8 Days Chengdu Leshan Mount Emei & Yangtze Cruise Tour

Ni Hao! Welcome to Chengdu, the Hometown of Giant Pandas! You’ll be met by our local guide at the arrival hall of Chengdu airport / train station and escorted to your hotel in downtown area by a private, comfortable and non-smoking vehicle. The rest of today is on your own to explore this leisure city.

Optional activity: Enjoy the typical Sichuan cuisine (like Hot Pot) for dinner in a local restaurant.

Sichuan Local Cuisine - Hotpot

After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel. First, drive about 15km to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (simply Chengdu Panda Base). This base is not only the most important panda scientific research center in the world, but also the home for more than 100 Giant Pandas. Walk through the verdant bamboo-framed path, gain fascinating insight into the progression of baby pandas to young adult pandas to adult pandas, and admire the delicate newborns in a special infant panda area. Continue to enrich your memory to observe the adolescent pandas between the age of one and five eating bamboos, playing with each other, tumbling and climbing trees. Listen to the importance of this vital maturity period and capture photographs of these enchanting and endangered creatures as they relax in their natural environment.

After the memorable panda visit, get to the largest and best-preserved Buddhist monastery - Wenshu Monastery located in bustling downtown Chengdu. Walking in the quiet spiritual temple, you’ll marvel at the exquisite Buddhist architectures and precious Buddhist statues, scriptures and relics.

Later, pay a visit to Renmin Park to truly feel the essence of leisurely pace and lifestyle of Chengdu. Sit down, order a pot of fragrant Chinese tea, have a casual chat with your friends in a-hundred-year-old teahouse, watch local indulging themselves in different kinds of folk activities, like napping, enjoy special ear cleaning, playing Mahjong, dancing and doing water calligraphy! Next will be an impressive trip to the famous Jinli Old Street, a lively paradise full of delicious local snacks, delicate artifacts, interesting folk shows and other activities. Time will steal away as you explore along the old streets!

Optional activity: In this evening, watch Sichuan Opera and be entertained by Sichuan performing arts using stick puppets, face masks, fire spitting, rolling lights, folk music, acrobatic and dance in Shufeng Yayun Teahouse (usually performs during 20:00~21:30).

Have Close Contact with Lovely Giant Pandas

Enjoy some leisure moment in Renmin Park

Explore Three Kingdom Culture in Jinli Old Street

Wenshu Monastery in Autumn

In the morning, drive about 148km (about 2 hours) to Leshan Giant Buddha, the largest stone Buddha statue in the world. Sitting at the confluence of Minjiang River, Dadu River and Qingyi River, the Giant Buddha was carved on the cliff of Lingyun Mountain, used to suppress the flood. Enjoy spectacular view of the huge statue as you walking down through the narrow staircases to the foot of the Buddha.

After visiting the Giant Buddha, move on to Mt. Emei. Located 30 minutes away from Leshan by road, Baoguo Temple is the biggest temple of the mountain, which is also the final site for today’s tour.

Stay overnight at the foot of Mt. Emei.

Leshan Giant Buddha

This morning after breakfast, meet your tour guide and set out for Mount Emei. As one of the few World Heritage Sites of both cultural and natural heritages, Mount Emei is an enchanted combination of lush forest and cultural relics. It is one of the Four Great Buddhist Mountains in China, also the home to 5000 kinds of plants (more than the total plants of Europe) and over 2300 kinds of wild animals.

You will first take your private car to the tourist center, then shift on to an Eco-Bus which will take you up to the mountain top area in 1.5~2 hours. Once you reaching at Leidongping (2400m), keep on walking about 30mins along stone steps to the cable car station, along which you will have chance to see the wild monkeys. Take a cable car (about 5mins) up to the Golden Summit (3077m) which is the biggest highlight and very essence of Mount Emei. Once you get to the Golden Summit, the first view appearing in front of you is a towering multi-faced golden statue (48m) of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Next to the golden statue sits the bronze Huazang Temple which is the first temple established on Mount Emei whose history can be traced back to 1st century CE. You can stroll around the Golden Summit to explore Buddhist architecture and tradition, and enjoy panoramic view of Mount Emei and surrounding. In clear days, you can even see the snow-clad of Mount Gongga (7556m), Asia’s largest table mountain - Wawu Mountain and winding rivers flowing through Emeishan city. If weather permits, you will have luck to enjoy its magnificent wonder of Cloud Sea. Sightsee around 1.5 hours on the Golden Summit area, then descend by cable car to Leidoping and take Eco-Bus again back to the tourist center.

After the tour, take a high speed train from Emeishan to Chongqing (about 3 hours). Upon arrival, your guide and driver will pick you up at the train station and escort you to the hotel in Chongqing downtown area. 

Golden Summit in Emei

Welcome to Chongqing, the Port City of Yangtze River Cruise! Today, your guide will take you to fully experience the uniqueness of the Mountain City and culture of the Yangtze River!

First, visit Three Gorges Museum. The vast collection of over 280 thousand pieces of precious historical relics will let you have an amazing understanding of the great Yangtze River and formation of the magnificent Three Gorges. You'll also know the gradual thriving of Chongqing from 3,000 years ago, to its war defense in the 20th century, and developmental path to be one of the 4 prosperous municipalities in China. Step out of the museum for a nice look at the People’s Assembly Hall, popular with fancy classical exterior design and listed into the History of Architecture compiled in London in 1987.

Next, go to take Chonqing Rail Transit Line 2 from Huanghuayuan Metro Station to Liziba Metro Station to look at the city’s prototype from a different angle. Get off to have the never-seen scene of the train going through an 11-storey block of flats, which exists only in the fantastic mountain-leaning Chongqing!

Then, travel up to E'ling Park and embrace the impressive panorama of Chongqing City that has been highly praised as “Little Hong Kong” with its well-arranged row upon row of modern skyscrapers and two winding rivers flowing.

Go down to visit the must-see Hongya Cave to appreciate the layers of featured Ba and Shu regional wooden tilted houses overlapped leaning the mountain up to 11 storeys. The buildings look quite glittery with orange lights from nightfall. Continue to get up to the 11th level with vehicles and roads alongside and catch the sparkling nightscape.

In the late afternoon, be transferred to Chongqing Chaotianmen Port to board your ship during 18:00~21:00. Your 4-day relaxing Yangtze River cruise will sail at 21:00 and enjoy your first night onboard!

Tips for Cruise Boarding:
1) Please call the ship one day ahead or at least in the morning on the boarding day to know which specific pier to embark; 2) There are 13 sub-piers at Chongqing Chaotianmen Port, so tell your driver the exact pier to avoid too much walking; 3) The boarding time and pier may change based on the ship line, water level, season, weather, etc. Please pay attention to the important info sent from your travel consultants before boarding.

Erling Park

Three Gorges Museum

Board Yangtze Cruise Ship at Chaotianmen Port

Hongya Cave Night View

Liziba Metro Train Experience

Good morning! Wake up leisurely and enjoy the gentle sunshine over the tranquil Yangtze. You can either follow the Taichi master to play Taichi or enjoy a cup of coffee to start a beautiful day!

Enjoy various entertainment onboard, like attending a Yangtze River History and Culture Lecture, enjoying seasonal themed activities, meeting new friends at the Captain’s Welcome Party, having fun at the wonderful evening show, etc.

You will follow a local English-speaking tour guide to visit Fengdu Ghost City onshore, which is about 2,000 years old and called “the Homeland of Divine Comedy in China”. In this “City of Ghosts”, you will see a series of temples, shrines, palaces, pavilions, and more traditional styled architecture complex. The colorful statues and story scenes of afterlife in hell displayed show the underworld, cruel tortures, different kinds of devils, Chinese demons and the traditional Chinese belief: pure spirits would be rewarded, and sinful ones would be subject to severe punishments. (Please note: Fengdu Ghost City visit requires much walking and comfortable shoes are highly recommended!)

Optional Excursion to Feng Yan San Guo (Three Kingdoms Fire Show):
A reputable and impressive real landscape show telling the brilliant history during the Three Kingdoms Period (over 1,800 years ago) and praising the loyalty spirit of General Guan Yu. (with an extra fee)

Play Taichi in the Morning on Sundeck

Fengdu Ghost City

Today, you'll sail through the spectacular Three Gorges! Soak up the breathtaking gorge scenery as you drift through Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge respectively.

You'll switch to a smaller boat to take an enjoyable shore excursion to Shennv Stream (Goddess Stream), a tributary of the Yangtze River. Sail down this primitive stream to closely marvel at steep mountains and hanging coffins high on the cliffs, hear local history, and appreciate featured dance and music by Tujia ethnic people!

At evening, enjoy the well-prepared Captain’s Farewell Party with all your mates onboard and have a whale of time of the last night onboard!

Optional Excursion to White Emperor City:
This cultural and historic site at the entrance of Qutang Gorge tells the touching stories of the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and is the best spot to appreciate the magnificent “Kui Gate” on the 10 RMB note! (with an extra fee)

Fengjie White Emperor City

Enjoy Gorge Scenery on Sundeck

Shennv Stream with Primitive Gorge Scenery

Magnificent Qutang Gorge

Breathtaking Wu Gorge Scenery

After breakfast, go through a check-out procedure and disembark at Maoping Port and take the arranged tourist bus to visit the global famous Three Gorges Dam. It is the largest hydropower station in the world, with an annual energy output of 84.7 billion kilowatt-hours. The Dam is about 2,300 meters (7,546 ft) long and about 115 meters (377 ft) wide. With a water capacity of 39.3 billion cubic meters, it can hold a huge reservoir to efficiently prevent flooding in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze. Take your time to appreciate this great project from different angles and learn more at the project museum.

After that, take the tourist bus to Yichang Three Gorges Center Cruise Terminal in Yichang downtown (arriving around 12:30-13:30). Your local guide and driver will pick you up there and transfer to Yichang Airport / train station for your flight or train to your home / the next destination. Trip Ends!

Optional Experience of Three Gorges Dam Ship Lift:
Take a tourist boat to sail through this world’s largest ship lift with an elevation of about 113 meters (370 ft), which is totally fresh and exciting! (with an extra fee)

Departure Ideas:
You can take flights from Yichang Sanxia Airport to Shanghai, Xian, Beijing, Guangzhou and Hangzhou, etc. Also, you can take high speed trains from Yichang East Railway Station to Wuhan (about 2hrs), Shanghai (about 8hrs), Beijing (about 7.5hrs), Hangzhou (about 7.5hrs), Chengdu (about 7hrs), Guangzhou (about 7hrs), etc.

Notes:
1) Only Dam visit: take the bus from Maoping Port to visit Three Gorges Dam and arrive at Yichang downtown at around 12:30. 2) Dam visit + Ship Lift: switch to a tourist boat to sail through the Ship Lift and visit Three Gorges Dam. Then, take the bus and arrive at Yichang downtown at around 13:30.

Three Gorges Dam Ship Lift, the Largest Ship Lift in the World

World-famous Three Gorges Dam