Deep China: 21 days
Three weeks is where China stops being a set of famous sights and starts being a country. This route runs the classic north because it deserves to be seen once, then keeps going: down the Yangtze, into Sichuan, and out into the mountains and old towns of Yunnan, which is where most of our travellers
- Duration
- 21 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 10
- Best months
- Apr, May, Sep, Oct
- From
- $4,515 per person
The distances are enormous. High-speed rail does most of the work and does it superbly, with three internal flights where the train would eat a day.
Who it suits: first visits with real time, second visits that want the south-west, and travellers who would rather see one country properly than three quickly.
Your specialist: Asaf Zamshtein, our China desk, with our long-standing local partners on the ground.
Day by day
Days 1 to 4: Beijing. Arrive, then the Forbidden City with a guide who explains rather than recites, the Temple of Heaven early with the morning tai chi, a hutong day on foot, and a full day at a quiet section of the Great Wall. We use Jinshanling or Mutianyu rather than Badaling, and we say why.
Day 5: Beijing to Pingyao. High-speed rail south. A walled Qing-dynasty merchant town where you stay inside the walls in a courtyard inn.
Day 6: Pingyao to Xian. Rail west. Evening in the Muslim quarter and on the city walls.
Day 7: The Terracotta Army. Early, before the coaches, then the afternoon free.
Day 8: Xian to Chongqing. Rail south. An evening on the riverfront of a city most visitors have never heard of and which is larger than most countries’ capitals.
Days 9 to 11: The Yangtze. Three nights on a river ship through the Three Gorges, with shore excursions to the Shibaozhai pagoda and the Lesser Gorges. The ship is the accommodation, the pace is slow, and the scenery is at its best in the early morning.
Day 12: Yichang to Chengdu. Fly west into Sichuan.
Days 13 and 14: Chengdu. The panda base at opening, which is the only time the animals are active, then a teahouse afternoon in People’s Park, a Sichuan cooking session, and a day out to the Leshan Giant Buddha.
Day 15: Chengdu to Lijiang. Fly south into Yunnan. Two thousand four hundred metres of altitude and a completely different China: Naxi rather than Han, and old-town lanes that are busy by day and quiet by nine.
Days 16 and 17: Lijiang and Shuhe. The old town early, Baisha’s frescoes, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and a day walking a section of Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is a real walk with real drops and is worth planning fitness around.
Days 18 and 19: Zhongdian. North to the Tibetan-plateau town at about 10,800 feet (3,300 m), the Songzanlin monastery, Tibetan grassland and a noticeably thinner atmosphere. Two nights, with the first taken gently.
Day 20: Back to Kunming. Fly, then an afternoon and a last dinner in a city that is pleasant and almost never visited on purpose.
Day 21: Departure.
What is included
All accommodation with breakfast, including three nights aboard the Yangtze ship on full board and two courtyard-inn nights in Pingyao, all high-speed rail in first class, the three internal flights, private vehicles and drivers throughout, licensed English-speaking guides on the city and site days, the panda base and Leshan entries, the Sichuan cooking session, and a WhatsApp group with our China desk and the ground team, set up before you fly, with WeChat alongside it as a local fallback.
Honest notes
Altitude at Zhongdian. At about 10,800 feet (3,300 m) a proportion of travellers feel it, particularly having flown up from Lijiang. We keep the first afternoon empty and we do not schedule a climb on the arrival day. Anyone with a heart or lung condition should tell us at the enquiry stage.
The Yangtze cruise is a cruise. It is comfortable and scenic and it is also a fixed schedule on a ship with a few hundred other people. If that is not your travel, tell us and we replace those three nights with Guilin and the Li river, which is a different and equally good week.
Tiger Leaping Gorge is a real walk. The high trail has exposed sections and about 2,000 feet of ascent on the hard day. We build in the shorter valley alternative for anyone who would rather not, and we would rather you choose in advance than on the morning.
Payments, VPN and apps. Almost nothing takes a foreign card at the counter, and your usual apps are blocked on a local connection. We set up your payment app and a working VPN before you fly and test both with you, and our guides carry local payment for anything that needs it. This is the single most common frustration visitors report in China, and it is entirely avoidable.
Air quality and season. Northern China in winter has genuinely poor air on some days. April, May, September and October are the windows for this route, and they are also when the south-west is at its best.
Related
Shape this trip around us All China is a continent, and high-speed rail is the answer trips
