China & Yangtze River Cruise with Hong Kong

average review

BEIJING, XIAN, SHANGHAI, GUILIN, YANGTZE RIVER CRUISE AND HONG KONG

How can you begin to discover a country so vast, so ancient, so diverse? Our China tour with Yangtze River cruise doesn’t waste a moment, ensuring that you’ll experience the most intriguing, renowned sights on what is truly a trip of a lifetime. Count on your smarTours® guides to navigate the innumerable details of travel in China and add nuanced narrative to everything you’ll see—from Tiananmen Square to the Terracotta Army, the Great Wall to giant pandas. We’ll break the trip to meander along the fabled Yangtze, China’s longest river, on a scenic four-night cruise. And we’re not done yet! We wisely complete this escorted package with a visit to colorful, hectic, exciting Hong Kong.

Itinerary at a Glance

Tour Itinerary:

  • 2 Nights in Shanghai
  • 3 Nights in Beijing
  • 2 Nights in Xian
  • 4-Night Yangtze River Cruise
  • 2 Nights in Guilin
  • 3 Nights in Hong Kong

Tour Highlights

  • The Bund (Shanghai)
  • Tiananmen Square (Beijing)
  • Great Wall (Beijing)
  • Terracotta Army (Xian)
  • Yangtze River Cruise
  • Li River (Guilin)
  • Victoria Peak (Hong Kong)
  • Optional Macau Excursion

Your Tour Includes

  • Optional round-trip airfare from Los Angeles (LAX) or New York (JFK) including taxes, fees & fuel surcharges
  • All intra-China flights and ground transportation
  • Accommodation at deluxe hotels
  • Deluxe Yangtze River cruise aboard Victoria Cruises Premier ship in outside cabin with picture window and private balcony.
  • 35 meals: 16 full-buffet American breakfasts, 10 lunches, and 9 dinners
  • Comprehensive sightseeing tours, admission fees included
  • All shore excursions
  • English-speaking Tour Director and local guides

Is this tour right for you? Find out What to Expect

Tour Itinerary

Map

Click the Day by Day itinerary above (or swipe on mobile devices) to see the experiences that await on each day of your tour.

Flights

Note: Flights may not be available on all departures.

You may have to book your own flights to the tour destination. If so, you are responsible for making your own way to the tour starting point, where you will meet your Tour Director. This is normally the first hotel in your itinerary.

You can find more details on the Before You Depart page.

Day 1: Arrive in Shanghai

Day 2: Shanghai

Day 3: Shanghai/Beijing

Day 4: Beijing and The Great Wall

Day 5: Beijing

Day 6: Beijing and Xian

Day 7: Xian & Terracotta Army

Day 8: Xian/Yichang/Yangtze River Cruiser

Day 9: Yangtze River Cruise

Day 10: Yangtze River Cruise

Day 11: Yangtze River Cruise

Day 12: Arrive in Chongqing/Disembark Ship/Guilin

Day 13: Guilin & Li River Cruise

Day 14: Guilin/Hong Kong

Day 15: Hong Kong

Day 16: Hong Kong

Day 17: Depart Hong Kong

Guided Tour Pricing

We are working diligently to secure future tour dates and pricing for this itinerary. Please fill out the "Request a Future Date" form linked below, and we will notify you once dates are available.

Optional Tours Customize your trip with these optional tours.

Enhance your trip with our recommended optional tours. Indicated optional tours are available to pre-book when you reserve your trip and can be added to your reservation up to final payment. This is the best option to guarantee your spot on your preferred optional tour! Optional tours require a minimum number of participants. Optional tours are non-refundable unless they do not operate.

Some optional tours can be purchased in-destination and may cost extra. The payment methods and currency information to purchase tours in-destination will be provided on final documentation.

Shanghai Acrobats Performance

Full-Day Hutong (Old Beijing) & Temple of Heaven Tour with Lunch

Macau Day Tour with Lunch

What to Expect

Max Group Size: 30 travelers

For more detailed information about this tour and destination, visit our Before You Depart section.

Reviews

Janet

1 year ago
This was our first trip with Smartours and it was incredible. My mom picked this trip and though China was not on my bucket list it turned out to be a truly remarkable trip. And am so glad we went. Our guide, John, was fantastic. . I loved that our tour had flexibility to stop at a few new places that had just been discovered. The hotels we stayed ard were quite luxurious. After China we went on a number of other Smartours which were all fantastic. I love that the groups are not large.

Mayuri P

3 years ago
This was my second tour with this company. We went on sept 24 through October 1st. Some days was very humid.
Flight was from LAX which made it very convenient.
Loved the history of China. The tour guide ‘Ma’ was pretty knowledgeable. Being vegetarian the food was very good.
Yangtze River Cruise was 4 days. Great natural beauty. The food and the service was awesome.
Looking forward to take more tours with Smartours.

Leslie

4 years ago
My husband and I took this tour, our first with smarTours, in September 2019 and it was amazing! The sights were incredible, the hotels were first class and our group was great, which made the experience even more enjoyable! We want to thank our guide, Jo, who helped to make the trip so special. It was a tour with so many details and numerous travel arrangements, but she managed them with ease and precision! She was like a mother to us all, keeping us on track and together (which wasn’t always easy!) and making sure we had the best possible experience. She was always cheerful, helpful, entertaining and very informative. Her personal stories and insights gave us a much better understanding of Chinese culture and history. Thank you to smarTours for putting together such a wonderful tour, but especially to Jo for making our first experience of China so memorable.

Adam Z

4 years ago
The China and Yangtze River Cruise with Hong Kong hits in a bit more than two weeks the highlights we think about regarding China. The fully packed itinerary led by a knowledgeable tour leader covers a myriad of historic, scenic and urban locations including shopping opportunities. The tour is an unrivalled value for the money.

Judy S

4 years ago
Superb tour, with a wonderful guide (Oscar) and excellent sights, hotels and food--at a GREAT price...We couldn't have been happier and will absolutely use Smartours again and again...

Steven

4 years ago
Outstanding from start to finish. Oscar (Bo) was a wonderful guide and took care of everyone on the trip like they were family. We saw SO MUCH--for less $$ than the competing groups that we saw doing the same itinerary. The hotels were top-drawer, with excellent breakfast buffets...And, if you like Chinese the rest of the meals were very good. The Yangzte River cruise was wonderful. We arranged our own air and came in a day early to Shanghai and left a day late in Hong Kong and enjoyed the downtime from flight over and afterwards from the fast-paced trip. We had great local guides and could not have been more pleased--except next time we won't go over the May-Day holiday(:-) Highly reccommend Smartours

Ian a

4 years ago
We want to thank our guide, Harry, for making our recent China trip most memorable. Harry was so efficient, kind and helpful. Thank you Smart tours for providing a China trip that highlights the many areas of the greatness of China. It was a well rounded trip that covered all the sites one would hope to see. We would definitely recommend Smart Tours on this amazing trip

Donald

4 years ago
We would like to submit this review of our China trip leaving on Sept. 5, 2019.
We enjoyed every aspect of this trip. The places visited were all very interesting to us.
The Hotels and meals were good. Our Yangtse River Cruise was wonderful and we opted for an upgraded room .

The most important part of this tour, was our Tour Director, Jo. She was very informative, courteous and friendly. She took great care to help us in every way. Jo was one of the best Tour Directors we have experienced with smarTours or any other Tour Company.

As we mentioned in our review of our New Zealand/Australia tour taken earlier this year, this tour of China will be our last with smarTours due to our very bad experience with our New Zealand/Australia Tour Director.



Donald and Susan Abrams

Cindy D

4 years ago
I have nothing but the highest phase for this tour and experience. What made it truly outstanding was our guide Harry Sun Lao. He and his crackerjack time of local guides made this a trip of s lifetime for my husband, grandson and I. The sites, the meals were great. Harry set expectations carefully and in his patient and serene manner handled all the various personalities. While it was hot ( summer in China of course), crowded with summer student visitors, we enjoyed learning so much about the country and its wonderful people. In particular Loved the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Li River and Hong Kong. My only feedback is that the smartour office appears disorganized and we got copies of documents with errors so we learned to review in detail. We are still trying to get our FF miles posted and resolved. I would strongly recommend this wonderful tour.

John

4 years ago
Excellent in many ways, especially our tour guide who went out of her way to make sure our needs were taken care of.