Beijing & Guilin: The Romantic Cities
Combine Beijing's history and culture with the beauty of Guilin and Yangshuo, what better way to spend 8 days in the Middle Kingdom.
Suggested Itinerary
On arrival to Beijing International Airport your private guide and car will be ready and waiting to transfer you to your selected hotel.
If you had one day in Beijing it would have include a visit to today's attractions. Starting at Tiananmen Square and venturing into the Forbidden City, the Treasure Houses, and the Temple of Heaven, you will visit Beijing's most famous and iconic sights.
Ranking as Beijing's top attraction, the Great Wall of China, specifically the Mutianyu section, has become a must see sight for any Beijing tour. This section is the best choice and the most recommended section in many guide books as well as on TripAdvisor. It is beautiful, attracts fewer domestic tourists, and is under two hours from Beijing. It also offers a cable car or chairlift up and even a toboggan ride down.
This morning your driver and guide will ensure you are at the correct terminal on time, ready to fly to Guilin in Guangxi province. Our Guilin guide and car will be waiting to take you to a welcome lunch.
This afternoon you still have time to see Guilin's most famous sights, such as Reed Flute Cave, Fubo Hill, and Elephant Trunk Hill, on the Li River; giving you several perspectives on this charming city. It is no wonder Guilin has featured in so many Chinese classic paintings.
Near Guilin are some of the most beautiful rice terraces in China, named 'The Dragon's Backbone' because of the visual resemblance to the back of the dragon's skin. A rich minority culture can still be found on the terraces, from the 'Longhair Village' to the crafts and fabrics of the Dong people. Visit a local family and try some unique foods, like bamboo stuffed rice or an interesting soup like dish called oil tea.
Good to Know
Photographers and walkers will love this area, minority clothes, wooden houses, interesting hikes and amazing landscape scenery. However if walking is a challenge there is now a cable car in a nearby area and we can customize this tour to visit another village instead.
If you can extend your tour by one day, try a hike from Dazhai to Pingan. Staying the previous night on the top of Dazhai, at the newly built Panorama Hotel, the only hotel in the area, it offers amazing views from the top of the rice terrace.
There is no better way to travel from Guilin to Yangshuo than on a Li River cruise. It has become one of China's most famous cruises, taken by numerous US presidents: China Highlights guided President Clinton, Bill Gates and also NBA stars on this cruise.
You will see Guilin's stunning karst scenery towering out of the surrounding fields, with villages and fields in the foreground. Even today you can see some bamboo rafts punted by cormorant fisherman at times.
Good to Know
The cruise takes about 4 hours; the best scenery is after 1.5 hours to 3 hours. There is a basic buffet lunch served on boat. You might also like to consider a bamboo style motor raft, ask one of our travel advisors for more information.
While on the ride your guide will call in to a local farming family and open up an opportunity to take a peek at what life is like in the countryside. Good to Know
On a hot day it can be tiring, so ask your guide and they can arrange for you to put your bikes on a bamboo raft and be punted home. Let your guide know if you want a route that gives this option.
The afternoon has an opportunity to attend a specialist local school. The setting is amazing, a rooftop classroom with views to the mountains, preceded by a trip to a real local food market. There is no mistaking you're in China! Learn to cook three dishes before enjoying what you've created. If cooking is not your thing we have many other interesting options in Yangshuo, just ask our travel advisors.
You will be transferred back to your Guilin hotel by private car tonight.
Good to Know
Our head office is in Guilin and there is no company that can match our years of experience and local knowledge. Come on in and visit us, we love to meet our clients.
Today is free for you to explore Guilin by yourself, depending on your departure time to Beijing. As always your private car and driver will escort you to the airport in good time, ensuring you are at the correct terminal on time.
Price includes:
Discover real reviews of Highlights Travel Family's best-rated service across trusted platforms.
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Beijing in a day
My partner found this company and booked with ease and no hassle. From start to finish we have been so looked after, upon arrival in Beijing after a train from Shanghai we were met by our guide Selinda. She has been amazing through out the day, flexible with times. She showed us the best place to get some food and then taking us to and from the Great Wall was filled with information and little facts. Plenty of time was given to explore the wall and then we were taken for some dumplings to revive us. Selinda made sure we were looked after and ensured we got back on the correct train. She made this trip so much less stressful and much more enjoyable. Would highly recommend this company for future use. more
Jan 2025, French-Biscuit14
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Great way to tour Beijing
My daughter and I toured Beijing with Selinda. She was prompt, professional, friendly, and helpful. We saw Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Mutianyu Great Wall section. At each site she shared the history and offered suggestions of good places for pictures. She was attentive to us and made sure we had everything we needed. The driver was helpful and having him drop us off and pick us up was immensely helpful. We toured the Summer Palace with Jason and he also did a stellar job sharing interesting facts and information which gave us context and a greater appreciation of what we saw. Jason, like Selinda, did a splendid job suggesting good photo spots and always happily offered to take our picture for us. I highly recommend these two tour guides and the driver. This was a great way to see some of the tourist attractions in Beijing. more
Jan 2025, Chris
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Epic time in Beijing with Selinda Zhang
A huge shoutout to our most awesome tour guide Selinda Zhang!!! She is a walking talking encyclopaedia with a wealth of knowledge both historic and current. She made our visits to well preserved historical sites all the more interesting sharing architecture, literature, Chinese penmanship and poems to highlight the significance of each site we visited! She engages both adults and children and usually reticent kids were asking questions and learnt heaps about Beijing history this trip. We had an epic time in Beijing thanks to Selinda!! more
Jan 2025, Hwei ling C
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