6 Days Huangshan Qiandaohu Lake Tour

Arrive at Tunxi (downtown of Huangshan City). Meet our guide and be transferred to the hotel. Since you'll have to carry everything yourself up Huangshan unless you hire a porter, it is advisable that you leave your big luggage in the hotel in downtown and bring only a small handbag or backpack with you up mountain.

In the morning, we depart Tunxi to Mount Huangshan (1.5 hour drive) and ascend the eastern steps of magic Huangshan by cable car. You can take in Huang Shan's most spectacular vistas while climbing. Huangshan (Yellow Mountains) got its present name in the Tang Dynasty for people believed that Huangdi Emperor, the ancestor of the Chinese nation, went up Huangshan and refined pills of immortality. Finally, after taking the pills, he became an immortal. So the mountain was actually named after the Yellow Emperor. We'll spend the whole day exploring the stunning views up Huangshan.

If weather permits, awaken early to watch a beautiful sunrise at Shizifeng (Lion Peak, 1,690m). Shaped like a crouching lion, this peak is surrounded by astonishing pine trees and serves as one of the best locations for sunrise watching and photographing. After breakfast, we'll be trekking from the eastern steps to the western steps. En route, we'll encounter numerous breathtaking scenery beyond words until we take Yuping Cable Car to descend Huangshan before lunch. Drive for about one hour to reach Hongcun, a UNESCO World Heritage Site housing typical South Anhui architecture, namely, one of the most photogenic villages in China. The town is built along the banks of Nan (South) Lake. The water from the lake wraps around the houses and underneath your footsteps, walking down the streets feel almost like you walking in an outdoor living museum filled with richly decorated porticos and sagging rooftops. We drive back to the downtown in late afternoon and visit the Old Street, center of the old town section, where shops and stores are lined up on the both sides of the flagstone-paved street. Overnight in the downtown.

We drive in the early morning for about one hour to get to Shendu Pier where we take boat to excurse the beautiful and attractive Qiandaohu (One Thousand Islets Lake). Located between Anhui and Zhejiang province, Qiandaohu Lake is a national scenic spot. It is a large man-made reservoir on the upper reaches of the Xin'an River, having 1078 islands of different size. With the deepest place reaching more than 100 meters under the water, the lake covers an area of 580 square kilometers, and has a storage capacity of 17.8 billion cubic meters, the same as that of 3,000 West Lakes. It is celebrated for the lofty mountains, clear waters, as well as the scattered and magnetic islands. We'll spend about 5 hours in lake excursion, during which we'll get aboard a few islands for sightseeing, until we reach Chun'an, a county of Zhejiang Province about 170 km from Hangzhou (less than 2 hours by bus), capital of Zhejiang Province. We stay overnight in Chun'an.

In the morning, after 2-hour drive, we reach Hangzhou, a garden-like city mentioned favorably by Marco Polo, son of a Venetian merchant, who served in several high-level government positions, including as ambassador and as the governor of the city of Yangzhou. He once visited here and praised it as "the finest and most splendid city in the world." We'll visit the Lingyin Temple in which the huge Laughing Buddha is the most famous. We'll also tour around the West Lake, which has been compared to paradise in the heaven by the Chinese. In the evening, we'll watch the grand performance Impression of West Lake directed by Zhang Yimou, a renowned Chinese film director. Stay in Hangzhou.

After breakfast, we'll send you to the airport or train station. Trip ends.