16-Day Lively China with Holy Tibet

Your flight lands at Beijing Capital International Airport or Daxing International Airport, where a driver holding a name board waits in the arrivals hall. The transfer to your downtown hotel takes roughly 45 to 70 minutes depending on traffic, and check-in is arranged in advance so there is no queue at the desk. The rest of the day is unscheduled: unpack, sleep off jet lag, or wander the lanes near the hotel for a first bowl of noodles. No meals are included today, so lunch and dinner are at your own expense; the guide leaves a short list of nearby restaurants that handle foreign cards. In the evening a printed briefing sheet confirms tomorrow's start time and the meeting point in the lobby.

Start early at Tiananmen Square, walking the length of the plaza before the crowds thicken, then pass through the Meridian Gate into the Forbidden City, where two and a half hours covers the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the imperial gardens and the northern exit. Lunch is not included; the guide points you to a noodle house a block from the palace moat. The afternoon shifts north-west to the Summer Palace, a slow loop along Kunming Lake and up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense. Dinner is your own arrangement. On the drive back the coach stops at the Bird's Nest and Water Cube for photographs after dark, when both stadiums light up.

Meals: Breakfast

The coach leaves at 08:00 for the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, roughly ninety minutes north of the city. A cable car carries you to the ridge, and you walk between watchtowers for about two hours on restored brick; the toboggan run down is optional and paid on the spot. Lunch is not included, though a farmhouse restaurant below the car park serves trout and local vegetables. Returning to the city, you visit the Confucius Temple and the adjoining Imperial College with its carved stone steles, then finish with a guided walk through the Nanluoguxiang hutongs, peeking into a courtyard home. Dinner is at leisure; many guests try the dumpling shop the guide recommends.

Meals: Breakfast

Morning belongs to the Temple of Heaven, a walled park where the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests rises on three tiers of marble and the Echo Wall throws a whisper back across forty metres. Residents fill the surrounding groves with tai chi and shuttlecock, which is half the reason to come. Lunch is not included; a canteen by the east gate is the practical stop before the station. At about 13:00 you transfer to Beijing West Railway Station for the high-speed train to Xi'an, five hours at 300 km/h across the North China Plain. Dinner is your own after arrival, and the hotel sits inside the Ming wall, ten minutes on foot from the Muslim Quarter. Your Xi'an guide meets the train.

Meals: Breakfast

An early start gets you to the Terracotta Army pits before the coach convoys arrive; Pit One alone holds six thousand figures, and the conservation hall explains how bronze weapons and pigment were stabilised. Lunch is not included, though the site restaurant is convenient. Back in the city you climb the Big Wild Goose Pagoda or circle its square, then walk the Great Mosque, a Ming-era complex laid out like a Chinese garden with Arabic calligraphy on the beams. Dinner is your own in the Muslim Quarter, where lamb skewers, roujiamo and persimmon cakes cost very little. The evening ends at Bell and Drum Tower Square as the timber towers are floodlit.

Meals: Breakfast

The morning is deliberately unhurried: you hire a bicycle on the Xi'an City Wall and ride a stretch of the 14-kilometre Ming rampart, looking down on tiled roofs and the moat. Lunch is not included; the guide suggests dumplings near the South Gate before the airport run. The flight to Lhasa takes about three hours twenty minutes, crossing the Qilian Mountains onto the plateau, and the descent to Gonggar Airport is spectacular. On landing you move slowly, drink water instead of alcohol and cancel any evening plan. The vehicle carries portable oxygen. Dinner is at your own expense, something light in the hotel, and your Tibetan guide briefs you on tomorrow's altitude routine.

Meals: Breakfast

Timed entry to the Potala Palace comes first, and the approach is 300-odd stone steps at 3,650 metres, so climb slowly and pause often; inside, the chapels of the White and Red Palaces are dim and narrow, and photography is banned. Lunch is not included. After a rest you walk to the Jokhang Temple, the spiritual centre of the city, where pilgrims prostrate outside the door, then join the clockwise flow of Barkhor Street, browsing stalls and butter-lamp shops. A short detour reaches the Ani Tsankhung Nunnery, a working convent. Dinner is your own; the guide recommends a Tibetan kitchen with mild dishes and repeats the advice about water.

Meals: Breakfast

Gentler on paper, but still above 3,600 metres. You begin at Norbulingka, the summer palace in its wooded gardens, and spend an hour with a resident painter learning how mineral pigment is ground and laid onto cloth in thangka work. Lunch is not included. The afternoon visits Drepung Monastery, once home to ten thousand monks, where you take the whitewashed lanes slowly instead of rushing the chapels, then Sera Monastery for the 15:00 debate, monks clapping and stamping in the courtyard. Shade is limited, so bring a hat. Dinner is at leisure, the vehicle keeps oxygen aboard, and the guide checks on anyone with the headache altitude often brings.

Meals: Breakfast

A morning transfer to Gonggar Airport for the flight to Chengdu, about two hours ten minutes, dropping off the plateau into the Sichuan Basin; the thicker air is a relief after a week at altitude. Lunch is not included, though the airline hands out a snack box and the guide points to a noodle shop near the hotel. The afternoon stays free: sleep, or walk to the bamboo groves of Huanhuaxi Park ten minutes away. Dinner is at your own expense, and this is the city to spend it on, a hotpot table within reach of the lobby with a mild broth if you ask. Your Chengdu guide meets the flight and confirms tomorrow's panda start time.

Meals: Breakfast

The day starts at 07:30 for the Dujiangyan Panda Base, ninety minutes west of the city, where you join the volunteer programme rather than simply watch. Duties fill the morning: clearing bamboo debris from the enclosures, weighing and preparing fresh culms, and shaping the steamed corn cakes the keepers call panda bread. Lunch is not included, but a staff canteen meal is usually arranged on site for a small fee. The afternoon returns to the enclosures for feeding and observation. Rules are strict: no perfume, sunscreen or nail polish, ages 8 to 70, and a health form on arrival. Dinner is at leisure back in Chengdu.

Meals: Breakfast

Morning in Jinli Ancient Street, a rebuilt Qing lane of snack stalls and red lanterns, then a quieter hour among the bamboo of Wangjianglou Park, where locals play mahjong under the pavilions. Lunch is not included; the Jinli stalls cover it cheaply. Around midday you take the high-speed train to Chongqing, ninety minutes through tunnels and river country, and if time allows detour to Ciqikou Ancient Town for porcelain shops and steep stone stairs. Transfer to Chaotianmen Dock to board the Yangtze cruise ship, attend the safety drill, and sail at 21:30. Dinner is not included, so eat in Chongqing before boarding. Cabins are twin-share with river views.

Meals: Breakfast

The ship docks mid-morning at Fengdu, where you climb to the Ghost City temples, or, when the water level dictates, at Shibaozhai, a twelve-storey red pavilion pinned to a cliff face. Either shore excursion is guided and covered by the cruise fare, though the operator may substitute according to river conditions. Lunch is served in the dining room as the vessel gets underway again. The afternoon is free on the sun deck, watching terraced slopes slide past. Dinner is aboard, followed by the captain's welcome reception in the lounge with a short folk performance; bar drinks go on your cabin account, tea and coffee do not. The evening ends on deck under the navigation lights.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This is the scenic centrepiece. The ship enters Qutang Gorge early, its cliffs close enough to shadow the deck, then Wu Gorge, where peaks are named for their shapes, Goddess Peak among them. At a tributary you switch to a small sampan for Shennong Stream or Goddess Stream, drifting past hanging coffins and monkey cliffs with a boatman poling at the stern. Lunch is aboard between the transits. Late afternoon the vessel passes the western stretch of Xiling Gorge and lines up for the locks. Dinner is served early so everyone can watch the five-stage lock sequence from the top deck; the chamber walls sliding past in the dark are the best show of the cruise.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

You leave the ship at Maoping after an early breakfast, and a coach climbs to the Three Gorges Dam, where the viewing platform looks along the 2,309-metre wall and down onto the ship locks. The exhibition hall explains the resettlement of more than a million people, and ninety minutes on site is about right. Lunch is not included; a restaurant near the dam is used before the station run. The high-speed train from Yichang East to Shanghai Hongqiao takes roughly seven hours, so the afternoon passes with a book. Dinner is your own, at the station or on arrival. A driver meets you at Hongqiao and transfers you to the hotel.

Meals: Breakfast

The Shanghai Museum opens at nine, and two hours covers the bronze gallery and the Ming furniture rooms; on Mondays it closes and the Shanghai History Museum substitutes. Lunch is not included, though the guide points to a dumpling house off People's Square. The afternoon walks the Bund, looking across the Huangpu at Lujiazui, then cuts inland along Nanjing Road to the Yu Garden, a Ming scholar's garden of rockeries and koi ponds, and the adjoining Yuyuan Bazaar. The coach then runs through the Former French Concession, past the plane trees of Dongping Road and Sinan Road. Dinner is your own, and the Bund lights come on around seven if you want a second look.

Meals: Breakfast

There is no scheduled sightseeing today. Breakfast is served at the hotel, and the morning stays free for a last walk along the Huangpu River or coffee in the Former French Concession if your flight is late. A guide and driver collect you from the lobby and transfer to Pudong International Airport or Hongqiao Airport, allowing two hours for check-in and security on international departures. Lunch and dinner are not included; both airports have options on either side of security. Your pick-up time is confirmed the evening before against the flight number, with a buffer for morning traffic. Rooms are held until noon, and late checkout can be arranged on request.

Meals: Breakfast