Shopping, shopping, shopping. Hong Kong's history as Britain's Asian economic centre means that the city has always buzzed with sellers and buyers. Get a taste of the action at Stanley Market, where clothing and souvenirs are offered, and Kowloon, a district jam-packed with shops, restaurants, and apartment buildings that offers an amazing view across the harbour to the islands of Hong Kong. Take a spiritual break at the Tai Po Man Mo Temple. Named after the Taoist gods of literature ("Man") and martial arts ("Mo"), the small 150-year-old temple is noted for the coils of incense that hang from the ceiling, perfuming the entire building. Find even more sanctuary, and a better view, on Victoria Peak, once the enclave of wealthy Westerners and now a refreshing break from the energetic pace of the city below.

In 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Japan led an attack on Hong Kong, then a British Crown colony. By British admission, the colony was vulnerable and not fit to withstand the attack. Visit key sites and memorials on this guided walking tour.

Step out of the commercial craziness of Shanghai and into its quieter residential areas -- though with over 15 million people living in the city, its residential quarters are not necessarily all that quiet. Get a sense of how the locals live with a visit to a Shanghainese family (if the season permits).

Walk through the French Concession to examine how colonial treaties, foreign governance, and early-20th-century urban planning reshaped Shanghai’s architecture, economy, and social life. Explore streets lined with Art Deco buildings, former consulates, and historic residences that reveal how global influence and local resistance intertwined during China’s modern transformation.

Shanghai combines European elegance with Asian flair, transforming its colonial history with a unique modern outlook. See the highlights with a local licensed guide. Surrounded by a busy bazaar, the Yu Yuan Garden offers an amazingly peaceful escape into a sixteenth-century garden with fountains, bridges, and tile dragons undulating along the walls. More peace reigns at the temple of the Jade Buddha, where two exquisitely carved Buddha statues, each carved from a single piece of jade, keep watch over a community of monks.

Stroll the most impressive street in Shanghai. The Bund, the center of colonial Shanghai, now offers an array of elegant embassies, banks, tea houses, and five-star hotels. Tian Zi Fang is an arts and crafts enclave that has developed from a renovated residential area in the French Concession area of Shanghai. It is known of for small craft stores, coffee shops, trendy art studios and narrow alleys. It has become a popular tourist destination in Shanghai and an example of preservation of local Shikumen architecture.

Forget Cirque de Soleil -- Shanghai's Acrobatic Troupe has been performing for more than 50 years, and their combination of superb acrobatics, juggling, magic, and more has made them the world's best acrobatic ensemble.

Originally built in 1370 and bricked in 1568, the enormous city walls surrounding Xi'an now serve less as defense against outside attack than as pretty packaging for a peaceful town. Take a look around with your Tour Director, then head to the Greater Wild Goose Pagoda. Rising about 200 feet from the center of a temple, the pagoda has seven stories and elaborate carvings over each doorway. No one's sure why the pagoda is named after a goose, but take a gander at the outstanding views available at each of the windows. Residents often toss a coin or two out of these windows for good luck.

Digging beneath Xian can be a rewarding task. Well-diggers in the 1970s stumbled onto an amazing site -- an underground cavern filled with thousands and thousands of life-size terra cotta soldiers and horses. Each soldier is unique, with facial expressions that may have been modelled after a real imperial soldier, and was designed to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. In 1953 workers digging a factory foundation just outside the city in Banpo found the remains of the most complete Neolithic settlement in the world; the artifacts indicate that the settlement was matriarchal, with women controlling food production and the family lineage.

Uncover the history from the Qin Dynasty, with the Terracotta Army. First discovered in 1974, these 6,000 life-size terracotta warriors were formed and buried with the first emperor of China in 210–209 BCE, with the purpose of protecting him in his afterlife. This remarkable discovery is still considered one of the biggest in archeological history.

Discover the Banpo Village Ruins, one of China’s most significant Neolithic archaeological sites. Explore the remains of a 6,000-year-old settlement and visit the museum to learn about the daily life, homes, tools, pottery, and customs of the Yangshao people, offering a fascinating glimpse into early Chinese civilization.

Discover the history of the Chinese martial art, Tai Chi. Learn the moves from an experienced instructor, then practice what you've been taught.

Explore the landmark sights of ancient and modern China with a licensed local guide. Covering the area of 90 football fields, Tiananmen Square can hold over 300,000 people and has always been the site for public proclamations and demonstrations. It has been China’s historic heart of celebration and also turbulence for almost a century. The gate at the southern end of the square marks the old city walls, not removed until 1958. See the nerve center of modern China in the adjoining People's Hall, the legislative building, where each of the 32 reception rooms is lavishly decorated in the style of a different province or city. In the main hall, 500 light bulbs illuminate the enormous red star on the ceiling. Move into ancient China in the Forbidden City, the formidable 9,000-room palace complex -- protected by a 170ft.-wide moat -- that housed China's emperors from 1421 until 1923.

Explore Tiananmen Square, the world's largest public square and equivalent to the size of 90 American football fields. In the centre of the square stands the Monument to the People's Heroes (Renmin Yingxiong Jinian Bei), a 38m granite obelisk erected in 1958 and engraved with scenes from famous popular Chinese uprisings.

Discover the Forbidden City, a massive complex of red-walled buildings and pavilions topped by a sea of glazed vermilion tile. Visit the Inner Court, where only the emperor, his family, his concubines, and the palace eunuchs were allowed; the Hall of Mental Cultivation, where emperors lived after Yongzheng moved out of the Qianqing Gong and the Nine Dragon Screen, an 11½ft high wall covered in glazed tile dragons frolicking above a frothing sea, built to protect the Qianlong emperor from prying eyes and malevolent spirits.

Visit the Temple of Heaven, an enormous park and altar directly to the south of the Forbidden City. Each winter solstice, the Ming and Qing emperors would lead a procession here to perform rites and make sacrifices designed to promote the next year’s crops and curry favor with Heaven for the general health of the empire.

Visit Beijing Zoo’s renowned Giant Panda House and observe China’s most beloved national treasure. Learn about the giant panda’s habitat, behavior, diet, and conservation efforts while watching these iconic animals as they eat, play, and rest in specially designed enclosures.

The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, it winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 21,196 kilometers (13,170 miles) from east to west of China. With a history of about 2,700 years, some of the Great Wall sections are now in ruins or have disappeared. However, the Great Wall of China is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.

An emperor with a home as elaborate as the Imperial Palace needs an equally elaborate final resting place, and the Ming Tombs fit the bill quite nicely. Overseen by the same emperor, Yongle, who constructed the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs are an enormous complex of pavilions, gardens, hallways, and tombs designed to provide everything an emperor, empress, or favored concubine would need in the afterlife. Check out the Avenue of Stone Animals, where a dozen pairs of carved animals, some dating back to the 1400s, and half a dozen pairs of carved officials and soldiers wait to escort their leaders to heaven.

A favorite dish of the emperors during the Ming Dynasty, Peking duck became available to the masses when a later dynasty collapsed and court chefs took their recipes to the streets. Indulge in spiced, crispy duck carved into strips and eaten on thin pancakes with cucumber, shallot, and plum sauce.