-Day 1 Overnight Flight to China
Day 2 Ni Hao Shanghai
Meet your tour director and check into hotel
Day 3 Shanghai
Details: Shanghai guided sightseeing tour
Shanghai combines European elegance with Asian flair, transforming its colonial history with a unique modern outlook. See the highlights with a local licensed guide. Surrounded by a busy bazaar, the Yu Yuan Garden offers an amazingly peaceful escape into a sixteenth-century garden with fountains, bridges, and tile dragons undulating along the walls. More peace reigns at the temple of the Jade Buddha, where two exquisitely carved Buddha statues, each carved from a single piece of jade, keep watch over a community of monks.
Day 4 Shanghai
Details: French Concession heritage walk
Walk through the French Concession to examine how colonial treaties, foreign governance, and early-20th-century urban planning reshaped Shanghai’s architecture, economy, and social life.
Explore streets lined with Art Deco buildings, former consulates, and historic residences that reveal how global influence and local resistance intertwined during China’s modern transformation.
Day 5 Shanghai--Hangzhou
Travel to Hangzhou by high-speed train
Details: West Lake cruise
West Lake's natural beauty and historic architecture has been the inspiration for artists and poets for centuries. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the lake and surrounding gardens are the setting for many stories and legends. Learn about these stories and the lake’s history on a cruise. There are many wharfs along the lake, so make sure you don’t get off the boat!
Details: Longjing Tea Plantation experience
Walk through Hangzhou’s terraced tea fields to learn how geography, climate, and centuries-old farming techniques shape the region’s famous Longjing (Dragon Well) tea.
Watch local tea masters demonstrate traditional picking and roasting methods that reveal how science, craftsmanship, and culture come together in every cup.
Details: Hefang Culture Street
Step into Hangzhou’s past along Hefang Culture Street, where centuries-old shops, traditional crafts, and Southern Song–era architecture bring history to life.
Explore bustling stalls, local snacks, and artisan workshops that reveal how culture, commerce, and daily life once shaped this ancient capital.
Day 6 Hangzhou--Nanjing
Travel to Nanjing by high-speed train
Qinghuai River night cruise
Details: Chinese fan-making workshop
Create a traditional Chinese hand fan using techniques that date back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, exploring how craftsmanship and symbolism shaped this everyday art form.
Paint designs inspired by classical motifs while learning how fans served as tools for communication, status, and artistic expression in Chinese history.
Details: Qinhuai River Historic District walk
Stroll along the Qinhuai River to explore markets, temples, and riverside streets that reveal how this waterway shaped Nanjing’s culture for more than a millennium.
Watch traditional crafts, taste local snacks, and observe historic architecture that brings the city’s merchant life and literary heritage into focus.
Day 7 Nanjing
Details: Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum visit
The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum stands as a national memorial to the founder of modern China, blending traditional architectural symbolism with early-20th-century republican ideals. Climbing its ceremonial steps reveals how design, politics, and national identity intersected during China’s transition from empire to republic.
Details: Ming Xiaoling Tombs visit
The Ming Xiaoling Tombs preserve the burial complex of the Hongwu Emperor, showcasing imperial rituals, cosmology, and the power structures of the early Ming Dynasty. Walking the Spirit Way lined with stone guardians offers insight into how landscape, symbolism, and authority shaped one of China’s most influential mausoleums.
Details: Ming City Wall heritage walk (Zhonghua Gate Section)
Zhonghua Gate, the most complex and imposing gate of Nanjing’s Ming Dynasty City Wall, showcases advanced 14th-century defensive engineering through its layered courtyards, massive ramparts, and preserved military chambers. Exploring this section of the wall reveals how the early Ming capital fortified itself on an unprecedented scale, blending strategic design with monumental architecture.
Details: Xuanwu Lake Park visit
Xuanwu Lake Park is one of Nanjing’s most scenic urban landscapes, combining lakeside paths, historic bridges, and views of the ancient city wall. Its islands, gardens, and waterfront promenades offer a calm setting that highlights the balance between natural beauty and centuries of city history.
Day 8 Nanjing--Shanghai
Travel to Shanghai by high-speed train
Details: Ji Ming Temple visit
Ji Ming Temple, one of Nanjing’s oldest Buddhist temples, offers a quiet look into centuries of religious practice, traditional architecture, and daily monastic life. Its hillside setting beside the ancient city wall provides views over Xuanwu Lake that highlight the connection between spirituality and the city’s historic landscape.
Details: Nanjing Museum visit
Nanjing Museum presents one of China’s most comprehensive collections, showcasing artifacts that trace the region’s cultural, artistic, and political development from ancient times to the modern era. Exhibits ranging from ceramics and jade to historical documents and fine arts offer a clear sense of how Jiangsu’s heritage fits into the broader story of China’s past.
Day 9 Flight home from Shanghai
Day 9 Start extension to Hong Kong
Day 10 Hong Kong
Details: Hong Kong guided sightseeing tour
Shopping, shopping, shopping. Hong Kong's history as Britain's Asian economic centre means that the city has always buzzed with sellers and buyers. Get a taste of the action at Stanley Market, where clothing and souvenirs are offered, and Kowloon, a district jam-packed with shops, restaurants, and apartment buildings that offers an amazing view across the harbour to the islands of Hong Kong. Take a spiritual break at the Tai Po Man Mo Temple. Named after the Taoist gods of literature ("Man") and martial arts ("Mo"), the small 150-year-old temple is noted for the coils of incense that hang from the ceiling, perfuming the entire building. Find even more sanctuary, and a better view, on Victoria Peak, once the enclave of wealthy Westerners and now a refreshing break from the energetic pace of the city below.
Day 11 Flight home from Hong Kong
Tour Includes:
- Round-trip airfare
- Flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong on extension
- 7 overnight stays (9 with extension) in hotels with private bathrooms
- Breakfast daily
- Lunch daily
- Dinner daily
- Full-time services of a professional tour director
- Guided sightseeing tours and city walks as per itinerary
- Visits to select attractions as per itinerary
- Tour Diary™
- Local Guide and Local Bus Driver tips; see note regarding other important tips
- Note: On arrival day only dinner is provided; on departure day, only breakfast is provided
- Note: Tour cost does not include airline-imposed baggage fees, or fees for any required passport or visa. Optional excursions, optional pre-paid Tour Director and multi-day bus driver tipping, among other individual and group customizations will be listed as separate line items in the total trip cost, if included.
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