Pricing Information and 2010 Departure Dates

Children's highlights include: kite flying, pandas, boat rides, face painting, a shadow puppet show, kungfu, acrobatics and more.

Day One - Friday, 7/9/2010
You will be met at Beijing airport by an Imperial Tours’ China Host who will accompany you during the remainder of your stay in China.  Upon transferring to the hotel, you will have the remainder of the evening left at your leisure. (Grand Hyatt Hotel)

Day Two - Saturday, 7/10/2010
This morning we begin at one of ancient China's most sacred sites, the Temple of Heaven, used by the Emperor as a place to mediate affairs between God and man.

The Temple of Heaven is one of the best places to fly a kite! Each child will be given a Chinese kite, shaped like butterflies, dragons or phoenixes.

The afternoon's activities contrast colossal monuments of the past and present. After strolling across Beijing's Tiananmen Square, an authoritative symbol of today's China, you will be awed by the majesty of its antique Forbidden City (to which in times gone by you would have been denied access). During dinner, you will be treated to a performance of shadow puppetry, one of China's oldest performance arts. (B, L, D)

Day Three - Sunday, 7/11/2010
For shoppers, Beijing's largest open-air market will come close to paradise. Here you will mingle with Beijingers, overseas and local art dealers, and farmers who import goods from the countyrside. For non-shoppers, this market can be thought of as China's largest museum of modern cultural life, where you can see, talk to, and photograph a wide range of local and regional Chinese conducting business.

While the parents are shopping, children will be taken to have their faces painted and they will be photographed wearing traditional Chinese opera costumes.

Later in the day, you will visit the Great Wall of China (weather permitting). More than 2,500 years old, this impressive fortification was constructed to protect China's settled agricultural society from the savage incursions of the fierce Northern tribes. Once there, you will be treated to a private banquet on the Wall itself. During dinner, you will see an extraordinary kung fu performance of the famous Shaolin warriors. (B, L, D)

Day Four - Monday, 7/12/2010
We begin the day at the delightful Summer Palace, a retreat built exclusively for the Empress Dowager Cixi; its ornate temples, pavilions and covered corridors, set amidst a vast and graceful, man-made landscape, epitomize both the decadence and refinement of this ruthless matriarch. At the Summer Palace, you will glide along the lake on a traditional dragon boat.

In the afternoon, we continue with an intimate pedicab tour through Beijing's traditional alleyways (or hutong). This is a great chance to see Chinese people in their everyday setting. During the visit, you will be taken to an athletic school where young students are learning table tennis, badminton, martial arts and more (As this is a private school that is generally not open to visitors, please note that availability and visiting times are subject to approval). (B, L - no dinner included)

Day Five - Tuesday, 7/13/2010
This morning, we will visit the Beijing Zoo, where you will get a chance to see one of China's greatest treasures, her giant pandas.

Later in the day we fly to Xi'an, where you will check into the Sofitel hotel. (Sofitel) (B, L, - no dinner included)

Day Six -Wednesday, 7/14/2010
This morning we visit Xi'an's most stunning site, the Terracotta Warriors. Dating from the second century BCE, the thousands of moulded soldiers, officers, horses and wagons form a small component of the underground army buried to protect the legendary first Emperor of China during his afterlife. His reign, unifying competing kingdoms, anticipated Xi'an's subsequent rise to global prominence as the capital of mighty empires in both the Han (206BCE - 220CE) and Tang (618CE - 907CE) dynasties.

China's capital during the Han (206BC-220AD) and Tang (618-907AD) dynasties (periods of increasing international exposure), Xi'an became home to motley communities of Nestorian Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims - many of whom have left their mark in China. This afternoon, for example, you will tour the Beilin Museum, a former Confucian Temple which houses an eight century Christian stone tablet amongst its collection of Chinese Classics. Following this, we will observe the enduring influence of Xi'an's Muslim community in its Great Mosque and forever bustling Muslim Quarter.

This evening, the children will have a chance to get their try at making noodles together with the hotel's expert chefs (aprons will be provided!). (B, L, D)

Day Seven - Thursday, 7/15/2010
This morning we will visit the City Wall, where each guest will be given a bike to ride on the wall itself.

In the afternoon we fly to Guilin, whose beautiful countryside will soothe you of your urban cares. Craggy limestone towers, their caves appearing like windows in a sheen of vegetation, overlook lush plains of rice fields and fruit orchards. (Hotel Of Modern Art) (B, L, - no dinner included)

Day Eight - Friday, 7/16/2010
This morning, we begin with a ride on traditional bamboo rafts along a less visited stretch of the Li River. Children swim in the rippling waters, lined with overhanging clumps of bamboo. Local farmers rake the riverbed for reeds to give to their wives to dry out and weave. Fishermen click signals to their cormorants as they hunt the river bottom for fish.

After a white-linen banquet in the spectacular karst lanscape, we continue the day by leaving the scenic valley floor for the terraced paddy-fields of the hinterland to view village life. Panoramic vistas, embrace the limestone pinnacles, and introduce an agricultural cornucopia of kumquat trees, tea bushes, lotus flowers, pomelo trees, rice and wheat fields. You will visit a local village, watch villagers make soy milk, and wander through the rice fields. The children will also have a lesson from the local kids in the art of the tradtional Chinese dragon dance! (B, L, D)

Day Nine -Saturday, 7/17/2010
This morning has been left free. Many people will want to walk or bike around the stunning contemporary art sculptures that are dotted around the hotel grounds. Those of an artistic persuasion can take advantage of the contemporary art park's art workshop to organize lessons in printing, pottery, painting and other disciplines. The hotel spa will prove an irresistible draw for others.

In the afternoon we will fly to Shanghai. Considered to be the most Western of China's cities last century, Shanghai perhaps now should be thought of as the most futuristic. Since the early 80’s this city has been growing like no other, the Pudong waterfront becoming as emblematic of economic prowess as that of Manhattan or Hong Kong. (Peninsula Hotel ) (B, L, - no dinner included)

Day Ten - Sunday, 7/18/2010
Our tour of Shanghai begins at the Shanghai Museum, the best in the country. Arranged by category rather than according to a chronology, its collection introduces and elucidates the gamut of Chinese arts from ceramics to jade and ivory carvings to paintings.

In the afternoon you will be taken to the Children's Palace where gifted Chinese children spend their afternoons learning to sing, play musical instruments and dance. After dining at one of Shanghai's chic new restaurants, you will have a chance to witness the marvelous stunts of an Acrobatics Show. (B, L, D)

Day Eleven - Monday, 7/19/2010
This morning we take you to visit the Yu Gardens, one of the best examples of traditional Chinese garden design in the country. Afterwards, you will have some time to stroll through Shanghai's Old Quarter and/or visit a local Buddhist temple.

En route to lunch we will travel along sycamore-lined boulevards into the heart of the French Concession. This section of the "Paris of the Orient" now hosts many arts-based businesses and art galleries that we can visit if you so desire. The afternoon will be spent discovering some of Shanghai's great shopping treasures. This might include a contemporary ceramics shop, the studio of a woman who designs cashmere handbags for Harrods, or a fantastic Tibetan carpet shop.

Our farewell dinner takes place at our favorite Shanghai restaurant, boasting a magnificent view over the Bund and Pudong waterfronts. (B, L, D)

Day Twelve - Tuesday, 7/20/2010
This morning you will be transferred to the airport in time for your international flight home. (B)

Please note that B, L, D denotes Breakfast, Lunch Dinner.

The price of this tour is as follows:

2 adults & 3 children (based on 2-bedroom suite with extra bed or equivalent)
-USD 6,860 per adult and USD 6,170 per child (under age 12)

2 adults & 2 children (based on 2-bedroom suite or equivalent)
-USD 7,270 per adult and USD 6,580 per child (under age 12)

2 adults & 1 child (based on suite with extra bed or equivalent)
-USD 7,290 per adult and USD 6,590 per child (under age 12)

1 adult & 1 child (based on deluxe room or equivalent)
-USD 7,820 per adult and USD 7,130 per child (under age 12)

Domestic Airfare (Economy): USD1,065 per adult, USD535 per child (under age 12).
Domestic Airfare (First Class): USD1,460 per adult, USD730 per child (under age 12).

Tour group limited to 20 persons. Departure requires a minimum of 8 persons.

Included in the tour price is:

• 11 nights accommodation in outstanding five star hotels (those hotels that are not five-star rated have been so indicated on the itinerary. For detailed information on room categories, please contact us).
• 11 breakfasts, 10 lunches, 6 dinners at our carefully selected restaurants (soft drinks & local beer included).
• Services of a Western bilingual tour director and local tour guides.
• All internal flights in economy class (Beijing/Xi'an, Xi'an/Guilin, Guilin/Shanghai).
• All land transportation (as listed on the itinerary).
• Entrance fees to all tourist sites (as listed on the itinerary).
• Local guide and driver gratuities.
• Baggage handling, guide & driver gratuities, hotel & domestic airport taxes.

Not included in the tour price is:

• International airfare to/from China, visa processing fees, and travel insurance.
• Personal expenses such as alcoholic beverages, imported mineral waters, excess luggage fees, telephone charges, room service and laundry charges.
• Gratuities to the China Host.
• The above domestic airfare prices have been listed separately.
• Tours can be extended with an option to visit other destinations such as Chengdu, Dunhuang, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Huangshan, Lhasa, Lijiang, Sanya, Shangri-La, Suzhou. Please contact us for details.

Margot Kong, based in San Francisco, and Kent Milne, based in Dorset, U.K. are ready to answer your queries about this tour.

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