Imperial China, Mysterious Tibet & the Yangtze River - 2022

This evening, you’ll fly overnight to Beijing.

Please note: Arrive to your destination or home rested and refreshed! Convenient gateway city stopover options mean you can break up longer flights easily — just ask our Flight Experts for assistance.

Arrive today and transfer to your deluxe hotel in Beijing. You’ll have time to explore and unwind, and lunch and dinner are on your own.

Today, we set out for a full-day tour of a wild section of the Great Wall, a seldom-visited stretch of this iconic landmark. Once at the wall, we lace up for an invigorating walk along the ancient fortification, a rare chance to experience a quieter corner up close. We also enjoy lunch at a local restaurant.

This evening, we gather for a delicious Welcome Dinner, featuring a meal once reserved for the emperor, traditional Peking Duck.

Vantage Exclusive:

• Tour a wild section of the Great Wall

• Welcome Dinner featuring traditional Peking Duck

This morning, we travel to Beijing’s elegant UNESCO-listed Temple of Heaven, where a picturesque park envelops a beautiful circular temple built in the Ming and Qing dynasties for ceremonies to pray for a good harvest. While here, we join a group of energetic seniors who come here each day to participate in various activities.

After lunch, we head to one of the largest public squares in the world, Tian’anmen Square. We’ll walk around this massive space, then explore the Forbidden City, the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Breathtaking in scale, its 980 buildings comprise 9,000 rooms that were once off-limits to the public. Today, we can experience this UNESCO World Heritage Site as a magnificent museum of culture.

Included Features:

• Visit the Temple of Heaven
• Tour the Forbidden City and Tian’anmen Square

• Join local seniors in morning activities at the Temple of Heaven park

Enjoy your last morning in Beijing at leisure and seek out lunch on your own. Then, we fly to Xi’an, once China’s capital. Upon arrival, your evening is at leisure and dinner is on your own.

Today we gain insight into Xi’an’s remarkable past as a powerful capital of China. Our morning drive takes us to the life-size statues of the 2,200-year-old Terracotta Army. Each of these fantastic figures was carved with its own features, then entombed with Emperor Qin Shi Huang around 210 BC. The imperial militia consists of 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, and 670 horses. Midday, we pause for lunch and see how a savory dish of jiaozi is prepared — artfully sculpted Chinese dumplings. After a rewarding day, enjoy dinner back at the hotel.

Included Feature:

• Visit the Terracotta Army museum complex

• Cooking demonstration and lunch of jiaozi dumplings

This morning, we tour Xi’an’s nearly-intact city walls and visit the exquisite Small Wild Goose Pagoda. Afterwards, we stop in one of the city’s local galleries to learn how to write Chinese calligraphy with locals. If you’d like, you can continue your active morning on rented bicycles, cycling along the ancient walls. After lunch, we transfer to the train station for your trip to Chengdu. Upon arrival, the evening is free to explore on your own.

Included Feature:

• Xi’an city tour

• Learn Chinese calligraphy with locals

Today, head to the outskirts of Chengdu to meet China's famous giant pandas at one of the world’s top panda sanctuaries. The work of this passionate organization has helped bring the beloved bear back from the brink of extinction. Back in the city, we enjoy a lunch of Sichuan dim sum — one of Chengdu’s specialties — at a local restaurant. This afternoon, we’ll enjoy the city’s green outdoor spaces during a walk along the trails of the People’s Park and Kuanzhai Alley, a series of parallel alleyways of different sizes dating back to the Qing Dynasty. We may cross paths with some locals enjoying a traditional dance in the fresh air — feel free to join them!

Our leisurely walk leads us to a charming teahouse, where we stop to sample some of China’s ubiquitous beverage.

After dinner at a local Chengdu restaurant, we head out on the town for a special performance of the Sichuan Opera. This colorful spectacle, typified by acrobatics and plot-twisting face changes, hearkens back to 1700s-era China, and was born here in Chengdu.

Included Features:

• Meet giant pandas at a panda sanctuary
• Visit People’s Park in Chengdu
• Tour of Kuanzhai Alley

• Sample tea at a local teahouse
• Sichuan dim sum lunch
• Sichuan opera performance

The morning, we enjoy a heartwarming highlight: visiting a local kindergarten to meet the students. Then enjoy the afternoon at your leisure. Dinner tonight will be at a local restaurant.

• Visit a local kindergarten

After a leisurely morning, we fly to Lhasa — Tibetan for "the Buddha Land." Upon arrival in the Tibetan Highlands, enjoy the rest of the day at leisure, getting acquainted with this city surrounded by towering mountains. You may find that an afternoon’s rest will help you adjust to the city’s high altitude. After dinner at the hotel, we learn about this fascinating region during a lecture on Tibetan culture and religions.

Cultural Discovery:

• Lecture on Tibetan Culture and Religions

Today, we take in the exotic wonders of Lhasa, steeped in old-world tradition and Buddhism. We begin with a guided walking tour of Jokhang Temple, the city’s most sacred temple and a revered site that draws pilgrims from all over the world. After, we step outside onto Barkhor Street. This bustling thoroughfare surrounding the temple is both a showcase of Tibetan arts and crafts and a sacred way followed by pilgrims upon arrival at Jokhang. After lunch at a local restaurant, we have the rest of the day at leisure, with dinner on your own.

Included Feature:

• Tour of Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Street

Delve further into Lhasa’s culture and history during an excursion to the Potala Palace. This massive structure, the residence of the Dalai Lama until 1959 — when the current Dalai Lama fled to India in self-exile — is a veritable maze of 1,000 rooms and 10,000 shrines. Today, much of it is a fascinating museum. Later, we visit a local family for tea, a rare opportunity to learn firsthand about life in this Himalayan community.

After lunch at a local restaurant, return to the hotel for an afternoon at leisure, giving you the chance to explore more of the capital of the Tibet region. This evening, we enjoy a Tibetan dinner and traditional dance performance at a local restaurant, witnessing traditions passed down over thousands of years, like the crane and deer dances.

Included Feature:

• Visit Potala Palace

Cultural Discoveries:

• Visit a local Tibetan family for tea
• Tibetan dinner and traditional dance performance

This morning, we pay a visit to Norbulingka Park, the Dalai Lama’s traditional summer palace. This sprawling site spreads out over 89 acres and houses the largest landscaped gardens in Tibet. Following lunch at a local restaurant, we stop by Sera Monastery to watch the famed "debating monks."

Included Feature:

• Visit Norbulingka Park, the Dalai Lama’s summer palace

Cultural Discovery:

• Watch the “debating monks” of Sera Monastery

After breakfast, we’ll leave Lhasa for our next destination: Chongqing. Get to know yet another city in China during your panoramic city tour of Chongqing, which includes seeing Jiefangbei Square, the Ghost City of Fengdu, and more. Lunch will be on your own today. This evening, board your ship, the Century Legend,to begin the cruise portion of your journey, followed by dinner onboard.

Included Feature:

• Panoramic tour of Chongqing

Enjoy a day of sailing on the scenic Yangtze River today — perhaps you’ll join in on some early Tai Chi while taking in the scenery. We disembark at the small village of Shibaozhai to marvel at its mountain-hugging pagoda, a 12-storied wooden pavilion housing a Buddhist temple at its very top. Back on the ship, listen to an enlightening lecture on traditional Chinese medicine.

Included Feature:

• Visit Shibaozhai Pagoda

• Morning Tai Chi
• Lecture on traditional Chinese medicine

Today, we join a shore excursion to the Goddess Stream. Our private motorboat takes our small group into the narrow canyon-like river. We return to our ship after this invigorating experience and set off on our cruise through the magnificent Three Gorges.

Cruising through the Three Gorges (Wu, Qutang, and Xiling) — each flanked by towering cliffs and soaring mountains — we’ll hear tales and legends that have been passed down through the ages. This evening, we pass through the five-stage locks of the Three Gorges Dam and learn more about this remarkable engineering feat, with an elucidating lecture on the dam and the Yangtze River itself.

Included Feature:

• Shore excursion to Goddess Stream

• Lecture on the Yangtze River and Three Gorges Dam

After breakfast aboard, we disembark the Century Legend for an excursion to the fascinating Three Gorges Dam, one of the largest projects of its kind. While you’ve seen its five-stage locks up close, today you’ll ascend via a series of escalators to Tanziling Ridge, where a bird’s-eye view of the entire dam site and its surroundings awaits. After, transfer by motorcoach to Yichang, where you'll enjoy lunch at a local hotel restaurant. This afternoon, take a panoramic tour of this riverside city before we head to the airport for your flight to Shanghai. Tonight, enjoy the evening at leisure and dinner on your own.

Included Features:

• Shore excursion to Three Gorges Dam
• Panoramic tour of Yichang

Enjoy a complete view of Shanghai today on a full-day tour, where we walk along the city’s famous Bund, a riverfront promenade overseen by grand colonial-era buildings. Then, follow the pathways of the 400-year-old imperial Yu Yuan Garden and the ancient lanes of the city's Old Town. Along the way, we’ll pause at a local restaurant for lunch. This evening, we embark on a cruise along the Huangpu River to admire Shanghai’s neon-lit skyline by night, followed by dinner at a local restaurant.

Included Features:

• Full-day tour of Shanghai
• Nighttime scenic cruise on the Huangpu River

Today is yours to explore Shanghai as you wish. You may return to the Bund to immerse yourself in its irreverent energy, or perhaps head to People’s Square and learn about ancient Chinese art at the Shanghai Museum. This evening, we gather for a final time at a local restaurant for a festive Farewell Dinner.

Following breakfast at our hotel, transfer to the airport for your flight home.

Please note: Arrive to your destination or home rested and refreshed! Convenient gateway city stopover options mean you can break up longer flights easily — just ask our Flight Experts for assistance.