Photographic China

Afternoon and evening. Pick-up at the airport and transfer to the lodging inside the park area, close to Yuanjiajie. Equipment check with the guide and planning of the week’s light. Meal. Dinner in the village and an early night.

Meals: dinner.

Morning. At the gates of the Bailong elevator by 7am, before the public cable cars open. The Yuanjiajie walkway with the sandstone pillars still holding mist at the bottom of the valley.

Afternoon. Rest, review of images, and a return session on Tianzi Mountain for the afternoon light.

The sandstone pillars of Zhangjiajie are what is left of a plateau that erosion cut away over millennia: more than three thousand columns, some over two hundred metres tall. With mist in the valley floor the reading is of a floating forest; without it, the same frame loses half of what it has. That is why we insist on access before the public cable cars open, and why the reserve morning on Day 5 exists. Evening. Dinner and a planning session for the next day, based on the forecast.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Cable car up Tianzi Shan for sunrise over the range of pillars at 1,200 metres. Afternoon. Golden Whip Stream, seven flat kilometres with pillars overhead and light coming in sideways between the columns. Evening. Dinner at leisure and rest.

On days of dense mist the summit sits inside the cloud and the best composition is halfway down the slope: the guide decides on the spot, from what the previous morning looked like, and we drop a cable car stop when there is nothing to see up here. Golden Whip Stream, for its part, is the only long flat stretch in the park and rewards slow exposures, in which the water turns silky.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

Morning. Tianmen Shan: a seven-and-a-half-kilometre cable car, the longest in the world without intermediate stops, and the natural arch in the mountain. Afternoon. The road of 99 bends photographed from above, and the glass walkways clinging to the cliff. Evening. Transfer to the town and dinner of Hunan cooking.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Reserve session: repeat the viewpoint that rain cost you. If it is already done, a free morning. Afternoon. Train to Guilin and a 1h15 transfer to Yangshuo. Evening. Check in on the bank of the Li River and reconnaissance of the raft landing spot.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Departure at 4:30 for the Xianggong viewpoint: the bend of the Li River with the karst peaks emerging from the mist. It is the most reproduced image in southern China, which is why the climb to the viewpoint is made in the dark, with torches, to secure a place on the platform. Afternoon. Rest, then a bamboo raft on the stretch from the 20-yuan note in the low light of late afternoon.

The jetty fills with motorised boats from 10am, so the raft runs late in the day and over a short stretch: that is when you work with long exposures and still water.

Evening. Dinner on the bank and a joint review of the day’s images.

Meals: breakfast.

Morning. Fishermen with their cormorants at dawn on the Li River — a session arranged with a local fishing family. Afternoon. Bicycle route to the villages of the Yulong River, with stone bridges and buffalo in the fields. Evening. Dinner at a tangerine farm at sunset.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Last short session on the jetty before breakfast, with the fishing nets drying. Afternoon. Transfer to Guilin and flight or train to Kunming. Check-in. Evening. Dinner of wild mushrooms, a Yunnan speciality, and preparation for Yuanyang.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. The Stone Forest, two hours away: limestone towers 270 million years old, with a local guide to get off the shuttle route. Afternoon. The road to Yuanyang, five to six hours, arriving in time to reconnoitre the viewpoints. Evening. Check in at the Hani village, inside the terraces.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Duoyishu viewpoint at 6:30: the flooded terraces act as mirrors and reflect the whole sky. Between December and March, when the fields are flooded, this is the finest agricultural spectacle in the world. Afternoon. Thatched-roof Hani villages and a portrait session arranged with local residents, with prior permission. Evening. Dinner in the village and rest.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Session at the market in the neighbouring village: Yi and Hani minorities in their dress. On market days only. Afternoon. Laohuzui viewpoint for the sunset over the terraces cascading a thousand metres down the slope.

Here the sunset is worth more than the sunrise. Laohuzui has the drop on the right side: the terraces run down the entire hillside and the water gives back the colour of the sky for the last twenty minutes of light.

Evening. Dinner of terrace rice and ham cured at altitude.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

Morning. Last reserve dawn on the terraces, according to whatever the previous days missed. Afternoon. Road and train to Dali, beside Erhai lake. Arrival at the end of the day. Evening. Check-in and a night walk through the old town of the Bai.

Meals: breakfast.

Morning. Sunrise over Erhai lake, with the 4,000-metre range on the far side, from the eastern shore. Afternoon. Fishing villages and the Shazhou market, street portraits and wooden boats. Evening. Farewell dinner and a final review session of the best images of the trip.

One note on the Yi and the Hani: photographing people in traditional dress is a negotiation, not a right. We always arrange it in advance, we pay when payment is asked for, and we do not press when the answer is no. Almost every portrait that comes out of this trip is of someone who said yes.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. One last short session in the old town streets before the crowds, then breakfast. Afternoon. Transfer to Dali airport, or an extension to Lijiang and Shangri-La for anyone with more days.

Meals: breakfast.