2 Days Chongqing Dazu Tour with UNESCO Heritage Grottoes Dazu Rock Carvings

Full Itinerary Day by day

Day 1 Chongqing (L)

Ni Hao! Welcome to Chongqing!

This morning, you will be met by your local guide and driver in your hotel in downtown or the arrival hall at the airport/railway station if you arrive in Chongqing by very early flight/train. Then, you will start your exploration of Chongqing, the “City of Mountains.”

Firstly, enjoy the historic visit to Ciqikou Old Town (磁器口) that is praised as the “epitome of Chongqing”. Take your leisure walk on the polished paved paths to admire its over 1,800-year-old historical culture dated from Song Dynasty, appreciate its well-kept tiled-roof folk dwellings of hundreds of years old, watch the well-inherited folk artistic skills, and imagine and once busy transshipping scene shown at the ancient port there. Then, be escorted to Three Gorges Museum (三峡博物馆) at the city downtown. The vast collection of more than 280 thousand pieces of precious historical relics will let you have an amazing understanding of the great Yangtze River and formation of the magnificent Three Gorges, and also tell you the gradual thriving of Chongqing from 3,000 years ago, to its war defense in 20s century, and developmental path to be one of the 4 prosperous municipalities in China. Stepping out from the museum, have a nice look at the People’s Assembly Hall that is popular with fancy classical exterior design and was listed into the History of Architecture compiled in London in 1987.

After lunch, be transferred to take Chonqing Rail Transit Line 2 (重庆轻轨二号线) from Huanghuayuan Metro Station to Liziba Metro Station to look at the city’s prototype from a different angle. Then, get off to have the never-seen magic of the train going through a 11-storey block of flats, existing only in the fantastically structured Chongqing built against mountains.

After that, travel up to E’ling Park (鹅岭公园) and embrace the impressive panorama of Chongqing City which has been highly praised as “Little Hong Kong” with its well-arranged row upon row of modern skyscrapers and two winding rivers surrounding. Then, go down to visit Hongya Cave (洪崖洞) to catch the symbolic view of Chongqing. The featured Ba & Shu regional wooden structures are tiered up to 11 floors on a hillside, creating a stunning sight with neon lights at night. Enjoy your leisure walk there and take some beautiful photos!

After the visiting, your guide and drive will send you back to your hotel. Have a great rest!

Day 2 Dazu Rock Carvings Side Trip (B, L)

Good morning! After breakfast, you will be met by your guide and driver at your hotel and then escorted to visit Dazu Rock Carvings at the northwest suburb of Chongqing with about 2 hours’ riding.

Earliest in 1999, Dazu Rock Carvings had been listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site for its historical significance, rich themes, and delicate carvings, which reflecting the social daily life as well as the harmonious coexistence of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. During this side trip, we shall make a full exploration at the top 2 clusters: Baodingshan Rock Carvings and Beishan Rock Carvings.

Baodingshan Scenic Area (大足石刻宝顶山景区) is normally the first stop and the best highlight of Dazu Rock Carvings’ Exploration. Watching two digital films regarding the history, development, and masterpieces of Dazu Rock Carvings will give first-time visitors a clear view of what to see and expect in this scenic area. After the film, tourists can take the sightseeing buses to get to the top highlight of Baodingshan Scenic Area, Dafowan (大佛湾), where most representative works of Baodingshan rock carvings are situated. Leaving Dafowan, along the excursion trail, you will pass by Wansui Tower (万岁楼) and Xiaofuwan (小佛湾) to reach the Shengshou Temple (圣寿寺). The buildings along the path are antique in style. Here, travelers are also recommended to glance back at the Big Buddha Bay, which definitely will bring a different view. Your last stop would be the Dazu Rock Carvings Museum (大足石刻博物馆), which not only introduces the basic characteristics of Dazu Rock Carvings but presents the whole thread of world cave temple art, a can-not-miss site for grotto enthusiasts.

After visiting the Baoding Rock Carvings, your next stop is the Beishan Scenic Area (大足石刻北山景区).

Although not as large and visually striking as the Baodingshan Rock Carvings, rock carvings at Beishan Scenic Area were built earlier, yet they are of irreplaceable significance to the explorer who has a greater willingness to engage with the history of China’s grottoes. As locals often say, “The professionals know the ropes from Beishan Rock Carvings”. One of the critical ropes narrating the beginning of the construction of Dazu Rock Carvings was collected at the Buddhist Bay (Fowan). It is an inconspicuous stone tablet from the Tang Dynasty, “Weijunjing Stele (韦君靖碑)”, which meticulously records all crucial moments in the development of Dazu Rock Carvings. Moreover, you can see representative statues of the earliest constructions in the style of the glorious age of the Tang Dynasty, including Niche No. 5, the Vaisravana Devaraja (毗沙门天王龛), as well as diverse and exquisite statues of Guanyin, such as Avalokitesvara with a Rosary (数珠手观音) in Niche No. 125, and the most extensive and artistically crafted Niche No. 136 - “Wheel of the Sutra Collection (转轮经藏),” which significantly projects the folk belief attribute of Beishan Grottoes. Beishan Scenic Area is not large; Fowan is presented in a semi-circular shape, divided into two districts, and the overall visiting time is 1-1.5 hours. With enough time and physical strength, after appreciating the cliff statues, you can climb up to the opposite peak to worship the twin Buddhas under the Duobao Pagoda (多宝塔), which takes another 15-20 minutes of mountain road walk.

After the visiting, your guide and driver will escort you to Chaotianmen Dock and help you board your Yangtze River cruise. If you have the schedule to leave Chongqing today, they will escort you to the airport/railway station for catching your flight/train to the next destination, for instance, Chengdu, Xian, Guilin, Beijing, Shanghai…… Service Ends!

Travel Tips: 1. Visiting Hours: The visiting hours for the Baodingshan Scenic Area vary from 3~6 hours, depending on whether tourists watch the digital films and time spent in the museum. Compared with the former, the time for tourists to visit the Beishan Scenic Area is relatively fixed, generally 1-1.5 hours. If you are planning to take the Yangtze River cruise or scheduled to leave Chongqing on the same day, the time could be tight to visit both Beishan and the Dazu Rock Carvings Museum. You are recommended to select one spot to visit. 2. Physical Demand: Taking tourist buses leaving the Baodingshan Scenic Area requires crossing Song-dynasty Street North, which takes approximately 20-30 minutes to walk through.

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 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