21-Day Southwest China Tour: Yunnan, Guilin and Chengdu

Beijing, Xi'an, Guilin, Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-la, Chengdu, Shanghai

Traveler Reviews

21 Days Experience the Southwest Paradise of China tour map

Forbidden City in Beijing travel experience

Terracotta Army in Xian travel experience

Guilin and the Li River travel experience

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain travel experience

Tour Type: Private Tour

Tour Code: SKY-Scenic-06

Tour Highlights:

Decorative tour information icon See the Forbidden City and Terracotta Warriors while tracing China's imperial history in Beijing and Xi'an.

Decorative tour information icon Walk on the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall outside Beijing.

Decorative tour information icon Combine Guilin's karst landscapes, Chengdu's giant pandas and the cultural variety of Yunnan in one private journey.

Best Travel Time:
This tour operates year-round, with April through November recommended for the most comfortable overall conditions.

From $ 3593

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Tour Itinerary

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Itinerary

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Day 1Arrival Beijing

Transfer service to hotel

Meals: No Meals
Recommended Hotel: Sunworld Hotel Beijing Wangfujing ★★★★

Arrive in Beijing, meet your guide at the airport and transfer to the hotel. The rest of the day is free to settle in before sightseeing begins.

Beijing City View

Day 2Beijing

Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Sunworld Hotel Beijing Wangfujing ★★★★

Visit Tian'anmen Square, then continue into the Forbidden City for an introduction to imperial Beijing. In the afternoon, explore the Temple of Heaven . The optional Peking Opera is available in the evening at your own expense.

Temple of Heaven

Day 3Beijing

Mutianyu Great Wall, Bird Nest, Water Cube

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Sunworld Hotel Beijing Wangfujing ★★★★

Travel to Mutianyu Great Wall, a well-preserved and accessible part of the Great Wall. On the return drive, stop outside the Bird Nest and Water Cube for photographs. An optional Peking Roasted Duck dinner can be arranged at your own expense.

Mutianyu Great Wall

Day 4Beijing – Xi'an

Hutong tour, Take high speed train to Xi'an

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Bell Tower Grand New Century Hotel ★★★★

Take a Hutong Tour by rickshaw through Beijing's traditional lanes in the morning. Afterwards, transfer to the railway station for the high-speed train to Xi'an .

Xi'an City View

Day 5Xi'an

Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an City Wall, Muslim Quarter

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Bell Tower Grand New Century Hotel ★★★★

Spend the day at the Terracotta Warriors, then walk on the Xi'an City Wall and browse the food stalls and shops of the Mulism Quarter. The optional Tang Dynasty Show with Dinner is available in the evening at your own expense.

Xi'an City Wall

Day 6Xi'an – Guilin

Shaanxi History Museum, Small Wild Goose Pagoda, Fly to Guilin

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Guilin Bravo Hotel ★★★★

Visit the Shaanxi History Museum, followed by the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, where the Jianfu Temple and Xi'an Museum can also be seen. Transfer to the airport for the flight to Guilin.

Guilin City View

Day 7Guilin

Longji Rice Terraces Scenic Area, Minority Village

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Guilin Bravo Hotel ★★★★

Drive about two hours to the Longji Rice Terraces Scenic Area. Walk among the terraced slopes and visit a local Zhuang and Yao community before returning to Guilin in the late afternoon. A Four Lakes night cruise is an optional evening activity.

Longji Rice Terraces

Day 8Guilin

Li River Cruise to Yangshuo, West Street, Countryside tour, Drive back to Guilin

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch box
Recommended Hotel: Guilin Bravo Hotel ★★★★

Transfer to the pier for the four-hour Li River Cruise , with lunch served on board as you travel to Yangshuo. After disembarkation, walk along West Street, then cycle through the Yangshuo countryside and Yulong River area before returning to Guilin.

Li River Cruise

Day 9Guilin – Kunming

Elephant Trunk Hill, Reed Flute Cave, Take high speed train to Kunming

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Cachet Boutique Kunming Artime ★★★★

Visit Elephant Trunk Hill and the limestone formations inside Reed Flute Cave before transferring to the railway station for the high-speed train to Kunming.

Elephant Trunk Hill

Day 10Kunming

Stone Forest

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Cachet Boutique Kunming Artime ★★★★

Spend the day at the Stone Forest, where walking paths pass through tall karst formations shaped by long-term erosion. Return to Kunming after the visit.

Stone Forest

Day 11Kunming – Dali

Take a train to Dali, Erhai Lake Ecologic Corridor, Three Pagoda, Xizhou Bai's Houses, Dali Ancient Town

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Gurong Hotel ★★★★

Take the morning bullet train to Dali. On arrival, continue to the ecological corridor beside Erhai Lake, with an optional bike ride depending on your preference and fitness. In the afternoon, visit the Three Pagodas, Xizhou Bai's Houses and Dali Ancient Town before checking in.

Congsheng Three Pagodas

Day 12Dali – Lijiang

Take train to Lijiang, Lijiang Ancient Town

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Lijiang Golden Path Hospitality Hotel ★★★★
Optional tours & activities in Dali: Half day tour to visit Mt. Cangshan; Riding a bicycle around Erhai Lake to enjoy the beautiful landscape; Or you can learn tea making with local people.

Enjoy a free morning in Dali, then check out around noon for the approximately two-hour train to Lijiang. Your guide will meet you and help with hotel check-in. Afterwards, you may walk through Lijiang Ancient Town and its historic lanes.

Lijiang Ancient Town

Day 13Lijiang

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Yufeng Temple, Baisha Mural

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Lijiang Golden Path Hospitality Hotel ★★★★

Drive about half an hour to Jade Dragon Sown Mountain , where cable cars and green sightseeing vans operate within the scenic area. After lunch, visit Yufeng Temple and the Baisha Mural in Baisha Village.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Day 14Lijiang – Shangri-La

Drive to Shangri-La (4 hours), The 1st Bend of Yangtze River, Tiger Leaping Gorge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Blossom Hill Inn Shangri-la ★★★★

Drive about four hours toward Shangri-la. En route, stop at Tiger Leap Gorge and view the 1st Bend of Yangtze River before continuing to the hotel.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Day 15Shangri-La

Songzanlin Lamasery, Potatso National Park, Ancient Town with Tang-ga painting

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Blossom Hill Inn Shangri-la ★★★★

Begin with Songzanlin Lamasery, Yunnan's largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery. After lunch, continue to Potatso National Park , including Shudu and Bita lakes, using the scenic-area vans. Back in the ancient town, meet a local artist and learn about traditional thangka painting.

Songzanlin Namasery

Day 16Shangri-La – Chengdu

Free day, Fly to Chengdu

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Sunshine Tianfu Hotel ★★★★

Enjoy your free leisure day.

Keep the day free until the evening airport transfer and flight to Chengdu. Meet your guide on arrival, continue to the hotel and rest.

Chengdu City View

Day 17Chengdu

Chengdu People's Park, Wuhou Temple, Jinli Old Street

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Sunshine Tianfu Hotel ★★★★

Free morning for your rest.

Have lunch at a local Chinese restaurant, then visit People's Park for a look at Chengdu's teahouse and park culture. Continue to Wuhou Temple. and neighboring Jinli Old Street .

Return to the hotel; an optional face-changing show or an evening walk around Kuanzhai Alley can be arranged.

People's Park

Day 18Chengdu

Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Jinsha Ruins Museum

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Sunshine Tianfu Hotel ★★★★

Leave the hotel early for Chengdu's Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, where the landscaped grounds provide opportunities to observe giant pandas and other rare animals.

After a traditional hotpot lunch, visit the Jinsha Ruins Museum for an introduction to the ancient Shu culture represented at the archaeological site.

Return to the hotel. Sichuan Opera is available as an optional evening activity from 20:00 to 21:30.

Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding

Day 19Chengdu – Shanghai

Leshan Giant Buddha, Fly to Shanghai

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Sunrise On The Bund ★★★★

After breakfast, drive about two hours to Leshan .

Explore the Leshan Giant Buddha either by taking the narrow walking route for the approximately 1.5-hour climb or by choosing the cruise on the Minjiang River for a full view from the water.

After lunch at a local restaurant, transfer to the airport for the flight to Shanghai. Your guide will meet you and take you to the hotel.

Leshan Giant Buddha

Day 20Shanghai

Yuyuan Garden, the Bund, Jade Buddha Temple, Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Recommended Hotel: Sunrise On The Bund Hotel ★★★★

Begin at Yuyuan Garden, then continue through Chenghuangmiao Old Street to the Bund. After lunch, visit the Jade Buddha Temple and Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower. The optional Acrobatics Show can be arranged in the evening at your own expense.

the Bund

Day 21Departure Shanghai

Transfer service to airport

Meals: Breakfast

Transfer to the airport at the scheduled time and depart Shanghai, bringing this 21-day private China tour to a close.

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Traveler Reviews Feedbacks & Photos
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5.0

PunkNelson

5.0

Great Hotel stay Very Nice Tour guides Convenient planned daily trips Average selection of restaurant for food though

Kiwimac53

5.0

We were looking for a tour in SW China while in the area for work and found this one. While we wouldn't normally get a private tour but surprisingly it was actually cheaper than most of the group tours in the area and was great value. While I would usually rather keep one guide for the whole tour, as you get to know each other and they get to know what you are interested in, we changed guides 5 times during this trip (fortunately we had the same guide in Kunming at the start and end of the tour which was a real bonus as Murphy, our Kunming based guide, was excellent.) In this case changing guides had the advantage of local knowledge at each site so compensated for the change. Of the 4 guides we had 3 excellent and 1 very good with each of them working hard to look after us and make sure we enjoyed our trip. Vicky, our Dali based guide was also extremely good making our time there a highlight. The tour gives you 2 days at each base ie travel in the morning, have the afternoon and the next day touring the area then drive to the next base. We chose the driving tour as we feel it gives you a better experience of the area and you get to see the locals in action. All the drivers we had were great – they went out of their way to look after us and were very safe, which is saying something for driving in China. While all of the guides were very fluent in English none of the drivers could speak English which was a slight disadvantage as you didn't have the guides with you when traveling between bases but the friendliness and helpfulness of the drivers more than made up for this.
The tour was very well organised and we knew what we were doing from the time we met our guide on arrival at the Kunming railway station to when we walked through security at the airport on our way out. The tour comes with 4,5 and 6 star accommodation choices and we went for the cheapest 4 star option. While the English at the hotels was limited the guides made sure we were checked in and out and took care of any issues (which were minimal). The 4 star option is largely “Chinese style” hotels ie designed for Chinese visitors with breakfast consisting of what many westeners would consider dinner style food but there was always eggs and toast for the less adventurous. The hotels were all clean and comfortable and generally very well located. The Hotel in Kunming (Jin Jang Inn) was a bonus as it seemed higher than 4 star and we stayed there both on our way in and out. As well as breakfast, lunch came with the tour which was enjoyable as the guides choose the restaurants so we got a variety. I got the feeling that most of the restaurants were owned by friends or family or there was some arrangement with the guide, but as you get to formally review each guide and the meals at the end of each stop they work hard to make sure you enjoy the meal and there was always an abundance of food. We tried a range of local cuisine and there was only one meal we didn't think was up to par. You get your own dinner which also suited us as there is invariably a range of restaurants or for the more adventurous there is the street vendors and you can choose what you want. The vehicles we were driven in were all very good- plenty of space and very comfortable.
Being a private tour, while there was a set itinerary, which was diverse and very interesting with something for most people, the guides could tweak it to suit individual interests eg more time at one site and less at another. It is easy to get a bit templed out but overall the itinerary was a good mic of nature and culture. I would thoroughly recommend the tour and the company and we will be looking to the company if/when we go back – Guilin is next on the list as the guides were very happy to discus what they thought we would and wouldn't enjoy based on working with us on this tour,

N2265ZIinfo

5.0

Excellent guides, flexible and knowledgeable travel agent. They speak good English. Our trip was very well organized. We are 100% happy and I can recommend Top China Travel to everybody.

Wesley O

5.0

I contacted Top China travel for a 13 day China vacation (Beijing/Xian/Yangtze River cruise/Shanghai) and right from the start Bonnie provided me with great choices and package options. Throughout the entire planning and even during the trip Bonnie was there for us following up and making sure everything was perfect. Thank you Bonnie for making our China vacation unforgettable.

Johnf8958

5.0

From the minute I contacted Vicky at Top China Travel to book our holiday, to the time we were taken to Pudong airport for our flight home, the experience was perfect.
My wife and I visited Beijing, Xian and Shanghai and all of our tour guides were fluent in English, very knowledgeable and very friendly.
Thank you Vicky and all at YUNSKY and I will definitely be in contact when I return to China.

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