1 . 6 Days Small Group Tour from Beijing to Xi’an

Tour Type: Small Group (max 18), guaranteed departures

Guide & Driver: An English-speaking guide, an experienced driver with an air-conditioned coach

Accommodation: 5 nights at good 5-star hotels

Day 1: Arrival in Beijing

Welcome your arrival anytime at the airport and transfer to the hotel.

Day 2: Beijing

· Visit the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City including the Treasure Gallery;

· Enjoy à la carte (按菜单点菜) welcome lunch with authentic Peking Duck;

· Further explore royal culture at the Yonghe Temple and the Temple of Heaven;

· Watch Peking Opera and see artistic face painting.

Day 3: Beijing

· Visit the Great Wall by a round-trip cable car;

· Visit the Bird’s Nest;

· Take a rickshaw ride through hutong alleys and visit a local family in a traditional courtyard house.

Day 4: Beijing to Xi’an by flight

· Visit the Panda Hall and the Summer Palace;

· Taste local flavors for lunch;

· Fly to Xi’an and transfer to a hotel.

Day 5: Xi’an

· Visit Terracotta Army and the discoverer’s home;

· Have a unique experience to make your own mini clay warrior (陶俑);

· Continue to visit the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda;

· Enjoy a dumpling dinner and the Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show.

Day 6: Departure from Xi’an

· Connect with local people at the City Wall Park and learn to practice tai chi from amaster, then visit the City Wall;

· Taste local flavors for lunch;

· Take a taxi to the airport by yourself.

A pleasant onward journey!

· $1,059 per person

Includes:

· Domestic airfare

· Hotel accommodation with breakfasts

· The à la carte lunches as route specifies

· Professional English-speaking guides

· Drivers & air-conditioned vehicles

· Entrance fees to tourist sites

· Tips or gratuities for hotel doormen

Excludes:

· International airfares

· Entry visa fees

· Personal expenses

· Tips or gratuities for guides and drivers

4 . Tokyo restaurant Sushiya no Nohachi reportedly serves great sushi, but it is most famous for its gimmick—making the world’s smallest sushi with a single grain of rice.

Located in Asakusa, a slightly quieter part of Tokyo, Sushiya no Nohachi is the place to go if you want to enjoy the tiniest, most adorable sushi in the world. Each piece is made with only a grain of rice and a tiny slice of topping wrapped in the thinnest piece of nori(海苔). Every served piece is actually perfect, which hints at the amount of work and patience that Bes into making them. They are the work of Hironori Ikeno, the chef of Sushiya no Nohachi, who came up with the idea in 2002 when a client asked him how small he could make his sushi. He answered, “as small as a grain of rice”, and proceeded to demonstrate that he wasn’t kidding. Over the years, the restaurant has become internationally famous for making the world’s smallest sushi.

Despite its size, miniature sushi actually takes a bit longer to make than regular-sized me, because of the precision and concentration required to put the tiny ingredients together. That is part of the reason why the restaurant only prepares tiny sushi for customers a few times a week and no more than five times a day, although they do sometimes make exceptions for foreign visitors who travel to the restaurant just to experience the world’s smallest sushi.

“I had a client from Sweden who came just to see my tiny sushi and the moment she saw it, she literally cried with joy.” Hironori Ikeno said.

Interestingly, one cannot simply order the tiny sushi at the restaurant. It is served for f re upon request with a regular-sized sushi course. Considering the sushi served at this place is reportedly delicious, you should probably be more excited about that. Plus, it also justifies the gimmick that the restaurant is so famous for.

5 . If you walk around the Rahway Trail in the South Mountain Reservation of Millburn, New Jersey, you might spot more than vegetation and creatures. Small fantastic _______ are hidden in the tree trunks and branches — an amazingly lovely sight in this _______ normal-looking forest nowadays. The idea to _______ small wooden houses to the landscape came from Therese Ojibway, who 10 years ago wanted her son, who has autism (自闭症), to have a safe space to _______ in the wilderness.

“So she found Rahway Trail and started constructing the houses and leaving _______ decorations here and there for her son,” said Julie Gould, one of the keepers of the trail.

The South Mountain Conservancy later noticed the sudden _______ of little houses around the forest. Learning Ojibway’s story, they _______ her to continue building her magical kingdom to what is now known as the Fairy Trail.

“She thought this was a(n) _______ way of getting little children like her son into nature, _______ them to use their imaginations and creativity,” said Beth Kelly, another trail keeper.

Ojibway and her son moved out of the area a few years ago, but the Fairy Trail ________. Gould and Kelly were ________ asked to become the “Makers and Keepers” of the trail. The women, along with ________, continue to help build little wooden homes for kids with special needs.

“To give these kids ________ houses to live in, most of the homes are made out of natural elements that can then ________ back into the forest. We get ________ when we see the children come here and the kingdom make their day.”