18-day Guangzhou Guilin Guiyang Kunming Lijiang Bullet Train Tour

Day 1Arrival in Guangzhou

Visit Chen Temple, Liu Rong Temple, jade market, antique street.

Day 2Guanzhou - Kaiping

Visit Liyuan, Fang's light floor, Zili Village, Chikan town & European style street.

Day 3Guangzhou - Guilin

Vist Reed Flute Cave, Elephant Trunk Hill

Day 4Guilin - Yangshuo

After breakfast, drive (over 40 minutes) to Zhujiangen Pier to boad the boat for a downstream cruise (3.5-5hrs) on the world's top watery wonders - Li River. The boat arrives at Yangshuo at about 13:30. You enjoy a relax walk at your pace on the West Street and choose to learn Taich, Chinese cooking and for free time in the town, and stay in Yangshuo overnight. Impression Liu Sanjie is a optional night show.

Day 6Yangshuo - Longsheng

Bike along the Yulong river - the paths of Yangshuo villages, stop at the edge of rice fields for photos, say hello to water buffalos and local farmers who are working in the rice paddies, then visit a local farmer's house. You will get the opportunity to get closer to local life.

In the afternoon, you will be drive to Longji Rice Terraces in Longsheng county. Enjoy a dusk sight of Rice Terraces and take a night relax around the Ping'an Zhuang Village and stay overnight there .

Day 7Longsheng - Sanjiang

Enjoy a morning sight and fresh breath on Longji Terraces, and then pay a visit to Huangluo Yao Village to meet long-hair wowen and watch the ethnic performance. After lunch, you will be driven to Sanjiang - the Dong minority's hometown. Stay at a hotel in Sanjiang. Sister's Date (Zuo Mei) is recommended for your optional night show.

Day 8Sanjiang - Congjiang

After breakfast, you will be driven about 40 minutes from Sanjiang town to Chengyang and visit Bazhai (the Eight Villages) for Dong ethnice folk experience. The Wind and Rain Bridge is the largest one of its kind in the world.

In the afternoon take the HSR from Sanjiang Railway Station to Congjiang

Day 9Congjiang - Liping

Visit Liping and Zhaoqing Dong Village

Day 10Liping - Rongjiang - Guiyang

Visit Basha village on the way to Rongjiang. Basha is a very special and old Miao Ethnic village, under its jurisdiction are four natural villages of about 2000 people. What most strange is that all the men wear their hair in a bun. Basha village is very little touched by violent modernization. Residents there still live in their wooden houses and have their own unique belief. In the village are ancient trees towering into the sky and passage ways covered by the shade of trees. Then take the high speed train from Rongjiang to Guiyang.

Day 11Guiyang - Anshun

Viist Huangguoshu waterfall, Buyi village on the way, and then return to Guiyang.

Day 12Guiyang - Kunming

Arrival in Kunming, you will be transfered to check in your hotel and then have free leisure around the city for the rest of day.

Day 13Kunming

Vist Vist Stone Forest, Sani Village, Flower & Bird Market

Day 14Kunming - Dali

Take the morning flight to Dali which is a historically and culturally famous city of China, is renowned for her historical interest and Bai ethnic culture. After landing, you visit the Three Pagodas in Chongsheng Monastery which has a history of over 1,800 years located at the foot of Cangshan Mountain facing to the Erhai Lake. Three Pagodas are made of three ancient independent pagodas forming a symmetrical triangle.

After lunch, you'll cruise in Erhai Lake by the small boat to the Jinsuo Islet in the east Erhai Lake. There are 200 Bai ethnic families around 1000 people in Jinsuo Island.In Erhai Lake cruise, you will enjoy the green Cangshan Mountain and the Three Pagodas from a far as well as lots of birds and seagulls flying over the lake.

At last, you will visit the Ancient Dali Town, walk around the Foreigner Street and enjoy the relax time with local people. After climbing up to the City Wall of Dali, you will have panoramic view of the Erhai Lake.

Day 15Dali - Lijiang

Explore Dali Ancient Town in the early morning, visit the Shaping Balaar happened every Monday in Shangguan Town. Drive about 180km to Lijiang with the beautiful farmlands. On the way, you will head for Xizhou Town to fully appreciate Bai-style traditional architectural courtyards, taste their fragrant Three-Course Tea and explore their distinctive culture. Visit Zhoucheng Village and the Bai people's Tie-dying cloth workshop where you can take some special souvenir with the Bai ethnic style. After lunch you'll head for the scenic Black Dragon Pool and the Dongba Museum to explore the rich Naxi minority culture.

In the late afternoon, explore Lijiang Old Town. It has a history more than 800 years; it was listed as the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997. Here you will see the wonderful wooden architecture of Naxi ethnic people.

Day 16Lijiang

Enjoy the sunrise of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Lijiang Ancient Town in the morning, drive about 30KM to Ganhaizi Meadow(3100M), you will take the sightseeig bus for a short view of White Water Terraces through the Baishuihe River, take the chairlift up to visit Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The cableway will be arranged according to the condition of the mountain. You will hike around 1 hours in the original forest in Spruce Meadow (3200M).

After lunch, you'll visit Yuhu Village and the Former Residence of Joseph Rock who was an Austria-American botanist and explorer, lived in Yuhu village and other places in that region from 1922 to 1949. He was also a naturalist and Photographer, and the first foreign scholar to introduce Lijiang ethnic culture to the western world.

Visit Yufeng Monastery, located at the southern foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, stands about 13 kilometers to the north of Lijiang City. Yufeng Temple is one of the Scarlet Sect lamaseries in Lijiang. The beautiful sceneries around Yufeng Temple are special gifts from the deity. The temple backs onto a snow mountain and faces a meadow. It is surrounded by the flourishing forest and a never-dried river. All this makes it a really good place to visit.

Stroll through Baisha Old Town, which is an enchanting traditional Naxi style old town. Visit the Baisha Murals about 600 years old, which is one part of the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO 1997.

Day 17Lijiang - Shangrila

From Lijiang, you'll drive about 60KM to the First Bend on the Yangtze River with imposing gorge scenery, visit the Iron Chain Bridge,the Red Army's Long March Memorial Monument in the Shigu Old Town. The town of Stone Drum got its name from a large, cylindrical, marble tablet shaped like a drum. The scenery is magnificent as the road running through the Lijiang valley which is filled with wheat fields and drying haystacks.

Continue to visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world. Located on the Jinsha River of the upper reaches of the Yangtze, 105 kilometers south of Shangrila County. The gorge is 17 kilometers long with a drop of 213 meters. Tiger Leaping Gorge is divided into three sections: Upper, Middle and Lower Hutiao. At the narrowest spot the river is only 30 meters wide. The mouth of the gorge is 1,800 meters above sea level. The river is flanked by Yulong and Haba snow mountains, with a height difference of 3,900 meters.

In the late afternoon, you'll head for Shangri La, formerly named Zhongdian where is well known as the paradise destination for every tourist. Upon arrival in Shangri La, you will have entered the Tibetan cultural area and a landscape of barley fields and yaks scattered in the valleys.

Day 18Shangrila Departure

In the morning, visit the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery, the largest Tibetan monastery in Yunnan. Songzanlin Monastery has another alias - 'the little Potala Palace ', so named because the whole monastery is in the traditional style with mysterious atmosphere.

In the afternoon, depart from Shangrila for your next destination.