For the in-depth insight of this land and people, the morning will be spent to visit the Tibet Museum and a local Tibetan family. In the afternoon, the Sera Monastery will be a good choice as well. Sera means ‘Hailstone' in Tibetan, and legend tells that it hailed during the foundation of this famous monastery. The Sera Monastery is the last of the three principal Yellow Sect monasteries built in Lhasa . It is destined to be one of the most enjoyable afternoons of the whole trip. The setting itself is very beautiful and there are many cobbled alleyways, temples and colleges on a hill. One chapel will be strike you in particular: it houses only statues and paintings of Dark Goddesses with devouring humans. A solitary monk sits inside the chapel, banging a big drum and sounding a gong.

The highlight will be watching a monks debating inside the shady courtyard behind the main temple. Every day, hundreds of red-robed monks assemble in small groups and practice their debating skills. It is a highly entertaining spectacle, during which they strike poses not dissimilar to hip hop rappers. They are clap, turn, and finger point, whoop, holler, and throw their prayer beads about. In most cases, one monk sits on the floor, while another one stands, and between them, they argue about Buddhist rituals - immensely enjoying their debates. As tourists you are allowed to walk around the edge and observe the very dynamic and animated monks asking and answering questions like ‘why', ‘what came first the chicken or the egg' and ‘who is your favorite Buddha'. The spectacle is just so fun-filled and high energy. It's a bit like a Sicilian market place, or a football match, increasing in volume all the time, and some of the monks are really good showmen, sometimes mischievously involving you in their debates, as if trying to get you onto their side.

Religion is such an important element of Tibetan life that it's hardly surprising most of the attractions are monasteries, temples and palaces. The awe-inspiring Potala Palace perched high above much of Lhasa, is definitely your good choice. The palace is a complex of political and religious function, which consists of the Red Palace , the White Palace and some attached buildings.

The Red Palace contains various chapels and mausoleums for previous Dalai Lamas. The White Palace contains the living quarters of successive Dalai Lamas and their tutors. The offices of the old Tibetan government and their assembly halls are also located here. The Potala is full of elaborate artwork and frescos that tell many stories. They portray religious subjects as well as the customs and traditions of Tibet.

Although you need to climb up, it will be richly rewarded for your efforts. Words may fail you to convey the scope of gold, pearls, carvings, gems, incense, monks, rooms, stairs that are in this incredible place. It is a pity that there are no photos allowed in the palace. However you would take photos by your eyes and embed them into your minds forever.

The local Tibetan lunch is very different from the previous cities, but you will find its specialist and enjoy it. In fact, the most popular cuisine in Tibet now is Sichuan Cuisine. Moreover there are also western-style restaurants in Lhasa. You are delighted to eat what Tibetan eats in Tibet. Then you will visit the Jokhang Temple in the afternoon. According to Legend the Jokhang Temple was built on the former site of a lake. However, every time a temple was built, it would collapse later. Confused by this phenomenon, Princess Bhrikuti turned to Wen Cheng, the Princess of Tang Dynasty, for help. Being a well-educated woman, Wen Cheng told the Princess that the geography of Tibet was very much like a hag, with the lake at the heart. In order to build the temple, Wen Cheng advised they must demolish the hag by filling and leveling the lake using 1,000 sheep to carry soil from a mountain far away. When the temple was done, it was called Ra-Sa-Vphrul-Snang ('ra' meaning sheep and 'sa' meaning earth in Tibetan) to commemorate those sheep. It was built by craftsmen from Tibet, China and Nepal and thus features different architectural styles. The three-level roof of the Jokhang offers splendid views of the Bhakhor Streets across to the Potala Palace . The golden roofs are superbly crafted with many birds, beasts, bells and other intricate figures. The Tibetan people are absolutely beautiful - very warm, friendly and welcoming. There are so many impressions and interesting and bizarre things happened every day in Lhasa.

Then you will spend a whole afternoon exploring Barkhor Street. The markets in Lhasa are on a scale quite unlike anything else you have seen. You can buy anything Tibet-related, from sacks of incense, chunks of yak butter to monk outfits. When walking along the Barkhor Street , you need to follow the clockwise direction. You see many Tibetan pilgrims in town taking part in the various koras (pilgrimage circuits): the Nangkor, Barkor, Lingkor and Potala. Maybe there are even others associated with various monasteries. They are devout Buddhists who perform these koras as a part of their lives and a means of gathering merit. They are from different parts of Tibet but still have a distinctive look - heavy, colorful clothes, dark-haired, hair plaited and braided with beads. They travel in family groups with a prayer-wheel in constant motion. Among these various koras you see many prostrating themselves, some doing this repeatedly on the spot and others prostrating every 3 paces until they have circumambulated the route.

It will take about 2 hours from Lhasa to Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province. The city was founded in 3rd century BC, when the Qin conquered all of China within two centuries. Chengdu flourished in the Han Dynasty and picked up its name of brocade city as it grew rich from the thriving silk brocade industry. Also known as the land of abundance, Chengdu boasts its pleasant climate and plentiful products. Major corporation such as Lenovo, Intel and Miscrosoft have opened offices in Chengdu's Hi-Tech Development Zone.

What you could not miss in Chengdu is the world famous Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding which is located about 25km out of Chengdu City. This huge institution replicates the natural habitat of the giant panda and is dedicated to preserving and increasing their population so they will not become extinct. You are able to get real close-up to some pandas and photograph them as well as the so-called lesser red pandas which really look and act like raccoons. One of the biggest attractions is the panda breeding center where you can watch the baby pandas through glass in their playpens. You are not allowed to photograph the baby pandas, as the flash can hurt their eyes. Another highlight is the video you watch about the reserve and panda reproduction and learn how a panda gives birth to a baby cub. The baby just slides out and at the first time mothers don't know what it is, so it is common for them to accidentally kill the baby as they swat it around if the researchers can not help out in time. In all, it is nice to see all in the panda breeding center.

The guide will lead you to your next destination, Sanxingdui Museum, a modern theme museum which is 40km to the north of Chengdu. Quite different from the central culture of China, the ones showed at Sanxingdui Museum are precious cultural of mankind in south-west China existed between 2,800 to 800 BC. The museum houses some of ancient remains excavated near the present Guanghan City. Clues to this large and thriving culture were discovered by a farmer in 1929.

The big draw of Chengdu is delicious Sichuan Cuisine and local snacks. Fortunately, you will have a chance to taste Hot Pot in Sichuan Style at night. Sichuan is famous for its spicy food, and one of its delicacies is the hot pot. It's where you have a pot of spicy broth boiling in front of you and you choose which ever food to cook. The Sichuan hot pot is a bubbling cauldron of extremely hot oil and water. Dip all kinds of food into the pot including meats, vegetables and tofu. It's a very social meal. People sit around to enjoy it and make a long evening out of it. As the saying goes, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do', your trip of Chengdu is completed with eating the traditional spicy hot pot. After dinner, an optional Sichuan Opera is waiting for you. The opera is staged in a tea house so during the show you could enjoy tea and peanuts. There are the music, opera (scene from the book Romance of the Three Kingdoms), some solo music, a bit of comedy, acrobatics, shadow puppets, and the face changing and fire spitting. It is nice to see the colorful costumes, hear the unfamiliar sounds of the music, and watch the amazing act of shadow play. The part with the mask changers is really cool. They change their masks so fast that you could hardly be sure that it really did change! They obviously are masters of 'sleight of hand'.

Du Fu Thatched Cottage, which is a beautiful garden and museum to honor Du Fu, one of the greatest Chinese poets of all times. Du wrote more than 240 poems at this cottage reflecting the sorrows of the village. The site was renovated in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and enlarge to the present scale, including a bamboo garden, lovely pavilions, and several exquisite bridges. Strolling through the huge garden area to many awesome and picturesque places should be a lovely experience. Then comes to Wuhou Temple, another very beautiful spot. It also has a great garden and very graceful as well. It is special because it is a temple for honoring of an Emperor and his Minister at the same time. In Chinese history, there is strict grading between Emperor and minister, who are not supposed to set together. Moreover you find a nice tea house in the temple and have a cup of tea to relaxing and watching the locals chatting, playing MaJiang and Chinese poker. The Sichuan tea houses really have a very unique atmosphere. You see many old people, who seem to spend the whole day there, some Western tourists, Chinese families and even sometimes young people meeting up with friends. It is always very nice and interesting to watch the people having a good time and enjoying themselves.

The flight from Chengdu to Shanghai takes about two hour. Among the big cities in China, Shanghai maintains the look of a Western metropolis. It is fascinating and sophisticated. The city started out in the 4th century as a fishing village and became a town till the middle of the 13th century. After the Opium War, Shanghai was gradually opened as a 'treaty port' in the mid year of the 19th century when it had been opened to the foreign trade and led to its partition into British, French and later Japanese concessions. From that time on, foreigners began to flood into this paradise for adventurers. Covering out their own sphere of influence, England, France, the US and Japan settled here by seizing their respective concessions which was known as the territory of each country. It was considered as the colonial period with number of the featured buildings and architectures of cosmopolitan by those owners of the concessions which made Shanghai as a fascinating mixture of East and West.

Today you'll find a Buddhism shrine - Jade Buddha Temple, located in a crowd of Shanghai City. It was first built in 1882 in Jiangwan on the southern outskirts of Shanghai. In order to make it convenient for the adherents to visit , it was bodily moved to Shanghai City at the present sire in 1918. It is named for its two bejeweled white jade Buddha. It receives thousands of visitors and worshipers everyday while keeps its sanctity and charming. Carved from a whole piece of white jade, the sitting jade Buddha statue is translucent with a solemn expression, displaying the excellent skill and extraordinary art of Chinese people. Yuyuan Garden has a lot of stories for it was severely damaged in the 19 th century and was restored in 1961. This garden was first built in the 16th century by provincial governor, Pan Yunduan, in honor of his father who was the then government minister. It has many scenic courtyards decorated with baroque rockery, pools, and flora that are all connected by corridors and passageways. The delicate design and exquisite layout of the whole garden reveals a strong impression of 'garden in the garden, whole in the part.' Coming back from the nature, the shopping trip will begin in Nanjing Road which is starts at the Bund and runs westward, with People's Square in the middle. Renown for its bustling and modernization, Nanjing Road earns its reputation as the 'First Commercial Road in China', which is the good shopping heaven for your trip as the same as the Fifth Avenue in New York and Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris. Some of the traditional food and handicrafts of Shanghai can be found here. Then we comes to the Bund, the showcase with the old buildings of colonial-era leftover along Huangpu River. The renowned waterfront district is the city's most famous landmark. The word BUND is of Anglo-India origin meaning embankment on the waterfront. It is also the popular site to enjoy the night view of the city. Standing at Pudong New Area at the east side of Huangpu River, Oriental TV Tower was completed on October 1 1994. The tower has a height of 468 meters. With multi-functions of sightseeing, catering, shopping, amusement and accommodations, this tower has become the symbol of the city and a popular tourist attraction in Shanghai.

Shanghai offers colorful recreations with rich contents and creative form. Your night may be filled with an interactive old form of art known as the Acrobatics. Those professional performers have been trained of as early as age six or seven so that they can play so well and excellent. It definitely will be an unforgettable night in your memory.