17 Days Best China Tibet Train Tour from Hong Kong

As you arrive in Hong Kong, the vibrant and financial hub in Asia, our local guide will be expecting you at the HongKong International Airport. Later, the guide will escort you to your hotel. After you check in, the rest of the day is for you to have a good rest or explore the surroundings yourself.

Stay overnight in Hong Kong

The first stop of today’s tour would be the floating community of Aberdeen. Aberdeen is well-known for the floating village and floating seafood restaurants. It’s advisable to hire Sampans (small boats) to enjoy the Aberdeen Harbor. Strolling along Aberdeen Promenade is also a great choice for photographers.

Then we will move to Repulse Bay, beautiful beach without bustle and hustle as well as one of the most expensive residential areas in HK. At sunset, we are about to reach the foot of Victoria Peak and gradually ascend (by tram or hiking) to reach to peak to enjoy the stunning panoramic view of HK harbor from the hill.

Then you will take the evening flight to Guilin, in mainland China, which takes around 1.5 hours.

Stay overnight in Guilin

The day will start after breakfast with a relaxing river cruise along the beautiful Li River to Yangshuo Town. Covering around 84 kilometers, this four-hour cruise takes you through the beautiful countryside along the shores of the winding river and past karst hills that seems to have come out of a Chinese painting.

After you disembark in Yangshuo, you will transfer to your hotel, where you can take a break or look around the town, with the stunning countryside that surrounds it enthralling your very senses. In the evening, you can take a delightful walk along the ancient West Street of Yangshuo, where Chinese and western cultures co-exist in perfect harmony. The area hosts some of the best bars and restaurants in the town, and you can enjoy the food and drink or just soak up the relaxing atmosphere.

Stay overnight in Yangshuo

The morning starts with a four-hour drive from Yangshuo to one of the most beautiful sights in China - the Longji terraces in Longsheng County. Along the route to Longsheng, you can visit some of the local villages, including the village of Huanglong, where women commonly have hair of more than 1.5 meters long.

On your arrival in Pingan Village in Longsheng County, you can check in and then spend some time exploring the stunning views from the terraces above the village. The rice terraces have paths through them which you can hike along to reach the spectacular lookout points of Five Tigers, Nine Dragons, and Seven Stars with the Moon. The stunning views from these points are breathtaking, and it takes around half a day to hike around them all.

Stay overnight in Pingan

The rice terraces of Longsheng County are a spectacular sight, and you will have most of the day to explore them more. In the months from June to August the rice fields are a verdant green with the growing rice, but from late September to early November, they turn a golden yellow as the rice ripens ready for harvest. You can take some time to wander around the area and get to speak to some of the locals and learn more about this beautiful land, and it is a great place for photographers.

Later, you will be driven the two hours from Longsheng to Guilin airport, where you will catch your flight to Chengdu, in Sichuan Province. The flight takes around two hours, and your local tour guide will meet you at the airport and transfer you to your hotel.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

Chengdu is the major overland gateway to Tibet and home to giant pandas. In the morning, we will drive about half an hour to Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center, where you will catch pandas' feeding time, they are at their most active, both Adults and Babies. There's a wealth of information and a panda museum in this 230-hectare park 10 km (6 miles) north of Chengdu. It takes about 2.5 hours to visit this site.

In the afternoon, we will move back to downtown Chengdu to visit Jin Li Street, a vivid replica of the old commercial street of Qin, Han, and Three Kingdom dynasties. You can take a leisurely stroll along the street and buy some souvenirs. After that, we will go to Renmin Park, which is a beautiful city park often filled with locals, and you can enjoy a cup of tea to experience the slow life of Chengdu there.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

The whole day is free for you to explore around the city. In the evening, you will be transferred to Chengdu Railway Station for the train to Lhasa. Your Tibet Travel Permit will need to be checked before boarding.

Stay overnight on the train

It is quite a long journey that will take about 36 hours. Today you will first pass through two important provincial capital cities in northwest China, Lanzhou and Xining. Xining is known as the beginning of Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Travelling along the rail line, you could see the scenery of countryside and city in northwest China.

Then you will witness the most beautiful scenery of Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The land of snows, the desert, the grassland, snowy mountains and turquoise lakes will continually appear and strongly attract your heart.

Stay overnight on the Train

Your train will arrive in Lhasa in the morning. Upon your arrival, your tour guide will hold a board with your name on it at the exit of the train station to welcome you. A private car will take you from the train station to the reserved hotel. The rest of the day is for you to acclimate to the high elevation.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

In the morning, visit the famous Potala Palace and explore the grandest of this myriad chapel. You will appreciate its audience halls, the jeweled and golden burial chortens (stupa Tombs) of past Dalai Lamas, and a tremendous number of Buddhist frescoes, thangkas, combinations of the mandala, etc.

In the afternoon, visit the holiest temple in Tibet, the Jokhang Temple, built during Songtsen Gonpo's reign by princess Wencheng of Tang Dynasty, 647 A.D, and its famous Barkhor Kora, where you can buy or appreciate traditional Tibetan artifacts, religious implements, antiques, books, Tibetan music instrument, Thangkas, and traditional Tibetan clothes etc. You will have a chance to get close to appreciate how the artists draw Thangkas at the Thangka workroom at Barkhor.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

In the morning, you are going to visit Drepung monastery which was one of the “three greet” Gelug monasteries of Tibet and was founded in 1416 by Jamyang choge, one of the Tsongkhapa’s main disciples. Ganden palace was used as Dalai Lama’s palace in the Drepung before moving to the Potala palace.

In the afternoon, visit the Sera Monastery, which is one of the “three great” Gelug monasteries of Tibet and was founded in 1419 by Jamchen chojey, one of the Tsongkhapa’s main disciples. The Most attraction is the Monks debate at around 3:00 - 5:00 in the afternoon.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

The guide will transfer you to the airport and help you board the plane bound for Xi’an. After around 3 hours’ flight, you will land in Xi’an. The local guide will meet you and escort you to your hotels. And the rest of the day is for you to have a rest.

Stay overnight in Xi’an

The day tour in Xian is impressive too. The Emperor’s Terracotta Army is also one of the eight wonders in the world. These terracotta warriors and horses are the size of a real army, and were buried alongside the Emperor in a vast underground palace.

In the archeological site of Banpo Village, built more than 6,000 year ago, you will see how the resident matriarchal tribe used to survive in the Neolithic age.

Stay overnight in Xian

In the morning, we will first pay a visit to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and Shaanxi History Museum. As a landmark of Xi’an, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda was built for storing Buddhist sutras in AD 652, and is seven-layered with a height of 64.5 meters.

Located to the northwest of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Shaanxi History Museum is China’s first large-scale national museum. There are more than 370,000 pieces of cultural relics collected in the museum, ranging from simple stone tools of ancient humans to various kinds of objects in social life before 1840.

After the tour, you will be transferred to the station to take the high speed train to Beijing. Upon arrival, your guide will meet you and take you to your hotel in downtown area.

Stay overnight in Beijing

Today is guided tour to Forbidden City and Summer Palace which are the traditional must-see places in Beijing. The Forbidden City is the best preserved imperial palace in China and the largest ancient palatial structure in the world. The splendid architecture of the Forbidden City represents the essence and culmination of traditional Chinese architectural accomplishment.

The Summer Palace is the largest royal garden in the world built in Qing Dynasty. The grandeur and beauty of the Palace is overwhelming and is sure to impress anyone.

Stay overnight in Beijing

The Great Wall tour proves that China was one of the strongest countries in its history. Stretching thousands of kilometers, the Great Wall protected the ancient Chinese against the invasion of the enemy from its north side for more than 1000 years; the Great Wall was listed as one of the world's eight wonders. Mutianyu Great Wall, featured “graceful”, enjoy the best quality among all Wall sections, 80km north-east of Beijing with 22 ancient watchtowers, about one every kilometer. (Cable car is optional if you do not want to walk)

Then you will visit the Ming Tombs, the burial site of the emperor Zhuli, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty who ruled for 22 years until his death in 1424.

Stay overnight in Beijing

In the morning, you will first visit the historic Temple of Heavens, which is the largest city square in the world and the spiritual heart of China, and then move on to the famous Hutongs, the traditional courtyard residence in narrows alleys in Beijing. It is a great place to know the folk culture and old quarters of Beijing city.

After that, you will be transferred to airport for your flight to your next destination. The tour ends.