New Tour Spotlight: Exploring China

For many years, our Classic China & the Yangtze and China, Tibet, and the Yangtze River small group tours ranked as two of our guests’ favorite Odysseys itineraries. After a hiatus of several years, we are honored and excited to be returning to China with a brand-new itinerary: Exploring China. 

Discover the Tour: Exploring China

We begin with a four-night stay in Beijing, including a half-day excursion to the Great Wall, and then continue on to the ancient capital of Xi’An, where we come face to face with the legendary Terracotta Warriors. A three-night stay in Chengdu provides ample time for a full-day excursion to Wolong National Nature Reserve to observe giant pandas in their natural habitat, and we finish with three nights in glittering Shanghai, where guests have the option to extend their tour for two additional nights of solo exploration.

Read on for a full breakdown of this exciting new adventure.

Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Beijing: Traditional and Timeless

We begin our new China tour in Beijing, which provides an ideal first impression of the country and sets the stage for the two-week journey to come. As guests on this tour will quickly realize, Beijing’s 22 million residents go about their daily life inside a living museum, where a thoroughly modern civilization has sprouted around hundreds of ancient yet still-significant historic sites.

Our touring here includes a number of small group highlights and history-infused adventures:

• Walking tour of vast Tiananmen Square
• Hands-on cooking class where we create (and then enjoy) traditional Chinese dumplings
• Explorations in the Forbidden City, the seat of Imperial power for nearly 600 years until 1911
• Authentic Chinese tea ceremony at a local teahouse
• Traditional Peking duck dinner
• Morning excursion to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China, including a cable car ride to the top of the wall
• Temple of Heaven touring
• Summer Palace tour including a private boat ride on Kunming Lake

Terracotta Warriors, Xian

Xian: Seat of the Ancient Empire

Today, Xian is known primarily for the legendary Terracotta Warriors, the 7,000-strong army of life-size statues rediscovered in 1974 after having lain forgotten for two millennia. But this historic city has more to offer. It was the seat of power for 13 Chinese dynasties, and held sway on the world stage as the eastern terminus of the Silk Road. Highlights of our two-night stay here include:

• Yangling Mausoleum of Han, a tomb complex dating to 153 BCE which contains the world’s first fully underground glass-covered museum
• Morning visit to the Terracotta Warriors Museum
• Evening exploring in Xian’s Muslim Quarter, known for its street food
• Visit to Xian’s nine-mile city walls

Expert-led tour of the Beilin Museum, housing more than 3,000 carved stone tablets (steles) preserving classical Confucian texts, Imperial decrees, and historical records

Giant Panda, Wolong National Nature Reserve

Chengdu: Gateway to the Pandas

From Xian, guests board a high-speed train to travel deep into the heartland of China. It is in these bamboo groves that we discover the natural habitat of the giant panda, the nation’s most beloved and iconic animal. While here, we also get a taste of local life and cuisine. Chengdu highlights include: 

• Full-day excursion to the Wolong National Nature Reserve to visit the premier sites for panda conservation and breeding
• Visit to Shenshuping Panda Center to learn about breeding, conservation, and reintroduction of the pandas
• Lunch with Shenshuping Panda Center staff
• Visit to Hetaoping Panda Center to witness experts training pandas for reintroduction to the wild
• People’s Park and Matchmaking Corner in Chengdu
• Authentic Sichuan hot pot dinner
• Traditional face-changing cultural performance

Shanghai's futuristic skyline

Shanghai: The Paris of the East

No trip to China would be complete without Shanghai, and our three-night stay here offers us ample opportunity to discover one of the world’s great cities. Shanghai boasts a stunning diversity of architecture, neighborhoods, and experiences, and we enjoy the best of them all during our stay:

• Visit to car-free Xintiandi to see the blend of traditional and modern architecture and peruse the shops
• City tour including the Bund, the historic riverfront business district; 16th-century Yu Yuan Gardens; and the former French Concession, an upscale district reminiscent of old-world Europe
• Visit to canal-laced Zhujiajiao for a traditional sampan cruise along the placid waterways
• Free time to explore Shanghai at your own pace
• Optional three-day, two-night post-tour extension in Shanghai

As with all of our small group tours, guests on Exploring China will enjoy a group with no more than 24 guests, experience small group highlights unavailable to larger travel parties, stay in distinctive accommodations, and travel with an experienced Odysseys Unlimited Tour Director.