China Ancient Town Tours, Ancient Town Tours China 2020

We believe that a quick and smart way to learn about a country’s culture and history is not only to read a history book or to make frequent visits to a museum of it, but also to visit its ancient towns and cities. Everyone knows in China there are eight Ancient Cities, which are Xi’an, Luoyang, Beijing, Kaifeng, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Anyang and Zhengzhou. Besides these large cities, from south to north, east to west of China, as gems here and there, there are also a large number of smaller towns/villages which played an important role in the history and owns lots of cultural and historical relics. The water town of Zhouzhuang near Shanghai, Hui style villages near Huangshan, Yangshuo and Daxu near Guilin, Pingyao in central Shanxi, Dali and Lijiang in northwest Yunnan, etc., each of them has different charms while all present China’s rich historical heritage.

Our China Ancient Town Tours are designed for those who have interests in learning about the ancient history of Chinese civilization. During these tours, you may stay in small guesthouses, “intrude” into an old local community, call at a local family, listen to some anecdotes from an aged man with white long beard…. Traveling with our China Ancient Town Tours, you not only sightsee, but experience China’s grass-root units and more…

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.

China Tour Packages

Join-in Tours

Simply adapt your time to our fixed departure dates. Meet and make new friends while touring China’s best destinations, culture and landscape in a small group.

Join-in Tours

We’ve prepared two types of join-in tours for you:

a.Long China tours you join in and follow from day 1 to the last day

b.Local one- or two-day tours in a certain city or area

Join-in China Tours

China Tours by Theme

We understand different people’s travel interests are various.

China Tours by Theme

Simply choose a tour according to your interests, needs and other relevant facts.

China Tour Packages

What customers say about us?

We’re sure that our customers’ words talk louder than our own’s. We believe that hearing directly from those who've experienced our private China tours is the best way to understand what we’re doing. It's not just about seeing the sights and the tour itself; it's about the whole process, from planning to execution. We highly value all the feedbacks and make them to encourage us to constantly improve our services.

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
Collin
U.S.A

This is our first China Trip. Our guides did a wonderful job. All drivers are very nice,we don't have to worry about the driving. The hotel in Xi'an is very beautiful. Thank you so much for this wonderful trip!

Date of experience: 21/06/2018-30/06/2018
Ms.Eudora
France

This tour was very pleasant. Everything was well arranged by China Expedition Tour. We enjoyed our time with the driver and the guide. The latter was quite professional and informative, flexible enough to adjust the pal according to our additional and practical requirements. We learned many about Chinese history and got more interested in this emerging nation. I think I may go to China again and I will surely use your service.

Date of experience: 25/10/2015-04/11/2015
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
Arty
Germany

We took the private Li River hiking tour from China Expedition Tours in October 2019. For us it was a very spontaneous decision. We contacted the company just 1 day before the trip but everything ended up being just perfect! They reacted quickly, everything was organized as promised incl. convenient payment method. So, in the morning our private English-speaking guide - Alex was expecting us at the lobby of our hotel. The driver was also waiting for us in the spacious and very clean car parked in front of the hotel.

The hiking itself was brilliant. Firstly, we visited the panoramic spots, where we really enjoyed the breathtaking views of Li River and mountains from above. Than the driver dropped us with Alex at one of the villages, where we started our journey along the river through ancient villages, local farms, wild nature and peacefulness. We went the paths you have absolutely no chance to find on your own as they were hidden in the woods and mountains. Alex was so helpful and informative! He showed us many interesting things (such as ancient paths, the cotton and mandarine fields, etc.) and explained a lot about local culture and way of life. He answered every single question we asked and was taking care of us on every stage of our journey. We made a stop for brunch and shared the food with each other on the peaceful riverbank. On late afternoon we arrived to designated place where the driver was already waiting for us to bring us back to our hotel. We asked Alex to give us advice, where to buy a tasteful tea from Guilin. He was glad to show us his favorite local tea store, where we could enjoy delicious teas and get the insights into tea culture of China.

Don't hesitate to book this hiking tour! it's worth every penny!!

We would like to thank China Expedition Tour and especially Alex from the bottom of our hearts for this unbelievable experience! We hope to be able to see him again in the future and take another tour with China Expedition Tour also in other cities of China.

Date of experience: 15/10/2019-15/10/2019
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

Ancient Town Tours

Create your custom China tour and explore the real China on your own terms!

Ancient Town Tours

Essence of Old Towns around Shanghai Tour, from US$656

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Yunnan & Guilin Old Town Discovery Trip

Impression of Longsheng & Yangshuo Tour

Yunnan Old Town Discovery Tour

China Ancient Town Exploration Tour, from US$2017

Splendid Ancient Town Tour, from US$1299

What type of tours should you take?

Private Tours

Private Tours

Join-in Tours

Join-in Tours

China Tours by Theme

China Tours by Theme

What customers say about us?