Great Wall To Yellow Mountain: Active China – 12 Days

Begin at Tiananmen Square, the vast ceremonial square at the heart of the capital. Then enter the Forbidden City, home to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walk through its great halls and courtyards on the central axis, and step into the side palaces to see where the court actually lived.

Lunch is at a local restaurant near the palace.

Leave by the north gate and climb the short path up Jingshan Park, an artificial hill built from earth dug for the palace moat. From the pavilion at the top, the golden roofs of the Forbidden City spread out below you, one of the best views in Beijing. It is a short but rewarding climb.

Drive by private car to Mutianyu, about an hour and a half north of the city. Ride the cable car up and set off on foot along the wall, climbing and descending steep stairways between the watchtowers. This is one of the best sections for an active walk, with forested hills all around and fewer crowds than elsewhere.

Ride the cable car back down and have lunch at a local restaurant near the wall.

Return to Beijing and stop at the Olympic Park to see the Bird’s Nest, the National Stadium with its lattice of steel, and the Water Cube, the aquatics centre wrapped in bubble-like panels. Both were built for the 2008 Summer Olympics and look most striking as the lights come on.

Visit the Temple of Heaven, the altar complex where emperors prayed for good harvests. In the park around it, Beijingers practise tai chi, dance and play cards, and you are welcome to join in. Then stop at a pearl store, a short shopping visit included in the source programme.

Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Explore the Summer Palace, an imperial garden of lakes, bridges and pavilions and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walk part of the painted Long Corridor, then take a boat across Kunming Lake. In the evening, take a short flight to Xi’an, about two hours, where your guide meets you and takes you to your hotel.

Drive about an hour by private car to the Terracotta Army, buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China, more than two thousand years ago. Walk around the pits of life-size soldiers, archers and horses, each figure with its own face and hairstyle. On the way, stop at a jade workshop to see how the stone is carved.

Lunch is at a local restaurant near the site.

Return to the city and climb onto the Ancient City Wall, the best-preserved city wall in China, built in the Ming dynasty and around 14 kilometres long. Rent a bicycle and ride a full or part loop on top, or walk a section if you prefer, looking down over rooftops and the old moat.

Wander the Muslim Quarter, the lanes behind the Drum Tower where the Hui community has lived for centuries, with stalls selling roujiamo, lamb skewers and dried fruit. Visit the Drum Tower itself, a Ming dynasty tower whose drums once marked the hours at dusk.

Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Visit the Hanyang Tombs, the burial site of a Western Han emperor. A glass-floored underground museum lets you walk above the burial pits and look down on thousands of small clay figures and objects meant to serve the emperor in the afterlife. Later, take the flight to Hangzhou, about two hours, where your guide meets you.

Visit the Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine, housed in a historic pharmacy with carved wooden halls, to learn how herbal remedies are prepared. Then head into the hills to a Dragon Well tea plantation, where the famous green tea is grown on terraced slopes and roasted by hand. Taste a cup with a local tea farmer.

Lunch is at a local restaurant. Then board a boat on West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, gliding past causeways, islands and willow-lined banks.

Visit Lingyin Temple, one of the oldest and most important Buddhist temples in China, and walk below Feilai Feng, the Peak That Flew Here, where hundreds of Buddhist figures are carved into the limestone.

Take the high-speed train from Hangzhou to Huangshan, about one and a half to two hours through green hills and tea country.

Your guide meets you and drives you to Hongcun Village in Yixian county, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Xidi nearby. Built in the shape of an ox, Hongcun has whitewashed houses with black-tiled roofs, carved wooden interiors and a clever system of canals that bring water to every home. The Moon Pond and South Lake reflect the houses like a painting.

Stay overnight near the village, which turns quiet and atmospheric after the day visitors leave. Lunch and dinner are at your own choice today.

Drive by private car to Yungu Station and ride the cable car up Mount Huangshan, the Yellow Mountain, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its granite peaks, twisted pines and seas of cloud. These landscapes have inspired Chinese painters and poets for centuries.

Lunch is at a restaurant on the mountain.

Spend the afternoon hiking well-built stone paths and steps between viewpoints. Every turn brings new outlines of rock and pine, and the light changes constantly as cloud drifts in and out. Stay overnight in your hotel on the mountain, ready for sunrise.

Rise early for sunrise, when the peaks emerge from the clouds in shades of pink and gold.

After breakfast, walk through the North Sea scenic area to Begin-to-Believe Peak, named because the view finally convinces visitors that the mountain’s beauty is real. Then ride the cable car down.

After lunch, your driver takes you to the station for the high-speed train to Shanghai. Your Shanghai guide meets you and takes you to your hotel.

Visit the Shanghai Museum, with outstanding collections of ancient bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy and painting. Then stroll to Yu Garden, a Ming dynasty classical garden of ponds, rockeries and pavilions, and browse the Yuyuan Market around it.

Lunch is at a local restaurant, perhaps with xiaolongbao soup dumplings. Then stop at a silk workshop to see how silk is spun from cocoons into thread and quilts.

Walk along the Bund, the riverside avenue lined with grand buildings from Shanghai’s trading era, facing the towers of Pudong. End in the Former French Concession, a leafy district of plane trees, villas and cafes.

Spend the morning at leisure until your transfer.

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