Shangri-la (13days/12nights)

Beijing

On arrival you will be met by our  guide and transferred to your hotel. You will be free for the rest of the day.

Beijing ( B L )

A full day excursion by seat-in coach to the Great Wall - the landmark of China. It is one of the most amazing feats of human labor. After lunch, a drive to the Ming Tombs along the Sacred Way with giant marble figures and animals guarding the tomb area for deceased emperors of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644AD).

Beijing( B L D)

A morning tour of Tian'anmen Square, the largest public square in the world, and the Palace Museum, known as the Forbidden City; the complex of imperial palaces are home to the emperors for over 500 years in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Some of the grand halls have been used as museums for fine collections of Chinese treasures. After lunch you will be driven to visit the Summer Palace, a former summer resort for the royal family, and take a boat ride on its Lake Kunming. This evening you will be treated to a delicious Beijing roasted duck dinner.

Beijing – Kunming ( B L)

Your sightseeing this morning is the Temple of Heaven, where the Ming and Qing emperors prayed for good harvest. It is the largest temple complex remaining in China today. After lunch, take a three-hour flight to Kunming. Arrival in Kunming. Meet your guide at airport and transfer to hotel. The capital of Yunnan Province, Kunming is one of China’s noted historical and cultural cities. The city is located in central Yunnan at the elevation of 1894 meters above sea level and is praised as the city of eternal spring.
Rest of day at leisure.
Lunch and dinner at leisure.

KUNMING (B/L/-)

Buffet breakfast at hotel.Drive along the new express way to Stone Forest. Stone Forest is 75 kilometers from Kunming and is accessible by a bus ride of 70 minutes. The Stone forest belongs to the typical Karst geomorphology, it consists of innumerable bizarre-shaped ancient limestone cliffs and peaks created by wind and water erosion some 200 million years ago, and this area is praised as the “ First Wonder Under Heaven”. Drive back to Kunming by the old road, visit a village on route. Visit the Green Lake Park in the afternoon, Green Lake Park is the biggest park in the city proper of Kunming. Attractions in the neighborhood of Green Lake Park include the former Yunnan Army Academy, believed to be the biggest quadrangle building of China, and you will people in Kunming enjoying their leisure life in the afternoon.
Lunch at local restaurant, dinner at leisure.

KUNMING/DALI (B/L/-)

Buffet breakfast at hotel. Overland drive with seat in public coach bus from Kunming to Dali, 360 KM, 4.5 hours. Standing against the Cangshan Mountains in the west and adjoining the Erhai Lake in the east, embraced by undulating hills around, Dali was the capital of Nanzhao and Dali Kingdom as early as 1,300 years ago. It is home to Bai minority. Upon arrival in Dali, proceed to visit the Three Pagodas, stroll in Dali old town. Standing in a way of a tripod on the outskirts of old town, the Three Pagodas were constructed in about 850 and 1050 following the model of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. For centuries, they are considered landmark of the region. Rest of day walk through the town for discovery of old town Dali The old town of weathered gray granite stands at 2,100 meters on a long, narrow rice plain between the Cangshan Mountains and the Erhai Lake, a natural configuration that seems specially designed for a good, bountiful life. Format of the old town is like a chessboard with four gates guarding in the directions of east, south, west and north, a design that was adopted by most towns in ancient China.
Lunch at local Chinese restaurant, dinner at leisure.

DALI – LIJIANG (B/L/-)

Breakfast at hotel. In the morning, overland drive of 180 kilometers, or 3 hours, along the new highway to Lijiang. Visit the Bai village Xizhou and Shaping Market on the way. 23 kilometers north of Dali, Xizhou village has a more mixed population and cosmopolitan background. It grew and flourished in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) along with the fortunes of Dali’s renowned tea merchants that traded to Tibet. Family Yan’s courtyard is a good example of traditional Bai houses. And each morning, villagers in Bai dresses gather in a small market to buy and sell their produce and daily wares. Then continue driving to Shaping. Shaping Market is a local market on every Monday. The local people come to the market from surrounding villages to exchange their daily wares, farming products, traditional clothes, or simply foods and vegetables. Upon arrival in Lijiang, check in the hotel. Afternoon free for your first visit of the old town. A gathering place of rugged mountain people with the Naxi forming the majority, Lijiang is a small mountain town of stone and tile, laced with swift canals, which was enlisted as an UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 1999. Old town of Lijiang is a big area with its center, or Si Fang Jie (Square Street) in the form of an official ink stone, hence its name Dayan (ink stone) Town. It enjoys a long history of over 800 years and unlike most of the old towns in China, there is no city walls due to a superstitious belief of the local ruler whose family name is Mu (tree), when encircled by walls, would be Kun (besieged). Wooden structures, mountains, small rivers and lanes integrate harmoniously in this mountain town.
Lunch at local Chinese restaurant, dinner at leisure.

LIJIANG (B/L/-)

Buffet breakfast at hotel. In the morning visit the Black Dragon Pond with Dongba Museum. The Pond provides you the opportunity of taking great pictures of the crystal clear pond with backdrop of snow mountains in a distance. Then, drive out to the Naxi villages on the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountains.  Visit the Yuhu Village, a simple village of Naxi minority with the former residence of Dr. Joseph Rock. Dr. Rock, an Austro-American botanist and explorer who lived here off and on from 1922-1949, is best remembered for the introduction of innumerable plant species to the West and his rigorous works on Naxi ethnology. Transfer back to your hotel after lunch. Rest of the day for your own discorvery in the Old Town.
Lunch at local Chinese restaurant, dinner at leisure.

LIJIANG-ZHONGDIAN (B/L/-)

Buffet breakfast at hotel. We drive to Zhongdian, also named Shangri-La with stops and visits to the First Bend of the Yangzi River and the Tiger Leaping Gorge on the way. The village of Stone Drum stands at the First Bend of the Yangzi River, some 70 kilometers west of Lijiang. Approaching to Stone Drum offers a dramatic view of the Yangzi's near-180-degree turn, where the wide, swift waters perform a miraculous about-face. For nearly 20 kilometers the river, first flowing south, then north, runs parallel to itself. Locals say if it were not for their village standing guard at the bend, China would lose the water of the Yangzi to Southeast Asia, like that of the adjacent Mekong and Salween Rivers. The Tiger Leaping Gorge, or Hutiaoxia in Chinese, is the Yangzi's best-known gorge after the Three Gorges in Sichuan and Hubei. Wedged tightly between titanic cliffs, the river is so narrow here, as legend tells us, that a hunted tiger made his escape to the other side in a single bound. Here, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains and the Haba Snow Mountains lean close to each other and a large volume of torrent moving between them cutting deeper and deeper into the bottom of the gorge. In some places there is a drop of 3,000 meters to the water. Arrive Zhongdian in the late afternoon, check in the hotel.
Lunch at local Chinese restaurant, dinner at leisure.

ZHONGDIAN (B/L/-)

Buffet breakfast at hotel. Zhongdian lies in a landscape of rolling hills, snow-capped peaks, virgin forests of spruce, pine and meadow dotted with wild flowers and tranquil lakes. The old town, still entirely in local Tibetan style, is to the south of Zhongdian. Visit Ganden Songzanlin Monastery in the morning. Songzanlin Monastery, the biggest monastery in Zhongdian, is built on a hill imitating the Potala Palace in Lhasa. More than 500 lamas live and study here. Then make an excursion to Tukawa Village to visit a Tibetan family where the Tibetan builds their houses by wood with big sitting room and Buddhism hall. Late afternoon at leisure for your own visit of the old town and local market in Zhongdian.
Lunch at local Chinese restaurant, dinner at leisure.

ZHONGDIAN – Shanghai (B/-/-)

This morning, after buffet breakfast at hotel, you will be transferred to the airport for a five-hour flight to Shanghai (two hours stopover at Kunming airport), a cosmopolitan, bustling and heavily populated city in China. You are free for the remainder of the day.

Shanghai ( B L D)

Your sightseeing this morning features a tour of the Yuyuan Garden, the old area of the city, and a stroll along the lively waterfront, known as the "Bund". After lunch, a visit to the Jade Buddha Temple. An acrobatic show for your evening entertainment after dinner.

Shanghai/Departure( B)

At leisure in the morning until your transfer to the airport for departure.