China Festival ToursYou could enjoy a pleasant Chinese New Year this winter!(February 13 - February 28 )
If you are interested in China history and Culture, Shanxi is a good choice to explore. In this tour, you will visit Pingyao, Taiyuan and Datong, which are famous for trade, wealth, architecture and grotto in the history of China.
New Year folk celebrations, such as lion and dragon dances, decorating windows with red paper-cuts, pasting red couplets, in Pingyao and Taiyuan are extremely famous for lively traditions and historic atmosphere. Here you will feel the real full-bodied taste of the New Year.
You'll come across Yamen (the ancient government offices), Rishengchang Exchange Shop (the ancient business bank in China), Qiao Family's Compound (the ancient residence for the rich) and the real town offering rare insight into various aspects of life in imperial China.
You will find their strict unity of layout and design in the Grottoes, which represent the outstanding achievement of Buddhist cave art in China in the 5th and 6th centuries.
You are going to be a lucky guy upon your arrival in Datong. Your local guide will meet you at the train station and transfer you to the hotel. On the way, you will receive a Chinese way of New Year greeting, a Red Packet (a red envelope enclosed ¥50 lucky money), a Chinese New Year Painting, and a Chinese Knot, from your lovely and considerate tour guide. These gifts symbolize fortune and wealth wishing you a good luck in the year to come. (Know more Chinese New Year decorations) The rest of the day is free for you to explore the city on your own leisure.
Today, you will be excursing an old region of China, including a visit of China's oldest and largest Nine Dragon Screen. It is near 400 years older than the one in the Forbidden City, and three times larger than that in the Beihai Park in Beijing. These are the only three Nine Dragon Screens have survived hundreds years of natural disasters and wars.
Yungang Grottoes is your second destination to visit. It is a World Heritage site, and a treasure-house of the Chinese ancient sculptures. The Yungang Grottoes has a series of 53 caves and over 51, 000 stone sculptures. It is an excellent site to appreciate the splendid Chinese ancient Buddhist art.
Having an intimate encounter with the Spring Festival, today you will be learning, making, and enjoying your own dumplings, a necessary food during Spring Festival in China. However, dumplings is not only the New Year food in China. If you interested in more Chinese New Year food, please click in. Then you will take the afternoon train to Taiyuan. Your local guide in Taiyuan will pick you up and escort you to your cozy hotel.
Before driving to Pingyao (2-hour drive), you will first visit the Jinci Temple, the old temple located at the foot of the Xuanweng Mountain. The ancient halls, terraces, pavilions, corridors, and bridges inside the temple are really peaceful and harmonious in arrangement. It is truly a visit-worthy place.
Twin Pagoda Temple is your next destination. It is the symbol of Taiyuan City. If you get to the top of a one of the two Pagodas, you will enjoy the panorama of the city.
You will drop a visit at the Qiao Family's Compound on your way to Pingyao. It is a perfectly preserved ancient mansion in Taiyuan. Every New Year, the whole mansion will be decorated with the auspicious red lanterns. It looks extremely beautiful and gives visitors a feeling of time travel back to its history. (Red Lanterns are the inevitable decorations of the Lantern Festival)
You will stay overnight at the charming historical Pingyao city. It is more than 2700 years old with well preserved ancient city walls and streets, as well as its traditional custom. You will be totally overwhelmed by the traditional atmosphere of Chinese New Year in this cozy city. (Click the mouse to know more Chinese New Year traditions before you go ) Enjoy you Chinese New Year!
Today, you will visit Shuanglin Temple, where has one of the largest collections of Buddha statues among all Buddhist temples in China. It has more than 2,500 exquisitely painted clay figurines and statues of various Buddhas.
Your next stop is the Ancient City Wall of Pingyao, which is the best preserved ancient city wall in China. During the Chinese New Year, red lanterns make the wall fantastic to look and visit.
Rishengchang Exchange Shop is your third destination. It is China's first bank. Now it is converted into a museum. It is a good opportunity to understand China's early financial management.
If you come at the right time, you could see the local New Year folk performance and parade, which is called Shehuo. Chinese famous Dragon Dance and Stilt Walking are performed there. It is the most interesting New Year event in Pingyao, and could be your best New Year experience.
Your last destination, the Ming and Qing Street in the Pingyao ancient city, is the essence of you Pingyao tour. This is a perfectly preserved ancient commercial street looks the same as it looked hundreds years ago, which makes it the best place to explore ancient Chinese culture. The hotels on the street offer traditional brick-oven beds; the shops sells dazzling array of traditional art wares; and the doors of shops and houses are pasted with Chinese auspicious red couplets.
Before your tour guide escort you to the train station, double check that you have packed everything, including your Chinese New Year memories.
Service ends.
As the private tour goes, the price of each person differs in the size of the group, the hotel rating and the domestic flight price. Because our tour has no fixed departure date, there are no international tickets in our quoted price. You could choose the date you arrive in China depends your need. No matter when are you arrive, we will arrange your tour flexible. So you need to get a custom price quote for this tour from travel consultants, please fill out the online inquiry form and give us detailed information you could think in your tour. Our online travel consultants will help you to design a perfect private tour for you. The travel consultants' tour planning service is totally free! All things you do is just enjoy our talented travel consultants' tailor made itinerary.
What's included?
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(Click this button to find more details)If you have any specific requirements for food, for example, vegetarian, vegan or food allergies, feel free to tell us! The things you do just write down your problem on the inquiry form so that we could arrange you the special accommodations according to your situation in advance. If you are a gourmet, China Festival Tours could be your perfect culinary guide and take you to enjoy all the delicious local food and the world famous cuisine. Enjoy your tour in China Festival.
Breakfast - You will have your nutritious breakfast in the hotel you live. The hotel provides both Chinese and western dishes to meet every diner's taste. The menu include: Bacon and Sausage Sandwich, Scrambled Egg, Hot Milk, Noodles and Congee etc.
Lunch - Lunch will be served in one of the Chinese restaurant near the scenic spots. You could taste many of Chinese delicious cuisines, just like: Crispy Chicken, Mushroom Ducks, Mapo Tofu, Steamed Beef etc.
Dinner - If you want to eat the local special food for supper, our enthusiastic travel consultant will introduce a good place for you to enjoy the mouthwatering local food ahead of time, just like the Beijing Duck, Xian dumplings and the Sichuan hot pot etc. You could still let your considerate tour guide to recommend a nice place for you.
(Click this button to find more details) Every China Festival Tours' tours are Private Tours. Travelers will have their own personal Tour Guide and Driver. Even if a traveler is traveling alone, they will have their own personal Tour Guide and Driver. Each of our Tour Guides must meet rigorous standards and are licensed, very knowledgeable, and extremely experienced. Each of our drivers must also meet our standards and are patient and have years of experience. Each of the vehicles used by China Festival Tours is newer luxurious MPVs and each traveler's private vehicle is included in the price of their tour.
As always, the above tours can be fully customized to fit your travel plans. Discuss your trip with our experts and enjoy personalized service, and you can build your exact dream trip.
*Email response within 24 hours.If you are interested in this tour program and if you want to modify the itinerary in any way, please feel free to contact us.
