14 Days Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin, Yangtze Cruise & Shanghai Group Tour

Overnight: Beijing (4-star hotel)

Welcome to China! You are met at Beijing Capital International Airport and transferred to your hotel. The rest of the day is free to recover from your flight.

Full-day guided sightseeing | Overnight: Beijing (lunch included)

Begin at the Temple of Heaven, where Ming and Qing emperors prayed for good harvests, and watch locals practising tai chi, dancing and playing cards in the park. Ride a rickshaw through Beijing's old hutong lanes and visit a local family at home. After a Chinese lunch, walk across Tiananmen Square into the Forbidden City, spending more than two hours among its halls, courtyards and imperial treasures. Optional evening: a kung fu or acrobatics show.

Drive about 2 hours each way | Overnight: Beijing (lunch included)

Drive to Mutianyu, one of the best-preserved and most scenic sections of the Great Wall, with watchtowers strung along forested ridges. Walk up, or take the optional cable car or toboggan (extra cost). After lunch near the wall, return to the city with a photo stop at the Bird's Nest and Water Cube of the 2008 Olympics. In the evening try Peking roast duck (optional).

High-speed train about 5–5.5 hours (second class) | Overnight: Xi'an (lunch included)

Visit the Summer Palace, China's largest imperial garden, walk the painted Long Corridor beside Kunming Lake and take a boat across the lake. After lunch, board the bullet train to Xi'an, the ancient capital where the Silk Road began; your Xi'an guide meets you at the station.

Full-day guided sightseeing | Overnight: Xi'an (lunch included)

Walk on the 14th-century Xi'an City Wall, the most complete city wall in China (optional bicycle ride, extra cost). Visit a cave-dwelling pottery workshop to try making a miniature warrior, then see the Terracotta Army of the First Emperor – thousands of life-size soldiers, horses and chariots in battle formation. Back in the city, stroll around Bell Tower Square. Optional evening: the Tang Dynasty music and dance show.

Flight about 2 hours | Overnight: Guilin (lunch included)

After a free morning, explore the lanes of the Muslim Quarter and the traditional courtyard house of Gao's Courtyard, where you can watch Chinese shadow puppetry. At noon see the musical fountain show on the North Plaza of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (when operating). Take a late-afternoon or evening flight to Guilin.

Drive about 2 hours each way | Highest point: about 1,000 m | Overnight: Guilin (lunch included)

Drive into the hills to the Longji rice terraces, carved into the mountainsides over centuries. Walk up to the Zhuang village of Ping'an and enjoy a lunch of rice and chicken cooked in bamboo tubes, then explore the wooden houses of the Zhuang and Yao people. Return to Guilin by late afternoon. Optional evening: Four Lakes night cruise.

Cruise about 4 hours | Overnight: Guilin (lunch box included)

Board a boat at Zhujiang pier and cruise down the Li River through the karst peaks, bamboo groves and fishing villages that appear on China's 20-yuan note. In Yangshuo stroll along the lively West Street before driving back to Guilin. Optional: stay for the "Impression Liu Sanjie" show on the river.

Train and cruise embarkation | Overnight: on board the Yangtze cruise ship

Take the bullet train to Chongqing, the mountain city on the Yangtze. If time allows before boarding, visit the Three Gorges Museum, see the Great Hall of the People and the stilt houses of Hongyadong. Board your 5-star cruise ship between 18:00 and 20:30; it sails at about 21:00. (Some ships board at Fengdu or Fuling, about 2 hours' drive, depending on water levels.)

Cruise day | Overnight: on board (all meals)

Enjoy a full day on the Yangtze. Depending on the river, a shore excursion visits Fengdu (Shuanggui Mountain; the "Ghost City" is optional at extra cost). In the evening join the captain's welcome reception and the show on board.

Cruise day | Overnight: on board (all meals)

Start with tai chi on the deck. An optional early excursion visits White Emperor City (extra cost), before the ship sails through dramatic Qutang Gorge – pictured on the 10-yuan note – and the forested Wu Gorge. In the afternoon transfer to a smaller boat to explore Goddess Stream (or Shennong Stream). The captain's farewell banquet ends the day.

High-speed train about 7.5 hours | Overnight: Shanghai (lunch included)

Disembark to visit the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project. After lunch in Yichang, take the bullet train to Shanghai, where your guide meets you.

Full-day guided sightseeing | Overnight: Shanghai (lunch included)

Discover Shanghai, China's largest and most modern city. Wander through the shikumen lane houses of old Shanghai, the classical Yu Garden and the busy Yuyuan Bazaar. After lunch visit the Shanghai City History Museum at the foot of the Oriental Pearl Tower and ride up to its second sphere for a bird's-eye view, drive through the skyscrapers of Lujiazui, and end on the Bund as the colonial buildings and Pudong skyline light up.

End of tour

After breakfast you are transferred to the airport for your flight home (shared transfer; private transfer on request).