Jade dragon

We do not limit you in choosing an air carrier - you can fly with any airline and from any city, but of course everyone will be calmer if we arrive in China together. In 2012, the most convenient option (Moscow-Kyiv-Beijing, flight VV181) was offered by the Ukrainian carrier Aerosvit (which has now left the market). The flight cost 700-800 dollars, the “Kiev” and “Moscow” part of the group arrived in China together on the same plane, which was very convenient. If you decide to fly differently, you can join the group already in Beijing, at the hotel.

The flight Kyiv-Beijing lasts about 8 hours. They feed you on the plane :)

The plane lands around 5 am, we go through security, change money (minimum $1,500 per person), and catch a taxi. By 7 we will already be at the hotel, or rather at the hostel. We throw our things, have breakfast and immediately take the metro into the city for sightseeing.

Let's start with the Qianmen shopping street (the most colorful historical building), then cross the largest square in the world, Tiananmen, and enter the Forbidden City of Gugong - the residence of the Chinese emperors. After several hours of wandering through the imperial labyrinths, we will move to Beihai Park to look at the city from above (there is an excellent pagoda on a man-made hill).

Towards evening we will find ourselves on the famous Wangfujing Street (shops, souvenirs, exotic food). Let's go to celebrate the victory over everyday life (the beginning of our vacation) at the specialized Peking duck restaurant "Quanjuide". We return to the hostel and sleep like the dead.

We have breakfast at the hostel, pack our backpacks, and load into a custom minibus. He will take us for rides all day.

First we go (1.5 hours) to the Great Wall of China (Mutianyu section). Things remain on the bus, we go up the wall on a cable car, walk along it for 2 hours, and go down on a toboggan (a cross between a bobsled and a roller coaster).

Then we move (again 1.5 hours) to the Summer Palace of the Emperor. Here we have lunch, walk around the park and go boating for a couple more hours.

In the evening, a minibus takes us to Beijing to the railway station. We sleep on the Beijing-Xi'an train.

In the morning we arrive in Xi'an. We change to a bus and get to Huashan National Park in a couple of hours. Here is the main of the five sacred Taoist mountains is Mount Huashan (height 2160 meters). For centuries, sages have mastered the art of merging with nature here, those who renounced the world achieved enlightenment.

We climb the mountain by cable car (with backpacks). We begin a circular route along all 4 sacred peaks of the massif. When we get tired of walking along paved, equipped paths, we turn onto the “Road in the Clouds” (also known as the “path of death”), leading to the hermit’s cave. Those who wish will be able to walk over the abyss on planks, holding on to chains driven into the rocks.

We spend the night in a shelter under one of the peaks of Huashan.

In the morning we watch a fantastic sunrise on Mount Huashan. We finish walking around the sacred peaks and go down on the cable car. We take a bus to one of the wonders of the world - the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, in which there are eight thousand clay (terracotta) warriors. There we leave our things in the storage room and wander around the pavilions of the Terracotta Army Museum for several hours.

In the evening we arrive in Xi'an, the ancient capital of China, check into a hostel and go for a walk along the exotic streets of the Muslim Quarter. On the way we see the fortress walls, the Bell and Drum Towers.

Early in the morning we fly (about 1.5 hours flight) to Jiuzhaigou National Park. The airport is located in the mountains at an altitude of 3000 meters. There are yaks here and everything is very similar to Tibet or high mountain Nepal.

We take a bus (2 hours) to the entrance to the national park. There we check into a hostel, drop off our things, and buy tickets to the national park.

Jiuzhaigou National Park (Valley of Nine Tibetan Villages) considered one of the most beautiful places in the world. Large quantity waterfalls, colorful lakes, bamboo forests and inaccessible cliffs will leave no one indifferent. According to legend, the devil broke the mirror of the goddess here and its 118 fragments became lakes. If the number of lakes is known, then The waterfalls are innumerable.

Today we will explore the first part of the park (6 km on foot and 30 km by excursion bus) and return to the village in the evening.

We continue to explore the lakes and waterfalls of Jiuzhaigou. On a tourist bus we drop into the upper reaches of a neighboring, yet unexplored valley, and go down through the Primeval Forest (that’s what it’s called, I didn’t come up with it), Swan Lake, Pearl Falls and other attractions with colorful names :)

By lunchtime we return to the village, pack our things, and move to the town of Songpan (2.5 hours). We spend the night in a hostel.

Even before dawn we leave for Huanglong National Park (2 hours on the road). Here we will see giant calcite baths (like in Pamukkale), colorful lakes, many waterfalls, We will visit an ancient Tibetan monastery and go to the foot of Xuebao Peak (5560 m). The length of the walking part of the route is 15 km, time - 6 hours.

In the evening we have a plane to Chengdu (1 hour flight).

In the morning we will visit the nursery where giant and red pandas are kept. All giant pandas are the property of China, and only a few zoos the world can keep them. We will watch the unhurried calm life of good-natured bamboo bears, and look at the frisky little ones pandas (in English they are called "firefox").

Next we will go to Leshan (2 hours) and look at the giant Buddha, 70 meters high. Buddhist monks spent 90 years carving Buddha out of a rock on slopes of the Minjiang River. To descend to Buddha we will have to overcome seven flights of steep stone stairs and seven crowds of Chinese pilgrims :) In the evening we move to the foot of Mount Emeishan (1 hour on the way).

Mountain Emeishan is considered one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China. On Bodhisattva Puxian (Ind. Samantabhadtra) achieved enlightenment on this mountain, who sat on a white elephant. At the top of this mountain stands a gigantic a golden statue of a multi-headed Bodhisattva, above which one can sometimes see a rainbow halo, which The Chinese call it "Buddha's light".

We will take a cable car to the top of this mountain (3099 m above sea level), which resembles an island in the ocean clouds Many people sang the beauty of this mountain; according to legend, a meeting of Confucius and Lao Tzu. The mountain became one of the most important centers Buddhism in China, on the slopes of the mountain there are many Buddhist monasteries, some of which we will visit today.

In the evening we return to Chengdu (3 hours by minibus). Overnight in a hostel.

In the morning we go to Chengdu airport and fly to Lijiang (1.5 hours). Lijiang is the ancient city of Yunnan, the eternal land of spring. Even in winter The temperature here is 20 degrees. From here we will move to Qiaotou, where The famous trekking along the Tiger Leaping Gorge begins.

The Yangtze River in these places is sandwiched by the giant spurs of the Eastern Himalayas, On both sides there are impregnable five-thousanders. Tiger Leaping Gorge considered one of the deepest in the world: depth from the water's edge is almost four kilometers! Our path will pass along the upper path, which goes at an altitude of 2500 meters above sea level. We have to walk more than 10 km (4 hours, long climb). In the evening we will spend the night in a shelter in the village Naxi people

In the morning we will continue our journey along Tiger Leaping Gorge. Approximately another 3 hours of trekking. Then, leaving our backpacks in one of the shelters, we will make a dizzying descent to the very bottom of the gorge - to the roaring streams of the Yangtze. According to legend, it was here that a tiger, pursued by hunters, jumped over a raging river.

We return to our backpacks and have lunch. We take a minibus to the old ferry across the Yangtze. This is a picturesque place, with a post-apocalyptic landscape in the spirit of Kin-dza-dza. We cross the river and go to spend the night in a neighboring village - an unexpected oasis in the middle of the dusty desert.

Today we will go to Jade Dragon Mountain (5500 m), which rises above Lijiang. On the cable car we We will climb straight to the glacier, to a height of 4680 meters.

We return to Lijiang (1.5 hours). Walk through the most beautiful ancient city, where goldfish swim in river channels. We buy souvenirs.

Shortly before midnight we go to the station - we have a train to Kunming (we sleep on the train).

We arrive in Kunming, leave our backpacks at the hostel, and take a chartered minibus to go on an excursion to the Shilin stone forest.

This is a real stone labyrinth. Bizarre weathering patterns frozen here in a variety of figures. In order not to get lost, there are entire maps of this city (and you can still get lost).

Having got out of the stone wilds, we move to the Jiuxiang cave. This incredible underground complex with raging rivers and huge stalactite halls is a favorite place for Chinese filmmakers.

In the morning we fly to Beijing (3-4 hours in the air). We check into a familiar hostel and have lunch.

We spend the rest of the day shopping and looking for souvenirs. Yabaolu Street, Silk and Pearl Markets, Wangfujing, already familiar to us. If you are not interested in souvenirs, you can look Olympic venues, go to the zoo or visit a dozen more temples :)

Departure from Beijing at 6:30. We are flying to catch the sun, so after a 9-hour flight to Kyiv we will arrive at 9:55 am the same day. Muscovites fly out a little later and arrive home at 6 pm.