7 Days Hunan Discovery Tour from Changsha

Full Itinerary Day by day

Day 1 Changsha Arrival

Welcome to Changsha, the Capital of Hunan Province! Upon your arrival, your local guide and driver will meet you at the arrival hall of the airport / railway station and escort you to your hotel in Changsha downtown. Your guide will help you check in. The rest of today is on your own to explore this city.

Arrival Ideas: Changsha Huanghua International Airport has flights from / to Beijing, Shanghai, Zhangjiajie, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Lijiang, Lanzhou, Lhasa, etc. While, high speed trains can go between Changsha and Zhangjiajie (3 hours), Wuhan (1.5 hours), Guilin (3 hours), Guiyang (3 hours), Huangshan (4 hours), Shanghai (5-5.5 hours), etc.

Day 2 Changsha (B, L)

Good morning! After breakfast, your guide and driver will meet you at your hotel and then escort you to visit Hunan Provincial Museum, the largest history and art museum in Hunan Province. It has over 180,000 artifacts which feature the cultural relic excavated from the world-famous Mawangdui Han Dynasty Tomb over 2,000 years ago, the bronze wares of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, cultural relics of Chu State, pottery and porcelain works from Various dynasties... Catch the chance to have a detailed look at the precious national treasures, like the wax statue of the complete female corpse discovered from Mawangdui Tomb, Silk Coat, the Colorful Painted Inner Coffin, Dahe Human Face Bronze Pot. From this museum, you can not only have a basic understanding of Chinese civilization along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River but also know the development of the civilization in Hunan Province as well as to appreciate the mysteries of Hunan culture.

Later, move to Orange Island Park. Also called Juzizhou, it is a place with the scenery of "snow on the river", one of the eight sceneries of ancient Xiaoxiang (Hunan). When Mao Zedong was standing at Juzizhou, he threw such a question to the vast sky - "asking the vast land, who will determine the ups and downs". He changed the process of Chinese history and showed special preference to Juzizhou. Enjoy a wonderful stroll, visit the famous massive sculpture of the "Young" Mao and see locals spending leisure time with the pleasant sightseeing here.

Then, visit Yuelu Academy at the foot of Yuelu Mountain, which is one of the four major academies in ancient China and called “one-thousand-year old academy” since it was built in 976 in Song Dynasty. Stroll at the traditional Chinese academic architectures with Chinese corridors, pavilions, courtyards, gardens, and admire artistic decorations combining in perfect. Go to China Academy Museum to watch exhibitions about the academic history and culture in China!

Day 3 Changsha - Shaoshan - Zhangjiajie (B, L)

After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel. Today, you’ll be transferred to Shaoshan - the hometown of Chairman Mao (China’s leader from 1949 until his death in 1976) with about 1.5 hours’ riding.

In the village of Shao Shan Chong, the “Great Helmsman” spent his early years. First, you’ll pay a visit to Dripping Water Cave. About 3 km northwest of the village, it is a very popular destination where, legend has it, Mao pondered over the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Enjoy the verdant natural scenery there and visit the villa Mao has lived, including the bedroom, office, meeting room, etc. Later, head to Former Residence of Mao Zedong where he was born and grew up.The house is a very common farmhouse built with mud bricks and tiles, exhibiting Mao Zedong’s family photos, daily house utensils, furnishing, and materials displaying Mao Zedong’s engagement in the revolutionary activities…here, you could get very close to the great man. Then, followed a trip to Mao Ancestral Temple where exhibits there include 100 pieces of Mao Zedong's manuscripts and 72 items of Mao's personal belongings.

After the tour in Shaoshan, transfer about 4 and a half hours to Zhangjiajie. Stay overnight in Zhangjiajie City.

Day 4 Zhangjiajie National Forest Park - Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge & Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon (B, L)

Today, after breakfast, you will be met by our guide and drive and then driven to start your exciting visit to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. You will first take the cable car up to Huangshi Village to appreciate the wide forest park on its peaks. The village site has an altitude of 1080 meters, which is praised for its similar charm of pillar forest of Colorado in the USA. Enjoying the flat the wide visual environment, it is so far the largest natural viewing deck for visitors for a perfect admiration of its various rising stones and hills. Enjoy your fresh walk to visit the top famous sights including Star Picking Stand, Five Finger Peak, and so on, and find those looking like bridge piers, etc. from a distance. Take cable car to get down.

Later, change your angle to explore the famous Golden Whip Stream deep in the valley. This totally 7.5 kilometers long brook is one of the most beautiful places in the whole forest park area. You’ll explore the essential part. Take an inspiring roam along the whispering pristine water on the paved path to immerse into tranquil wonderland with fresh air, colorful blooming flowers in different seasons, lush vegetation, etc. and be prepared to encounter with some wild monkeys.

After that, take a sightseeing bus to exit the park and be driven to Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon for about 40 minutes. Now, its your bold moment to take the challenge and walk on the transparent Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge to feel like walking on the clouds, which is the world longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge so far in the whole universe, with total length of 430 meters and height of 400 meters above the deep valley. After the thrilling moment, take the elevators and enjoy the Nuokeli Slideway to the valley bottom for a cooling down and please your both eyes with the fascinating natural sceneries of the lush forest, emerald lake, various vegetation, etc. at the popular Rainbow Square, Momo Cave, the Holy Spring Lake, etc.

About Zhangjiajie National Forest Park:

Located 32 kilometers from Zhangjiajie city, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park was the first national forest park in China, listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. The park is known for its odd-shaped peaks and rocks, exquisite forests, tranquil water, beautiful canyons, limestone caves and breathtaking views. Different scenery presents in different seasons. In spring, all flowers on mountains blossom and mountains are luxuriantly green. In summer, the forests flourish and are strongly fragrant. In autumn, the mountain slowly turns yellow and red with a sense of poetry at this time. In winter, travelers can marvel at the evergreen trees among the snowy landscape.

Day 5 Yuanjiajie - Tianzi Mountain (B, L)

On this day, after breakfast, visit Wulingyuan to get more highlights. First take a sightseeing bus to experience Bailong Elevator, the fastest elevator and also the tallest outdoor elevator in the world. Enjoy the 1.5 minutes to be shot from the valley bottom up to the pillar peak. And then, hike amongst the multiple erupting stone columns at Yuanjiajie Scenic Area and open the mysterious “Pandora World”. During the exciting hike, get a good preparation to have an enviable look at the South Sky Pillar of around 150 meters high, the authentic prototype inspiring the “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain”; enjoy the best scenery at Enchanting Platform with tens and hundreds of beautiful stone peaks similar to a lot of nutritious bamboo shoots towering from the ground; also, closely watch the peculiar First Bridge of the World that is naturally made with an only 5-meter long stone platform linking the two peaks together to form the rare world wonder.

Then, take the sightseeing bus to visit Tianzi Mountain. Walk to He Long Park there, which is the best viewing deck to admire very closely the incredible and magnificent view of odd stone peaks standing one after another. Most appealing pictures of the four wonders of Tianzi Mountain are photographed there, including the mists and clouds, moonlight, rays of sunshine and winter snow. Also, step a little further to Tianzi Pavilion nearby to enjoy the marvelous view and terrific sightseeing of the Xihai Peak Forest from another angle of view. After that, take the cool Tianzi Mountain Cable Car down with groups of rockery hills passing by outside your glass window, and then take the sightseeing bus to exit Wulingyuan Park.

After the exciting tour, your guide and driver will escort you to your hotel.

Day 6 Zhangjiajie Yellow Dragon Cave & Drive to Fenghuang (B, L)

After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel. The only stop in Zhangjiajie today is Yellow Dragon Cave in Suoxiyu Nature Reserve. Yellow Dragon Cave, also Huanglong Cave, is the underground-lost palace which praised as the most beautiful cave in the world by UNESCO Experts. With an area of 100,000 square meters, length of 7.6 kilometers, height of 140 meters, two underground rivers, four waterfalls, 13 caverns and 10,000 stalagmites and stalactites, it is a huge limestone cave. The Magic Needle and Chair of Dragon King are famous sights in the cave.

After the visiting, your guide and driver will escort to Fenghuang Ancient Town which is about 200 kilometers from Zhangjiajie, taking 3.5 hours for driving. Upon arrival, your guide will help you check in your hotel. When night falls, every old house lights up and the whole atmosphere becomes festive, colorful and amazing. Take a relaxing walk and appreciate the fabulous night view of this ancient town. 

Day 7 Fenghuang Ancient Town - Zhangjiajie Departure (B, L)

In this morning, you’ll have a nice tour in Fenghuang Ancient Town. With over 300 years’ history, it is located on the western edge of Hunan Province and next to Guizhou Province. Praised as the most beautiful tiny town in China, it sets an example of what villages were like before the start of modernization. In the town dozens of lanes are paved with stones that run between the wooden houses built on stilts. Generations of local people have stepped on the lanes and worn them down bit by bit.

Fenghuang Ancient Town offers a totally different day views which would really bring you back to ancient time. Have a slow walk and feel the calmness and zen of this beautiful place. Take a small boat ride on the Tuojiang River passing through the most essence part of the old town (from Beimen Pier to Longevity Palace) to imagine what life was going in the past. Visit Former Residence of Shen Congwen to listen to the beautifully novel of “Border Town” which is Shen Congwen's masterpiece for its brilliant portrayal of Chinese rural life before the Communist Revolution. Enjoy more memorable time to have a look at the landmark of the ancient town - Rainbow Bridge and explore East Gate Tower, Wanming Pagoda, etc.

In the afternoon, drive back to Zhangjiajie City and escort you to airport or train station to next destination. Service ends!

The quotation for this trip is from $1065 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 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, 2025.
4. Reference exchange rate of USD 1=RMB 7.00. 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.

How Our Teams Serve you at China Discovery

"Highest Standards of Quality and Honesty" is the core value of each specialized team at China Discovery.

Eveyone in our company is working hard for only one goal, which is to ensure the highest level of service, luxury, and attention to detail from the minute you begin planning your trip, to the day you return home.

1-on-1 Travel Consultant

Our travel consultants are professional, experienced and responsible, helping you from the very beginning to the end of your China trip!

After sending us an inquiry, one of our travel consultants will get back to you within 0.5~23.5 hrs. In the next few days, he/she will be working closely with you to formulate a customized tour plan, as well as providing professional suggestions based on your travel interests, time, and budget.

Beside, he/she will keep in contact with you during your entire tour in China, continually checking if everything is going well as planned.

We're working at Chengdu Bamboo International Tours, local based in Chengdu.

Local Tour Guides

Our local guide in every destination is not only very friendly, enthusiastic but also very informative and knowledgeable.

Once you arrive in the destination, the patient and punctual guides will pick you up and take you to get under skin of the city at your own pace. By in-depth discovery and explanation, they’ll show you more about the history, culture, customs and authentic local life. Throughout the journey, they're not only expert guides who take care of all the details but also fellow travelers who are dedicated to help you explore in comfort and style.

Our guides are passionate about what they do, and it shows all the way!

Local Drivers & Vehicle

Using our private transfer service makes you comfortable, relaxed and worry free all the way!

Our private service includes licensed drivers with many years’ driving experience and air-conditioned, non-smoking, clean and well-maintained cars/vans. Drivers are local, polite, friendly and helpful, taking you to your tourist sites, hotels, airport/train stations in safety. All kinds of vehicle are offered, and yours depends on the size of your group. Usually, we offer sedan cars, SUVs, business vans (MPV) and different types of buses, all with extra space for your luggage.

Our private transfer service guarantees you the highest comfort!

Comfortable & Homelike Hotels

In each destination, you’ll enjoy a comfortable stay in a great location!

The hotels we choose are based on star rating, great locations, well-equipped facilities, cozy bed, high quality service and guests’ feedbacks. Choices are a lot ranging from luxury 5 star, comfortable 4 star to budget 3 star. You could decide where to stay to best suit for your budget and likes. Generally, the hotels have both Western and Chinese breakfast with a wide choices.

If you have already got an ideal hotel, please feel free to tell our travel consultants and they'll book the hotel for you.

Have good sleep in our well-selected hotels in all the destinations of China.

Meals & Dining

We can satisfy all the dietary requirements no matter you want Chinese local food, western food, vegetarian food or muslin food.

The restaurants we will take you for lunch or dinner are all designated tourist restaurants approved by local tourist administration bureau. They have very good sanitary conditions and the food is prepared fresh and clean.

There will be some meals excluded in your itinerary as you like, and your private guide will be delighted to give you some suggestions and take you to the local restaurants to taste like Beijing Roast Duck, Xian Dumpling Dinner, Sichuan Hotpot, etc., if you are interested in local food tasting.

All the dining options will satisfy your stomach!

Check What our delighted customers are saying about our services

Hi Rita,

The best experience ever!!!! I fell in love.

I received your lovely card and cute gifts, thank you so much.

Done it! As always it’s my pleasure to hire your company services, see you in the next adventure.

Emmy

Emmy‚ Mexico, December 15, 2024

Hi Rita,

Please kindly see the feedback below.

We are a family of 7. This private tour package definitely met our expectations! Both tour guides (Chengdu- MAY & Chongqing-DAVID) provided us a very good service, both friendly and very flexible despite the change in our tour schedules. They were also very responsible and ensured our safety, meals and transports were well taken care of, especially since we have elderly and kids in our group. Both tour guides are very fluent in English too so it is very convenient for some of the non-chinese speakers in our group.

We will look for the same tour agent again in our next trip to China!

Best Regards,

Victoria

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Victoria‚ Singapore, December 14, 2024

Hi Shirley,

Thanks for the tour, and the itinerary that you planned for us was very comprehensive and detailed. We enjoyed it very much. The tour guide was also very friendly and experienced. He followed your itinerary closely and brought us to all the sites and explained in detail. He also recommended and brought us to enjoy some of the local cuisines during lunch.

Overall, we are impressed by the excellent service, reliability and quality that yourself, the tour guide and the driver has provided us. We would like to visit China again and we will not hesitate to engage your services again. Thank you!

Regards

Chun How

Chun How‚ Singapore, December 14, 2024

Hi Shirley,

I'm writing to provide some feedback on our recent Xian and Beijing trip that you put together for us.

We travel a lot, in the past year to Japan, New Zealand, China, Turkey, Africa, China, and finally this Xian/Beijing trip. I bring this up to highlight that we deal with a lot of travel professionals. You are easily the best travel professional we have dealt with through all of those trips. My wife, who happens to be Chinese asked me to make sure to keep your contact information for future China trips, with the intention of replacing the China based agent her brother usually uses for our trips.

Please let your manager know that we would probably not have used your company if not for you. Bamboo Travel is new to us and in a foreign country, so we had doubts as to what to expect. Your service was excellent from start to finish which really gave us confidence in your company. We had a little bit of an unusual itinerary and some constraints related to our other China travel prior to this tour. You were able to work through all of our issues with fast responses to our questions.

You also went what I would say was above and beyond expectations. The final example of that is a friend in the US was shipping some things to our hotel in Beijing for me to bring home to her. I contacted you to confirm the hotel name before they shipped the items, expecting I would then have to figure out the shipping details. Your reply not only confirmed the hotel, but you provided the shipping info in both English and Chinese, which saved me the hassle of trying to figure which address to use. Not a huge thing, but it's those small things that add up to a big difference in customer experience.

Thanks again for everything!

Xian:

Our guide was Waldner and we liked him from the start. We were just coming off another tour with another company which had maybe the best tour leader we've ever had. Even though we were always comparing Waldner measured up well. He was great at explaining the history of places we visited as well as answering our cultural questions. The restaurants/food were very good. He and the driver also modified the itinerary somewhat to optimize the driving based on our arrival and departure times and locations. We liked the hotel in Xian. The car (van) was very comfortable. Waldner also helped arrange tickets for a night show for us.

Beijing:

Pickup was great; even though we got in late the guide that picked us up was there and actually met us at the track. Cindy was our guide and we really liked her also. She is very knowledgeable and willing to answer (a lot of) questions. This was my 3rd time in Beijing and it was amazing what a difference having a good guide made. Cindy and the driver also modified the itinerary to optimize the driving. She also helped us book tickets to two shows, one of which was not on your list of optional items (Lao She tea house). Cindy was concerned about us ordering a cab so she stayed at the show to make sure we got back to our hotel ok. The restaurants/food were very good. The hotel was good but not great; for example we had hot water issues every day, and when I went to pick up a package that was shipped to me they just left me to dig through a pretty large pile of packages all addressed in Chinese.

To wrap up, I would rate the overall experience of looking for a trip, picking a company, and traveling 9.5 out of 10. Shirley, your service was 10 out of 10.

See you next trip!

Terry

Terry ‚ USA, December 11, 2024

Dear Rita,

Feedback.

The trip organised by Rita Jiang to Beijing and Xian was very well planned and enjoyable, showing the best of Chinese history, culture, heritage, and enormous progress.

Your 2 guides, Linda Chua and Beryl are very good. Linda went out of her way to take us to Peking Opera at night. The kids were tired, so we did not go to Summer palace and Heavenly temple, and did not go to Xian Pagoda. It was our choice, so its ok. (I have been to all)

The 2 bus drivers were excellent, very careful, disciplined and good temperament and helpful. I could not give a tip to Beryl at Xian station, as I had to rush into toilet inside, and did not know she could not enter the train Station.

The pace was good, but the last day of train from Xian, to hotel (plus late dinner scrabbling in Beijing), then early next morning to airport was too Hectic. However, it was because we had to return on 8.12.24. we wish we could stay longer in Xian, and elsewhere. We could probably have gone to Xian by train, then fly back to Beijing by plane, but one way tickets could cost much more.

Anyway, thank you very much for all your fine arrangements. We all enjoyed the short trip.

For the kids, the major highlights were the Great Wall, Terracotta warriors, Acrobatic show. They will treasure. I will plan more trips for them to China.

Best wishes and warm regards,

Richard

Richard‚ Singapore, December 11, 2024

Check What our customers are saying about us on Tripadvisor.com

excellent assistance, helpfulness and courtesy. My contact 'was Shirley, prepared friendly and punctual. Highly recommended...

Luciano P

"Travel consultant Mr Wonder Wang was so helpful and he planned our trip to Xi’an and Beijing so well. Mr Waldner is an amazing guide. His knowledge and enthusiasm made our tour very memorable..." read more »

Reviewed on December 13, 2024

Luciano P

"excellent assistance, helpfulness and courtesy. My contact 'was Shirley, prepared friendly and punctual. Highly recommended..." read more »

Reviewed on December 13, 2024