Karst Rivers, Guizhou Villages And Imperial Cities – 17 Days

Today is at leisure, and Hong Kong is an easy city to explore on your own. Cross the harbour on the Star Ferry, a short and much-loved ride that has linked Kowloon and Hong Kong Island for well over a century, and look back at the skyline from the water.

Ride the Peak Tram up the steep slope to Victoria Peak, where the whole city spreads out beneath you, or spend the afternoon in the markets and shopping streets of Mong Kok and Causeway Bay.

Find a spot along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront for the Symphony of Lights, the nightly light and music show that plays across the buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour.

Spend the morning at leisure, perhaps over a final breakfast of milk tea and pineapple buns at a local cafe.

Board the high-speed train to Guilin, a journey of about three and a half hours that carries you from the coast into a landscape of green rice fields and limestone peaks. Your local guide meets you at the station and accompanies you to your hotel in Guilin.

Guilin is a pleasant, walkable city built around rivers and small lakes. Take an evening stroll along the water, where the pagodas and bridges are lit up after dark.

Drive about fifty minutes to the pier and board your boat for the Li River cruise, shared with other guests. For the next few hours the river winds between steep limestone peaks, bamboo groves and water buffalo cooling off in the shallows. Look out for the scene printed on the back of the twenty yuan note.

Lunch is served on board as the scenery slides by.

Arrive in Yangshuo, a small town set among the peaks, where your guide takes you to your hotel. Later, wander along West Street, the lively old main street lined with cafes, craft shops and restaurants, and watch the evening crowd gather.

Today is at leisure. Many travellers choose to drift down the Yulong River on a bamboo raft, a peaceful way to see the peaks and old stone bridges from water level.

Others prefer to cycle the quiet lanes between rice fields and villages, stopping wherever the view invites. If you enjoy food, a Chinese cooking class is a fine way to spend the afternoon, starting with a walk through the local market to buy ingredients. Your guide can arrange any of these for you.

Enjoy a relaxed evening in Yangshuo, perhaps with beer fish, the town’s best-known dish, at a local restaurant.

Your driver takes you back to Guilin, where you board the high-speed train to Congjiang, about an hour, deep in the mountains of southeast Guizhou.

From Congjiang a private car carries you along winding valley roads to Zhaoxing, where your guide checks you into your hotel. The village is home to the Dong people, famous for building without nails, and is divided into clan areas, each marked by its own drum tower.

Walk through Zhaoxing as the light softens. Look for the wooden drum towers, the covered wind and rain bridges over the stream and the flower-filled courtyards, and listen out for Dong grand song, the multi-part singing tradition recognised by UNESCO.

Drive to Basha Miao Village, home to a community of Miao people known for keeping many of their old customs, including traditional hairstyles for men and the right to carry firearms, a tradition with long roots in hunting. Walk the village paths under tall trees and visit the homes and granaries with your guide.

Continue to Zhanli Dong Village, a small, tidy village beside a stream, known for its traditional ways of farming and community life.

Visit Xiaohuang Dong Village, celebrated for its singing, and Huanggang Dong Village, a quiet settlement of wooden houses and fish ponds in a hidden valley. Return to Zhaoxing for the evening.

Set out on a hike of about two to three hours through terraced rice fields to Tang’an Village, a Dong village set high on the slopes. Depending on the season, the terraces may be brimming with water, bright green with young rice or golden before harvest.

Walk through Tang’an’s lanes and past its drum tower, then drive to Congjiang station to board the high-speed train to Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou.

Your guide meets you on arrival and takes you to your hotel in Guiyang. The city sits among green hills, and its night markets are a good place to try sour fish soup and other Guizhou flavours, known for their bright, tangy heat.

Drive about an hour and a half northwest to Tianlong Tunbao, near Anshun, one of the old garrison settlements founded by Ming dynasty soldiers sent to the southwest. Their descendants have kept many customs from that time, including Dixi opera, a masked ground opera, which you may have the chance to watch.

Drive about an hour and a half east to Qingyan Old Town, a fortified town of stone walls and gates with temples, churches and old shopfronts along its flagstone streets. Try a local snack in the lanes before returning to Guiyang.

Fly from Guiyang to Xi’an, about two hours. Your guide meets you on arrival.

On the way into the city, about an hour’s drive, stop at the Hanyang Tomb, the burial site of a Western Han emperor and his empress. Its underground museum lets you walk on glass above the excavation pits, where thousands of small clay figures of people and animals lie where they were found.

Check in to your hotel in Xi’an and spend the evening at leisure. The Bell Tower and Drum Tower at the centre of the old city are lit up after dark and make an easy first walk, a reminder that Xi’an was the capital of several Chinese dynasties.

Drive out to the Terracotta Army, the vast clay army buried with China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Spend about two and a half hours in the pits, starting with the largest, where rows of soldiers stand in battle formation, each face different from the next.

Return to the city and walk into Muslim Street, the heart of Xi’an’s Hui Muslim quarter. The lanes are full of steam and the sound of noodle dough being stretched and slapped. Taste roujiamo, a kind of flatbread with braised meat, and yangrou paomo, a mutton soup with torn bread.

Join a local family in their home, with the option of shopping for ingredients at a nearby market first. Learn to make dumplings or hand-pulled noodles from your hosts, who will show you how to knead, roll and fold the dough the way it has been done in their family for years.

Sit down to the lunch you have cooked together, a relaxed chance to talk about daily life in modern Xi’an.

Take the high-speed train to Pingyao, about three hours. Your guide meets you at the station and takes you to your hotel in Pingyao, inside or close to the old walls. In the evening the lanterns along the old streets make for a pleasant first stroll.

Walk the streets of Pingyao Ancient City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose walls, temples and shop houses date largely from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Visit the Rishengchang Exchange Shop, regarded as the birthplace of China’s draft banks, which helped merchants move money across the country in the nineteenth century, and stroll down Ming-Qing Street with its old shop signs.

Drive out to the Wang Family Compound, a huge residence built by a wealthy merchant family over generations. Its courtyards, carved brick and stone screens and terraced layout on the hillside show how far Shanxi’s merchant fortunes reached.

Take a short drive to Shuanglin Temple, which holds a remarkable collection of painted clay sculptures from the Song to Ming dynasties. The figures, from guardians to bodhisattvas, are full of character and fine detail, and the temple is included in Pingyao’s UNESCO listing.

Board the high-speed train to Beijing. Your guide meets you on arrival and takes you to your hotel in Beijing. Spend the evening at leisure, perhaps with Peking roast duck at a local restaurant, carved at the table and wrapped in thin pancakes with spring onion and sweet bean sauce.

Begin at Tiananmen Square, the vast public square at the centre of the capital, then walk through the gates into the Forbidden City, the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Move through its great halls and courtyards towards the private quarters where emperors and their households lived.

Leave by the north gate and climb the hill in Jingshan Park for a view over the golden roofs of the palace.

Visit the Temple of Heaven, where emperors came to pray for good harvests. The round, blue-roofed Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is one of the great sights of Beijing, and in the surrounding park local people gather to dance, sing and play cards.

Drive about two and a half hours to Jinshanling, a stretch of the Ming dynasty Great Wall that follows the ridgelines with watchtowers at close intervals.

Spend about three to four hours hiking along the wall. Some parts are restored, others more weathered, and the path climbs and dips with the mountains, so good shoes help. On a clear day the wall unfolds in both directions as far as you can see.

Return to Beijing for an evening at leisure. If you still have energy, the hutong lanes around Houhai Lake are lively in the evening, with small bars and restaurants along the water.

Enjoy breakfast at your hotel. Your guide and driver take you to the airport in time for your flight home.