Day 1 Tian’anmen, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Hutongs

09:00 a.m: Meet your local Beijing tour guide in your hotel lobby.

09:30-10:15 a.m: Visit Tiananmen Square, a rectangular square of 440,000 sq meters. Tiananmen Square echoes the layout of the Forbidden City to some extent. It also displays the major concept of Chinese politics in ancient times namely, centralism. Many historic events took place here , the most famous of which is the Tiananmen Incident. Now, it’s just a symbol.

10:30 - 12:30 p.m: Visit the magnificent Forbidden City, the largest Imperial Palace in the world. We’ll spend a couple of hours wandering around this amazing example of Imperial architecture and learning about the history of the palace. Enclosed by long scarlet walls extending 3.5km, the UNESCO-listed Forbidden City was the very central power of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This large palace witnessed the prosperity and the decline of feudalism. Here you will directly experience how royals lived and how they ruled.

12:30 - 13:30 p.m: Enjoy local food in a nice restaurant popular with local Beijingers.  Lunch is for your own account.

14:00 - 15:30 p.m: Head for the Temple of Heaven. Situated in the southeast of the central city, the Temple of Heaven was originally constructed in the eighteenth year of Yong Le (1420) in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming and Qing emperors conducted annual ceremonies praying to Heaven for a good harvest. It combines the architectural technology of the Ming and Qing Dynasties together, which is rare in ancient Chinese architecture and it is the largest sacrifice complex in the world. Charmed by its size, colorful meaning and importance in China's history, the site was classified into the "Directory of World Heritage" by UNESCO in 1998.

16:00 - 17:00 p.m: Walk in the tranquil Hutongs. In those interlaced Hutongs, one can experience the life of the ancient Beijing people. With public toilets available, shops and vendors selling all kinds of goods to satisfy local people's daily needs, and people gossiping along the lanes to strengthen their relationships, one can walk through the history and savour the unique culture. Thus, we say that where there a lane, there is a story.




17:00 p.m: Drop off at your hotel.






    

Day 2 Mutianyu Great Wall, Summer Palace

07:30 a.m: Greeted by your tour guide in your hotel lobby to commence your day tour.

09:00 - 11:30 p.m: Drive around 1.5 hours to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall and have a quick lunch at the Subway(is this the sandwich food chain from around the world?)  at the foot of the Mutianyu Wall. This is one of the most famous and idyllic sections of the Great Wall. You will have a choice of taking the cable car or chair lift up the breathtaking wall and spend a leisurely 1 to 2 hours walking up and down the various sections exploring the Watch Towers and marvelling at the construction and beauty of the renowned and legendary Wall. You then have the option of an exhilarating toboggan ride back down or simply return the way you came with cable car.

11:30 - 12:30 p.m: Enjoy a typical Beijing lunch nearby the Mutianyu Great Wall (Lunch is for your own account).

14:00 - 16:00 p.m: Visit the Summer Palace. As the largest imperial garden in China, the Summer Palace was a summer resort for the royal families. There are huge lakes, bridges, corridors, pavilions, and various kinds of flowers and many rooms radiating the natural beauty and the grandeur of imperial gardens. With arched bridges and glittering ripples, pretty promenades and flowers in blossom, decorated corridors and ancient doors, and "breezeways" (a kind of hallway that allows the passage of a breeze between structures), all these present tourists enchanting and ever-changing scenery.

16:30 p.m: Return to your hotel and the Beijing section of your tour ends here.



    

Day 3 Beijing West - Chengdu East by G571 (09:22 - 19:08)

07:30 a.m: Your Beijing driver will be waiting for you at your hotel lobby and transfer you to Beijing West Train Station.

19:08 p.m: Your Chengdu driver will pick you up at the Chengdu East train station and drop you off at your Chengdu hotel.

Day 4 Panda Keeper Program

Pick up from your hotel: 7:30 a.m

Your personal tour guide and driver will pick you up at 7:30 a.m from your hotel and drive you directly to the Dujiangyan Panda Base.

Note: Please let us know beforehand if you want to start earlier or later.

Registration for volunteering: 8:30 - 9:00 a.m

When you arrived at the Panda Base, your tour guide will help you to register and sign a safety agreement with the Giant Panda Volunteer Service Center. After registration, your volunteer experience will commence.

Firstly you will receive a uniform, a pair of gloves and other equipment. Then, the base staff will provide instruction about the work, which your tour guide will assist in translating. You will be properly trained.

Cleaning pandas’ home: 9:00 - 10:00 a.m

The first activity will be cleaning the panda’s enclosures. You need to help the staff to clean-up the pandas’ faeces and replace their bamboo. All the leftover bamboo needs to be cleared. You can observe how pandas live.

Wandering around the panda base: 10:00 a.m - 11:00 a.m

After an hour’s work, you will have a break, during which you can wander around and observe the cute pandas eating bamboo. Your tour guide will guide you through the whole base and help identity the different kinds of pandas. Some of them are celebrities bonding relationships between China and other countries.

Feed pandas: 11:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m

You may know that pandas eat a lot. Besides bamboo, they like to eat cakes, apples and  carrots. You will come into close contact with them as you feed them with specially made panda cakes.

Lunch time: 12:00 p.m - 13:00 p.m

The panda base will provide lunch for you. There is usually rice, meat dishes, vegetable dishes, porridge, and other Chinese food. In case you are not in mood for typical Chinese food, please bring your own lunch. After lunch, you may rest a little and get ready for the afternoon activities.

Panda documentary: 13:00 - 14:00 p.m

You will watch some documentaries on how pandas evolved and efforts to protect them.

Clean the enclosure and feed the pandas again: 14:00 - 14:50

The morning’s bamboo will have dried out and needs to be cleared away and replenished with fresh bamboo. You can also feed the pandas some fruit and vegetables.

Make panda cakes: 14:50 - 15:30

When you feed the pandas with panda cakes, you will be curious about how they were made. Now you will have the chance to make panda cakes with your own hands. You can make them into various shapes.

Receive a certificate for your work and get back to hotel: 15:30 - 16:30 p.m




Your volunteering experience will end here and the panda base will issue you a certificate indicating your love and work for the pandas. You will be transferred back to your hotel.






    

Day 5 Giant Buddha, Huanglongxi Ancient Town

07:30 a.m: Get up early and be prepared to visit the Giant Buddha.

09:30 - 11:00 a.m: Visit the Giant Buddha in Leshan city. It’s located at the river outlet of the Min River, Qingyi River and Dadu River, over 160km north of Chengdu city. Built on a cliff on the Xixia Peak of the Lingyun Mountain, the Giant Buddha is the largest stone-carved Buddha in the world with a height of 71 meters. There are two ways to admire this giant Buddha. The ordinary way is to go inside the site and come down to the foot of the Buddha. The other way is to take a cruise and observe it in the  distance, which provides better views.

11:00 - 12:00 p.m: Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant nearby the Giant Buddha (Lunch is for your own account).

13:30 - 15:30 p.m: Visit the Huanglongxi Ancient Town. Named after Huanglong River that runs through, the Huanglongxi Ancient Town has a history of 1,700 years. Most of its buildings date back to the Qing Dynasty and feature cobbled streets, wooden buildings, tranquil tea houses, tall old trees and temples. Coming here will make anybody calm and peaceful and that is why it attracts many producers here to shoot movies.




16:30 p.m: Drop you off at Jinli Street where you are free to explore Chengdu cuisine.