13-Day Grand China with Pandas

Your Beijing trip opens in the arrivals hall of Beijing Capital International Airport or Daxing International Airport, where a driver and English-speaking guide wait with a name board. The transfer into the city runs forty-five to seventy minutes depending on traffic, and the guide uses the drive to sketch the capital's layout, its dynastic layers and a few practical tips for the week. Check in and settle into the room. Nothing else is scheduled, so the evening belongs to you: walk to a neighbourhood night market for Peking duck or dumplings, or simply sleep off the flight. Your guide confirms tomorrow's start time before leaving, and no meals are included today.

Start early at Tiananmen Square, walking past the Monument to the People's Heroes before entering the Forbidden City through the Meridian Gate. Allow about three hours to cross the courtyards from the Hall of Supreme Harmony to the Imperial Garden. Lunch is not included; your guide points you to a noodle house just north of the moat. In the afternoon, drive to the Summer Palace for a lakeside stroll along the Long Corridor, roughly two hours. On the way back, stop for photos at the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. No inter-city travel today, since a private car covers every hop. The evening is free, and your guide can book a Peking duck table.

Meals: Breakfast

The day belongs to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, reached in about ninety minutes by private car. A round-trip cable car lifts you onto the ramparts, then you walk between watchtowers for two to three hours, restored brickwork on one side and forested ridges on the other. Lunch is taken at a village restaurant below the wall, grilled trout and farm vegetables, paid locally. Driving back into the city, visit the Confucius Temple and the adjoining Imperial College, once the empire's highest seat of learning. Finish with a wander through hutong lanes near Houhai, where courtyard homes open onto narrow alleys. Dinner is your own, perhaps at a family-run kitchen nearby.

Meals: Breakfast

Begin at the Temple of Heaven, where residents practise tai chi among cypress trees before you reach the triple-tiered Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests; allow ninety minutes. Lunch is not included, and a simple meal near Beijing West Railway Station fits the schedule. Around midday, board a high-speed train to Xi'an; the 1,200-kilometre run takes roughly five hours at 300 km/h. Watch the North China Plain give way to the Loess Plateau and the Qinling foothills. On arrival, a driver transfers you to a hotel inside the old city walls. The evening is free: stretch your legs on the illuminated Bell Tower square and try a bowl of biangbiang noodles.

Meals: Breakfast

Leave the city early for the Terracotta Army pits, about an hour east; two and a half hours with a guide covers Pit 1's infantry ranks, the bronze chariots and the conservation halls. Lunch is at a Shaanxi restaurant nearby, hand-pulled noodles and cold dishes, not included. Return to Xi'an for the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, built to house sutras carried back by the monk Xuanzang. Continue to the Great Mosque, a Ming-era complex blending Islamic prayer halls with Chinese timber roofs, then walk the food stalls of the Muslim Quarter. Close the day at the Bell and Drum Tower square as the lights come on. Dinner is your own pick among the grill stalls.

Meals: Breakfast

Morning on the Xi'an City Wall, the most complete Ming rampart in China. Walk or rent a bicycle for the 13.7-kilometre circuit, an hour by bike and three on foot, looking down on moat gardens and grey-tiled rooftops. Lunch near the South Gate, then transfer to the station for a high-speed train to Chengdu, three to four hours through the Qinling Mountains, with long tunnels marking the crossing from north to south. Arrive in the early evening and check in. Sichuan's signature meal awaits: a bubbling hotpot at a local restaurant, or gentler mapo tofu if you prefer. Your guide briefs you on tomorrow's panda program before you turn in.

Meals: Breakfast

An early start for the Dujiangyan Panda Base, ninety minutes from the city, where you join the keeper-for-a-day program. After a safety briefing you clean enclosures, weigh and chop bamboo, mix the steamed corn cakes known as wotou, and watch keepers run target-training sessions with the animals. Lunch is taken at the base canteen as part of the volunteer package. In the afternoon, help prepare enrichment feeders and observe sub-adults climbing and wrestling in the hillside yards. A certificate and souvenir close the visit. Drive back to Chengdu for a free evening; Kuanzhai Alley is a pleasant spot for tea and snacks.

Meals: Breakfast

Spend the morning at Jinli Street, a rebuilt Qing-style lane of lanterns, teahouses and silk shops, then walk ten minutes to Wangjianglou Park, whose bamboo grove and river pavilions honour the Tang poet Xue Tao; about two hours in all. Lunch is your own, perhaps a bowl of dan dan noodles. Board a high-speed train to Chongqing, a run of roughly ninety minutes across the Sichuan Basin. On arrival, explore the stepped lanes of Ciqikou old town if time allows, then transfer to Chaotianmen Dock and board your Yangtze River cruise ship. Sailing is set for 21:30, with Chongqing's stacked lights sliding past as you head downstream.

Meals: Breakfast

A full day afloat on the Yangtze, the river widening as you leave Chongqing's municipal limits behind. In the morning the ship calls at either the Fengdu Ghost City, a hillside temple complex of grotesque statues, or Shibaozhai, a twelve-storey red pavilion bolted to a riverside rock; the choice depends on water levels and the vessel. Lunch is served in the dining room. The afternoon is open: deck chairs, a lecture on the dam project, or a cooking demonstration. Dinner is included, followed by the captain's welcome reception and a folk song-and-dance show performed by the crew. Overnight in your cabin as the ship presses on toward the gorges.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The scenic centrepiece of the voyage. Morning brings the Qutang Gorge, its cliffs closing to a few hundred metres, then the twelve peaks of Wu Gorge. Near Badong, switch to a motorised sampan for a shallow tributary, the Shennong Stream or its sister ravine depending on the operator, where trackers once hauled boats upstream; allow two hours. Lunch is included on board. Rejoin the ship and enter the western stretch of the Xiling Gorge, passing ochre rock faces and the drowned site of old rapids. Dinner is included, and the evening brings a farewell banquet with the crew. Pack tonight, since tomorrow you disembark above the dam.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Disembark at Maoping Pier after breakfast and drive to the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project. A two-hour visit takes in the Tanziling observation deck, the five-stage ship locks and a model exhibition explaining the resettlement of more than a million people. Lunch is not included, and a restaurant near the visitor centre works well. Transfer to Yichang East Railway Station for a high-speed train to Shanghai, roughly seven and a half hours across Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu. Arrive at night and check in. The evening is free, though the Bund is a short walk from most central hotels and stays lit until 22:00.

Meals: Breakfast

Begin at the Shanghai Museum on People's Square, where bronzes, jades and Ming furniture fill four galleries; ninety minutes covers the highlights, and on Mondays the Shanghai History Museum substitutes. Lunch is your own near Nanjing Road. In the afternoon, walk the Bund promenade for views of the Pudong towers, then cross to the Yu Garden, a Ming scholar's garden of rockeries and koi ponds, plus the adjoining Yuyuan Bazaar. Finish with a slow wander through the Former French Concession, along Wukang Road and Sinan Road, where plane trees shade villas and small galleries. The metro handles every hop. Dinner is free, perhaps a Shanghainese kitchen near Xintiandi.

Meals: Breakfast

No sightseeing is scheduled. After breakfast, a private car takes you to Pudong International Airport or Hongqiao International Airport, a transfer of forty-five to seventy minutes depending on traffic and terminal. Your guide helps with check-in and walks you to the security gate. If your flight leaves late, ask about luggage storage and a final morning at the Power Station of Art or the riverside promenade at West Bund. Travellers continuing to Hangzhou or Suzhou can extend by high-speed rail in under an hour. The tour closes at the airport, with twelve nights of accommodation and all land arrangements complete.

Meals: Breakfast