• 7 Dinner (D)
• 13 Breakfast (B)
• 4 Lunch (L)

• Beijing: Gain insights into this fascinating city during a sightseeing tour of Beijing. See the Great Hall of the People and Tiananmen Square before stepping through the south gate of the Forbidden City. 
• Great Wall of China: Visit the Great Wall of China to marvel at the history of this renowned landmark. 
• Beijing: Sit down together to share Peking duck, Beijing’s signature dish with roots in the imperial kitchens. Watch the crisp roasted duck carved then wrap slices with cucumber, spring onion and sweet bean sauce in thin pancakes.
• Beijing: Hop on a traditional rickshaw and weave through Beijing’s ancient alleyways.
• Beijing: Step into a small hutong tea house for a hands-on introduction to Chinese tea. In your small group you’ll learn how to choose tea leaves, follow traditional brewing techniques and hear how places like this once refreshed local residents, as you share stories and questions with your host.
• Beijing: Board a high-speed train to Xi’an, swapping city traffic for smooth, fast travel across the countryside. Settle into your seat, watch fields and townships stream past your window and arrive ready to discover this former imperial capital.
• Fortifications of Xian: Visit the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and see the terracotta warriors. 
• Xi’an: Visit Xi’an’s Wild Goose Pagoda, a key landmark on the ancient Silk Road. Walk through the surrounding temple complex, see the striking brick pagoda rising above the courtyards and hear how it once stored precious Buddhist scriptures brought from India, linking trade, faith and scholarship in one place.
• Xi’an: Join a Local Specialist for a tai chi lesson in a city park, learning slow, controlled movements alongside local residents. As you follow the sequence you’ll see how this daily practice blends exercise, balance and focus, offering a calm window into everyday Chinese life.
• Chengdu: Head to the Museum of Sichuan Cuisine and get stuck in with a cookery lesson. Try your hand at grinding chilli with a traditional pestle and mortar, explore centuries-old recipes and learn the secrets of bold Sichuan flavors. Finally, tuck in.
• Chongqing: You’ll get to know Chongqing, a major river city built on steep hills above the Yangtze. Busy shopping streets, high-rises and older alleyways sit side by side and hotpot restaurants are packed most evenings, showing you how people here eat, shop and spend their time.
• Visit the cliff-top temple Shibaozhai.
• Yangtze: Cruise on a small motorboat through the magical landscape of the Goddess Stream. 
• Shanghai: Soar to the 88th floor of the striking Jin Mao Tower and take in sweeping views of Shanghai’s futuristic skyline, where skyscrapers rise above the Huangpu River in one of Asia’s most dynamic cities.
• Shanghai: Join a Local Specialist to uncover the contrasts of Shanghai, from its colonial past to modern marvels. Stroll along the historic Bund waterfront and wander through the tranquil classical pavilions and rockeries of Yu Garden.
• Shanghai: Witness a spellbinding performance by the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe, where precision, agility and imagination collide. From high-flying aerials to perfectly timed choreography, this world-class show celebrates the artistry and discipline of Chinese acrobatics with a modern twist.

• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• 4-star hotel and overnight cruise stays
• Deluxe coach, and cruise travel

Trafalgar

Travel by small motorboat through Goddess Stream, a tributary of the Yangtze in the Three Gorges region. Glide close to steep limestone cliffs and lush slopes, gaining a more intimate perspective than the larger cruise ship provides.

The narrower waterway draws attention to the textures of the gorge: rock faces, greenery and the changing light on the water. It is a scenic excursion centred on the river landscape itself.

Meet your Travel Director and fellow small-group travellers over a hosted dinner in Beijing. Share typical northern Chinese dishes while getting to know the people travelling with you.

Beijing’s cooking draws on wheat-based staples and savoury flavours, offering a first taste of the region’s food culture. The shared table makes this more than a routine meal: it is a relaxed introduction to your group and your journey through China.

Explore central Beijing with your Travel Director, standing in vast Tiananmen Square and seeing the Great Hall of the People before entering the Forbidden City through its southern gate. Walk through the courtyards of the former imperial palace.

Home to Ming and Qing emperors for nearly five centuries, the palace complex reveals how imperial ceremony shaped its monumental gateways, halls and enclosed spaces. The visit places two defining chapters of Chinese history side by side.

Visit Beijing’s Temple of Heaven and observe how local people use its surrounding park. The temple’s circular Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is one of the capital’s most recognisable examples of imperial architecture.

Ming and Qing emperors came here to perform rites connected with the harvest. Today, the grounds are also part of everyday Beijing, where residents gather to exercise and socialise. That contrast gives the historic setting a living, local dimension.

Walk the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall with your Travel Director, taking in its steep stone steps and mountain setting. Visit a jade workshop to watch craftspeople cut and polish a stone long prized in China.

Juyongguan guarded a strategic pass north of Beijing; its walls and watchtowers show how terrain formed part of the defence. The workshop offers a different perspective on Chinese heritage through the skill and patience behind jade carving.

Share a Peking duck dinner in Beijing, wrapping slices of crisp-skinned roast duck with cucumber, spring onion and sauce in thin pancakes. Take a hosted evening stroll through Qianmen to experience the district after dark.

Associated with the capital’s imperial kitchens, Peking duck remains one of its signature dishes. Qianmen’s pedestrian streets and illuminated shopfronts offer a lively setting for seeing a historic commercial area in use today.

Ride a rickshaw through Beijing’s hutong lanes, passing traditional courtyard homes. In a small tea house, join a hands-on introduction to Chinese tea and learn about selecting leaves and brewing techniques.

Visit a local family in their home for a Be My Guest lunch of home-style dishes. Together, the lanes, tea session and conversation offer a personal view of neighbourhood life that sits beyond Beijing’s monumental sights.

See the Terracotta Warriors and Horses outside Xi’an, where life-sized figures stand in ranks near the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor. Look closely at the soldiers’ varied faces, armour and poses.

Buried for more than two thousand years, the army was made to accompany the emperor in the afterlife. Its scale and craftsmanship reveal the resources of the Qin dynasty and make this one of China’s most significant archaeological sites.

Visit Xi’an’s Wild Goose Pagoda and walk through its surrounding temple complex. See the brick tower rising above the courtyards and learn why this Buddhist landmark matters to the city’s history.

The pagoda is associated with scriptures brought from India during the Tang dynasty. In Xi’an, a former imperial capital connected to Silk Road routes, it speaks to the movement of ideas and beliefs as well as goods across Asia.

Join a Local Specialist for a tai chi lesson in a Xi’an city park. Follow slow, controlled movements and practise the balance and concentration that underpin this familiar part of Chinese daily life.

Seeing residents use the park for exercise gives the lesson an everyday setting rather than a staged one. The guided practice offers a chance to participate, ask questions and understand how movement and focused breathing work together.

Visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding with a Local Specialist. Watch pandas rest, play and feed in leafy enclosures while learning how the base cares for them.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience focuses on conservation as well as the pleasure of seeing the animals. Hear about work to protect the giant panda and its habitat, and how your visit supports those efforts through the research base.

Cook at the Sichuan Cuisine Museum in Chengdu, learning to chop, season and stir-fry classic dishes. Try techniques such as grinding chilli before sitting down with your small group to enjoy the dinner you helped prepare.

Chengdu is a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, and the class gives you a practical introduction to Sichuan’s layered flavours. It is a chance to understand the ingredients and methods behind the region’s reputation at the stove.

Walk through Chengdu’s People’s Park, passing its lake, gardens and busy tea houses. Observe how residents use this green space to meet, relax and spend time together.

Traditional tea houses are an enduring part of Chengdu’s social life, and the park offers a direct view of that custom. This guided walk highlights the city’s unhurried public spaces and everyday atmosphere rather than its major monuments.

Explore Chongqing with your Travel Director, stopping to photograph the monorail passing through a building at Liziba and walking around Jiefangbei, Kuixinglou and Daijiaxiang. See Hongyadong illuminated above the river and share a local hotpot dinner.

Built across steep hills beside the Yangtze, Chongqing layers elevated roads, dense streets and river views. Its communal hotpot is a fitting introduction to the city’s energetic dining culture.

Cruise the Yangtze River aboard an overnight ship, with time on deck to watch river settlements and mountain scenery pass. Sail through the Three Gorges: Qutang’s towering cliffs, Wu Gorge’s peaks and the long landscapes of Xiling Gorge.

For centuries, this waterway has connected inland communities and shaped trade and travel. Seeing its changing banks from the river gives a sense of the scale and geography of one of China’s defining routes.

Go ashore near Fengdu to explore Mountain Shuanggui on a Yangtze cruise excursion. The outing brings you closer to the cultural and natural setting of a riverside destination rather than viewing it only from the ship.

River conditions may require a substitute visit to Shibaozhai, known for its striking wooden pagoda beside the Yangtze. The precise landing depends on conditions, but a hosted shore excursion is included.

Join the Captain’s Farewell Dinner aboard your Yangtze cruise ship and enjoy an onboard show featuring local music, singing and dancing. The hosted evening brings your fellow travellers together in the setting of the river journey.

Unlike a routine cruise meal, the dinner pairs a shared occasion with live entertainment. It offers a social glimpse of regional performance traditions while the ship remains your base on the Yangtze.

View the Three Gorges Dam from your cruise ship’s top deck near Yichang. Take in the immense scale of the structure from the river as your ship approaches the end of its passage through the gorges.

Built over several decades, the dam is the world’s largest hydropower project. The onboard vantage point offers an opportunity to consider how major engineering has transformed this stretch of the Yangtze.

Ride to the 88th floor of Shanghai’s Jin Mao Tower for panoramic views across the city. Look out over Pudong’s skyscrapers, the Huangpu River and the urban landscape beyond.

The tower stands in Lujiazui, the financial district whose skyline has become a symbol of Shanghai’s rapid change. From this elevated viewpoint, the relationship between the modern high-rises and the river that shaped the city comes into focus.

Tour Shanghai with a Local Specialist, strolling along the Bund’s historic waterfront and through Yu Garden’s pavilions, ponds and rockeries. Visit a silk factory to learn how silk is produced.

The Bund’s early-20th-century buildings face the modern towers across the Huangpu, while Yu Garden reflects a much older tradition of classical Chinese garden design. The silk visit adds a look at a craft closely associated with China’s history of trade.

Visit Shanghai’s Jade Buddha Temple to see its carved Buddha statues and active worship halls. Walk through a religious site that remains part of the city’s spiritual life.

Amid Shanghai’s busy streets and high-rise districts, the temple offers a quieter setting for observing Buddhist art and practice. Its significance lies not only in the jade images but also in the continuing use of the halls by worshippers.

Watch the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe perform a show of aerial skills, physical precision and closely timed choreography. Settle in for an evening devoted to the discipline and spectacle of Chinese acrobatics.

Acrobatic performance has a long history in China, and this production presents those skills with contemporary staging. Rather than observing a landmark, you experience a performing art through the balance, agility and coordination of its artists.

Sit down to a farewell dinner with your small group in Shanghai and raise a glass to the places you have explored across China. This hosted gathering is a chance to share memories and conversation around the table.

The meal marks the close of a journey spanning imperial cities, Sichuan food culture and the Yangtze. Its distinctive element is the shared celebration with the people who travelled alongside you.

See Beijing’s Legend of Kung Fu Show, a staged performance built around martial-arts movement and theatrical storytelling. Watch performers combine athletic technique with music and dramatic presentation.

The show offers an entertainment-focused introduction to the imagery and discipline associated with Chinese martial arts. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour for travellers who want a performance during their time in Beijing.

Try a traditional foot massage in Beijing, a restful experience after exploring the city on foot. Settle in for a treatment associated locally with reflexology and attentive pressure-point massage.

Foot massage is a familiar form of relaxation in Chinese cities, making this a different way to engage with local everyday customs. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Walk through Xi’an’s Muslim Quarter at night, sampling market food and local beer amid busy stalls and illuminated streets. The hosted outing puts the neighbourhood’s flavours and evening atmosphere at its centre.

Xi’an’s longstanding connections with overland trade helped shape the district’s distinctive food culture. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour for travellers keen to explore the city through its street food.

Enjoy a Tang Dynasty-themed show with dinner in Xi’an. The staged evening combines a meal with performance inspired by the era when the city, then known as Chang’an, was an imperial capital.

The Tang period is remembered for its court culture and far-reaching connections across Asia. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour for travellers who would like an evening of historical entertainment.

Watch a Sichuan Opera performance in Chengdu, with music, colourful costume and the rapid face-changing scenes for which the form is famous. The show presents a theatrical tradition closely associated with the region.

Face-changing, or bian lian, relies on carefully practised technique and split-second timing. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour for an evening focused on Sichuan’s performing arts.

Explore Fengdu’s Ghost City, visiting temples and shrines whose imagery depicts traditional Chinese ideas about the afterlife. Hear the legend of two officials said to have become immortals.

Its sculpted figures and stories make Fengdu a distinctive cultural stop along the Yangtze, blending folklore with religious imagery. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour during the river cruise.

Watch an open-air Romance of the Three Kingdoms show during the Yangtze cruise. Stunts, acrobatics and visual effects bring scenes of rivalry and battle between the three kingdoms to the stage.

The production draws on one of China’s best-known historical epics, turning its struggle for power into a large-scale spectacle. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Visit White Emperor City above the Yangtze near Qutang Gorge. Explore a place associated with historic rulers and poets while looking toward the dramatic entrance to the gorge.

The site’s cultural associations add depth to the river scenery, connecting the landscape with stories told about it over centuries. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour as one of two alternative morning excursions.

Travel to Chijia Mountain’s peak for broad views over Qutang Gorge. From above, take in the river’s course between steep cliffs and the scale of the surrounding mountain landscape.

This outing is designed for travellers who would rather see the gorge from a high viewpoint than visit a historic site. It is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour as an alternative to White Emperor City.

Dine at Shanghai’s space-themed Spacelab restaurant, where dishes arrive along looping metal tracks. Watch the unusual delivery system while sharing an evening meal.

The restaurant puts playful design and spectacle at the centre of the dining experience, offering a contrast to the traditional food experiences elsewhere on the tour. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Visit the Shanghai Museum and the former Jewish Ghetto for two perspectives on the city’s heritage. See works of Chinese art, then explore streets connected with Shanghai’s 20th-century Jewish refugee history.

The pairing moves from artistic traditions to the lives of people who found refuge in the city. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour as one of two alternative Shanghai outings.

Explore Zhujiajiao water town outside central Shanghai, crossing stone bridges and walking narrow lanes beside its canals. Sit down to lunch at a local restaurant as part of the outing.

The waterways and older streets offer a change of scale from Shanghai’s towers and broad waterfront. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour as an alternative to the Shanghai Museum and former Jewish Ghetto visit.