Karst Rivers And The Three Gorges – 13 Days

Start at Tiananmen Square, the vast square at the political heart of modern China, and walk through the Gate of Heavenly Peace into the Forbidden City. Home to the Ming and Qing emperors for nearly five centuries, this UNESCO-listed palace of red walls and golden roofs was closed to ordinary people for most of its history. Your guide leads you through the great ceremonial halls to the more intimate living quarters of the court.

Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Drive to the Summer Palace, the imperial garden retreat on the north-west edge of the city, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walk along the painted Long Corridor beside Kunming Lake, then take a boat ride across the water for views of Longevity Hill and its temples.

Drive about two hours into the hills to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. A cable car brings you up to the ramparts, where restored Ming watchtowers run along wooded ridges. Walk as far as you like in either direction, stopping for the views over the folded hills.

Lunch is at a local restaurant near the wall.

On the way back, stop at Changling, the largest of the Ming Tombs and the burial place of the Yongle Emperor, who moved the capital to Beijing and built the Forbidden City. Its great hall, supported by huge columns of precious nanmu wood, is one of the best preserved Ming buildings in China. Return to your hotel in Beijing in the evening.

Visit the Temple of Heaven, where emperors came to pray for good harvests, and spend some time in the park around it among locals practising tai chi, singing and playing cards. The round Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, with its three tiers of blue roof, is a classic image of Beijing.

Ride a rickshaw through the hutongs, the narrow alleys of old Beijing lined with courtyard homes, small shops and neighbourhood life. Lunch follows at a local restaurant.

Your driver takes you to the airport for the flight to Xi’an, about two hours. You are met on arrival and taken to your hotel in Xi’an.

Drive out to the Terracotta Army, part of the UNESCO-listed mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, who unified China more than two thousand years ago. In the excavated pits, thousands of life-size soldiers and horses stand in formation, each face modelled individually.

Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Back in the city, walk through the Muslim Quarter, home to the Hui community for centuries. Visit the Great Mosque, one of the oldest and largest mosques in China, built in the style of a Chinese temple with wooden pavilions and quiet courtyards. Finish among the food stalls of the surrounding lanes.

Fly from Xi’an to Guilin, about two hours. Your guide meets you on arrival in a very different China, with warm air and limestone hills rising straight out of the city.

Visit Reed Flute Cave, a limestone cave named after the reeds that grow at its entrance, once used to make flutes. Inside, stalactites, stalagmites and rock formations are lit in colour, and the cave walls carry inscriptions left by visitors over many centuries.

Check in to your hotel in Guilin with the evening at leisure. Walk by the lakes in the city centre, which are lit up after dark.

Board your boat at the pier for a cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo, about three and a half to four and a half hours, shared with other guests. This is one of the great river journeys of China: limestone peaks crowd the banks, bamboo groves lean over the water and water buffalo graze in the shallows. Watch for cormorant fishermen’s rafts, village jetties and terraced orchards along the banks.

Lunch is served on board as the scenery unfolds.

Arrive in Yangshuo and check in to your hotel in Yangshuo. In the evening, wander West Street, the town’s oldest street, now full of cafes, craft shops and evening crowds. Yangshuo is smaller and calmer than Guilin, and the karst peaks rise right at the edges of town.

Your driver takes you to the station for the high-speed train to Chongqing, a journey of about five to six hours through southern China’s hills and paddy fields. The train runs through long tunnels and over high viaducts as the landscape shifts from karst to the folded hills of Guizhou and Chongqing.

You are met in Chongqing, a city built on steep hills where the Jialing River joins the Yangtze. Its stairways, bridges and stacked buildings make it one of the most striking cityscapes in China, and it is the starting point for most Yangtze cruises.

Transfer to the dock and board your river cruise ship, shared with other guests. Settle into your cabin as the lights of Chongqing glitter along the riverbanks. The cruise staff introduce the ship and the days ahead, and the evening is at leisure on board.

Wake to the river rolling past your window. There is an optional excursion to Fengdu Ghost City, a hillside complex of temples and shrines devoted to the afterlife in Chinese folk belief, or you can stay on board and enjoy the deck.

Join the included shore excursion to Shibaozhai, a red wooden pavilion of many storeys built against a rock cliff above the river, reached by a narrow bridge. Climbing through its floors brings you to a temple at the top with views up and down the Yangtze.

Dinner on board, with the evening at leisure as the ship sails on downstream.

Watch from the deck as the ship enters the Three Gorges, where the river narrows between towering cliffs. There is an optional excursion to White Emperor City, a hilltop temple complex linked with stories from the Three Kingdoms period.

Transfer to a wooden flat-bottomed boat to explore Shennv Stream, a narrow tributary of steep green walls, waterfalls and quiet pools, shared with other guests. It is one of the most beautiful side trips on the river. Local boatmen explain how the stream was used before the dam raised the water level, and the quiet here is a striking change from the main river.

Dinner on board, then enjoy your last evening on the Yangtze as the ship continues through the gorges.

Join the shore excursion to the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric project in the world, which stretches across the Yangtze near Yichang. From the viewing area you look over the dam wall, the ship locks and the reservoir behind it. Your guide explains how the dam changed the river, raising the water level through the gorges and creating a reservoir hundreds of kilometres long.

Leave your river cruise ship in Yichang and transfer to the railway station.

Take the train from Yichang to Shanghai. Settle in for the long run east along the Yangtze valley, past Wuhan and the farmland of the lower river. You are met on arrival and taken to your hotel in Shanghai.

Begin at the Shanghai Museum, one of China’s finest art museums, with outstanding collections of ancient bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy and jade. Then step into Yu Garden, a Ming dynasty classical garden of ponds, rockeries and carved pavilions, and browse the busy Yuyuan Market around it. Its upturned eaves, dragon walls and zigzag bridges make it one of the best examples of a southern Chinese garden in the city.

Lunch is at a local restaurant.

Stroll through the Former French Concession, where plane trees shade villas and lane houses, then finish on the Bund as the evening lights come on along the colonial facades and across the river in Pudong.

Enjoy the time at leisure until your transfer.

Your driver takes you to the airport for your onward flight.