Honeymoon in Hidden China

Afternoon and evening. Pick-up at Guilin airport and a 1h15 transfer to Yangshuo, already among the peaks. Check-in on the bank of the Li River. Meal. Light dinner facing the peaks, with the sound of the water.

Meals: dinner.

Morning. No alarm set. For anyone who wants it, a short walk to the fishing village before breakfast. Afternoon. Bicycle among the rice fields along the Yulong River, with a stop at an eight-hundred-year-old stone bridge. Pool time afterwards. Evening. Private dinner on the riverbank, beer fish and low light.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Departure at 4:30 for the Xianggong viewpoint. Twenty minutes of staircase in the dark and sunrise over the bend of the Li River. Back for breakfast, then a free morning.

There is no shortcut: it is about twenty minutes of steps up to the walkway, done with a torch in hand, because the group coach arrives an hour later and there is no longer room. It is the only compulsory early start of the tour, and it pays because it falls on the same day as the raft, which leaves the whole afternoon free.

Afternoon. Private bamboo raft on the stretch from the 20-yuan note, with just the two of you and the boatman. Evening. Dinner at leisure on West Street or in the village, as you prefer.

Meals: breakfast.

Morning. Xingping market and a walk through the village of grey brick houses. For anyone who preferred to stay in bed, a massage or a late breakfast. Afternoon. Drive to the terraces with a view and an unprogrammed afternoon. We suggest a teahouse on the slope. Evening. Meal at a family farm, with vegetables picked that moment.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Transfer to Guilin station and high-speed train to Shanghai, about eight hours in first class, or a two-and-a-half-hour flight when you would rather save the day. Afternoon. Check in at Jing’an. First walk through the plane-tree streets of Xuhui at the end of the day.

Shanghai is on this tour for the same reason it is on any China itinerary: it is the city where the country shows itself modern, with good restaurants, good teahouses and hotels with a view. We stay in the quiet ground of Jing’an, away from the noise of Nanjing Road. Evening. Dinner of Shanghai cooking, with the reservation made by us.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. The Bund at 6:30, before the traffic and the photographers. Back to the hotel in time for breakfast. Afternoon. Yu Garden and the old city. Then an afternoon of spa or of shopping on Nanjing Road, as you prefer. Evening. Up the observation deck of the Shanghai Tower at nightfall — only with good visibility, checked in the morning — and a late dinner with a view.

Meals: breakfast.

Morning. One-hour train to Hangzhou. Check-in and a private boat on the West Lake, the place Chinese poets have been talking about for a thousand years. Afternoon. Longjing tea picking on the slopes, with hand drying, and a tasting at the growers’ house.

Longjing tea is picked by hand and dried on the spot, in hot woks, with the leaves still green. It is possible to try that gesture and then taste the result in the growers’ courtyard, where you stay talking about tea for an hour with nobody looking at the clock.

Evening. Dinner among the tea vines, at a table set up outdoors.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Free. We suggest Lingyin temple at 7am, before the groups, or staying in bed. Afternoon. Walk along the Grand Canal and Qinghefang street, with silk and tea houses. Back to Shanghai by train at the end of the day. Evening. Dinner of xiaolongbao at a Shanghai place more than thirty years old.

Meals: breakfast.

Morning. Tianzifang before 10am and a last circuit of the French Concession. Afternoon. Flight to Macau, about two and a half hours, or ferry from Hong Kong, depending on schedules. Check in on the peninsula. Evening. Macanese dinner: minchi, salt cod or African chicken, at one of the historic restaurants by Senate Square.

Meals: breakfast and dinner.

Morning. Ruins of St Paul’s at 8:30 and Senate Square without the crowds. Warm egg tarts on Taipa. Afternoon. Mount Fortress, the view over the peninsula, and a free afternoon in the antique shops and the casino, for anyone who wants it.

Behind the commercial streets Macau keeps a residential town of low houses with iron balconies, wooden shutters and barrel tiles: it is that Macau you look for on the last night, on foot, between Senate Square and Coloane.

Evening. Farewell dinner in Coloane Village, facing the channel.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

Morning. One-hour ferry to Hong Kong. Star Ferry and the funicular up Victoria Peak. Afternoon. Dim sum in Kowloon and a last walk through Tsim Sha Tsui. Back to Macau at the end of the day. Evening. Light dinner and last night.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

Morning. Last shopping on the peninsula and transfer to Macau airport or to Hong Kong, depending on the international flight.

Anyone who wants to extend the trip usually adds two or three nights in Hong Kong, an hour away by ferry, where the contrast with the Portuguese delta is total. An extension to Yangshuo is also common, for a second visit in a following year.

Meals: breakfast.