Glories of China
Explore the iconic ‘must-see’ destinations of China from north to south — including Beijing’s ancient home of emperors, Xi’an’s army of underground warriors, Guilin’s fabulous natural wonders, and Shanghai’s modern metropolis.
You’ll have some free time in each city to explore more in-depth. Choose from among the fun activities we recommend and you can stay a longer or shorter time at each site, depending on your own interests.

11-Days,Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Yangshuo, Shanghai, Private Tour (CT-2)
From 2,089 USD
Highlights
- Private tour, no groups, no shopping, unbeatable opportunity for a good time with family or friends
- Discover more of China’s extraordinary history from Beijing and Xi’an
- Visit the less-crowded section of the Great Wall at Mutianyu and use the cable car there
- Enjoy the Li River Cruise and witness the region’s incredible karst landscape
- Cycle near Yangshuo and admire the stunning rural scenery
- Discover Shanghai lifestyles ancient and modern
- Enjoy a flexible free day in each city to see things you want to see
- Thoughtfully-selected hotels and restaurants
Day by Day Tour Itinerary
DAY 1 Arrive in Beijing, Welcome to China! (International Flight not Inlcuded)
Good to Know
- Your international flights are not included in this tour, only domestic connecting flights.
- Since this is your first stop in China, your Beijing guide will tell you as much as possible about transportation, currency exchange, customs, and how to avoid tourist traps.
Evening Ideas
Your guide will provide you with a map of Beijing, and give you advice about where to eat and shop near your hotel.

DAY 2 Tian’anmen Square, the Forbidden City, Hutong Rickshaw with Visit to a Local Family
Good to Know
- Enjoy lunch at Courtyard 7 Restaurant, rated #5 of 1,750 restaurants in Beijing on TripAdvisor.
- When you take your rickshaw ride, the hutong alley will be quite busy with people walking to and fro, but don’t worry, you’ll be in safe hands.
Evening Ideas
Have dinner at Quanjude Restaurant, famous for its roast duck.
Watch the famous acrobatics show at Chaoyang Theater. You may have watched some acrobatics on TV, but seeing it live might just take your breath away. Feel free to ask for your guide’s help in booking tickets.

DAY 3 Temple of Heaven, Great Wall at Mutianyu with Return Cable Car
Good to Know
- There are alternatives to using toboggan for coming back down the Great Wall (Extra fee are needed), and if you’d like to avail yourself of these, just tell your guide.
- There’s a lot of climbing steps and walking today, so comfortable shoes are required.

DAY 4 Beijing Free Day, Take a High-speed Train to Xi’an in the Late Afternoon
Beijing Free-Day Ideas:
Summer Palace (3 hours): an emperor built this complex as a birthday gift to his mother. It’s a fantastic place for spending a quiet and peaceful time.
798 Art District (1-2 hours): for modern-art lovers, this is an amazing district of galleries, creativity shops, ceramics, art, and fashion.
National Museum of China (1-2 hours): no entrance fee, great historical collections of ceramics, bronze and paintings, and most exhibits have English explanations as well as Chinese.
Temple of Confucius and the Guozijian Museum (40 minutes): the temple presents the history of Confucian thought, and how it influences Chinese society today. The museum explains how emperors chose their ministers, by having them take the Chinese imperial civil service examinations.

DAY 5 The Terracotta Army, Xi'an City Wall, Muslim Quarter
Good to Know
- To customers who prefer not to ride a bike, we recommend walking round the wall or taking a scooter club drive round (for an extra fee).
Free-Time Ideas
Learn to make terracotta figurines (1 hour): learn how to make a terracotta figurine in person in a pottery factory. You can take it back home as a souvenir.
Tang dynasty show (1 hour): a performance from China’s golden age of the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), with traditional dress for ladies and gentlemen, performing traditional song and dance.

DAY 6 Free Time to Explore Xi’an, Fly to Guilin in the Late Afternoon.
Xi'an Free-day Ideas
Big Wild Goose Pagoda (Dayanta,1hour): built during the Tang dynasty, a pivotal site in China's Buddhist culture.
Shaanxi History Museum (1 1/2 hours): located next to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. The museum houses many collections from the Bronze Age, along with original statues from the Terracotta Army and some pottery.
Bell Tower (30 minutes): situated in the city center, wait to see a performance of Chinese traditional instruments there at 9:10;10:30;11:30 in the morning, 14:30;15:30;16:30 in the afternoon every day.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda
DAY 7 Elephant Trunk Hill, Reed Flute Cave, Yaoshan Mountain
Good to Know
- Inside Reed Flute Cave has up and down stone steps; the floor is wet cause the dropping water from the top of cave, should mind your steps once you walk around there.
Evening Free-Time Idea:
Two River and Four Lakes (1 hour): an ancient circular water system that people refer to as little Venice. A boat tour lasts an hour and permits breathtaking colorful views of life on bridges and river banks, as well as a chance to see fishermen demonstrating how to catch fish using their pet cormorants.

DAY 8 Relax on the Li River Cruise, Cycle to the Idyllic Yangshuo Countryside
Good to Know
- We will arrange for you to take a new three-story cruiser with a deck. New seats are wider and better than the old ones.
- Bamboo rafts are another popular way to see the river. If you like, we can arrange a bamboo raft experience for you on Yulong River.
- Don’t worry about your luggage. We will transfer it from Guilin to your Yangshuo hotel.
Evening Ideas
Night Show – Impression Sanjie Liu (1 hour 10 minutes): Directed by the famous Chinese director, Zhang Yimou, who was in charge of the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games and a lot of world class movies, the show has a great set up and backdrop — 3 massive peaks which light up when the show is on. It tells the love story of a queen among local folk singers, and reflects local farming life.

DAY 10 World Financial Center, the Bund, Yuyuan Garden, Tianzi Fang, Former French Concession Area
Evening Ideas
The ERA Acrobatics Show is guaranteed to give you a wow night. Our Shanghai tour guide will help you book tickets.

DAY 11 Shanghai Departure
Extend Your Tour
- Tongli Water Town (1 day): with numerous bridges and canals, and tagged as the little Venice of the East, Tongli is less crowded than other water towns. You can still see local people washing vegetables in the river and welcoming visitors into their homes. Tongli is such an authentic town, quaint and serene.
- Zhujiajiao Water Town (4 hours): this water town is not far from the center of Shanghai, an oasis surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city.
- Huangshan (2 days): as one of the four famous mountains in China, this should be experienced once in a lifetime, seeing the stunning views from a height of 1,810 meters, with pine trees all around, but sometimes disappearing in a sea of clouds. If you stay overnight in the hotel on top of the mountain, waking up early to see the sun on the horizon would be a cool experience.
- A side-car drive in shanghai: ranked highly with a full score of 5/5 on TripAdvisor, awesome experience comes with a drive in the vintage side-car, care to go crazy? Request one with your travel advisor for a better rate! (Please make sure you book at least one day in advance.)
Prices (Go Solo Private Tour)
Dec.1 - Mar.31 | 2-5 person | Apr.1- Nov.31 | 2-5 person |
---|---|---|---|
5-star Hotel | $2,369 | 5-star Hotel | $2,599 |
4-star Hotel | $2,199 | 4-star Hotel | $2,399 |
3-star Hotel | $2,089 | 3-star Hotel | $2,219 |
Single Room Supplement | $685/$497/$387 | Single Room Supplement | $804/$603/$422 |
Price Inclusion
- Private English-speaking guide service fee
- Private transfer service with air-conditioned vehicles
- All entrance tickets, hotels and meals listed above
- Service charge and tax
- China Life tourist accident/casualty insurance
- Luggage transfers
Price Exclusion
- International airfare or train tickets in or out of China
- Any meals not listed above
- Single room supplements
- Chinese visa fees
- Personal expenses
- Excess baggage charges
What Can You Expect for this Private Tour?
Meet you guide in the airport/train station upon arrival
- You will have a private driver and a private English speaking guide in each city during the tour. They will just serve your group. Our guide and driver will pick up you from the airport or train station on your arrival, the guide will hold a paper with your name on it, so you just look for your name on your arrival. When they pick up you, will transfer you to your hotel and assist you with hotel check-in.
Travel on your own pace
- The guide will confirm the pick-up time for the following day's tour. You could tell the guide if you prefer to start the tour earlier or later. The guide and driver will be with you during the tours each day. You can control the tour pace according to your interest. No other passengers will share the tour with you. You could choose to stay in one site longer or shorter just according to your interest.
-For the private tour, the tour guide will skip up the long line and go through express pass in the most of the major sites, you will have more time to go in-depth and explore and place that big groups never get there.
Local approval restaurant and best value for money hotels
- We normally includes breakfast and lunch for the tour day, western and Chinese buffet breakfast provides by your hotel, and a-la-cart lunch arrange at local approval restaurants, which are rank on top by our customers, those local restaurant is clean and with delightful dining atmosphere, provides fresh vegetable and meat that purchases early in the morning everyday from local farmers markets, as we usually treat our family and friends there as well.
-For choose a great value hotel for our customer, our stuff in local office hang out for inspection every year, they stay in the hotel that we choose for customers or the new one we ready to recommend, evaluate the comfort of the room, breakfast, service, and English level of hotel stuff, the 5-star hotels we arranged are international chain or the same level.
Guides and Vehicles
Tour Guides
We select and arrange the most experienced tour guides in every city you visit, they all obtained China tour guide license and stand out by our tour guide testing.
Vehicles and Drivers
We use 7-seat Refine or 9-seat Jinbei for the group of 1-5 pax, all vehicles with air-conditioning, and our drivers have more than 5 years experience for ensure you are in safe hands.
Hotels
Wyndham Grand Xian South
5-star hotel, #1 of 2,560 Hotels in Xi'an, features a larger bathroom with a deep bathtub, 55sq.m.
Tea Cozy in Yangshuo, Guilin
Boutique hotel, #2 of 439 Hotels in Yangshuo County, nestled in the karst mountains
Know Before You Go
China Holiday Information
from US $2,089 p/p