Tour Code: P-BXZFGSH-19D
Beijing · Xi’an · Zhangjiajie · Guilin · Shanghai · Hangzhou
Follow China’s changing landscapes from the Great Wall and the ancient capital of Xi’an to Zhangjiajie’s sandstone pillars, the riverside houses of Fenghuang and the terraces and karst hills of Guangxi. This 19-day private journey brings together major cultural landmarks and places best appreciated on foot, from a city wall at dusk to a quiet mountain village at first light.
The middle of the journey moves from Longji’s rice terraces to a boat ride near Xingping, bamboo rafting on the Yulong River and cycling through Yangshuo’s countryside. Shanghai and a day trip to Hangzhou add another perspective: classical gardens and West Lake alongside the Bund and the illuminated Huangpu River.
The journey closes with four more guided days in and around Shanghai: tree-lined neighbourhoods, the canals of Zhujiajiao, Chinese art and streets beside Suzhou Creek. Stay at the same hotel throughout this final part of the trip, with free time before the airport transfer on Day 19. Private local sightseeing and transfers are arranged for your party; scheduled trains, flights and sightseeing boats are shared services.
Your driver meets you at the airport and takes you by private vehicle to your hotel. There is no formal sightseeing today, leaving time to settle in and recover from your international flight.
After check-in, the rest of the day is yours. Rest at the hotel or take a short walk nearby if you feel like stretching your legs. Your guided sightseeing begins tomorrow.
Accommodation: Beijing
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Not included today
Leave Beijing early with your guide and travel to Mutianyu Great Wall. Ride the cable car up, then explore a section of the ramparts and watchtowers at a pace suited to your energy. The wall follows the mountain ridges into the distance, revealing how closely its construction responds to the landscape.
Return to the city for the Summer Palace. Walk beside Kunming Lake and through the covered Long Corridor, looking toward Longevity Hill. After the exposed ridges of the Great Wall, the garden offers a different expression of imperial power through water, architecture and carefully framed views.
In the evening, visit the Olympic Park for exterior views of the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube. Their illuminated forms bring the day into contemporary Beijing.
Accommodation: Beijing
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Transfer to the railway station for a morning high-speed train from Beijing to Xi’an. Your local guide and driver meet you on arrival before you begin exploring the old city.
See the Bell and Drum Towers from outside and walk through the Muslim Quarter, where food stalls and busy lanes offer an introduction to everyday Xi’an. Continue to the Ming City Wall for approximately an hour of walking or cycling, depending on your preference and fitness.
Toward evening, stop around the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda for exterior photographs, then explore the Great Tang All Day Mall. Its illuminated architecture and public performances draw on the city’s identity as Tang-dynasty Chang’an.
Accommodation: Xi’an
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Travel to Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum to see the Terracotta Warriors. In the main excavation halls, your guide explains the army’s formation and the details that distinguish individual figures, from armour and hairstyles to rank and expression.
Continue to Huaqing Palace, known for its imperial hot springs and its association with Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei. The palace grounds and the slopes of Mount Li provide the setting for stories that have shaped Chinese poetry and theatre.
Stay for The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, an outdoor performance using the palace setting, water, lighting and dance to retell that Tang-dynasty story. The proposed booking is the 20:10 show with East or West A-section seats, subject to the schedule for your travel dates. Return to your Xi’an hotel after the performance.
Accommodation: Xi’an
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Fly from Xi’an to Zhangjiajie and meet your local guide and driver on arrival. The proposed afternoon visit to Tianmen Mountain depends on an early enough flight and a matching entry slot.
Explore Tianmen Mountain’s high-level scenery and the great natural opening of Tianmen Cave. Cliffs, mountain ridges and changing cloud cover create a dramatic introduction to this part of Hunan.
After returning to the city, see the illuminated 72 Wonder Tower complex. Its architecture draws on the stilt-house forms associated with western Hunan and offers a contrasting evening scene after the mountain landscape.
Accommodation: Zhangjiajie
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Spend the full day in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, within the Wulingyuan scenic area. Forested ravines and tall quartz-sandstone pillars create a landscape that changes markedly as you move between viewpoints.
Your guide helps you explore the park’s mountain scenery before continuing to Tianzi Mountain. From the higher viewing areas, ridges of narrow pillars extend into the distance; mist may soften the valleys or reveal new layers as it moves.
Walk between viewpoints with your guide, pausing for photographs before returning to your Zhangjiajie hotel.
Accommodation: Zhangjiajie
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
After breakfast, leave Zhangjiajie by private vehicle for Fenghuang. Check in before setting out on foot through the old town’s lanes and riverside streets.
Here the scale becomes more intimate: stone paving, timber houses and balconies above the Tuo River replace the mountain panoramas of the previous days. Walk beside the water and look closely at the stilt houses that give the town its distinctive river frontage.
Stay overnight so there is time to enjoy Fenghuang after dark. As lamps and shopfronts light up, reflections spread across the river and the atmosphere changes from the afternoon walk.
Accommodation: Fenghuang
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Transfer to the station for the high-speed rail journey from Fenghuang to Guilin. Your local guide and driver meet you at the arrival station and bring you into the city.
Visit Elephant Trunk Hill, the riverside rock formation that has become Guilin’s best-known landmark, then stroll through East-West Alley. Its lanes and restored buildings introduce the city at street level before the journey continues into the surrounding countryside.
In the evening, take a sightseeing boat ride through the Two Rivers and Four Lakes area. Bridges, pagodas and lights reflected on the water reveal another side of Guilin after sunset.
Accommodation: Guilin
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Travel by private vehicle into the Longji terrace region. Stop at Huangluo Yao Village for an introduction to local Yao culture and life in the surrounding hills.
Continue to the Jinkeng Dazhai area, where terraced fields wrap around the slopes above wooden village houses. Walk to viewpoints with your guide and see how the contours of the land have shaped both agriculture and settlement. The appearance of the fields changes with the farming season.
Stay overnight in the Longji area. If the weather allows, use the late afternoon for sunset views as the light picks out the field edges and the folds of the valley.
Accommodation: Longji
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
If conditions are clear, rise early for views over the terraces at sunrise. The quiet of the villages and the changing morning light are part of the reason to spend a night in Longji.
After breakfast, travel by private vehicle from Longji to Xingping, a substantial road transfer from the terrace region. In the afternoon, take a boat ride on a scenic section of the Li River, among the karst peaks associated with the landscape on the RMB 20 banknote.
Continue to your Yangshuo hotel. In the evening, explore West Street independently, choosing your own restaurant or a place to sit and watch the passing crowds.
Accommodation: Yangshuo
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Leave long-distance travel aside today and spend time in Yangshuo’s countryside. Begin with a bamboo raft trip on the Yulong River, passing fields, villages and limestone hills from a low viewpoint close to the water.
Later, explore the Ten-Mile Gallery area by bicycle. Follow country roads between peaks and farmland, with stops for photographs or a break when you wish. The distance and pace can be adapted to your experience.
Accommodation: Yangshuo
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Your driver collects you from the hotel and takes you to Guilin airport for your flight to Shanghai. On arrival, another private transfer brings you to your Shanghai hotel.
No formal sightseeing is scheduled after check-in. Rest, explore the surrounding streets or choose somewhere nearby for dinner, depending on your arrival time and energy.
Accommodation: Shanghai
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Begin in Shanghai’s old town with visits to the City God Temple and Yu Garden. Within the garden, rockeries, pools, pavilions and covered passages create a sequence of carefully composed views on a compact scale.
Continue to the Bund, where the historic waterfront buildings face Pudong’s towers across the Huangpu River. Visit the Oriental Pearl Tower for views over the city and its on-site exhibition on Shanghai’s history, connecting the skyline with the stories of the city below.
In the evening, board a Huangpu River sightseeing cruise. From the water, you can see the illuminated Bund and Lujiazui together as the boat moves between the two riverbanks.
Accommodation: Shanghai
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Travel from Shanghai to Hangzhou for a full day around West Lake. Start with a boat visit to Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, where the islands, water and distant hills form one of the lake’s most recognisable scenes.
Continue to Viewing Fish at Flower Harbor for a walk through the gardens, then visit Leifeng Pagoda. From above, the lake’s relationship with the surrounding hills and city becomes easier to appreciate.
Spend further time along the lakeshore before returning to Shanghai and your hotel for the night.
Accommodation: Shanghai
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Meet your guide after breakfast for a walk through the former French Concession. Along Wukang Road, plane trees frame brick villas, balconies and small shopfronts. Pause outside the wedge-shaped Wukang Mansion, then explore the surrounding streets as your guide points out architectural details and traces the neighbourhood’s changing history.
Continue to Fuxing Park for a gentler look at everyday Shanghai. Walk past lawns, planted borders and shaded benches, taking time to watch the neighbourhood come and go around you.
Finish in Xintiandi’s restored shikumen lanes. Look closely at the stone doorways and brick façades, then see how these former residential spaces have become cafés, shops and restaurants. Your guide connects the buildings with the lives once lived behind their doors before you return to your hotel.
Accommodation: Shanghai
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Leave central Shanghai with your guide and driver for Zhujiajiao. On arrival, follow narrow streets beside the canals and climb Fangsheng Bridge for views over the water, tiled roofs and boats below. The town reveals a different side of the Shanghai region, shaped by waterways and trade.
Walk along North Street and into the surrounding waterside lanes. Browse small shops, pause by the bridges and let your guide explain how the waterways connected homes and businesses. There is time to choose a place for lunch before continuing the visit.
Step into Kezhi Garden, a historic garden residence with a blend of Chinese and Western architectural influences. Explore its paths and buildings at an unhurried pace, looking at how the spaces open from one view to another. Return to your Shanghai hotel in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Shanghai
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Spend the morning at Shanghai Museum East in Pudong, exploring its permanent collections of Chinese art. Bronze vessels, ceramics and jade reveal very different ways of working with material, colour and form. Take time to notice the fine details: an incised pattern, a glaze or the shape of an object made for everyday use or ceremony.
After lunch, continue to nearby Century Park. Follow paths beside the lake and through lawns and planted areas, exchanging the close attention of the galleries for open views and fresh air. The walking pace can be adapted to your interests and energy.
Return to the hotel after the park visit, with the evening available for dinner and rest. This day combines a substantial museum visit with time outdoors, without another change of hotel.
Accommodation: Shanghai
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Begin your last full day at Jade Buddha Temple. Walk through the courtyards and halls with your guide, learning about Buddhist imagery and the temple’s place in Shanghai life. Take time to look at the craftsmanship and the contrast between this place of worship and the busy streets outside.
Continue to M50 Creative Park, where former industrial buildings now house contemporary art galleries and studios. Explore the lanes and galleries that are open, noticing how brickwork and factory spaces frame changing exhibitions. The works on view offer a different perspective from the historical collections seen earlier in the stay.
End with a walk along a public section of the Suzhou Creek waterfront. Bridges, reused industrial buildings and neighbourhood streets bring the day’s stories together. Your driver takes you back to the hotel afterwards, leaving the evening for a final dinner and packing before tomorrow’s departure.
Accommodation: Shanghai
Hotel: Handpicked boutique hotel (Local 4-Star Standard or above)
Meals: Breakfast included
Enjoy any free time available in the morning before your driver meets you in the hotel lobby for a private airport transfer.
The proposed hotel departure is 12:00 for Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Terminal 2. Your pickup time and terminal will follow your confirmed international flight.
Accommodation: No overnight stay
Your journey concludes in Shanghai.
Meals: Breakfast included
Handpicked boutique hotels at local 4-star standard or above: Beijing 2 nights, Xi’an 2, Zhangjiajie 2, Fenghuang 1, Guilin 1, Longji 1, Yangshuo 2 and Shanghai 7. Hotel upgrades can be arranged.
Breakfast on Days 2–19, including every Shanghai sightseeing day and departure morning.
The listed domestic flights, high-speed rail journeys, private local transfers and return excursions to Zhujiajiao and Hangzhou are included. Travel class, flight schedules, any rail connections and the Hangzhou transport mode are detailed in your final proposal. Scheduled air and rail services are shared.
Private English-speaking local guides on scheduled sightseeing days, including all four sightseeing days on Days 15–18. Days 1, 12 and 19 have driver-only airport transfers. Local assistance remains available during the trip.
Admission and the listed experiences in the agreed itinerary, including Mutianyu cable car access, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, the Guilin night boat, Xingping Li River boat ride, Yulong bamboo rafting, Ten-Mile Gallery cycling, the Oriental Pearl Tower and its history exhibition, Huangpu River cruise, West Lake boat visit and Kezhi Garden. The Shanghai programme includes the museum’s permanent collections, the listed neighbourhood walks, Jade Buddha Temple and the public galleries visited at M50. Show seats and timing, mountain entry slots and river activities depend on availability and operating conditions.
Local support throughout the journey, daily bottled drinking water and China domestic travel accident insurance. Coverage follows the policy terms and does not replace your own international travel insurance.
International flights to and from China, visa fees and other entry-related personal expenses.
Lunches and dinners throughout the trip, allowing you to choose meals according to your preferences.
Your own international travel insurance and any additional cover you require.
Activities, workshops, separately ticketed temporary exhibitions and other services not listed in the agreed itinerary. Personal purchases and independently arranged outings are not included.
Personal purchases, laundry, minibar charges and tips for guides, drivers or other service staff.
The tour starts from US$5,262 per person, based on two adults sharing one room in a 4-star hotel during the low season. Final pricing depends on travel dates, party size, hotels, itinerary adjustments and availability. Select Price Details & Conditions beside the starting price to read the standard terms.
Yes, if you want a broad introduction and enjoy an active itinerary. Beijing and Xi’an provide the historical foundation; Zhangjiajie, Fenghuang and Guangxi add mountains, old-town life and rural landscapes. The final Shanghai stay combines the city’s landmarks with historic neighbourhoods, Zhujiajiao Water Town, museums and a day trip to Hangzhou.
They offer different experiences. Guilin introduces the region through its city landmarks and lakes; Longji adds terraced hills and village scenery; Yangshuo is the base for Xingping, the Li River, Yulong bamboo rafting and countryside cycling.
The route combines high-speed rail, domestic flights and private road transfers. Beijing–Xi’an and Fenghuang–Guilin are planned by rail; Xi’an–Zhangjiajie and Guilin–Shanghai are planned by air. Private local transfers support the Shanghai sightseeing and Zhujiajiao visit, with a separate return excursion to Hangzhou. Exact services, connections and transport class are confirmed for your dates.
Day 5 combines the flight to Zhangjiajie with Tianmen Mountain and the 72 Wonder Tower in the evening. It requires an early enough arrival and a compatible mountain entry time. If these cannot be matched, we will agree a schedule adjustment or extra night before booking so that Tianmen Mountain remains in your trip.
The proposed arrangements are The Song of Everlasting Sorrow at 20:10 with East or West A-section seats, and a 12:00 hotel departure for Pudong Terminal 2 on Day 19. The performance time and seats follow the schedule and availability for your dates; the airport transfer follows your confirmed flight.
The itinerary uses handpicked boutique hotels at local 4-star standard or above, with 18 nights in total. You stay seven nights at the same Shanghai hotel, including the nights around the Hangzhou and Zhujiajiao day trips. Hotel upgrades and room preferences can be incorporated into your quotation.
Days 15–18 have private guided sightseeing and local transfers: the former French Concession and Xintiandi, Zhujiajiao and Kezhi Garden, Shanghai Museum East and Century Park, then Jade Buddha Temple, M50 and Suzhou Creek. Day 19 has free time before your private airport transfer. The sightseeing order can be adjusted around opening days: Shanghai Museum East normally closes on Tuesdays, except national holidays, and gallery hours vary. Lunches, dinners and unlisted activities remain excluded.
Your local guided sightseeing and the listed private transfers are arranged for your party. Flights, trains, public scenic-area transport and sightseeing boats are shared services.
The Great Wall, Zhangjiajie, old towns and Longji viewpoints involve walking, steps and uneven surfaces. Shanghai’s neighbourhood walks and Zhujiajiao also involve time on foot, with steps on some bridges. Walking pace and cycling distance can be adapted. Yulong rafting depends on river conditions and operator eligibility rules, so tell us about mobility needs or children before booking.
Yes. This is a private journey that can be adapted to your dates and interests. We can adjust hotels, the walking pace and sightseeing choices. The published plan includes guided visits on Days 15–18 and free time before departure on Day 19. Any requested changes and their price are agreed in your proposal.
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19-Day China Private Tour: Heritage, Mountains & Shanghai
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