Grottoes, Cliff Temples And Harbour City – 10 Days

Begin at Tiananmen Square, the immense square at the centre of Beijing, flanked by monumental buildings and overlooked by the Gate of Heavenly Peace. From there, walk into the Forbidden City, the walled palace of the Ming and Qing emperors and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Your guide leads you through courtyards and throne halls to the private quarters and gardens of the inner court, explaining how the palace worked and who lived where. Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Climb into a pedal rickshaw for a ride through the hutongs, Beijing’s old alleyways of grey-brick courtyard houses. Your rider weaves along narrow lanes past small shops, doorways and corners where neighbours gather, a slower and more personal side of the city.

Visit the Temple of Heaven, where Ming and Qing emperors prayed for good harvests. The park around it fills with locals doing tai chi, dancing and playing games, and the round Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, with its triple roof of blue tiles, is one of the finest buildings in China. The complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Drive north into the hills for lunch at a local restaurant near Mutianyu.

Walk the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, a restored stretch that runs along a forested ridge between closely spaced watchtowers. The views open out across the hills in every direction. Walk as far as you like before your driver brings you back to Beijing.

Take the high-speed train to Datong in Shanxi Province, a journey of about two hours. Your guide meets you on arrival.

Visit the Yungang Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of more than two hundred caves carved into a sandstone cliff in the fifth century. Thousands of Buddhist statues fill the caves, from tiny figures to colossal seated Buddhas that rise many metres high. Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Return to the city to see Shanhua Temple, a Buddhist temple with halls dating back to the Liao and Jin dynasties, and rows of finely carved and painted statues inside. Then check in at your hotel in Datong.

Drive out to the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, built in the eleventh century during the Liao dynasty and regarded as the oldest and tallest fully wooden pagoda still standing in the world. Its many tiers are held together by intricate wooden brackets, without nails, and it has stood through centuries of wind and earthquakes on the open plain.

Have lunch at a local restaurant.

Continue to the Hanging Monastery, a temple complex built into the side of a sheer cliff, its halls supported on slender wooden beams far above the valley floor. Uniquely, it brings together Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism under one roof. Walk its narrow galleries before returning to your hotel in Datong.

Board the high-speed train to Xi’an, a journey of about six hours. Settle in and watch the loess hills and farmland of Shanxi and Shaanxi go by.

Your guide in Xi’an meets you on arrival and takes you to your hotel in Xi’an. Have lunch at a local restaurant along the way.

Dress up in Han-style costume, the flowing robes worn in ancient China, and stroll Great Tang All Day Mall, a lantern-lit avenue celebrating the Tang dynasty, when Xi’an, then Chang’an, was one of the great cities of the world. It is a fun way to join locals who come here in costume for photographs.

Drive out to the Terracotta Army, the thousands of life-size clay soldiers made to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify China. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and discovered by farmers in 1974, each warrior has its own face and stance.

See the bronze chariots and horses unearthed near the emperor’s tomb, remarkable for their fine detail. Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Back in the city, walk through the Muslim Quarter, where Xi’an’s Hui community has lived for centuries. Its lanes are full of stalls selling hand-pulled noodles, lamb skewers, flatbread and sweet persimmon cakes, a lively place to end the day.

Your driver takes you to the airport for your flight to Hong Kong.

Your guide in Hong Kong meets you on arrival and accompanies you to your hotel in Hong Kong. Lunch is at a local restaurant.

The rest of the day is at leisure. Walk along the harbour, watch the city lights come on across the water or find a busy local restaurant for dinner.

Head up to Victoria Peak for the classic view over the skyscrapers of Central and across Victoria Harbour to Kowloon. Back in the city, explore Tai Kwun, the former Central Police Station compound, carefully restored as a centre for heritage and the arts.

Have lunch at a local restaurant, perhaps with a round of dim sum.

Visit Wong Tai Sin Temple, one of Hong Kong’s busiest temples, where worshippers shake bamboo sticks to have their fortunes told. Then wander the markets of Mong Kok: the Ladies’ Market for clothes and souvenirs, the Flower Market with its buckets of blooms, and the Bird Garden, where older residents bring their songbirds in ornate cages.

Enjoy a final breakfast at your hotel. Your guide and driver take you to Hong Kong airport for your onward flight.