Post Congress Tours

Tour 1: 11 to 15 June 2010
5 Days Xian and Beijing

Day 1 – Hong Kong – Xian
Flight from Hong Kong to Xian and transfer to a four star hotel. Day of leisure and overnight in Xian.

Day 2 – Xian - Beijing
Breakfast at hotel and full day terra cotta tour with lunch at museum. Uncovered in 1974 by peasants digging a well, the terracotta warriors are Xian’s greatest and most important attraction. The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huangdi, ordered the making of the warriors. In the main and most impressive vault, the figures are arranged in typical battle formation in 11 columns comprised of officers, soldiers holding spears and swords (many of them authentic weapons), and others steering horse-drawn chariots. Only about 650 of the 7,000 figures have been restored. After lunch, transfer to the airport for flight to Beijing. Upon arrival in Beijing, transfer to a four star hotel. Overnight.

Day 3 – Beijing
Full day tour to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square with lunch at local restaurant and Great Wall (bada ling section): Tiananmen Square is the largest of its sort in the world. It has
long been a gathering place for locals and visitors alike. On the north side of the square is the Rostrum. It was from the terrace of the Rostrum on October 1, 1949 where Chairman Mao Zedong who announced to the world the founding of the People’s Republic of China. To the east of the Tiananmen Square is the Chinese History Museum and Chinese Revolutionary Museum. To the west is the Great Hall of People. Back to the south is the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall built in 1977. Each day many tourists from home and abroad will come to pay homage to him. The Forbidden City (Imperial Palace), directly behind the Rostrum, was home to 24 emperors beginning with its creation by Emperor Yongle in 1420 until the last Qing emperor, Puyi, left in 1924. The entire complex consists of approximately 10,000 rooms in which an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people lived including 3,000 eunuchs, as well as maids and concubines, all within 170 acres. Behind walls more than 30 feet high and within the 160-foot moat, complex rules and rituals dictated life in the Imperial Palace. Strictly off-limits to Chinese ordinary people (hence the name) the gates today lead to a fascinating display of Chinese history in what is probably the best-preserved site of classical Chinese architecture. One of the wonders of the world, and the only man-made structure that can be seen from the moon, the Great Wall is an early testimony of the human power to build in the harshest of terrains. As you stand on the top tower and look at the wall snaking its way across the tops of the mountains, close your eyes for a moment and see in your mind’s eye the ancient armies locked in combat, and hear the whistle of arrows and the clang of striking swords. It is a place to reflect upon the past the wonder about the future. The Chinese name for the Great Wall is Wan Li Chang Cheng, or “the Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li.” The first sections were built as early as the fifth century B.C. when a number of Chinese states in the north were fighting against each other and occasionally against the northern “barbarian”. It was not until the unification of the empire under Qin Shi Huang Di in B.C. 221 that the various sections of the Wall were linked up. It is said that more than 300,000 men worked for ten years to complete it. The wall has a pounded earth interior with stone facing walls and stone roadway along the top. It was built wide enough to allow a brace of five horses to gallop between the battlements and was thus used to convey soldiers, arms, and food with great speed to various parts of the northern frontier. From the sixth century to the fourteenth the wall was abandoned and fell into disuse but after the Mongols took China and they were repulsed eventually by the Ming in 1368.

The emperor decided to rebuild the wall. The rebuilding and restoration continued up until the sixteenth century. However, when the Manchu armies captured China and the Qing Dynasty ruled (1644 - 1911), the wall was again abandoned and fell into ruin. It has now been restored at three famous passes and you may visit one of them, Badaling, located about 40 miles from Beijing. Dinner on own and overnight at a four star hotel.