10-Day Best of China with Pingyao Ancient Town

Your English-speaking guide waits beyond baggage claim at either Beijing Capital International Airport or Beijing Daxing International Airport, holding a name board and helping with luggage before the drive into the city. The transfer doubles as an orientation: your guide traces the capital's north-south axis and points out landmarks on the way to a four- or five-star hotel near the centre. The rest of the day is yours. Sleep off the flight, or take a short walk to a neighbourhood noodle shop for a first bowl of hand-pulled la mian. Lunch and dinner are not included today, so eat wherever your appetite leads. Overnight in Beijing.

Breakfast at the hotel, then your guide collects you for a full day in the imperial core. Start at Tiananmen Square, where flagpoles and monuments set the national scale, before crossing beneath the portrait gate into the Forbidden City - 980 buildings, twenty-four emperors, and courtyards that reward slow walking. Lunch is your own arrangement; your guide suggests a dumpling house near the east gate. The afternoon belongs to the Summer Palace, whose lake, long corridor and hillside pavilions were built for imperial ease. On the return drive, pause at the Bird's Nest and Water Cube, the 2008 Olympic venues, for photographs. Evening free; dinner not included. Overnight in Beijing.

Meals: Breakfast

An early departure takes you about 70 km north to Mutianyu, the quieter, forested stretch of the Great Wall. A round-trip cable car lifts you to the ridge; from there you walk between Ming guard towers, watchtowers stepping away along the hills. Lunch is not included - carry snacks or use the simple restaurants at the site. Back in the city, visit the Confucius Temple and the adjoining Imperial College, where scholars once sat the examinations that staffed the empire. The day ends in the lanes nearby: hutong alleys where residents still dry laundry above the doorways and a small cafe makes a good pause. Dinner at leisure. Overnight in Beijing.

Meals: Breakfast

Morning visit to the Temple of Heaven, the round blue-tiled hall where Ming and Qing emperors prayed for harvests. Come early and the park belongs to locals: taiji in slow rows, ribbon dancing, water calligraphy brushed onto the paving stones. Lunch is your own; a plain canteen near the east gate works well. Then transfer to Beijing West station for the high-speed train to Pingyao, roughly three and a half hours through the Hebei and Shanxi hills. A local guide meets you at Pingyao railway station and drives you through the city gate to courtyard-style lodging inside the walls. Evening free to walk the dark, lantern-lit lanes. Dinner not included. Overnight inside Pingyao Ancient City.

Meals: Breakfast

Today is the heart of the trip. Begin at the Rishengchang Draft Bank, where Shanxi clerks built a paper remittance system in 1823 and effectively ran China's private finance for a century - the ledgers, counters and underground silver vaults are still in place. Walk Ming and Qing Street, watching knife-shaved noodle makers and stopping at a vinegar workshop to taste dark, aged Shanxi laochencu. Lunch at a local courtyard restaurant, not included. Afternoon: the Tongxinggong Escort Agency, whose armed guards moved silver across the provinces, and the Pingyao County Government offices, where a court-trial re-enactment may be running. Finish on the Ancient City Wall, climbing at dusk. Dinner free. Overnight in Pingyao.

Meals: Breakfast

Leave the walls after breakfast for a one-hour drive to the Wang Family Compound in Lingshi, a Qing merchant residence built over half a century and still holding more than a thousand rooms across its terraces. Climb to the top of the compound wall for the full measure of it. Continue to Shuanglin Temple, a working Buddhist site whose halls shelter over two thousand painted clay figures with remarkably individual faces. Lunch is not included; your guide knows a family noodle kitchen nearby. In the afternoon, board the high-speed train to Xi'an, about three hours. A guide meets you at Xi'an North and transfers you to your hotel. Evening at leisure; dinner not included. Overnight in Xi'an.

Meals: Breakfast

An early start for the Terracotta Army, 40 km east of the city. Arrive at opening to see Pit 1 before the coaches land: rows of infantry in formation, each face modelled separately, many still carrying traces of pigment. Lunch is your own; the noodle stalls by the exit are decent. Return to the city for the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Tang brick tower built to house sutras carried back from India, then the Great Mosque, a seventh-century complex that folds Islamic prayer halls into Chinese courtyard form. Walk the Muslim Quarter for roujiamo and persimmon cakes, and end at Bell Tower and Drum Tower Square after dark. Dinner not included. Overnight in Xi'an.

Meals: Breakfast

Morning on the Xi'an City Wall, the most complete Ming fortification in China at almost 14 km around. Walk a stretch or hire a bicycle and ride the full circuit above the traffic. Lunch is not included - the streets around the South Gate do good biangbiang noodles. Afterwards, transfer to the airport for the flight to Shanghai, roughly two hours fifteen minutes. Your Shanghai guide meets you on arrival and introduces the city during the drive in; the shift from grey brick to glass towers is sudden. Check in, then the evening is free. Dinner not included. Overnight in Shanghai.

Meals: Breakfast

Begin at the Shanghai Museum on People's Square, where bronzes, jades and Ming furniture are displayed with unusual clarity; it closes Mondays, when the Shanghai History Museum substitutes. Walk to The Bund, the stone banks and trading houses along the Huangpu, and look across to Pudong. Lunch is your own - the basement food halls off Nanjing Road, China's busiest shopping street, are convenient. Afternoon in Yuyuan Garden, a Ming scholar's garden of rockeries and borrowed views, then the surrounding Yu Garden Bazaars. Finish slowly in the Former French Concession, on Dongping Road or Sinan Road, where plane trees shade the quietest blocks. Dinner not included. Overnight in Shanghai.

Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast, check out and meet your driver for the private transfer to Pudong or Hongqiao airport, or to the railway station if you continue by train. Allow time for the run out to Pudong, which can take an hour in traffic. There is no guiding or sightseeing today; the morning is yours for a last walk or a coffee before departure. Lunch and dinner are not included. If you want to extend the trip - a night in Suzhou, or a stretch of the Yangtze - this is the point to add it. The tour ends on arrival at your departure terminal.

Meals: Breakfast