The 11-Day (Beijing, Zhangjiajie, Chongqing & Shanghai) China Group Tour: Imperial Wonders, Avatar Peaks & Urban Skylines
Travelers journey across eleven days from Beijing to Shanghai via Zhangjiajie and Chongqing, blending Great Wall hikes and Forbidden City grandeur with Avatar-inspired sandstone pillars, glass-bridge thrills, Hongya Cave’s golden nightscape, and Bund sunsets in a comprehensive small-group tour featuring domestic flights, high-speed rail, and four-star accommodations.
Route:
Beijing-Zhangjiajie-Chongqing-Shanghai
- Tour Code: ITC-GT-003
- Guide: English-speaking guide with local life experience
- Accommodation: 10 nights at good 4-star hotels
- More personal than a traditional coach tour, far better value than a private tour.
Price:
USD 2314
per person
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Notes:Prices may vary depending on the season and promotional activities. Please consult your advisor for details.
Why Choose lnto Explore China Group Tour
Worry-Free Travel
With years of experience in group travel across China, we provide professional tour guides,
comfortable coaches, and well-paced itineraries for a smooth and enjoyable journey.
Itineraries with Great Value
Our tours cover China's most iconic sights and cultural highlights. All packages are clearly priced
with no hidden costs, offering a high-quality experience at a competitive rate.
No Shopping Stops
We guarantee a truly immersive journey with no shopping stop. Spend more time exploring scenic
spots, enjoying authentic food, and discovering local culture
Travel with Flexibility
Whether you're traveling solo, with friends, or as a family, you can easily join us. Enjoy better
value than private tours with small groups of 6-12 people and year-round departures.
Experience
Cecilia
Timing the Heights: 11 Days from Glass Bridge to Hongya Lights
I've led this 11-day China group tour more than sixty times, and the mountains only give themselves up to early risers. Ride the Bailong Elevator before the crowds, stand on the glass bridge while your nerve lasts, and let Chongqing's hotpot and Hongya lights close the evening. Timing turns scenery into a memory—that's the whole craft.
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Beijing – Paint a Peking opera mask in a hutong studio – Under a master‘s direction, choose colors, outline patterns, and fill in the face of a hero or villain. The finished mask becomes a striking souvenir with a story attached.
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Chongqing – Stir‑fry your own hotpot base in a downtown cooking class – A chef demonstrates the blend of chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, and spices, then guides each person to toast and grind a custom mix. The aroma fills the room, and everyone takes home a sealed bag of their own creation.
Itinerary
Explore each day’s highlights, pace, routes, hotels, meals, and photos—so you know exactly what to expect along the way.
Route Map Full route
Itinerary Summary: Arrive in Beijing – Transfer to Hotel – Free Time
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: No Food
Your journey begins in Beijing. A private driver meets you at the airport and transfers you directly to a centrally located 4-star hotel. The rest of the day is yours — a chance to rest after the flight or to step out for a first taste of the city. Wangfujing Snack Street is a short walk from most central hotels, offering a chaotic but authentic introduction to Beijing's street-food scene. Skewers sizzle, candied hawthorns gleam, and the air carries the smell of grilled meat and spice. It's a low-key start before the real exploration begins.
Itinerary Summary: Mutianyu Great Wall – Bird‘s Nest (National Stadium) Exterior
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: Lunch
Your second day is devoted to the Great Wall. You'll be taken to the Mutianyu section, about 73 kilometres northeast of the city centre. Unlike the more crowded Badaling, Mutianyu offers a longer stretch of wall — 5.4 kilometres with 22 watchtowers — and noticeably fewer visitors. A round-trip cable car is included, making the ascent easier and giving you more time to walk along the wall itself. The views are your reward: stone and sky, ridges folding into the distance. On the return drive, you'll pass the Bird's Nest stadium for an exterior view — its steel lattice structure still striking, even years after the 2008 Olympics.
Itinerary Summary: Tian‘anmen Square – Forbidden City – Temple of Heaven
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: Lunch
The final day in Beijing begins at Tian'anmen Square, the vast public space that stands at the symbolic centre of the country. From there, you enter the Forbidden City — the sprawling palace complex that served as China's political heart for over 500 years during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Its 9,999 rooms are a deliberate nod to imperial numerology, and the scale is almost overwhelming. The afternoon is spent at the Temple of Heaven, where emperors once performed rituals for good harvests. The Hall of Prayer is a wooden masterpiece built without nails, and the Echo Wall still carries whispers across its curved surface, just as it did centuries ago.
Itinerary Summary: Flight to Zhangjiajie – Free Time
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: No Food
Morning flight to Zhangjiajie. You lift off from the city, and about two hours later you drop into the mountains. The approach gives you a preview — peaks punching through cloud, rivers coiled in the valleys. By the time you're on the ground, you know you're not in the flatlands anymore. Check in, drop your bags, and take the evening to do nothing in particular. There's no rush. The park will still be there in the morning.
tinerary Summary: Zhangjiajie National Forest Park – Bailong Elevator – Yuanjiajie – Tianzi Mountain
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: Lunch
This is the morning you take the Bailong Elevator up the cliff face — 326 metres in 90 seconds, and you can feel the altitude change in your ears. At the top, you step out into Yuanjiajie, where the sandstone pillars rise like skyscrapers made of rock. This is the landscape that inspired the floating mountains in Avatar, and it hits differently in person — taller, sharper, and more layered than any photo can show. The walkways thread between the pillars, and the air is cooler up here. From there, you move to Tianzi Mountain, where the view flips from close-up rock formations to an open sea of peaks stretching to the horizon. You don't need to be a photographer to want to stop and just stare. This is a day of big views and steady walking — good shoes are essential, and a power bank for your phone might come in handy.
Itinerary Summary: Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon – Glass Bridge – 7‑of‑5 Adventure Activities
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: Lunch
Today is not about looking at mountains from a distance — it's about being suspended over them. The Glass Bridge is the headline act: 430 metres long, 300 metres above the canyon floor. You walk across it, looking straight down through the glass at the river below. If that's not enough, you can pick five out of seven on-site activities: via ferrata (climbing along steel cables on the cliff), high-altitude zip‑lining, a glass slide that sends you down the canyon wall, or a canyon swing that drops you into the void. The "7‑of‑5" system means you choose what suits you — some are milder, some genuinely push it. It's a day for people who like edges.
Itinerary Summary: Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park – High‑Speed Train to Chongqing
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: Lunch
The world's longest cable car takes you up Tianmen Mountain — 7.5 kilometres of cable, climbing 1,279 metres, leaving the city below until it disappears. At the top, Tianmen Cave punches through the cliff, 131.5 metres high. You reach it by climbing the 999 steps — a staircase with a view at every step. Then the Guigudao cuts across the cliff face at 1,400 metres, a plank path built into the rock wall, with the valley opening up below. Afternoon train to Chongqing — about four hours.
Itinerary Summary: Kuixinglou – Yangtze River Cable Car (One‑Way) – Liziba Light Rail Station – Hongya Cave
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: Lunch
Chongqing is built on hills, which means you don't walk through it — you climb, descend, and cross it. Your day starts at Kuixinglou, a Qing‑era pavilion on a cliff edge that was once a temple to the god of literature. From its rooftop, the city unfolds in layers beneath you — old roofs, new towers, and the river cutting through. That same river is your next move. The Yangtze River Cable Car takes you across it — 1,166 metres, built in 1987 as the first of its kind, a four‑minute ride that was once the only way across before the bridges went up. Once you're on the other side, you go to Liziba — a monorail station built inside a residential tower, where trains glide through the sixth floor like it's a tunnel. It's not a gimmick; it's how the city solved a problem when there was no flat land left. Then you head downhill and end the day at Hongya Cave — 11 storeys of wooden stilt houses reconstructed in 2006 above the Jialing River, a replica of the old riverside village that once stood here. At night, the whole cliff glows and spills across the water, often compared to the bathhouse in Spirited Away. If it's a weekend or a holiday, there's a drone show over the river — your guide will time the visit so you don't miss it.
Itinerary Summary: Flight to Shanghai – Free Time
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: No Food
Your flight from Chongqing brings you to Shanghai. By the time you land, you've already swapped one river city for another, but the two couldn't be more different. Once you've checked in, the day is yours. If you have the energy, head to Nanjing Road, one of the world's busiest shopping streets, stretching 5.5 kilometres from the Bund to the city's western edge. It's not just shopping — it's a grid of side streets filled with restaurants and street food stalls where you can get a sense of Shanghai's pace without committing to a full itinerary. Otherwise, do nothing. There's a full day ahead.
Itinerary Summary: Yu Garden – Wukang Road – Nanjing Road – The Bund
Hotel Star Rating: 4-Star Hotels
Meals Included: Lunch
Today takes you through Shanghai‘s layers. Start at Yu Garden, a classic Ming‑dynasty garden tucked in the heart of the old city – ponds, pavilions, and rockeries in a compact space. Then head to Wukang Road, a leafy boulevard lined with Art Deco villas and plane trees – a favourite among walkers and photographers for its old‑world charm. Walk along Nanjing Road for a dose of Shanghai’s commercial energy. End the day at The Bund, where the neon‑lit skyscrapers of Pudong face the colonial‑era buildings of the former International Settlement. It‘s the city’s postcard view – and it never gets old.
Itinerary Summary: Departure from Shanghai – Airport Transfer
Hotel Star Rating: N/A
Meals Included: No Food
Your driver will pick you up from the hotel and take you to the airport for your departure flight. Eleven days, four cities, one route that started at the Great Wall and ended at the Bund. You‘ve traveled from imperial history to Avatar mountains to neon skylines – and that’s the point.
Travel Date and Price (USD per person)
| Month | Available Date | Price | Book The Tour |
|---|
Included & Excluded
From USD 2314 per person
- The price is based on two people sharing a double room. If you prefer a single room, please contact us for a quote.
- Price may vary depending on exchange rates, travel dates, and hotel class.
- Prices may vary depending on the season and promotional activities. Please consult your advisor for details.
Price Includes:
- Comfortable hotel with daily breakfast (twin room)
- Professional English-speaking local tour guide
- Air-conditioned private coach throughout the tour
- Entrance tickets to all listed attractions and activities
- Lunches as specified in the itinerary
- Domestic flights and high-speed train tickets
- One travel accident insurance per person
Cancellation Policy
We understand that travel plans may change. Please review our cancellation policy below:
- Free cancellation if canceled 60 days or more before the tour starts
- 5% of total tour cost if canceled 45-59 days before departure
- 10% of total tour cost if canceled 30-44 days before departure
- 25% of total tour cost if canceled 15-29 days before departure
- 45% of total tour cost if canceled 7-14 days before departure
- 100% of total tour cost if canceled less than 7 days before departure
Date of Arrivial
What Our Clients Say?
Based on 10,000+ traveler reviews
Daniel Dorothea
Canada
Reviewed on April 29,2025
Shopping on Nanjing Road in Shanghai was just amazing! It's truly the "First Commercial Street of China", where tradition and modernity blend perfectly. You can find awesome souvenirs and experience the trendy vibes in cool stores. The neon lights at night are just spectacular, shining bright like Times Square in New York. The food here is incredible too. I had a feast for my taste buds. Shanghai, I'll definitely be back!
Destination(s):
Shanghai
Date of
Experience:
May 08,2024
Elvis Eva
Canada
Reviewed on June 20,2025
As a solo traveler from Canada, I was nervous about navigating China alone—but this 11-day tour was PERFECT! From hiking the Great Wall at sunrise (Day 3) to gasping at the Terracotta Army (Day 5), every day delivered ‘pinch-me’ moments. The real showstopper? Zhangjiajie’s Avatar Mountains (Day 7)! Our guide made the stone pillars come alive with stories.
Massive thanks for handling all logistics—bullet train tickets, entry passes, car! And the 4-star hotels surprised me.
Destination(s):
Beijing Xian Zhangjiajie Shanghai
Date of
Experience:
June 02,2025
Simon
America
Reviewed on May 29,2025
Our 2-day Zhangjiajie tour was beyond spectacular! As someone who’s visited Beijing and Shanghai for work, this trip revealed China’s wild, magical heart. Day 1 in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park felt like stepping onto Pandora—I’m a huge Avatar fan, and Yuanjiajie’s floating peaks left me breathless. The misty pillars and lush valleys like pure movie magic!
Then came Fenghuang Ancient Town, we eat dinner beside the thundering waterfall. It seems Unreal! The night views of stilt houses glowing over the river were straight from a fairy tale.
For fellow Avatar lovers and adventure seekers: Don’t miss this bucket-list experience! 10/10 would return.
A Well-Traveled Film Buff, May 2025
Destination(s):
Zhangjiajie
Date of
Experience:
May 08,2025
