Parents want a destination to enchant and enlighten their children. A trip to China offers a fascinating insight into an exotic civilization that is becoming ever more vital to the future. Imperial Tours recognizes that too much history and site-seeing can be overwhelming for children. Each day on our Family Tour is planned with children in mind, incorporating kite-flying into a visit to the Forbidden City or else taking rafts down the Li River in Guilin. In addition to a child-friendly itinerary, a bilingual, Western China Host is there to ensure that you and your children are getting the very best. 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, 8/7/2009 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, 8/8/2009 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 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). Tian'anmen Square is one of the best places to fly a kite! Each child will be given a Chinese kite, shaped like butterflies, dragons or phoenixes. 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, 8/9/2009 For shoppers, Beijing's largest open-air market will come close to paradise. Here you will mingle with Beijingers, overseas and local art dealers as well as farmers who import goods from the countryside. This is your opportunity to buy a Ming dynasty set of the Confucianist classics for a song or else, and more likely, to buy from an astonishingly rich variety of Chinese and Tibetan cultural objects (at usually a tenth the price found in the U.S. and at often half the price found at local shops). 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 going about their daily lives and 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 the extraordinary kung fu performance of the famous Shaolin warriors. (B, L, D)   Day Four - Monday, 8/10/2009 We begin the day with a pedicab tour through Beijing's traditional alleyways (or hutong). This is a chance to see Chinese people in their everyday setting. During the visit, you will be taken to a local athletic school where the children will have the opportunity to play table tennis with some of the local children. Later in the day you will tour 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. (B, L - no dinner included)   Day Five - Tuesday, 8/11/2009 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, 8/12/2009 Emperor Qinshihuangdi chose Xi'an for his capital in the third century BC. This war-mongering tyrant, the first to unite the disparate kingdoms of ancient China, is well-known to us for his Terracotta Warriors. This morning you will view several-thousands of the 13,000 molded soldiers, officers, horses and wagons which form a small part of his famed underground army. 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, 8/13/2009 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, 8/14/2009 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. We continue the day by leaving the scenic valley floor for the terraced paddy-fields of the rural 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, 8/15/2009 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, last century considered to be the most Western of China's cities, perhaps now should be thought of as the most futuristic. Before dinner, you will have a chance to walk or drive along the Bund, taking in some of the loveliest buildings in the city. (Four Seasons Hotel) (B, L, - no dinner included)   Day Ten - Sunday, 8/16/2009 Our tour of Shanghai begins at the Shanghai Museum, the best in the country. Its well-conceived displays elucidate all aspects of Chinese art history from ceramics to jades to furniture to seals 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, 8/17/2009 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, 8/18/2009 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 8,710 per adult and USD 5,630 per child (under age 12) 2 adults & 2 children (based on 2-bedroom suite or equivalent) -USD 8,850 per adult and USD 5,770 per child (under age 12) 2 adults & 1 child (based on suite with extra bed or equivalent) -USD 8,660 per adult and USD 5,570 per child (under age 12) 1 adult & 1 child (based on deluxe room or equivalent) -USD 8,850 per adult and USD 5,760 per child (under age 12) Upgrades to first class on internal flights will be USD 390 per adult and USD 200 per child. 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) 11 breakfasts, 10 lunches, 6 dinners at our carefully selected restaurants 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 Departures require a minimum of 8 persons 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 2010 Family Tour departs on August 8th and concludes on August 17th. Early Booking Special: book the 2010 Family Tour before September 15, 2009 and receive the 2009 tour price listed above. Margot Kong, based in San Francisco, is ready to answer your queries about this tour. Phone her at 888 888 1970, or click here to send her an email. Return to top