Beijing by flight: Fly to Beijing, Beijing Hutong Rickshaw Tour
D10 Beijing: Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven
D11 Beijing: Mutianyu Great Wall, Beijing Panda House
D12 Beijing Departure: Transfer to Beijing airport for your departure flight

Day 1 Shanghai Arrival

Make your own flight arrangement to Shanghai. Once you arrive, our guide will meet you at the exit of Shanghai airport and transfer to your Shanghai hotel. The rest day is free on your own to explore the city.

Day 2 Shanghai Day Tour

After breakfast, starts your Shanghai tour with Yu Garden. It was a private garden of the Pan family in the Ming Dynasty. It was the largest and most prestigious of its era in Shanghai after it was completed. The garden is unique in its design. It perfectly blends decorative halls, elaborate pavilions, glittering pools, zigzag bridges, pagodas, archways, and impressive rockeries.

Then, you will visit the famous Bund Area, it is a nice place to appreciate the skyline of the city. You see some of the famous landmarks of shanghai such as the pearl tower, jinmao tower and the shanghai tower.For a century, the Bund has been one of the most recognizable symbols and the pride of Shanghai. The architecture along the Bund is a living museum of the colonial history of the 1800s.

In the afternoon, drive you to visit Zhujiajiao Water Town. It is one of famous six water towns around Shanghai. It's the best-preserved water town in the area with history over 1700 years. There are old bridges, antiquated architecture and bubbling streams. You can wander along the canal, stroll around the old lanes, visit few houses with gardens. Later, enjoy a relaxing boat riding on the canal to see beautiful surrounding. Don't miss out the opportunity to take some fabulous pictures.

After the tour, drive you back to your hotel.

Day 3 Shanghai Day Tour

After breakfast, transfer to Shanghai disneyland from you hotel in Shanghai downtown. We know people don't like time limitations in Shanghai Disneyland so, to guarantee the best experience, you can have fun in Shanghai Disneyland from the morning until the evening. Our guide accompany with to the park and help you to collect the tickets and enter the park. The day at Disneyland is free on your own. Our guide and driver will meet you again when you finish your Disneyland park tour. Drive you back to your Shanghai hotel at a suitable time.

Day 4 Shanghai-Hangzhou

After breakfast,transfer to Shanghai train station to catch your train to Hangzhou. You will be picked up from train station ocne you arrive.

Firstly, you will take a boat cruise along the famous Hangzhou West Lake. It's an enjoyable and relaxing way to appreciate the beautiful scenery with its islands, causeways, temples, pagodas and ornamental planting. Different from appreciating scenery on the bank of West Lake, you’ll enjoy the heavenly lake view in another angle, closer and closer. It is not surprised that you’ll become a part of this traditional Chinese painting.

Later, head to the Fish Viewing at the Flower Pond(Huagang Park), one of the top 10 views around the lake and famous for the view of red carp.This area now has been made into a 22 hectare (54 acre) park with many varieties of trees and flowers, featuring a peony garden and a goldfish pond which is the famous site for viewing fish.

In the afternoon, you will visit the Guo's Garden, it is the best existing traditional private residence in Hangzhou. It was built in late Qing Dynasty. With a mountain in the back and the west lake in the front, the garden is known as 'Number One Garden of the West Lake' thanks to its tranquil environment, well-preserved buildings, and tasteful landscaping layout.

Next, move on to Dragon Well Green Tea Plantation, you will visit one of the five tea villages in Hangzhou-Meijiawu. Meijiawu Tea Village, just west of West Lake, is a top producer of Longjing (Dragon Well) tea, considered one of the finest teas in China and the world. Surrounded by mountains, valleys, and streams, Meijiawu Tea Village is a picturesque locale where visitors can learn all about the heritage, production, and benefits of Longjing tea.

Drive you back to Hangzhou downtown to visit the Qinghefang street, is a good place to experience the life of Old Hangzhou, because it is the epitome of historic Hangzhou. A great place for shopping, eating, and sightseeing. You can see the well-preserved old buildings, explore the interesting boutique stores, and choose your favourite souvenirs.

After the tour, drive you back to your hotel in Hangzhou.

Optional Activity:

1) Impression West Lake Show- one of the “impression series” jointly created by the famous directors Zhang Yimou, Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue.With the lake as a stage, using high-tech sound and light technology and a large number of actors are used to reproduce southern beauty and folklore. Spend a quiet night on the charming West Lake, and the beautiful sceneries and legends of the South will be etched in your memory.

2) The Romance of Song Dynasty- It is a large stereoscopic musical drama which was wholeheartedly made by Song Dynasty City. The drama adopted the old stories and legends in Hangzhou City

Day 5 Hangzhou

After breakfast, drive you to Hangzhou Wulin Pier to take a water bus along the Grand Canal to enjoy the scenery. Connecting China via an internal route, greatly improved not only defense but administration. It was the first Qin emperor in 221 BCE who standardized writing in China. Before this, each area had its own particular writing system. You will get off at Gongchen Bridge Station,our guide will take you to the Hangzhou Art & Crafts Museum,where you can make your own fans, umbrella and other local products.It's a nice place to spend the time with your family. The new landmark has collected nearly 600 works of arts and crafts, including a three-story-high bronze plum blossom - all mural made by local master Zhu Binren.

In the afternoon, drive about 1 hour to visit Wuzhen Water Town. Upon arrival,stroll along the old town and visit both East Gate (Dong Zha) and West Gate (Xi Zha). Learn about the Wuzhen’s history from your guide. Enjoy a local lunch and then take a relaxing boat ride along the canals in the late afternoon. For afternoon departure travelers, you will be offered dinner instead. You can take some nice photos in the charm-laden town. Browse around the narrow, cobbled pathways and cross stone-arched bridges under the beautiful sunset. When your tour is finished, you will be transferred back to your hotel in Shanghai city.

After the tour, drive you back to Hangzhou hotel.

Day 4 Shanghai-Hangzhou

After breakfast,transfer to Shanghai train station to catch your train to Hangzhou. You will be picked up from train station ocne you arrive.

Firstly, you will take a boat cruise along the famous Hangzhou West Lake.It's an enjoyable and relaxing way to appreciate the beautiful scenery with its islands, causeways, temples, pagodas and ornamental planting. Different from appreciating scenery on the bank of West Lake, you’ll enjoy the heavenly lake view in another angle, closer and closer. It is not surprised that you’ll become a part of this traditional Chinese painting.

Later, head to the Fish Viewing at the Flower Pond(Huagang Park), one of the top 10 views around the lake and famous for the view of red carp.This area now has been made into a 22 hectare (54 acre) park with many varieties of trees and flowers, featuring a peony garden and a goldfish pond which is the famous site for viewing fish.

In the afternoon, you will visit the Guo's Garden, it is the best existing traditional private residence in Hangzhou. It was built in late Qing Dynasty. With a mountain in the back and the west lake in the front, the garden is known as 'Number One Garden of the West Lake' thanks to its tranquil environment, well-preserved buildings, and tasteful landscaping layout.

Next, move on to Dragon Well Green Tea Plantation,you will visit one of the five tea villages in Hangzhou-Meijiawu. Meijiawu Tea Village, just west of West Lake, is a top producer of Longjing (Dragon Well) tea, considered one of the finest teas in China and the world. Surrounded by mountains, valleys, and streams, Meijiawu Tea Village is a picturesque locale where visitors can learn all about the heritage, production, and benefits of Longjing tea.

Drive you back to Hangzhou downtown to visit the Qinghefang street,is a good place to experience the life of Old Hangzhou, because it is the epitome of historic Hangzhou. A great place for shopping, eating, and sightseeing. You can see the well-preserved old buildings, explore the interesting boutique stores, and choose your favourite souvenirs.

After the tour, drive you back to your hotel in Hangzhou.

Optional Activity:
1) Impression West Lake Show- one of the “impression series” jointly created by the famous directors Zhang Yimou, Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue.With the lake as a stage, using high-tech sound and light technology and a large number of actors are used to reproduce southern beauty and folklore. Spend a quiet night on the charming West Lake, and the beautiful sceneries and legends of the South will be etched in your memory.

2) The Romance of Song Dynasty- It is a large stereoscopic musical drama which was wholeheartedly made by Song Dynasty City. The drama adopted the old stories and legends in Hangzhou City

Day 5 Hangzhou Day Tour

After breakfast, drive you to Hangzhou Wulin Pier to take a water bus along the Grand Canal to enjoy the scenery. Connecting China via an internal route, greatly improved not only defense but administration. It was the first Qin emperor in 221 BCE who standardized writing in China. Before this, each area had its own particular writing system. You will get off at Gongchen Bridge Station,our guide will take you to the Hangzhou Art & Crafts Museum,where you can make your own fans, umbrella and other local products.It's a nice place to spend the time with your family. The new landmark has collected nearly 600 works of arts and crafts, including a three-story-high bronze plum blossom - all mural made by local master Zhu Binren.

In the afternoon, drive about 1 hour to visit Wuzhen Water Town. Upon arrival,stroll along the old town and visit both East Gate (Dong Zha) and West Gate (Xi Zha). Learn about the Wuzhen’s history from your guide. Enjoy a local lunch and then take a relaxing boat ride along the canals in the late afternoon. For afternoon departure travelers, you will be offered dinner instead. You can take some nice photos in the charm-laden town. Browse around the narrow, cobbled pathways and cross stone-arched bridges under the beautiful sunset. When your tour is finished, you will be transferred back to your hotel in Shanghai city.

After the tour, drive you back to Hangzhou hotel.

Day 6 Hangzhou-Guilin

Transfer to Hangzhou airport to catch your flight to Guilin. Once you arrive at Guilin airport, our guide will meet you at the exit of airport. Starts your tour with a visit to Elephant Trunk Hill,it is an elephant-shaped hill that looks like a huge elephant siphoning up water from Li River. Climb up to the hilltop on a clear day, you will get a panoramic view of downtown Guilin. 

Then, you will visit Reed Flute Cave. Known as "the Palace of Natural Arts ". Like all karst topography, the Reed Flute Cave is the result of millions of years of water erosion wearing away the layer of limestone bedrock on the surface of the earth. As cracks formed in the limestone bedrock, water flowed into these cracks, creating drainage systems that eventually became full-fledged caverns, such as Reed Flute Cave, which took shape about 180 million years ago.

After the tour, drive you back to your Guilin hotel.

Day 7 Guilin-Yangshuo

After breakfast, drive around 30 minutes to Mopanshan Pier for one of the Guilin tour highlights-Li River Cruise. Along the way, you will enjoy the beautiful mountains, verdant fields, farms and villages with water buffalos, cows wondering around on both sides of the river bank. Get off at Yangshuo - famous for its spectacular view of hills and rivers.

Upon arrive at Yangshuo, our guide will take you to walk around the West Street in Yangshuo. It is one of hot spots for tourists and the West Street in Yangshuo is well-known for its unique cultural ambience. It is also a nice shopping location for unique cultural stuffs. Painted fans, really big to catch your eyes, are sold in here and great for decorations. West Street Basic Information West Street is the oldest street in Yangshuo with a history of more than 1,400 years.

After the tour, drive you back to your hotel in Yangshuo.

Day 8 Yangshuo-Guilin

After breakfast, our guide will take you to experience the cycling tour in Yangshuo. In Guilin Yangshuo, you can experience joys in the countryside by having a cycling sightseeing tour around this place. You will find this is a fairyland to get rid of the pressure in your daily life. The best way as well as the most economic way to have a Yangshuo countryside sightseeing tour is to have a Yangshuo bike tour. Renting a single-person bike or a twin bike, and then, cycling around the Yangshuo county as well as the countryside. Touring with the picturesque landscape, travelers will experience an impressive tour left in you mind for a long time. You will have this route: "Yangshuo County – Big Banyan Tree – Moon Hill – Moon Hill Village – lunch time in local family - Fushan Temple – Yan Village – Tian Jia River – Yangshuo County". It's about 20KM which is the classical route, most beautiful natural scenery, fields and buffalos.

Drive you back to Guilin at the suitable time.

Day 9 Guilin-Beijing

Transfer to Guilin airport to catch your flight to Beijing. Once you arrive in Beijing airport, our guide will meet you at the exit of airport. Transfer to Beijing downtown.

After lunch, you will have a Beijing hutong cultural tour with your family or friends. A hutong tour by rickshaw has been developed as a unique tourist attraction in Beijing. Visitors from all over the world are taking traditional rickshaws to move around the historic hutongs. However, along with tmost of the old and crumbling tenement courtyards and hutongs, the rickshaw is a thing of the past and is no longer acceptable in an increasingly modern city. Fortunately, some well-known courtyards and hutongs are preserved as cultural relics, giving color for the ancient capital. The rickshaw, likewise, finds its own means of survival. 

After the tour, drive you back to your hotel in Beijing.

Day 10 Beijing Day Tour

After breakfast,you will visit Forbidden City. Also known as the Palace Museum, this famed attraction is situated in the heart of Beijing. Dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the former imperial palace was the primary residence of the 24 emperors who reigned over the country during specific time periods in history.

Next, you will visit Summer Palace, a marvel of Chinese garden design and one of Beijing's must-see attractions, the Summer Palace was the royal retreat for emperors fleeing the suffocating summer torpor of the old imperial city and, most recently, it was the retirement playground of Empress Dowager Cixi.

After that, our guide will take you to visit the Temple of Heaven, is one of China’s best tourism sites for anyone interested in ancient Chinese religious culture. It was where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties (from 1420 to 1900) worshiped the god of heaven and prayed for good harvests. It has been described as "a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design".

After the tour, drive you back to your hotel.

Day 11 Beijing Day Tour

After breakfast, drive you to visit Mutianyu Great Wall. The Great Wall at Mutianyu is not as crowded as the nearby Badaling or Juyongguan sections of the Wall. Mutianyu’s 2.5 kilometer stretch of the Wall allows you to walk for more than an hour as you explore 22 watchtowers and the valley on both sides of the Wall. In late afternoon, or in poor weather, you often might find yourself alone with only the sound of the wind to keep you company. Travel back in time and see the Wall as it was when it was built hundreds of years ago.

In the afternoon, drive you back to Beijing city to visit the gaint panda at Beijing Zoo. Giant Pandas are unique to China. If you won't be going to Chendu or any of the other Wildlife Preserves, take some time and stop at the Beijing Zoo to take a look at these beautiful creatures.

After the tour, drive you back to your hotel in Beijing.

Day 12 Beijing Departure

Free on your own until transfer to Beijing airport for your own flight back home.

Price Per Person in US Dollars