Ming China had two capitals, and this journey shows you both — their symmetry and their difference. The Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing and the Forbidden City in Beijing were built by the same emperor: one the soft south, the other the weight of the north. Four hours apart by high-speed rail.
Private airport transfer and hotel check-in.
Zhonghua Gate and the Ming wall; afternoon at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Presidential Palace.
Morning at the Nanjing Museum; afternoon Laomendong and the Yunjin Brocade Museum; evening boat on the Qinhuai.
Morning high-speed train to Beijing (about four hours), afternoon arrival and check-in.
Half a day inside the Forbidden City, the view from Jingshan, then Shichahai and the hutongs.
A full day at Mutianyu with the cable car, returning via the Bird's Nest and Water Cube.
Morning at the Temple of Heaven; afternoon at Yonghe Temple, the Confucius Temple and the Imperial Academy.
Morning at the Summer Palace, afternoon transfer to the airport.
Cities
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Nanjing · Suzhou · Hangzhou · Shanghai
Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden in Suzhou: two of China's four great gardens in one day
Culture
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Six Dynasties Capital
Zhonghua Gate: the largest surviving barbican in the world, where you can touch bricks laid six centuries ago
Landscape
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China's Finest Karst Landscape
The classic Li River cruise from Yangdi to Xingping — the view on the twenty-yuan note
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