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The Golden Triangle · 9 Days

Three Cities.
Three Thousand Years.

Imperial palaces, ancient warriors, and a city that reinvents itself every night - experienced privately, at your family's pace, with a local by your side.

Duration9 Days
Cities3 Cities
From$3,400 /person
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Your Route

Beijing → Xi'an → Shanghai

From imperial grandeur to ancient mystery to electric modernity - each city reveals a completely different China.

Beijing
Days 1-3
→
Xi'an
Days 4-6
→
Shanghai
Days 7-9
Days 1-3 · Beijing

Where Empires Still Echo

Peking duck carved tableside, cloisonné in a hutong workshop, and the Forbidden City spread below your feet.

Day 1

First Impressions · Sacred Ground & Hutong Nights

Afternoon
Temple of Heaven
Walk the sacred grounds where Ming and Qing emperors prayed to heaven. Stand on the Heart Stone and speak softly — your voice doubles, bouncing back from the balustrades. Stroll the Danbi Bridge where even the Son of Heaven didn't take the centre lane (reserved for the gods). Under ancient cypresses, locals practise tai chi and sing opera.
Evening
Peking Duck Feast
Watch the master carver slice crimson skin with a blade sharpened over 7,000 ducks. Dip in sweet bean sauce, wrap with scallions in a warm pancake — the crackle melts on your tongue.
Night
Hutong Exploration & Heritage Craft
Slip into the hutongs after dark, where grey-brick lanes glow under warm lamplight. Try your hand at cloisonné — bending copper wire and filling enamel, the same craft passed down since the Ming Dynasty. Or paint a Tu'er Ye rabbit figurine, a folk icon unique to Beijing.

Private driver from the airport to the heart of Beijing. Head to Jingshan Park — the Forbidden City spreads below like a sea of gold. Then Peking duck: crimson skin carved tableside, rolled into warm pancakes.

After dark, slip into the hutongs for a craft workshop — cloisonné or painting a traditional rabbit figurine.

Day 2

The Wild Wall · Jinshanling to Houhai

Morning
Jinshanling Great Wall
We skip Mutianyu and Badaling — too restored, too crowded. Jinshanling is further out, and that extra distance filters out the tour buses. 67 watchtowers packed into 10.5km, the densest stretch on the Wall. Half restored, half crumbling and wild. Walk toward General Tower and you'll pass sections where original Ming brickwork is still stamped with characters from 1568.
Midday
Zhizi Barbecue
Marinated beef and lamb on a red-hot iron grill over fruitwood charcoal. Wash it down with ice-cold Beibing Yang, a 1936 Beijing soda every local grew up on.
Evening
Shichahai Bar Street
Lakeside terrace by Yinding Bridge, craft beer, pleasure boats gliding past. The Drum Tower across the water has watched people drink here since the Yuan Dynasty — seven hundred years of the same view.

Two and a half hours northeast to Jinshanling, past the tour buses. Cable car up, then walk east toward General Tower where the wall crumbles and the crowds disappear. 67 watchtowers in 10.5km, original Ming bricks still stamped with dates. Lunch: zhizi barbecue on the drive back.

Evening at Shichahai — lakeside terrace by Yinding Bridge, craft beer, the Drum Tower lit up across the lake.

Day 3

Deep Inside the Forbidden City

Morning
The Forbidden City
Skip the central-axis crowds. Your guide takes you into the Western Six Palaces — chambers of empresses and concubines, courtyards where the wind has passed for six centuries. Explore Cixi's Hall of Gathered Elegance, then step into Qianlong's Garden, reopened in 2025 after nearly a century closed. Only 70% of the Forbidden City is open — today you see the newest, most private piece.
Midday
Copper Pot Hot Pot
A copper pot over charcoal, clear broth with ginger and scallion — because the lamb should speak for itself. Hand-sliced thin enough to read through, dipped two seconds in the broth, dragged through sesame paste. No frills — just the best lamb in Beijing.
Afternoon
First-Class Train to Xi'an
Board the first-class bullet train west. Four and a half hours across the North China Plain, the landscape shifting from flat to undulating as you cross into Shaanxi.

Enter through Donghua Gate ahead of the crowds. Let the Hall of Supreme Harmony hit you, then wander the empty corridors of the Western Six Palaces. Exit through Shenwu Gate and pause at Corner Tower Coffee for one last look across the moat.

Farewell lunch: copper pot hot pot — clear broth, hand-sliced lamb, sesame paste. Then the first-class train west to Xi'an, four and a half hours across the North China Plain.

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Enhance Your Beijing Stay

Beijing Experiences

Optional add-ons to deepen your time in the capital - select any that catch your eye.

Days 4-6 · Xi'an

The Ancient Capital

An underground army, imperial hot springs, sunset cycling on ancient walls, and street stalls that will ruin every Chinese restaurant back home.

Day 4

The Spirit of Qin · Underground Army & Street-Side Flavours

Morning
Terracotta Warriors & Clay Sculpting (First-Entry Experience)
Arrive before the crowds and stand face to face with eight thousand warriors — each uniquely sculpted, real people frozen two thousand years ago. Your guide knows where to look: the kneeling archers, the best-preserved figures, and where a rare senior commander was recently unearthed. Then sit with a local artisan and sculpt your own warrior from the same earth. Same technique, two thousand years apart.
Afternoon
Huaqing Palace
Walk through hot springs where emperors bathed for a thousand years — the Begonia Pool was Yang Guifei's personal bath, the Star Pool open to the sky. Water still runs at 43°C. Step into the Five-Room Hall and find bullet holes in the wall — from the night in 1936 when Chiang Kai-shek was seized. A love story and a coup d'état, in the same courtyard.
Evening
Sajin Bridge Food Night
Skip the tourist-packed Muslim Quarter — your guide takes you to Sajin Bridge, where locals actually eat. Try Ma Er's sour-soup dumplings, thirty years and still one filling. Then Zhiliang's steamed dumplings — paper-thin skins that burst with broth. Add Old Li's meatball spicy soup. Half the price of the tourist street, twice the flavour.

First-entry at the Terracotta Warriors — see them in silence before the crowds. Eight thousand soldiers, each face uniquely sculpted. Then sit with a local artisan and sculpt your own from the same earth.

Afternoon: Huaqing Palace, where thermal springs have steamed for a thousand years. Evening: Sajin Bridge, Xi'an's real late-night food scene.

Day 5

Tang Dynasty Splendour · Imperial Gardens & the City That Never Sleeps

Morning
Tang Paradise
Arrive early when the lake is still glass. Swans drift between reflections of the Purple Cloud Tower as you walk imperial gardens where Tang royals once strolled. Find a waterside bench, watch the mist lift — the kind of morning where you forget you're on a trip.
Afternoon
City Wall Cycling at Golden Hour
Ride the top of China's most complete ancient city wall — 13.7km of ramparts, timed for golden hour. Watch the gate towers glow gold and finish the loop as the city lights come on below. Qin Opera drifts up from the streets — raw, guttural, completely unpolished. That's the sound of Xi'an.
Evening
Great Tang All Day Mall
A two-kilometre boulevard that transforms into a Tang Dynasty dreamscape at night. Hanfu-clad performers weave through the crowd, seven live bands play along the way, Tang poetry lanterns glow overhead. Catch the viral 'Roly-Poly Lady' act — 1.5 billion views and still mesmerising. The Great Wild Goose Pagoda stands quiet at the far end, 1,300 years old and unfazed.

Morning at Tang Paradise — serene lake, gliding swans, the Purple Cloud Tower in still water. Lunch at Xi'an Restaurant: aged rice wine, Golden Thread Oil Tower, Gourd Chicken — the restaurant where Xi'an hosts state banquets.

Afternoon on the ancient city wall, chasing sunset by bike as gate towers turn gold. At night, the Great Tang All Day Mall: Tang poetry lanterns, live bands, the Great Wild Goose Pagoda at the far end.

Day 6

Echoes of a Thousand Years · Museum Wonders & Farewell

Morning
Xi'an Museum & Small Wild Goose Pagoda
Start with the sound of a 1,300-year-old bell drifting through serene gardens — an 8,000kg iron bell heard five kilometres away. The pagoda cracked in three major earthquakes and sealed itself shut each time, on a foundation designed to sway like a tumbler toy. Next door, the museum's Tang gold and silver makes the case for 'underground China belongs to Shaanxi.'
Midday
De Fa Chang Dumpling Banquet
A farewell lunch that's equal parts meal and performance. Dumplings arrive shaped into swans, peonies, goldfish — 108 fillings, no two cooking methods repeated. Steamed, boiled, baked, pan-fried, each a tiny work of art. De Fa Chang invented this format.
Afternoon
Flight to Shanghai
A two-hour flight east to Shanghai. Your driver meets you at Pudong and brings you straight to the hotel.

Morning: the Small Wild Goose Pagoda's bell, then galleries of Tang gold and silver. Farewell lunch at De Fa Chang — dumplings shaped into flowers and creatures, elevated to art. Two-hour flight east, driver meets you at Pudong.

Where you could stay

Enhance Your Xi'an Stay

Xi'an Experiences

Optional add-ons to enrich your time in the ancient capital - select any that interest you.

Days 7-9 · Shanghai

Where Past Meets Future

Fold your own xiaolongbao, stroll the Bund as a century of architecture lights up, lose an afternoon under the plane trees, then push through a hidden bookshelf into one of Asia's best bars.

Day 7

Yu Garden Charm · Bund by Night

Morning
Xiaolongbao Making Experience & Yu Garden
Learn to pinch eighteen perfect pleats into each xiaolongbao — just enough to seal the broth inside. Watch them turn translucent in the steamer, then taste what you made. Cross the Nine-Turn Bridge into Yu Garden — five hundred years of Jiangnan garden art, ancient magnolias and rockeries like living ink paintings.
Afternoon
Nanjing Road
Hop on the vintage 'Dangdang' tram down Nanjing Road — copper doors, stained glass, neon signs stacked to the sky. Heritage brands and new boutiques side by side along 1,700 metres, all leading straight toward the Bund.
Evening
The Bund by Night
Walk the 1.5km waterfront as a hundred years of architecture lights up — Baroque, Gothic, Art Deco side by side. Stop at the Peace Hotel for the Old Jazz Band, playing since 1929. Across the river, Lujiazui answers in neon and glass. Dinner nearby — rich soy-braised Shanghainese cooking, the kind locals grew up on.

Morning at Yu Garden — pinch sixteen pleats into each xiaolongbao, watch them turn translucent in the steamer. Then through the Nine-Turn Bridge into five hundred years of garden art.

Short walk to Nanjing Road, vintage trolley jingling past. As night falls, a hundred years of architecture lights up along the Bund. Dinner: soy-braised Shanghainese cooking.

Day 8

Under the Plane Trees · Heritage Craft & Secret Bars

Morning
Tianzifang Heritage Craft Experience
Duck into the shikumen lanes of Taikang Road — 1920s stone doorframes, artists' studios behind every corner. Make a lacquer fan: drip lacquer onto water, watch patterns swirl, dip a blank fan and pull it out transformed. Or try mother-of-pearl inlay — the same shimmer that once adorned imperial thrones. No experience needed, and you take what you make home.
Afternoon
Plane-Tree Citywalk: Sinan to Wukang Road
Shanghai's most romantic walk. French plane trees shade century-old villas along Sinan Road — pause at Sinan Books for coffee, peek into Zhou Enlai's former residence, then follow Huaihai Road to Wukang Road. The Wukang Mansion appears like a great ship at anchor — Shanghai's Flatiron Building. No agenda — just a good walk.
Night
Speak Low Speakeasy
Push through a vintage-map-shop door at 579 Fuxing Middle Road. Slip behind the bookshelf — it slides open — and you're inside one of Asia's Top 50 bars. Each ascending level harder to find, quieter. Order the signature Odeo from bartender Shingo Gokan and settle into amber light.

Morning in Tianzifang's shikumen lanes — lacquer fans, mother-of-pearl inlay. No experience needed, take what you make home. Afternoon: Shanghai's most romantic walk, plane trees shading Sinan Road to Wukang Mansion.

Dinner on Wukang or Anfu Road. Then at 579 Fuxing Middle Road, push through a vintage-map-shop door into Speak Low — a speakeasy where a Japanese bartender crafts an 'Odeo' in amber light. Asia's Top 50.

Day 9

Farewell from the Clouds

Morning
Lujiazui Observation Deck
Sleep in, then ride to the top of Shanghai Tower — 562 metres up. The city spreads below: the Huangpu River winding like a golden ribbon, the Bund you walked on your first night now a thin line of light. On a clear day you can see to the mouth of the Yangtze.
Midday
Farewell Lunch in the Clouds
Stay up in the sky — a refined meal in a tower restaurant, the city stretching beneath your window. No rush — your flight isn't until the afternoon.
Afternoon
Maglev to the Airport
Board the world's only commercial maglev and accelerate to 300 km/h — thirty kilometres in eight minutes, Shanghai blurring past the window.

Sleep in, then ride to the top of Shanghai Tower — the city spread below. Lunch in the sky, no rush. Then the Maglev: 300 km/h, thirty kilometres in eight minutes.

Where you could stay

Enhance Your Shanghai Stay

Shanghai Experiences

Optional add-ons to elevate your time in the city that never sleeps - select any that interest you.

Pricing

Two Ways to Experience China

Both include private guides, private drivers, hotels and experiences. The difference is the hotel tier and depth of access.

Classic
The Essential Journey
$3,400
per person · 9 days
  • ✓Private guide in every city
  • ✓Private driver and all transfers
  • ✓Handpicked 4-star hotels
  • ✓All entrance fees and experiences
  • ✓First-class train Beijing to Xi'an
  • ✓Flight Xi'an to Shanghai
  • ✓24/7 local support
Most Popular
Signature
The Complete Experience
$4,500
per person · 9 days
  • ✓Everything in Classic, plus
  • ✓Boutique and heritage hotels
  • ✓Exclusive cultural access
  • ✓Premium dining experiences
  • ✓Shanghai Mission photo book
  • ✓Personalised trip video
  • ✓Priority guide selection
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