Combining cultural and birding sites, our early focus will be on several of China's most famous cultural sites including the Terracotta Warriors, Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Tiananmen Square, and Summer Palace. We will then explore several protected natural areas to enjoy some excellent early spring birding hoping to encounter globally threatened birds ranging from Crested Ibis, Brown Eared-Pheasant, Swan Goose, and Great Bustard to Red-crowned and White-naped cranes.

Our trip begins in Beijing where we will visit sites such as Tiananmen Square, Ming Tombs, the Summer Palace, and the Great Wall. We should also see a variety of birds ranging from Azure-winged Magpie to Smew and scarce endemics like the White-browed Hill Warbler. At Wild Duck Lake we will have the chance to see such unusual species as Great Bustard, White-naped Crane, and Swan Goose.

A journey west to Xian will place us in the precinct of the Terracotta Warriors, and we will spend most of a day exploring this World Heritage Site. This also enables us to connect with one of the world's rarest birds, the unique Oriental Crested Ibis, which is staging a carefully managed comeback from the brink of extinction. In nearby protected forests, we will try to see the rare endemic Brown Eared-Pheasant, and Koklass Pheasant, Siberian Accentor, and Chinese Nuthatch are also among the possibilities.

Our final four days will be spent exploring Xianghai Nature Reserve and the Baicheng grasslands in southern Manchuria, where we hope to find, among many possibilities, Red-crowned Crane, Baikal Teal, Mandarin Duck, Eurasian Bittern, and Ochre-rumped and Pallas's Reed buntings.

This comfortable tour will combine some of the best cultural sites in China with some very interesting early spring birding, with a focus on several globally threatened endemics.

Accommodations range from five-star hotels in the major cities to more traditional guest houses in more remote areas; largely roadside birding with a strong possibility of cold temperatures and snow on the ground in the mountainous areas, with highest altitude about 7,000 feet; food will be Chinese banquet style (freshly prepared in the wok typically) with generally limited opportunities for western food.