* Land prices are per person, double occupancy in deluxe/best avail. hotels. Prices include coach class China domestic airfare, most meals, all transfers, and Chinese visa processing. As of Jan 21, 2008, the Chinese authority has increased visa processing  fees for all US citizens by $80 US dollars, this fee will be added as extra  to your total land price.

* This tour is fully escorted* in southwestern China by an English-speaking professional tour manager and is guided by an English-speaking local tour guide in each city.

* For international airfare, please contact your own travel agent or Access China Tours.

Day 1   Shanghai

Arrive at Shanghai airport. Meet your tour guide and transfer to your hotel in downtown. Rest and recover from the jet-lag.
Portman Ritz-Carlton Shanghai

Day 2   Shanghai g Kunming

Transfer to airport and take a late morning flight to Kunming. Upon arrival, enjoy a brief City Tour. Learn more about the tour and your fellow travelers at an Evening Reception.

Tonight's dinner is the Special Regional Cuisine in a local restaurant.
Green Lake Hotel   <B-D>

Day 3   Kunming g Jianshui Your adventure into the less visited China begins today when you board a vehicle and head south from Kunming. On the way, stop by and tour the charming Fuxian Lake and the enchanting Xiushan Park with a magnificent view of the Qilu Lake. Arrive Jianshui in late afternoon. The city has a long history and many of the old structures and houses in town reveal the prosperity it enjoyed in the old times. After checking in at your hotel, your guide will takes you on a leisure walk in Zhu Family Garden, a spacious collection of attractive halls, pot plants, and a tea house, recently renovated to splendid condition. Zhu Family Garden Hotel   <B-L-D>

Day 4   Jianshui

You begin today's exploration in the old section of the city.

First visit the Confucius Temple (or Confucius Academy). A series of halls with accomplished interlocking wooden eaves and fine carved screen doors fill the compound, while some elderly stone statues of goats, lions and elephants stand around the grounds.

You also tour the ancient Chaoyang Gate, the Qing-era Twin Dragon Bridge and Swallow Cave, an immense natural limestone cavern hidden in the canyon of Hujiang River.
Zhu Family Garden Hotel   <B-L>

Day 5   Jianshui g Yuanyang Travel by vehicle to Yuanyang, where the world's most beautiful Rice Terraces and hut villages blanket the landscape. The terraced fields present an imposing image with their immense size of sheer drops of varying levels. Make sure to bring your camera to capture some of the fascinating views. The ethnic Hani People have been cultivating this land for over 2,500 years and you will have the opportunity to visit a couple of their villages. Yunti Hotel   <B-L-D> Day 6   Yuanyang g Shilin

Take a few more nice shots of the rice terraces this morning and then travel to Shilin by road, passing Yunnan's wine country - MiLe County.

Arrive in Shilin in the afternoon and begin your exploration of Naigu Stone Forest - magnificent view of countless stone pillars forming a dense forest.
Stone Forest Hotel   <B-L-D>

Day 7   Shilin g Guiyang

This morning, you go to see the Dadieshui - an 88-meter-high waterfall thundering in the green gully.

Later, you travel to Kunming airport and take an early afternoon flight to Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province.

After a short rest in the hotel, you will venture out to explore the city.

Take a walk tour through the bustling Flower Market and then stop by the two elegant Ming-era buildings Jiaxiu Tower and Wenchang Pavilion.

Enjoy a Local Cuisine Dinner.
Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel   <B-D>

Day 8   Guiyang g Huangguoshu Take a morning walk in the forested Qianling Park, where a charming Hongfu Temple sits on top of the hill. Travel by vehicle to Huangguoshu. On the way, stop by Anshun and visit the Confucius Temple, a treasure house of stone sculpture. You will also be given a tour at the Dragon Palace, a huge and extended lime stone cave system with underground rivers, waterfalls, and strangely shaped stalactites and stalagmites. Arrive at the Huangguoshu Waterfall in late afternoon.

The Baishui River cuts an unpredictable course here, zigzagging across the land, sweeping over the cliffs and disappearing underground.
Huangguoshu Hotel   <B-L-D>

Day 9   Huangguoshu

The Huangguoshu area is full of natural attractions especially waterfalls due to its Karst geological formation. Snail Waterfall, Yinlian Zhuitan, and Dishuitan Waterfall are just a few of dozens more.

In addition, the ethnic culture is rich and lively in this region. Visit Shitouzhai Village to see the multi-storey stone houses of the ethnic Buyi People, who are experts in batik-making and wax printing.

In the afternoon, take an excursion to Suoga Village, home of the Long Horn Miao Tribe, to experience their unique ethnic culture.
Huangguoshu Hotel   <B-L-D>

Day 10   Huangguoshu g Zhaoqing

Transfer to Guiyang Airport this morning for an early afternoon flight to Guangzhou. Upon arrival, transfer to Zhaoqing, a scenic city on the banks of Xijiang River. This historic city has preserved a lot of structures such as the Old City Wall, pagodas, towers, temple, and mosques.

After checking in at the hotel, take a leisure walk in downtown before going to a hearty Cantonese Dinner in a local restaurant.
Starlake Hotel   <B-L-D>

Day 11   Zhaoqing g Kaiping Zhaoqing is well known throughout China for its two scenic attractions. You begin the exploration with a visit to Star Lake Park, which contains the renowned Seven Star Rocks and the lakes around them. Seven monoliths with steep surfaces stand by the lake like the Big Dipper. The rocks with their lush vegetation covers set off the silver liquid of the lake in a most picturesque way. You then travel to the northeast of the city to enjoy the

vistas in the Dinghushan Nature Preserve. It is a range of heavily forested mountains and there are at least 1,700 types of plants growing in the preserve. In the hills there are lakes, waterfalls, temples and pavilions. Two temples on the mountains were built during the Tang and Ming dynasties respectively.

Late afternoon, travel by vehicle to Kaiping and check in hotel upon arrival.
Everjoint Peninsula Hotel   <B-L-D>

Day 12   Kaiping The county of Kaiping has hundreds of Diaolou ("Castle Towers") - unique four to seven storey residencial towers built by returned overseas Chinese mostly in the 19th century.  Each of these buildings is different from the other and it is a feast to the eye to see these one-of-a-kind architecture standing in the middle of rice paddies and among bamboo groves. Local Cuisine Dinner tonight. Everjoint Peninsula Hotel   <B-L-D> Day 13   Kaiping g Hong Kong Travel by motorcoach to Guangzhou this morning and connect an express train to Hong Kong. Transfer to hotel upon arrival and you are at leisure for the rest of the day. Kowloon Shangri-la Hotel   <B> Day 14   Return Home Transfer to airport and fly home.   <B>