11 Days Beijing, Xi’an, Zhangjiajie & Shanghai 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.

Evening flight about 1.5–2 hours | Overnight: Zhangjiajie (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 an evening flight to Zhangjiajie in Hunan province.

Full-day sightseeing | Highest point: Tianzi Mountain, about 1,260 m | Overnight: Zhangjiajie (lunch included)

Ride the glass-sided Bailong Elevator up the cliff to Yuanjiajie, where the sandstone pillars of the "Hallelujah Mountains" inspired the film Avatar, and see the "First Bridge Under Heaven". Take the eco-bus to Tianzi Mountain for views over a forest of stone peaks – perhaps above a sea of clouds – then ride the little train along the Ten-Mile Gallery.

Full-day sightseeing | Overnight: Zhangjiajie (lunch included)

Walk across the Grand Canyon Glass Bridge, 430 m long and some 300 m above the canyon floor. After lunch take a boat on emerald Baofeng Lake, where Tujia girls sing folk songs from the shore.

Full day and evening flight about 2 hours | Highest point: Tianmen Mountain, about 1,500 m | Overnight: Shanghai

Ride one of the world's longest cable cars to the top of Tianmen Mountain, walk the cliff-hanging glass skywalk, visit Tianmen Temple and the Bonsai Garden, and descend the 999 steps to Tianmen Cave, a vast natural arch, before the bus ride down the 99 hairpins of the "Heaven-Linking Avenue". After lunch collect your luggage and take the evening flight to Shanghai; your guide meets you on arrival.

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).