Itinerary

1st July Sat      Arrive Beijing at 20:55. Meet your guide upon arrival and transfer to your hotel.
2nd July Sun    Beijing begin the day with a visit to Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Peking Duck dinner. (B L D)
3rd July Mon    Beijing visit Great Wall, Ming Tombs, rest of the day is free. (B L D)
4th July Tue     Beijing –Xian. After a visit to the Summer Palace, take afternoon flight to Xian. (B L D)
5th July Wed    Xian Begin the day with visit Terracotta Warriors, Shanxi History Museum, Big Wild Goose Pagoda. (B L D)
6th July Thu     Xian –Chongqing. Flight to Chongqing, then city tour to Jie Fang Bei shopping area, Goose Park, People’s Square. (B L D)
7th July Fri      Yangtze River Cruise. Victoria Prince Departs Chongqing at 11:00.Shore excursion to Fengdu Ghost City or New Wanxian County. (B L D)
8th July Sat      Yangtze River Cruise. Shore excursion to Lesser Three Gorges. (B L D)
9th July Sun     Yangtze River Cruise. Shore excursion to Three Gorges Dam Site. (B L D)
10th July Mon  Yangtze River Cruise. Shore excursion to Wuhan,Hubei Province Museum. (B L D)
11th July Tue    Yangtze River Cruise. Shore excursion to Yellow Mountain. (B L D)
12th July Wed  Yangtze River Cruise. Shore excursion to Nanjing, Mausoleum of Dr.Sun Yatsen, Confucian Temple. (B L D)
13th July Thu   Yangtze River Cruise. Disembark at Shanghai around 8am.Visit Yu Garden, Shanghai Museum, Jade Buddha Temple, The Bund, Acrobatic Show. (B L D)
14th July Fri    Shanghai depart, Free till transfer to airport and board your homebound flight.(B L)

Costs

The trip cost $3600 each, $600 over our budget but we found that we spent way less while in China than we expected and apart from presents, we hardly had to spend any money apart from tips to the guides and the odd bottle of beer and wine.  Everything was included - all accomodation, all tours and admissions, all meals, all flights including taxes. 

The airfare was $1300 each
The cruise about $1000 each
Internal flights about $300 each
Leaving $1000 for 7 nights accomodation with all meals, tour guide, driver and all admissions.

If time was less of a constraint, the trip could have been done cheaper because it was off-season, though some language skills may be necessary.  You certainly pay for the privilege of a personal guide but it is a really efficient way to see the country in limited time - and it all runs so smoothly - and I would highly recommend it.  It could be cheaper if you found your own guide, or used a China travel agent to cut out the Australian agent's fees but I didn't know who to trust and who would do a good job so it was better for me to use someone in Australia with experience in China agents and guides.

The ship, Victoria Prince, is American owned and presumably targeted at Americans.  Costs on board were ridiculous.  Drinks were 5 to 10 times the cost they were on the street.  But they provide a fridge in the cabin so have your drink in your cabin before dinner rather than with dinner and save a bucket of money.  Everything on board was just so excessively expensive that only a rich American, too old and too fat to walk on shore to get the bargains, would pay it.  Vendors line the docks when the ship stops so getting supplies is no problem.  And the crew have no problem with you staggering on board with all your supplies.  Of course, the bar has all imported drinks as well as local but the local beers and wines are af a very good quality - so drink your Australian beer and wine when in Australia.  Beer on the street is $1 for 600 mls and good wine is $5 a bottle.  Less in any quantity or with some bargaining if you don't look desparate and thirsty.  And generally no alcoholic drinks are provided with meals.  I thought a bottle of local wine per table for dinner would have been a nice extra and cost them very little.  But Victoria Lines seems determined to bleed all the money they can from their rich passengers.

The other thing I disliked about the ship was the recommended tip of $100 per person. (Notices everywhere on the last day about this).  This might be OK in the US but in China tipping is not done much and certainly not to that percentage.  We tipped half that and I still felt ripped off. Service was excellent but the price of the cruise is high for China anyway.  I object to being told to tip. (Rant over).

Travel Agent

We used Mandarin World Travel at Underwood in Brisbane.  They were recommended by a Chinese friend I work with.  They did a fantastic job of finding a good airfare and organising the trip just the way we wanted it.  We had several changes mainly because of budgets that they accomodated us with readily.  They book the internal content through a Beijing agent and they proved to be very efficient.  Our guide was always waiting for us when we arrived at an airport, all hotel accomodation was booked, and tickets were waiting for us.  And just as well;  with the language problems, we would have had a lot of difficulty sorting out any problems.

They are recommended for any China trip.