Essential China

Afternoon and evening. Pick-up at the airport by your English-speaking guide and private transfer to the hotel in Dongcheng. Arrival, handover of documents and the local SIM card, and a walk-through of the next day’s programme. Anyone landing in the morning has the afternoon free to sleep or take a first walk through the hutongs.

The first night exists to settle the body into the time zone. Anyone arriving on a night flight starts the following day at 10am, never at 7am, and the Wall is always scheduled for the second full day. It is a simple rule, and it is the one that works best against the fatigue of the first 48 hours.

Meals included: none — flights from Europe land at different hours. Tomorrow’s breakfast is already included.

Morning. Entry to the Forbidden City at 8:30 through the Meridian Gate, an hour ahead of the groups. The imperial axis is walked with time to stop in the side courtyards, where almost nobody goes. Exit to the north. Afternoon. Climb into Jingshan Park for the view over the yellow roofs, then a late lunch of zhajiangmian at a neighbourhood place in Gulou. Afterwards, a walk through the hutongs. Evening. Peking duck dinner, with the table booked by us for 7pm.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Departure at 6:15 and arrival at Mutianyu by 7am, before the first coaches. Cable car up to tower 14 and on to tower 20 on foot, about an hour with steep climbs. Afternoon. Toboggan down and lunch at a farmhouse below the wall. Back to Beijing mid-afternoon, with a stop at the Temple of Heaven only if there are legs left.

Mutianyu is the section we choose for three reasons: it is about an hour and a half from Beijing, it has a cable car up and a toboggan down — which saves the legs of anyone who does not want the two-hour walk — and it lets you be up on the ridge before the tour coaches arrive. For anyone who has already been on the Wall on another trip we propose Jinshanling: further out, steeper and almost always empty.

Evening. Dinner at leisure. We suggest the Muslim quarter at Niujie, which the guide books the day before.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

Morning. Last walks in Beijing: the Summer Palace, for anyone who has not been, or the Donghuamen market. Light lunch. Afternoon. Train to Xi’an, 4h30 to 6h in first class with reserved seats. Arrival and transfer to the hotel inside the city walls.

On high-speed trains you travel with your passport in hand: the ticket is named and station entry is done by document recognition. Arriving about forty-five minutes early is sensible; luggage rides in the rack above the seats and the guide handles boarding. Evening. First circuit of the Xi’an city wall, from the South Gate, with the lights already on. Dinner of yangrou paomo, with the ritual of tearing the bread into the bowl.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Departure at 7:30 for Lintong, 40 km east. Entry at 8:30, at opening. Visit in the order Pit 1, Pit 3, Pit 2 and the site museum, with the site’s own archaeologist guide for the first forty minutes.

The order of the pits is not arbitrary. We start with Pit 1 because it is the one easiest to grasp at a glance — the infantry in columns, facing east — and keep Pit 2, still largely unexcavated, for when the eye already knows what it is looking for. Between the two, Pit 3 is the small command post. Seeing Terracotta with crowds inside the pit is a different experience, and a considerably worse one: hence the insistence on entering at opening. Afternoon. Stop at the Huaqing Hot Springs on the way back, and into Xi’an mid-afternoon. Two free hours to rest. Evening. Muslim quarter at dusk: skewers, roujiamo and persimmon cakes in October.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

Morning. Shaanxi History Museum (closed on Mondays — in that case we swap it for the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda). Climb the pagoda for the view along the old city axis.

The Shaanxi History Museum is one of the best in the country and one of the most demanding to plan around: entry is free but limited, and done by named reservation with an allocated time slot. We make that request days in advance and, when the day of the week does not allow it, swap the visit for the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda without losing the thread of the old city. Afternoon. Bicycle ride along the top of the city wall between two gates. Transfer to the airport and flight to Shanghai, 2h15. Evening. Arrival in Shanghai and a first walk on the Bund, still in time for the lights to go out.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

Morning. The Bund at 6:30, with the tai chi practitioners and no tourists. Back to the hotel in time for breakfast. Then Yu Garden at 8:30. Getting up early in Shanghai pays off: at 6:30 the Bund belongs to the people who live here, and by 10am it will belong to them again.

This is where China’s foreign trade was decided for a century, and that is why the façades look European: banks, customs house and clubs built by British, French and American firms. Reading those façades one by one, with the guide, takes under an hour and gives you the key to the city you cross next. Afternoon. Shanghai Museum at People’s Square, with the reservation made by us. Late afternoon in the plane-tree streets of Xuhui: Wukang Road and the Wukang Building. Evening. Up the Shanghai Tower — only if visibility allows — to watch the city move from day into night. Dinner of Shanghai cooking.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. A thirty-minute train to Suzhou. The Humble Administrator’s Garden and the I.M. Pei museum (reservation made by us for 10am). Afternoon. Canals of the Pingjiang district, a boat ride and Shantang Street. Back to Shanghai at the end of the day. Evening. Dinner at leisure. We recommend Tianzifang or Xintiandi, depending on how tired you are.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

Morning. Free. We suggest Tianzifang before 10am, or a morning’s shopping on Nanjing Road. Afternoon. Xintiandi and the former French Concession on foot, and for anyone who wants it a last massage or a teahouse in Jing’an. Evening. Farewell dinner on a terrace facing the Bund, booked in advance. Boat trip on the Huangpu, if there is energy left.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Last shopping or one more turn along the Bund. Private transfer to Pudong airport three hours before the flight, or an extension to Hangzhou.

Meals: breakfast.