Emperors, Pandas And Karst Peaks – 14 Days

Start at Tiananmen Square, the great open space at the heart of the capital, before passing beneath the Gate of Heavenly Peace into the Forbidden City. For nearly five centuries this was the home of the Ming and Qing emperors, and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Walk the ceremonial halls and courtyards, then explore the more intimate side palaces and gardens.

Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Hop into a rickshaw for a ride through the hutongs, the old lanes of grey-brick courtyard houses that once made up most of Beijing. Stop to visit a local family in their courtyard home, share a cup of tea and hear how life in the hutongs has changed over the generations.

Drive north to Mutianyu, a section of the Great Wall rebuilt in the Ming dynasty and set along a ridge of wooded hills. Take the cable car up and walk between the watchtowers at your own pace, with long views over the wall snaking into the distance.

Return towards the city for lunch at a local restaurant.

Visit the Summer Palace, the vast imperial garden where the Qing court escaped the summer heat, and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Stroll along the Long Corridor, its beams painted with thousands of scenes, then take a boat across Kunming Lake for views back to the temples and pavilions on Longevity Hill.

Head to the Temple of Heaven, where emperors once prayed for good harvests. The park around it is a favourite of local residents, who gather to exercise, dance and play music. Join a group for a tai chi lesson, then visit the round, blue-roofed Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a masterpiece of Ming architecture.

Transfer to the airport for a short flight to Xi’an. Your Xi’an guide meets you on arrival and takes you to your hotel. The flight takes you west across the plains, and the change from the bustle of Beijing to the older rhythms of Xi’an is part of the pleasure.

The evening is at leisure in Xi’an, the ancient capital that marked the eastern end of the Silk Road.

Drive out to the Terracotta Warriors, buried more than two thousand years ago to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China. Walk around the excavation pits, where thousands of life-size soldiers and horses stand in battle formation, each figure individually modelled.

Lunch is at a local restaurant. Ask for a bowl of biangbiang noodles, wide, hand-pulled and dressed with chilli oil, one of the city’s signature dishes.

Wander into the Muslim Quarter, home to the city’s Hui community, where lanes are lined with stalls of lamb skewers, flatbreads and dried fruit. Visit the Great Mosque, a peaceful complex of courtyards and pavilions where Chinese architecture and Islamic calligraphy blend in a way found nowhere else.

Join a local family for the morning. Visit a neighbourhood market together to shop for ingredients, then return to their home to learn how to make a traditional Shaanxi dish such as dumplings or noodles, before sitting down to eat together.

Visit the Tang Bo Art Museum, whose collection of murals, ceramics and other objects brings to life the splendour of the Tang dynasty. Then continue to the Drum Tower in the centre of the old city, where drums once marked the hours of the day.

Inside the tower, enjoy a short performance of bell and drum music, a sound that echoes the rhythms of the ancient capital. The evening is at leisure.

Take the high-speed train to Chengdu, about three to four hours through the Qinling Mountains. Your Chengdu guide meets you at the station. From the window, watch the plains give way to forested mountains and then the green farmland of the Sichuan basin.

Lunch is Sichuan hot pot, a simmering pot of chilli and numbing pepper broth in which you cook meats, vegetables and tofu at the table.

Visit Wenshu Temple, one of the best-preserved Buddhist temples in Chengdu, with incense-filled courtyards and a busy teahouse in its grounds. Join the locals over a cup of tea, then stroll along Jinli Street, a restored old street of lanterns, snack stalls and local crafts.

Go early to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, when the pandas are most active and munching through their bamboo. Walk the shaded paths between enclosures and learn about the conservation work that has helped this rare species recover.

After lunch, drive out to the Sanxingdui Museum. The drive takes you out through the farmland of the Chengdu plain, dotted with small villages and fields of vegetables.

Sanxingdui is home to some of the most extraordinary finds in Chinese archaeology: bronze masks with protruding eyes, towering figures and gold objects made by a Bronze Age culture that flourished here more than three thousand years ago. Your guide explains the theories about who these people were, and why the discoveries surprised historians. Return to Chengdu in the late afternoon.

Take a flight to Guilin, where your guide meets you on arrival. The city sits among the famous limestone peaks of Guangxi, a landscape that has inspired Chinese painters and poets for centuries.

Lunch is at a local restaurant. Guilin is known for its rice noodles, served in a rich broth with pickles, peanuts and chilli.

Visit Reed Flute Cave, a limestone cavern filled with stalactites, stalagmites and stone curtains lit in soft colours. Later, stroll around Banyan Lake and Cedar Lake in the centre of the city, where pagodas and bridges are reflected in the still water. In the evening, the lakes are lit up and locals come out to walk along the shore.

Board your boat at Zhujiang Pier for the Li River cruise to Yangshuo. For several hours, the river winds between sheer karst peaks, bamboo groves and water buffalo grazing on the banks, scenery so well known that one view appears on the twenty yuan note.

Lunch is served during the cruise as the scenery unfolds.

Arrive in Yangshuo, a small town ringed by limestone hills. Visit a workshop where artists hand-paint traditional fans, and try your hand at a simple design to take home. The evening is at leisure to explore the town. As the day cools, wander along the river or find a terrace to watch the peaks turn gold in the late light.

Explore the Yangshuo countryside by bicycle or, if you prefer, by van. Quiet lanes lead past rice paddies, small villages and the Yulong River, with the karst peaks rising on every side. Your guide sets the pace, with plenty of stops for photographs and to chat with farmers working in the fields.

Lunch is at a local restaurant, perhaps with Yangshuo’s well-known beer fish.

Drive to Guilin airport for your flight to Shanghai. Your guide meets you on arrival and takes you to your hotel.

Begin on the Bund, where grand banks and trading houses from the early twentieth century face the futuristic skyline of Pudong. Then visit Yu Garden, a classical Ming dynasty garden of rockeries, ponds and pavilions, and stop at a silk workshop to see how silk is spun and turned into quilts.

Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Walk from Fuxing Park, where locals gather to dance and play cards, to Bugaoli, a lane of shikumen stone-gate houses in the former French Concession. Finish at the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center, a fascinating private collection of posters that tell the story of China in the twentieth century through art. It is a thought-provoking way to see how the country has changed within a single lifetime.

Today is at leisure. Revisit a favourite neighbourhood, browse the shops or relax over a long lunch at your own pace. Your guide can suggest neighbourhoods, galleries and cafés that suit your interests before the day begins.

If you would like a guided outing, we can arrange a visit to the Shanghai Natural History Museum, with its impressive dinosaur skeletons, or a day trip to Xitang, a canal town of covered walkways and stone bridges. Your consultant can add either at your request.

Enjoy a final breakfast and some time at leisure, depending on your flight.

Your guide and driver take you to the airport for your flight home.