2 Days Best Chengde Tour from Beijing

Full Itinerary Day by day

Day 1 Transfer to Chengde from Beijing (L)

This morning, you will take an early high speed train to Chengde (about 1.5hrs), the private backyard garden of Beijing. Upon arrival at Chengde train station, your local tour guide and drive will meet you and escort you to start your Chengde discovery tour!

On the way to Chengde, you will drop by Two-Pagoda Peaks where two giant rocky peaks stand together with two similar ancient pagodas on the flat tops. Formed by water and wind erosion, the twin stone pillars have existed over forty million years. And, the two brick pagodas were confirmed to be constructed during Liao Dynasty over 1,000 years ago, one is well-preserved with a golden statue of sitting Buddha and another one is already in ruin. Whether you take a leisure hike or cable car to visit this spot, you must wonder about how the Khitans completed such work in the ancient time without obvious access up to the summit.

And then, drive about half an hour to Chengde Mountain Resort, a famous royal summer resort of Qing Dynasty that has been evaluated as one of China’s Four Famous Gardens & one of Three Greatest Ancient Architectures and a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site with Eight Outer Temples around. Built between 1703 and 1792 for a total of 89 years by Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors for temporary stay during autumn hunting, the resort is a huge complex consisting of scenic areas of palaces, administrative and ceremonial buildings, gardens and different natural landscapes. Many emperors of the Qing Dynasty spent nearly half a year staying here, processing government affairs and enjoying summer holidays. Kangxi and Qianlong Emperor even named 36 scenic spots each to express their great affection for it.

You will enter from Lizheng Gate to firstly visit the Palace Area. Take your time to visit Chengde Mountain Resort Museum (former Zheng Palace), Songhezhai and Wanhesongfeng Hall to trace back to previous royal offices and living quarters. Next, walk to enjoy peaceful green lakes embraced by many shoreside lush trees and ancient buildings, which will refresh your mind and offer you a pleasant summer retreat like Chinese ancient royals. Have a leisurely stroll along the lakes and visit Yanyu Tower to view elegant Jiangnan-style architectures with handwriting of Qianlong Emperor. Plain Area is where the ancient emperors held horse racings and met and feted the nobility of the minority and religious leaders and foreign envoys. You can walk through vast grassland and dense forests in Wanshu Garden and see the Mongolian yurts and Liuhe Pagoda, a nine-storey Buddhist stupa built by Qianlong Emperor to repay thanksgiving of his mother which imitated the shape of Great Bao’en Temple in Nanjing.

After about 3 hours’ sightseeing, go to your hotel for rest.

Nightlife ideas: go to enjoy the evening show of "Grand Ceremony of Kangxi" which fully demonstrates the historical scene of the heyday of the Qing Dynasty, and expresses the brilliant life of Emperor Kangxi.

Day 2 Chengde & Back to Beijing (B,L)

After breakfast, you will be taken to visit major temples of the Eight Outer Temples. Begin with Putuo Zongcheng Temple, the biggest architecture complex among the Eight Outer Temples, which are components of World Cultural Heritage with Chengde Mountain Resort. The temple, located near the resort, was built to celebrate Qianlong Emperor’s 60th birthday and his mother Empress Dowager Chongqing’s 80 birthday. Modeled after the Potala Palace in Tibet, this Tibetan Buddhist temple cluster is also known as “Little Potala Palace”.

Enter the front gate, you will see a red-walled Tablet Pavilion with three archaic steles from Qianlong Emperor, and followed by Five-Pagoda Gate, a typical Tibetan Buddhist doorway set with five different colored Lamaist pagodas. Continue to visit Glazed Archway, an artistic Qing Dynasty multi-colored gateway, guarded by two stone-carved elephants at sides. Hike further to visit the flat-roofed white oblong towers spreading on the hillside and finally get to the majestic Great Red Palace, the main body and most eye-catching building of Putuo Zongcheng Temple. In this highest spot, you can see colorful pray flags and impressive circled red walls covered by lots of small glass windows and glazed Buddhist niches. Go upstairs to visit Wanfaguiyi Hall, enjoy unique Chinese and Tibetan style architectures like the exquisite undulating ridges, eaves lined with ancient animals and hanging Tibetan Buddhist bells on each corner, golden rooftop with shinning fish scale-like tiles. From the elegant Cihangpudu Pavilion, you can catch a panoramic view of the “Little Potala Palace” and Mountain Resort and Qingchui Peak (Hammer Rock) nearby.

Later, move to Puning Temple (Temple of Universal Peace), an over 250-year-old Buddhist temple found by Qianlong Emperor to commemorate two victories of the ethnic rebellions. This magnificent temple simulated from the Samye Monastery, a sacred temple of Tibet. It is a fusion of both Chinese and Tibetan featured architectures. The highlight is the 27.21-meter and 110-ton gold lacquered wooden statue of Thousand Armed and Eyed Bodhisattva enshrined in the Dachengzhige Pavilion.

Your last stop is Pule Temple (Temple of Universal Happiness) in the Qingchui Peak National Forest Park. It was built in 1766 during the Qianlong Emperor period for showing respect of minorities’ religion and reinforcing central authority’s rule. Admire the traditional Chinese architectural techniques and make pilgrimage to the statue of Cakrasamvara Tantra worshiped in the central Mandala.

Tour ends. You will be transferred to catch your high speed train back to Beijing.

The quotation for this trip is from Request Per Person

1. This price is for one person, based on a group of 2 adults sharing one standard double-bed room in 4-star hotel and traveling with our private tour in low seasons.
2. This price is subject to change according to your traveling season, group size, hotel class, change of activities in your itinerary and possible fluctuation of currency exchange rate. If you want a lower price, you can get more people to join you, or use economy class hotels.
3. This price is only valid to March 31, 2022.
4. Reference exchange rate of USD 1= RMB 6.65. The final quote is based on current exchange rate. It may change according to the currency fluctuation, while the RMB quotation will be remained the same.

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Check What our Customers Say...

Hi Wendy,

Helen is INCREDIBLE! Love her energy and enthusiasm. Tour has been very good so far; now we are on our way to Yabuli. Oh it has been an absolute blast so far. Helen was a lifesaver in Ya Bu Li!

Ada was also very nice, but there was, unfortunately, a very big language barrier, as she had difficulty with English.

Thank you Wendy. Just finished the tour today; was a great trip overall.

Varun - 2021.01.18‚ India, January 18, 2021

Hey, Vivien.

We arrived safely and have successfully checked into the room at the Holiday Inn Beidahu. It’s a beautiful hotel and the room is clean and spacious. Thank you so much! The trip was absolutely wonderful. Everything was smooth and our health codes remain green.

Jeffrey - 2021.01.18‚ USA, January 18, 2021

Hey, good morning.

Just wanted to let you know that my trip to jiuhuashan was nice.

Jack - 2021.01.18‚ USA, January 18, 2021

你好 Lyn,

一月十五号晚上我回北京了，我在黑龙江的时候玩儿的很开心了！风景特别美，所以我想发一些照片给您看一下那个地方的风景。如果我有机会的话我还要去，谢谢！

我觉得什么都好，都很顺利。导游和司机的性格也好，谢谢！

Sincerely,

Millicent Thapa

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Millicent - 2021.01.15‚ USA, January 15, 2021

Hi Riley. No problem. Happy to provide feedback. 

Zhangjiajie is beautiful and there are so many activities - I will definitely suggest it to our friends, though perhaps when it is a little warmer. Favourite activities include: Yellow cave, Tianzi Mountain, Golden Whip Stream, Glass Bridge and the walk along the bottom of the canyon, river cruise in FengHuang.

Lily was lovely and very accommodating. We enjoyed her stories about the local customs. Her English is excellent - as is the driver's. Both made sure we had no problems checking into the hotels and made our flight - even though it meant they had to wait at the airport for 1.5 hours. 

The tours were great, and we were really grateful to have Lily guiding us. The only thing I would change would be to include some breaks in a warm place with a cup of tea. The activities meant a long time walking in the cold. I would prefer to walk faster and therefore have more time to rest. Also the lunches were very late some days. 

We were hoping for a slightly more relaxed holiday, so I would take out some activities (e.g. going to the base of the big hole and going up to Huangshi Village). It would be helpful to have some estimated times for how long each activity may take so we can decide if we want to do it or not.

FengHuang was really cool. I wish we had spent one more night there. Lily had excellent knowledge of the history of the town. However, the historical sites we visited were not really that interesting to us, particularly as a lot of it related to quite recent history. For us that time would be better spent exploring the lovely winding streets - especially as it was a sunny day.

The accommodation was very lovely and very comfortable and warm. The only thing I would like, and it may not be possible, is to have some western-style breakfast options - toast, cereal, English Breakfast tea, orange juice.

Finally, we are so grateful to you for rearranging our flights when they were cancelled so late. We would not have enjoyed the stress of trying to find and book new flights ourselves. That is a really valuable service!

I think that covers it. Overall it was a really lovely holiday. Zhangjiajie is an amazing place and it was great to experience some of China's natural beauty and impressive infrastructure like the cable cars, glass bridge and outdoor elevator.

Thanks again for organising it for us so quickly! We will be in touch when we are ready to go on our next trip.

 

Regards,

Rachel

Rachel - 2021.01.15‚ Australia, January 15, 2021

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