|Itinerary for China Avatar Tour
|Included meals are indicated as B = Breakfast, L =Lunch, D = Dinner|
|03.11.11||Depart Sydney at 9.15am on SQ212,
arriving in Singapore at 2.25pm.
Depart Melbourne at 11.00am on SQ238, arriving in Singapore at 3.45pm.
Depart Brisbane at 2.40pm on SQ236, arriving in Singapore at 8.35pm.
All passengers will be met and transferred to the centrally situated Peninsular Excelsior Hotel or Equivalent.
transfer back to Singapore airport, departing at 8.10am on SQ850,
arriving in Guangzhou (Canton) at 12.05pm.
Upon arrival, you are met and transferred to lunch, you are taken to Beijing Road Pedestrian Street where you can explore this exciting city or do some shopping as local people do. Tonight enjoy a welcoming buffet dinner in Si Hai Yi Jia Restaurant. Stay overnight in Shunde.
|Today we visit the
wonderful Chimlong Safari Park and Chimlong Circus. Covering an area of
130 hectares. Chime-Long Xiangjiang Safari Park is considered the
biggest and best animal theme park in Asia. It is home to over 20,000
animals from 460 species including many rare and endangered species (an
example, 100 white tigers born in this park covers 50% of the whole
amount of this species on earth).
Animals include Giant Pandas, Polar Bears , Australian Koalas, Norwegian polar bears, Black Rhinoceros, Giant Anteaters, Golden Monkeys, Malay Tapirs, White Kangaroos, Sierra Leone hippos and a vast collection of African animals, monkey species, and other Asian animals. The zoo is divided into 2 main sections a 'Safari on Foot' where guests walk through enclosed shelters to interact with animals, and a 'Safari on Wheels' section where guests board road trains and travel through an impressive open plains with three main areas: an Asian plains, African Savannah and Predator zone.
At night we will see the Chimlong Safari circus and night show. This is an amazing show with some of the worlds top circus and acrobatic performers. It also has the largest number of performers and animals in the world on stage for this one show.
|After breakfast we
drive to Panyu and visit Yu Yin Shan Fang. This famous garden was
constructed in 1867. Yuyin Shan Fang has an ingenious layout. The
pavilions, terraces, halls, bridges, lakes and hills are all included,
having been carved into the 300 steps around the garden. The brick
carvings, lime carvings and stone carvings are rich and varied, and
demonstrate Yuyin Shan Fang exquisite style and serving to justify its
reputation as a famous garden. Next we visit the Paoma Garden.
Continue to Guangzhou and visit Yuexiu Park, which is the largest park in downtown Guangzhou. Covering an area of 212.5 acres, the park is made up of three artificial lakes and seven hills of Yuexian Mountain. Yuexiu Park is a perfect combination of cultural relics and ecological tourism, reputed for its pretty water and hills. An interesting feature includes the stone sculptures of the Five Rams.
The Five Ram Sculpture is one of the most famous structures in Guangzhou. It has become the emblem of Guangzhou City.
This is followed by a visit to Zhongshan Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. It is really a magnificent building in an octangle shape. It is not only one of the symbolic constructions in Guangzhou with its majestic appearance, but it is also an important place for large scale meetings and performances.
After dinner, transfer to the airport for your flight to Zhangjiajie with China Southern Airlines.
|Located in western
Hunan Province, the famous tourist city of
Zhangjiajie is home of China's first forest park 'the Zhangjiajie
National Forest Park' and a World Natural Heritage site Wulingyuan. If
you vist Zhangjiajie, you will see this slogan: 'Pandora is Far
Away, but Zhangjiajie is easy to reach!' If you have seen the
movie 'Avatar, when visiting Zhangjiajie, your memory will be
reminded with the similar scenery of all the pillar-peaks formation.
You can't help exclaiming: 'Wow,was Avatar filmed here?'
The Huanglongdong Cave is the longest one is in Asia; it is an incomparable realm of gigantic subterranean chambers, fantastic cave formations, and extraordinary features. The inner recess is divided into four layers, two dry ones and two possessing waterways. The tally of natural wonders include; one natural reservoir, 2 underground rivers, 3 pools, 4 waterfalls, 13 grand halls, 96 passageways and hundreds of thousands of Stalagmites, columns and Stalactites. A feature of the tour is an amazing boat ride on the larger underground river.
|Today you will visit Yuanjiajie by Bailong Elevator, Haliluya Floating Mountain and Tianzi Mountain by cable car. The new cableway on Tianzi Mountain is 2,084 meters long. As the cable car runs across the dizzying peaks, passengers get a full view of the spectacular landscape that cannot be enjoyed any other way. Visit Baofeng Lake, enjoy the Lake cruise in the National Forest Park and the pretty painting view of the mountains, also challenge the local minority young girl and guy singing mountain love songs.|
|Visit Ten Mile
Painting Corridor by small train. Continue to visit Jinbianxi Brook
which is located in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park covering a
distance of 7.5km from north to south, winding across mountains and
valleys. The brook is limpid through the year, with many scenic spots
along the way. It is a famous Jinbian Cave, which has a height of 382m
and looks like a huge flying eagle.
Afterwards continue to visit the Shuiraosimen Scenery. Enjoy the wonderful night show of the Fairy Tale for Woodman and Fox Lover which is a magnificent outdoor show with mountains as background. The story tells about a local woodman who falls in love with a fox lover, but they are forbidden by local people and also the fox family. The show has a cast of several hundred performers, and the special effects are spectacular.
|In the morning, you are have free time to do some shopping around the local shops. After an early lunch, transfer to Yichang by bus for about 5 hours. After dinner, you will board the five star cruise ship for your Yangtze River cruise. With a rich Chinese cultural heritage of thousands of years, the Three Gorges is not only a picturesque natural gallery, but also a spectacular treasure house.|
|This cruise will
depart Yichang Pier at 8.00am, then arrive at Yangjiawan Pier at
11.00am. Next we will see the Three Gorges Dam Project - Shore
Excursion from 2.00 to 5.00pm. The Three Gorges comprise of the
arresting Qutang Gorge (8km), the idyllic Wu Gorge (44km) and the
treacherous Xiling Gorge (66km).
Between the Three Gorges lay the wide valleys of Daning River and Fragrant Stream.
|Today we pass Xiling Gorge - West Part, which is renowned for being extremely perilous and is the longest one of the Three Gorges. The water is full of turbulent currents and whirlpools and dangerous shoals. Transfer to smaller boats to see the Shannogxi Stream. In the afternoon, we will pass Wu Gorge. The Wu Gorge boasts the most immediately beautiful and spectacular scenery of the Three Gorges. Then we will pass Qutang Gorge around 5.00pm. Although Qutang Gorge is the smallest among the Three Gorges, it is actually the most powerful one and the water here flows most rapidly at this spot.|
|Fengdu is traditionally known as the town of ghosts. Upon the Mingshan Hill above the river is a temple with a number of halls and statues of ghosts and devils. There is also a park with displays of the imagined lives in hell. It is considered that all people's ghost, of whatever nationality, will come to Fengdu after death. Today your on shore excursion will visit the Fengdu Ghost City.|
|The cruiser arrives at its destination - Chongqing. Pay a visit to Panda House in Chongqing Zoo to see the cute Pandas. Also included today are visit s to the Second World War Museum, Erling Park, Stilwell Museum, and the People's Hall.|
|We visit Dazu County, 162km northwest of Chongqing, is very popular for its stone carving Buddha Statues - more than 100 locations and 100,000 statues. These sculptures are a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Two of the most noted: Beishan (Northern Hill) and Baodingshan (Treasured Peak Mountain), listed by UNESCO in 1999 as 'the World Cultural Heritage'. The first statue was created in late Tang Dynasty (9 Cenury), with more than 10,000 statues. Baodingshan (Treasure Peak Mountain) is 15km to the Northeast of the city, first sculpted in South Dynasty (1179-1249). Centered at Dafowan, nearly 10,000 Buddha statues are displayed along a 400 long U shape hill ridge, like a great picture roll unfolding before your eyes!. Among these sculptures, you can see the 31 meter-high Nirvana of Sakyamuni, the 88 meter-high 'Huayan Three Buddhist Images' as well as the ordinary secular sculptures like 'the girl flute player','the girl chicken raiser' and so on. All these stone sculptures are well structured and vividly made.|
|We visit Panda
base and Wuhou Memorial Temple. The giant pandas are not only a Chinese
national treasure but are also beloved by people the world over. They
are found only in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. In total there
are fewer than 1000, of which 80% are distributed within the territory
of Sichuan province. Therefore, when visitors from home and abroad come
to Chengdu, Sichuan Province one of their main objectives will be to
see the giant pandas for themselves.
Located just 10km away from downtown Chengdu, the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center has been created and imitated the pandas' natural habitat in order that they might have the best possible environment for rearing and breeding. The Center cares also for other rare and endangered wild animals. The Research Center covers an area of 92 acres. Giant pandas, lesser pandas, black-necked cranes, white storks as well as over 20 species of rare animals are fed and bred there throughout the year. Verdant bamboo, bright flowers, fresh air, a natural hill scene and a beautiful artificial view are merged ingeniously at the base.
In the evening enjoy a Changing Mask Show Sichuan Opera.
|Today you will visit Tomb of Wang Jian, Jinli Lu Street, Tea House and Jinli Old Street.|
|This morning we
visit Jinsha Ruins and Museum. The Jinsha Ruins were discovered by
accident on February 8 2001, several builders were working at a
construction site in Jinsha Village. Suddenly they found ivory and jade
were amidst the mud dug out by two excavations. Since the
archaeologists have excavated more than 1000 precious artifacts made of
gold, jade, bronze and stone and nearly one ton of ivory in Jinsha
Village in the western suburbs of Dhengdu. Most of these pieces date
back some 3000 years.
After lunch transfer to Chengdu airport, departing at 4.05pm on Silk air flight MI 933, arriving in Singapore at 9.10pm.
passengers depart Singapore at 12.45am on SQ255, arriving in Brisbane
Sydney passengers depart Singapore at 12.45am on SQ 231, arriving in Sydney at 11.35am
Melbourne passengers depart Singapore at 12.45am on SQ 237, arriving in Melbourne at 11.10am.
|Note:||This tour entails a fair amount of walking and steps so a reasonable degree of physical fitness is required. However it is well worth the effort!|