Explore Historical and Mysterious China

Beijing

We gather at El. Venizelos Airport to catch our flight to Beijing.

Beijing

Arrival at the capital city of China, Beijing. Our local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free. You could spend your time in the hotel, but it is advisable to try and make a promenade around it, to breath in the surrounding local color. Make sure you have a lot of memory in your camera.

Beijing

Let us have our breakfast and set off on our guided tour of Beijing. The most well-known link between ancient and modern Chine is Tiananmen Square, or else the Gate of Heavenly Peace, which symbolizes the appetence of the Chinese people for balance and order. This national symbol of China was built in the 15th and renovated in the 17th centuries and is considered as the largest square in the world (it can take 1 million people!)

The huge portrait of the "big steersman" Mao Zedong invites us to the Red Walls and, from there, to the interior of the Forbidden City. The legendary building of 9999 rooms, the largest complex of Palaces in the world, has been inhabited by 2 dynasties, those of Ming and Qing. The main part of this 'city', the "Palace Museum" (as the government now calls it), was built between 1406 and 1420 under the Emperor Yongle. The whole complex is surrounded by a protective wall and trench which separates it from the Imperial City and the Internal City. To the South there is the Outer City, mainly of industrial character, which unfortunately has sacrificed a lot of its initial street plan. At noon we shall have our lunch.

In the afternoon we will visit the Summer Palace. Once the Emperor's resting place, the Summer Palace includes grandiose mansions and temples dispersed in the park which surrounds the huge Kunming Lake. The most important buildings of the Palace have a view over the lake and the Seventeen Arches Bridge (Shiqikong Qiao). In the evening we will watch a performance of the classical Chinese Opera, the Beijing Opera. Jumps, acrobatics and especially demanding character and role playing by men, mainly, under their heavy makeup and in colorful costumes.

The Chinese Wall, Beijing, China

We are transferred to the majestic Great Wall streching out from San Hai Guan pass on the east coast to Jia Yu Guan pass in Gobbi Desert. About 4000 miles long, but the fact that it could be seen from the moon proved to be an unconfirmed rumor, even the Chinese astronaut was unable to distinguish it from space! Its construction started in the era of Chin dynasty (221-207 BC). There will be enough time for us to stroll along this world-renownd wonder and contemplate on the importantce of the monuments that impressed Marco Polo so much that he simply had to write about them, even at the risk of being thrown to jail. The numbers are bewildering: 300,000 soldiers and uncountable workers worked endlessly for 10 long years to complete this 6,350 km long wall. Wat remains unknown is the number of human casualties during its construction! The wall was not built to keep away people on foot, they could very well climb it and get across, it was meant to stop aggressive groups of horsemen.

We'll have lunch and continue with visiting the Ming Dynasty Nekropolis. Here, 13 of the 16 emperors of the dynasty were given a grandiose burial. We will walk along the Sacred Road ornamented with mythical animals and the mandarins and, reaching the entrance, we will be met by the biggest granite turtle in China. The whole setup is so overwhelming that we are easily lost in the meanders of time and history. Our return to Beijing will bring us back to today's reality (the Chinese one, we mean!) Speaking of the Chinese reality, please enjoy a famous Peking Duck Banquet for dinner!

The Temple Of Heaven, Beijing, China

After our breakfast we visit another landmark of Beijing's, the splendid Temple of Heaven, built in the 15th century. It is in the middle of huge 267 ha park. The temple is decorated according to the Chinese Cosmology and represents a link between the Earth and the Heaven. In the decorated interior of the Temple of the Prayer for Rich Crops there exists a circular drawing featuring the perennial cosmological principles. Then we are transferred to the airport to catch our flight to Xi'an, capital of the Shaanxi Province. Xi'an was once the largest city in the world and the capital for 11 Chinese dynasties for a period of 1180 years. We are taken to our hotel to check-in and lunch.

Shaanxi Province is in the center of a historically and agriculturally rich area in Central China, and Xi'an is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, the capital of 13 dynasties, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, and the Tang. The heart of China used to beat here, in the Central Kingdom, in one of the richest cities in the world.

Terracotta Warrior and Horse

After our breakfast, we start our guided tour in Xi'an by visiting an important and thrilling site discovered in 1974, namely the Army of the Clay Warriors. Two millenia old 8,000 warriors and horses, a fascinating art treasure, a grandiose expression of the Emperial mightiness, discovered by peasants in the process of digging a well. It is part of a huge burial complex of 56.25 sq. Km (21.7 sq. miles), built under the first emperor in Chinese history, QinShihuang (259-210 BC), for his own burial. This ruler had united all kingdoms of China under his command and was crowned an Emperor in 221 BC., before he set out to fight against the Huns. It is during this war that the China Wall was completed. It has been calculated that 700,000 workers had to work hard for 39 years to create this Necropolis! Thousands of those workers were buried in the same site. According to "xun" practice (=escort to the tomb), which was common in that period, all kinds of imperial servants used to be buried alive, to continue serving their dead masters. These 8000 terracotta warriors, each with different facial characteristics, coiffure and uniform folds, must have saved the lives of an equal number of real people who would have otherwise followed their master to his grave; a luck that was not shared by the architects, designers and technicians who actually did follow their master, for the secrets of the creation of this necropolis to remain forever undisclosed.

The whole monument is impressive: The soldiers and their horses stand in three undercrofts, buried inside the external walls of the Mausoleum, initially covered with wooden planks under a layer of earth. They are armed with bronze weapons, swords, lances and long arrows of yellow clay (terracotta), drawn after firing with very intense colors, of which only traces remain today. Both the warriors and the horses are of natural dimensions and in battle array, facing east.

What we are NOT going to see is the Chinese archaeologists' last find, which will take a long time to preserve and open to the public: It was announced very recently (June 2007) that after excavation works the lasted five years, the very Emperial Mausoleum was found buried on the spot. It is actually a huge building, 30 m (100 ft) high, same height as a modern 30 storied edifice! According to the researchers of the Archaeological Institute in Shaanxi Proince, the building was made this high so that the Emperor's soul be liberated and migrate to the sky.

The program of the day includes lunch and a visit to the walls of the ancient city and you will have the chance of mounting up to the battlements at various points and have a panoramic view of the city. There will be some free time in the afternoon to spend any way you like.

Xi'an Terracotta Warriors

Today, we continue our Xi'an exploration by visiting the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, where we have the exhibition of more than 3000 unearthed historical relics. Located inside the Confucian Temple of Taiyuan City, it is considered the most important archaeological museum in China. Here there are three types of Exhibitions: The Basic Exhibition with 2000 objects shown in 3 halls with a total area of 2000 sq. meters (21,600 sq. ft), the Theme Exhibition Hall and the Temporary Exhibition Hall.

A visit to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda will follow. It is a well-preserved ancient building and a holy place for Buddhists. It functions as a safe keeping place for Buddhist materials that were taken from India by the hierarch Xuan-zang, among them 657 kinds of sutras in Sanskrit which were translated into Chinese in 1335 volumes. One can also climb the stairs up the 64.5 meters (211.6 feet) high temple and have a magnificent view of the city.

After lunch we are taken to the airport to fly to Guilin, the most scenic city in China.

Guilin China Terraces

Guilin is in Guangxi Province in southern China, and is perhaps the most scenic city in China; it is a "jewel", surrounded by land and sceneries of incredible beauty, rivers with crystal clear water, impressive rock formations framing Li river and a 2000 year long rich history.

After our breakfast, we embark on a full-day cruise on Li Yang, a river that follows its serene path through mountains of astonishing beauty and all-green rice fields, crossing villages and settlements, mirroring breathtaking peaks and pinnacles, water buffaloes and silhouettes of traditional river-boats. It is perhaps the most picturesque river in China and it is said that the 84 kms (52 miles) from Guilin to Yangshuo, is the most beautiful part of China! We have a strong feeling that we form part of a traditional Chinese drawing.

We shall have lunch on board.

Mountains and Rice fields in Guilin, China

Today, after breakfast, we will have a tour to the "Elephant Trunk Hill", a strange rock complex going all the way down to the river and immersing in its water. Relax and let yourselves to the magic of beauty all around you. There follows a visit to "Fubo Hill", from where we can have a panoramic view of the city.

Our next visit will be to the "Reed Flute Cave"; whatever you have heard about this cave, no matter how much you have seen in your life, could not be compared to this incredible beauty of the magnificent formations of colored stalactites and stalagmites along the 240 m (720 ft) long cave. It has a strong resemblance to the 40 m longer Dyros Caves in southern Peloponnese, Greece. Common practice here, as well as in Greece, is to let our imagination fly and name the rock formations after the shape they resemble to (the Crystal Palace, the Dragon's Pagoda, the Forest of the Virgin Young Girl), a name that, as a rule, also reflects a romantic, historical or religious allegory. Going through it, is like walking through the "Paradise of the Gods".

Overwhelmed by such beauty, we are transferred to the airport for our flight to the cosmopolitan and populous Shanghai, one of the greatest seaports in the world!

Shanghai

After our breakfast we go for a city tour of China's financial capital. A thrilling day of sightseeing will reveal Shanghai's uniqueness. We stroll the Bund waterfront and the crowded Nanjing Road, the beautiful Yu Garden and the bustling Yuyuan Market, and explore the stunning Shanghai Museum. In the meantime we have had our lunch and this thrilling day will be completed, besides our dinner, with a wonderful Acrobatic Show.

Shanghai

Say "zai jian" (good bye) to historical China. Today we will be escorted to the airport for our flight back to El Venizelos Airport.

Athens Acropolis

We arrive at El. Venizelos airport. Thank you for having travelled with us.

• Air Tickets Athens, Greece - Beijing - Athens, Greece via intermediate destination
• All internal China flights as referred to in our day-to-day program
• Entrance Fees to museums and archaeological sites as referred to in our day-to-day program
• Stay at 4* or 5* hotels, double rooms
• Breakfast and lunch (+ 2 special dinners) in China
• Transfers to and from the airports, hotels and site-seeing as referred to in our day-to-day program
• English speaking Guide
• Third Party Insurance during our visit to China
•  Τravel bag

• Airport Taxes
•  Visa to China
• Any personal expenses
• Excess luggage charge
• Meals not listed in the itinarary
• Tips
• Whatever is referred to as suggested or optional