POSTED: 13 APRIL 2011

Destination: Vietnam & China

Soft adventure with charming Asian delights*

An excursion to a remote hillside village and a walk through an ancient stone forest are among a host of exciting highlights on Helen Wong's Tours’ comprehensive 25-day Charms of Vietnam and China guided tour.

The leading Asian tour specialist also includes a cultural show with dinner at the Tang Dynasty Theatre in China’s Xian, along with a family-style lunch inside an authentic Chinese courtyard home.

The tour is priced from $6600 per person, twin-share, including return air fare from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane (travelers from Perth pay an extra $100 for the airfare).

The Charms of Vietnam and China tour, included in Helen Wong’s Tours Vietnam program, has regular departures throughout the year, one leaving Australia at the start of the northern autumn, September 1.

Beginning with a flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the tour is escorted by an English-speaking guide, and calls on Tay Ninh and the Cu Chi Tunnels before heading to My Tho and a return to Saigon. It than heads north to charming Hoi An, historic Hue and capital Hanoi before venturing by overnight train into the mountainous north of Sapa where travellers have the chance to sample life in the Black Hmong village of Lao Chai.

A particularly exciting experience occurs on the 12th day when everyone walks across the Chinese border to little known Hekou, where you are met and transferred to Yuanyang, at 1800 metres above sea level and home to a number of ethnic minority groups. From here, the tour moves to the old town of Jianshui before heading further north to the Yunnan provincial capital of Kunming and an ultimate walk through the famous Stone Forest.

Another highlight is a visit to Xian’s Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the archaeological find of the 1970s. Guests also have the chance to climb the Great Wall of China and tour through the Forbidden City during the stay in Beijing.

The tour price includes domestic air fares, accommodation, one night on the Fanxipan train to Sapa, daily breakfast and lunch and 14 evening meals, evening cultural shows with transfers, entrance fees, Vietnam and China visas for Australian passport holders, departure taxes, security charges and fuel surcharges (subject to change), travel kit and cabin bag.

Details: Helen Wong’s Tours, phone 1300 788 328, 02 9267 7833, or visit www.helenwongstours.com.

*Based on media release issued by Helen Wong's Tours.

Tour the famous Stone Forest in Kunming.

Meet the Sapa locals in Vietnam's mountainous north.