Classic & Hidden China 12D

Most twelve-day China programmes spend all twelve days on the same four postcards. This one banks the essentials first — Forbidden City, Great Wall, pandas, the Bund — then spends three days in Lijiang, where Naxi villages, Dongba script and Pu'er tea give the trip a second half nobody else on the shelf is selling. It closes in Shanghai for an easy long-haul exit.

Day by day

1. 1

   Day 1 — Arrive Beijing

   Met in the arrivals hall and transferred to your hotel · Time to reset before an evening Peking duck dinner that opens the trip on the city's signature dish.

2. 2

   Day 2 — Beijing: imperial core and hutongs

   The Forbidden City end to end, five centuries of imperial rule in one axis · Climb Jingshan for the view back across the roofs · Walk the hutong lanes where the courtyards are still lived in · Shop a neighbourhood market, then cook what you bought in a private courtyard kitchen.

3. 3

   Day 3 — Beijing: Jinshanling Great Wall

   Drive two and a half hours north to Jinshanling, restored enough to walk comfortably and remote enough to be quiet · Follow the ridge as the gradient rises and falls with the reservoir below · Picnic lunch on the wall itself · Back to the city with the evening free.

4. 4

   Day 4 — Beijing to Chengdu

   Morning tai chi with a master in the grounds of the Temple of Heaven · Explore the temple complex before lunch · Afternoon flight to Chengdu · Late supper at one of the city's long-running snack houses.

5. 5

   Day 5 — Chengdu: pandas and Sichuan life

   Dujiangyan panda base with a keeper programme, so it is hands-on rather than a viewing platform · Kuanzhai Alley, where Qing courtyards now hold coffee roasters and boutiques · Gaiwan tea and a master ear-cleaning in People's Park · Communal hotpot dinner, then the face-changing act at a Sichuan opera house.

6. 6

   Day 6 — Chengdu to Lijiang

   Fly to Lijiang and check in · Walk the quieter side lanes of the Old Town rather than the main drag · First introduction to the Naxi, whose Dongba faith, music and script survive as a living tradition rather than a museum exhibit.

7. 7

   Day 7 — Lijiang: Tiger Leaping Gorge

   Two and a half hours north to one of the deepest river gorges on earth, walled by the Jade Dragon and Haba snow massifs · Walk a section of the gorge trail · Visit Zhiyun Temple for its gilded prayer wheels and painted halls · Return to Lijiang for a free evening.

8. 8

   Day 8 — Lijiang: Baisha and Shuhe

   Baisha village, Naxi rural life largely unchanged for centuries · Learn Dongba pictographs from a Dongba priest through calligraphy and hand-made paper · Shuhe Old Town for a second, gentler view of the same culture · Taste and press your own Pu'er cake at a tea workshop · Dinner in a Naxi family courtyard with regional music.

9. 9

   Day 9 — Lijiang to Shanghai

   Fly to Shanghai and check in · The rest of the day is yours — deliberately unscheduled, because this is the point in a twelve-day trip where groups need it.

10. 10

    Day 10 — Shanghai: skyline and old town

    Up the Shanghai Tower for the full sweep of the city from one of the world's highest decks · Yuyuan Garden, a Ming scholar's garden held inside the modern city · The bazaar lanes around it for crafts and street snacks · Evening acrobatics show.

11. 11

    Day 11 — Shanghai: concession streets

    Fuxing Park in the morning, when the dancers and tai chi groups own it · The plane-tree avenues of the former French Concession · Xintiandi's restored shikumen blocks · The Bund, where the 1930s waterfront faces the Pudong skyline · Finish on a night-market food crawl.

12. 12

    Day 12 — Depart Shanghai

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

Accommodation

We quote a hotel ladder rather than a fixed list, so the same itinerary can be sold at more than one price point.

On the ground

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