Architectural Culture Tours

8Tours

It is said that architecture is solidified art and immovable history book. All the magnificent historic architectural buildings all around China have witnessed the rise and fall of the history of the region. Our Architectural Culture Tours focus on the significant historic architectures, ranging from the imperial palaces, official or national engineering, such as the iconic Great Wall, to the residential buildings and private gardens; from Buddhist temples to the ethnic minorities’ exotic wood houses, etc.

Hosted by knowledgeable local guides who are passionate for their cities and architectures, our Architectural Culture Tours offer specialized itineraries that include the key sites in each city or region. In addition, we are more than happy to create uniquely tailor-made Architectural Culture Tours around China upon your special request.

Private Tours

Travel with family, friends or those who you wanna be with on your holiday, on your own departure date, in your own pace, to destinations you wanna go…

Private Tours

You can easily book a private tour with us by two ways. Everything can be customized. Travel China your way!

a.Choose a likely one from our off-the-peg tours categorized by theme, and tell us to customize it until it thoroughly meets all your requirements.

b.Fill in our “Tailor-made Tour” form, and a unique tour proposal will be created for you.

Christina
Germany

Dear CET, My wife, son and I just returned from our trip to China, arranged by Monica. I wanted to jot a note to tell you how impressed and appreciative I was with the services that she provided. From the first email, through the final itinerary, through the execution of the trip, she was an absolute professional. She provided expert advice, helping me craft an itinerary to my needs. In the process she became as much a friend as a Travel Advisor. The trip was handled to perfection, no doubt a tribute to her expert planning and follow-up on the all the details. I asked for specific qualifications on the guides and in most of the cases it was spot on. All of the guides met the minimum expectations, and most of them far exceeded the expectations. I had an opportunity to use a number of different travel agencies in China, but it was her proactive and prompt responses, with very good information that made the difference. She is absolutely terrific -- I can't say enough positive things about her. Sincerely,

Date of experience: 09/07/2016-12/09/2016
Curtis Cooper
the U.S

It seems a little difficult for me to figure out which is the best one in my tour because all are wonderful. I really like the Garden of the Master of Nets in Suzhou; it is a classical Chinese garden. For the shooting experience, the Great Wall made me impressed the most, it was just very amazing. Next morning, I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise at the top of the Xianggongshan Hill. Next, we had the cormorant fishing and took many photos with the white beard fisherman and his cormorants standing on his bamboo raft. It was very special that shooting on the Bund in Shanghai they organized. I had such a great shooting experience. This was a bucket list trip for me. Stepping foot on the Great Wall, seeing the Warriors, experiencing the few remaining cormorant fishermen, it was all breathtaking and deeply informative. Alex and Peter provided great insight on their country.

Date of experience: 01/09/2019-14/09/2019
Monette Ortiz
Philipine

My daughters and I went to Shanghai to attend an Expo,thus we had limited time for sightseeing. My daughters wanted to see the mountains of Huangshan (Yellow Mountains) and the ancient village of Hongcun. Our only available days were April 30 to May 2, which unfortunately is a long holiday in China thus a lot of Chinese were expected to visit these very popular tourist sites. China Expedition Tours rearranged our schedule to make sure that we will not be wasting our limited time on lining up. They also assigned to us an energetic and very knowledgeable tour guide who also spoke English very well. China Expedition Tours’ attention to details made sure that we were able to appreciate the culture and craftsmanship of the Chinese people (which dates back to centuries ago) and to enjoy the mystical Yellow Mountains.

Date of experience: 29/04/2018-01/05/2018
Derik
Sweden

It was all so wonderful - and the home stays were the best!! What an amazing opportunity that was for us to get a more real experience of being in China. If I were younger I would want to learn Chinese and go live there for a year or so. As I age I feel a strong sense of wanting to know what the world really is and will be like when I'm gone. I want to feel that there's good hope for understanding and peace in the world --- --- and I so felt that among the people we met there. How could all those hardworking, intelligent and kind folks, who are striving to do their best and who care so much about their children, put up with anything but the best of opportunities? I'm not worried for two generations from now, and maybe only one.

The sheer bigness of buildings and squares and traffic and crowds was impressive to me especially too, in the ways that somehow it all appeared to be working in usually peaceful and often exciting ways.

And of course the cutting edge of things is always exciting to experience - Shanghai being especially great for that. Besides the variety and creativity in the tall buildings and the amazing Shanghai Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art there was mind-blowing to me. With a beautiful exhibit of art by emerging young artists, the works were often both quite delicate and also wrenching - most stimulating! I wondered if there was much censorship and if it didn't somehow make for greater discipline and help to create art that was more deeply meaningful.... and of course with the rich history of art you all have under your skin somewhere...I haven't been moved so much by an art exhibition in a long time.

Date of experience: 20/05/2012-06/06/2012
Trevor
Holand

Our trip to China is really wonderful. we enjoy every bit of it and it is pleasant. Tour guides(Beijing-Cathy,Xian-Allen, Guilin-David,Shanghia-Monica), They are punctual and take care of us until last minute of our departure form China.we are very thankful for them and your company for impressive tour.we will recommend your company and the guides to everyone who wish to tour in China. Thanks a million.

Date of experience: 10/05/2018-22/05/2018
Richard and Sylvia
British

After looking at trip advisor, we picked 3 China based travel agencies who we thought might be able to plan a tour of the area around Beijing. One agency suggested factory tours from the outset whilst another was fairly insistent that we travel overnight by train, but Monica proved to be thoughtful and flexible.
We have friends in Beijing and so started and ended our trip with them.
She suggested a day trip to the Great Wall from Beijing plus a tour of Pingyao, Xi'an and Luoyang with 3 bullet train journeys and one plane flight.
We decided not to go with a couple of her suggestions, but she was comfortable with that and re-jigged the trips to suit.
The actual guides provided are generally contractors who can work for several agencies depending on the work available. But the choice of which guides to employ still falls on the travel agency (and availability).

We were also very happy with our guides "Nelson" in Pingyao/Taiyuan, "Grace" in Xi'an and "Frank" in Luoyang as well as the drivers. They all turned up flawlessly on time for every appointment, helped us order lunch and always seemed happy.

There appear to be one or two 'scams' running with guides taking commission on purchases made. But having ordered an evening dance show + meal at our hotel "Grand New World" our guide in Xi'an certainly earned what ever commission she got by making sure that my meal contained no sugar or MSG/Soy Sauce.

Chinese drivers seem to learn to all drive at the Kamikaze school of motoring, but the drivers in Pingyao, Xi'an and Luoyang (Frank did his own driving) (also contracted but independently of the guides) did a good job of not frightening us too much.

Chinese cyclists and motor cyclists don't even follow the correct direction of flow and often drive on the wrong side of the road. Chinese drivers hoot constantly if they want to overtake and can't quite squeeze by!

Coffee in China generally doesn't seem very good (apart from at the large American chains).

The Tian yuan kui hostel in Pingyao is an interesting mixture of traditional and modern. The staff were extremely lovely and the food was tasty. The hundreds of recommendations on A3 sheets on the wall in English, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages were also testament to that.

The Grand New World hotel in Xi'an was a slice of America transported to China. Service was slightly variable. E.g. I had to go to 3 receptionists in order to find the one who was allowed to do checkouts. English from staff was variable though usually adequate.

The Peony Hotel in Luoyang was also like a slice of America. Our safe would not work as it had no batteries in it. We struggled with language problems for about half an hour to get 4 new batteries to fit into it and then to get the Chinese maintenance lady to fit them right way round.

The manager agreed a special picnic lunch for our train journey, but I ended up having to explain to francophone Chinese tour guide in French what we needed! But I guess episodes like this make a tour more interesting.

Many thanks to Monica for arranging this memorable holiday.

Date of experience: 01/09/2017-13/09/2017