Photo Tour to China
January 3 - 14, 2026
This is the most exciting photography tour to China Jim has ever offered. He has taken his favorite photo destinations from many tours here and combined them to make this amazing trip. Photograph up close and personal wild snub-nosed monkeys, take in the incredible "Avatar Mountains" made famous as the inspiration for the floating islands in the movie, experience the unbelievable Snow and Ice Festival in Harbin, and visit the astonishing Rainbow Mountains where naturally occurring minerals produce the most outrageous multi-colored landscapes in the world. You won't believe your eyes! This is a winter tour, so you'll be shooting in cold weather. But the pictures you take will be some of the best in all your travels.
What you will learn on this tour:
-- Protecting fingers in cold weather photography
-- How to use the 'Classic Landscape Technique'
-- Using HDR at twilight and night
-- Camera settings for wildlife action
-- Shooting a pano in lieu of using a wide angle
-- Exposing correctly for night photography
-- Creating vertical panoramas with architecture
-- Improving your mastery over depth of field
ITINERARY
Day 1, January 3, Saturday
Leave your home city so you arrive at Changsha, China, on this day. Jim recommends arriving a day earlier, though, to recover from jet lag. In planing your flights, makes sure you consider the International Dateline. For example, when you fly from the U.S., you'll lose one day. Meet your driver and transfer to our hotel. Changsha is the entertainment center of China and one of the capitals for nightlife. Overnight Changsha in a 4-star hotel.
Days 2 - 4, January 4 - 6, Sunday - Tuesday
After breakfast we board a train for a 3 hour trip to Zhangjiajie, and then we drive to the top of the spectacular Tianzi Mountains. This afternoon and
for the next two days we photograph dramatic quartzite sandstone pillars partially covered in evergreen and deciduous broadleaved trees. Most of them are more than 600 feet high. Often low clouds swirl around the pillars creating a magical tapestry of natural beauty. Each morning we will take advantage of sunrise lighting, and we will photograph this incredible UNESCO World Heritage Site from many paths and vantage points. It was these unique landscapes that inspired Avatar's director James Cameron to create the floating islands in the movie. Overnight in a mountain guesthouse.
Day 5, January 7, Monday
Before we depart, we will find one more mountain lookout for sunrise lighting on the quartzite sandstone pillars, and then after breakfast we leave
behind the beautiful Tianzi Mountains and take a train to Longnan. Overnight in a 4-star hotel.
Day 6 - 7, January 8 - 9, Tuesday
Following breakfast, we drive 3 hours and arrive where the snub-nosed monkeys, also called golden monkeys, live. We will see and get close to a wild population that are enticed into close viewing with bananas placed there by park rangers. From a boardwalk allowing easy photography, we can capture the antics of babies playing with each other, mothers nursing newborns, and family units taking advantage of the free food. After a 6 month gestation, females have their babies starting in December, so we should be guaranteed a lot of great images. This is mostly a telephoto lens situation, but some monkeys will approach so closely you can use a wide angle! Overnight in a local inn, 2-star.
Day 8, January 10, Wednesday
After a last photo session with the engaging monkeys with the blue faces, we drive back to Longnan. Overnight in a 4-star hotel.
Day 9, January 11, Thursday
This early morning we take a train to Zhangye National Geopark. Known for the exceptional colors and patterns in the topography unique in the entire world, the scene here looks too improbable to be real. Called the 'Rainbow Mountains', the brilliant striations of red, yellow, and orange are caused by mineral deposits over a period of 24 millions years that were then uplifted due to plate tectonics. Erosion by wind and rain put the finishing touches on this remarkable landscape. A series of
boardwalks and access roads have been built to help visitors explore the formations, and this allows us to capture many different kinds of compositions. It's hard to take a bad picture here! Overnight Zhangye in the Zhangye Danxia Hotel, 4-stars.
Day 10, January 12, Friday
We spend the entire day exploring the Rainbow Mountains, taking advantage of low angled light in the morning and afternoon. Jim will discuss focus stacking with telephoto lenses, using HDR to mitigate contrast, and his thoughts on composition. In the evening, Jim will demonstrate how to replace the sky in landscape images using Photoshop. So often, a bland or boring sky ruins an otherwise great image, and we now have the ability to rectify that. Overnight Zhangye in the Zhangye Danxia Hotel, 4-stars.
Day 11, January 13, Saturday
We enjoy more exploration and photography of the Rainbow Mountains to make sure we've captured the best possible images, and then late in the day we take a train to Xining and overnight in a 4-star hotel.
Days 12 - 13, January 14 - 15, Sunday - Monday
We fly to Harbin today. In the late afternoon and evening plus the entire next day we photograph one of the most astounding creations in the world. The Snow and Ice Festival is a dazzling display of creativity, hard work, and brilliant engineering. Ten thousand people build an entire city out of blocks of ice. The ice is harvested from the Songhua River that runs through the city, and it is used to construct buildings, bridges, historic icons, and ice sculptures. Holes are drilled into the ice and filled with neon
lights, and at twilight and night the entire city -- every structure -- is brilliantly illuminated. It is truly a winter wonderland! And the photography is unbelievable. This is a great time to use HDR to capture all of the detail and texture in the ice. You can climb some of the structures on ice steps (covered in non-slip material), holding on to an ice railing, so you can take an elevated shot of the entire city.
In addition, just 10 minutes by car, is the place where huge snow sculptures are built. The snow is brought from the nearby mountains in dump trucks, and it is piled high for the artists who then come to ply their magic and create stunning works of art. Nothing is too difficult for them; you may see rearing horses, Chinese mythological goddesses, a herd of elephants, and opera masks.
Harbin is also well-known for its historical Russian legacy and architecture that culminates in the beautiful Saint Sophia Cathedral and the Church of the Intercession. We will have plenty of great subjects to photograph during our visit here. Overnight Harbin in the Harbin Lavande Hotel, 3-star.
Day 14, January 16, Tuesday
This morning we transfer to the Harbin airport for our return flight home, knowing we've captured some of the best pictures of our travels.
Please note: This trip begins in Changsha, China and ends in Harbin, China.
TOUR COST: $6795. Includes 13 nights lodging based on double occupancy, all meals, ground transportation, airport transfers, all admission fees, drinking water, soft drinks during meals, services of an English speaking local guide, and photo instruction.
ADDITIONAL COST: $880 for domestic flight tickets and 6 train tickets.
SINGLE SUPPLEMENT FEE: $750
NOT INCLUDED: Discretionary tips for drivers, local guides, and porters, expenses of a personal nature, trip cancellation insurance, and medical evacuation insurance.