Imperial China, Tibet & the Yangtze River (2012)

Beijing • Xian • Chengdu • Lhasa, Tibet • Yangtze River • Wuhan • Hong Kong
  • 21 days
  • from only:
  • $2745
  • $131 per day
    Small Ship Adventure Only
  • 22 days
  • from only:
  • $4145
  • $189 per dayIncludes international airfare and government taxes
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Customize your trip

Learn how to customize your adventure, or view standard air routing and travel times. The choice is yours with our True Choice program.

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Customize your trip

With our True Choice Program, you can choose to stay longer before or after your trip on your own, or combine two adventures to maximize your value. Here are more ways to create the OAT adventure that’s right for you:

  • Choose our standard air routing, or work with us to select the airline and routing you prefer
  • Make your own international flight arrangements directly with the airline, applying frequent flyer miles if available
  • Stay overnight in a connecting city before or after your trip
  • Request to arrive a few days early to get a fresh start on your adventure
  • Choose to “break away” before or after your trip, spending additional days or weeks on your own
  • Extend your adventure with our optional pre- and post-trip extensions
  • Combine your choice of OAT adventures to maximize your value
  • Upgrade to business or premium economy class

The air options listed above will involve an additional fee of $100 per person for confirmed requests (as well as incremental airfare costs based on your specific choice). This service fee will be waived for Inner Circle/Sir Edmund Hillary Club members.

Or, when you make your reservation, you can choose our standard air routing, for which approximate travel times are shown below.

GATEWAY

TRAVEL TIME*

Atlanta, Dallas, Newark, Portland, OR

18hrs

Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco

19hrs

Denver, Orlando

20hrs

Houston, Washington, DC (Dulles)

21hrs

New York (JFK), Phoenix

22hrs

Los Angeles

17hrs

Seattle

12hrs

* Estimated total time, including connection and layover. Actual travel time may vary.

The information above reflects approximate flight times from the gateway cities listed to Beijing, China. Routing is based on availability and subject to change. You will receive your final air itinerary approximately 14 days prior to departure.

REFER and EARN

Earn increasing rewards as a Vacation Ambassador

REFER and EARN as a Vacation Ambassador with
the BEST referral program in the industry

Inspiring new travelers to join the OAT family is a rewarding experience—both for you and your new travelers.

Share your love of travel with others and, for each referral who embarks on an OAT trip, you will earn $100 in CASH or credit. With your 4th referral departing on a 2012 departure, your reward increases to $200 in CASH or credit per person. And once you refer 8 travelers departing in either 2012 or 2013, you'll earn a FREE trip valued up to $4,500 per household—which will bring the total value of your earned rewards up to $5,600.

And you are also passing along savings to your new traveler: We'll instantly deduct $100 off the cost of their reservation when they mention your name and Customer Number while reserving.

To learn more about the benefits of our Vacation Ambassador Referral Program, please call us toll-free at 1-800-955-1925 or click here.

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Grand Circle Foundation

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A Day in the Life of Hu Xian Donghan Village

OAT was founded upon the principle that travel needs to be about more than just sightseeing if it's going to change people's lives—which is why most OAT adventures feature a day of in-depth cultural exchange through Grand Circle Foundation’s A Day in the Life program. By continuing to expand our worldview through exposure to other cultures, we are learning and growing throughout our lives—and the more we engage ourselves in the daily lives of the villages we visit, the more valuable our learning becomes.

"The Day in the Life of Donghan Village was one of the highlights of a fabulous trip. We loved this visit and could have stayed longer. We enjoyed hearing their stories, helping with dinner, being in the house and going to the community park at night."

Lois & Kenneth Germain, 4-time travelers
Cincinatti. Ohio

Hu Xian Donghan Village

Sharing a playground toy with a toddler

Your Day in the Life experience will bring you to Donghan Village, a rural community near Xian. You’ll begin with a visit to Guang Ming Primary School, which is supported in part by Grand Circle Foundation. After spending time with the children and their teachers (except during holidays when school is not in session), you’ll meet the families who will host you overnight in their homes.

You’ll prepare and share dinner with your hosts in their home, with the opportunity to ask questions about their dreams and aspirations. Afterwards, you’ll gather with locals in the village square for singing and dancing.

In the morning after your overnight stay, you’ll visit the studio of one of the village’s celebrated artists. For more than 40 years, painters here have produced colorful works depicting traditional scenes of rural life. You’ll also see the few remaining houses in the old part of the village—charming, perhaps, but symbolic to the villagers of a less prosperous past. Many of those who still live here do so in extreme poverty. In early 2011, a team of 42 OAT associates made crucial repairs to two homes during a day of community service.

By the end of your Day in the Life, we hope you’ll come away with a true sense of what life is like in rural China—and of the warm and welcoming spirit of the people who call Donghan Village home.

Alan and Harriet Lewis founded Grand Circle Foundation in 1992 as a means of giving back to the world we travel. Because they donate a portion of the profits from every trip, we consider each one of our travelers as a partner in the Foundation’s work around the world. To date, the Foundation has pledged or donated more than $91 million in support of 300 different organizations—including 60 villages and nearly 100 schools that lie in the paths of our adventures.

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