Chine gastronomique, 12 jours

A food itinerary that still shows guests the country. Each city contributes a distinct culinary school and the sights are chosen to sit alongside it rather than compete: the Wall before Mongolian hotpot, Sanxingdui before the flight east, tea terraces before a Jiangnan banquet. Guests cook twice, shop a wholesale spice market, and leave able to explain why Sichuan and Hangzhou taste nothing alike.

Jour par jour

1. 1

   Jour 1 — Arrive Beijing

   Met at the airport and transferred to your hotel · Welcome dinner in a busy courtyard restaurant — a working neighbourhood room, not a banquet hall.

2. 2

   Jour 2 — Beijing: Great Wall and hotpot

   Out of the city to walk the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall · Seasonal lunch at a countryside kitchen below the ramparts · Back to town to rest before a Mongolian-style hotpot dinner, the northern answer to Sichuan's.

3. 3

   Jour 3 — Beijing: imperial city and duck

   Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City · The hutongs around Houhai, with lunch somewhere in them · The incense courtyards of the Lama Temple · Peking duck in the evening, carved at the table.

4. 4

   Jour 4 — Beijing to Chengdu

   Tai chi with a master at the Temple of Heaven to start the day · Hand-pulled wheat noodles at a local favourite for lunch · Fly to Chengdu · Late dinner on one of the city's long-established snack streets.

5. 5

   Jour 5 — Chengdu: spice market and cooking class

   Taste and buy at a wholesale spice market, where the Sichuan pantry is assembled · Lunch at the Sichuan Culinary Museum, then a hands-on cooking lesson · Kung fu practice at Wangjianglou Park · Kuanzhai Alley in the late afternoon · A loud, communal hotpot dinner to finish.

6. 6

   Jour 6 — Chengdu: pandas and a banquet

   Early at the panda breeding centre, when the animals are active · Hearty countryside lunch outside the city · Qingcheng Mountain by cable car and foot, past Taoist temples to the summit views · A full Sichuan banquet dinner — the formal register of a cuisine most guests only know as hotpot.

7. 7

   Jour 7 — Chengdu to Hangzhou

   Sanxingdui Museum and its bronze masks, evidence of a kingdom that rewrote what we thought we knew about ancient China · Fly to Hangzhou after lunch · Evening at leisure.

8. 8

   Jour 8 — Hangzhou: West Lake and Longjing

   Cross West Lake by boat, the landscape that shaped a thousand years of Chinese poetry and still sits on the 1 RMB note · Lunch through the Hangzhou classics · Into the hills to walk the Longjing tea terraces and taste the chestnut note the region is known for · Dinner in a private room, Jiangnan cooking by a senior chef in a garden setting.

9. 9

   Jour 9 — Hangzhou to Shanghai

   The old streets and a traditional pharmacy, where the line between medicine and the kitchen is thinner than guests expect · High-speed train to Shanghai · Afternoon and evening free.

10. 10

    Jour 10 — Shanghai: concessions and dumplings

    Fuxing Park at its liveliest, music and dancing in a former private garden · The tree-lined French Concession on foot · Xiaolongbao lunch at a neighbourhood institution · Yuyuan Bazaar for snacks and souvenirs · The Shanghai Tower deck, then the Bund at dusk · Shanghainese dinner, sweeter and softer than anything so far.

11. 11

    Jour 11 — Shanghai: free day

    A day at your own pace for shopping, museums or a second run at a favourite restaurant · Farewell dinner in a colonial-era mansion.

12. 12

    Jour 12 — Depart Shanghai

    Transfer to the airport with check-in assistance for your onward flight.

Hébergement

Nous chiffrons une gamme d'hôtels plutôt qu'une liste figée, pour que le même itinéraire se vende à plusieurs niveaux de prix.

Sur le terrain

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