Shanghai, Beijing & Inner Mongolia, 8 Nights

Met at Pudong International and driven into the city, about an hour. After check-in, the first evening belongs to the Bund, the promenade along the Huangpu lined with the granite banks and trading houses of the 1920s and 1930s, and the view across the water to Pudong's lit towers. A dinner nearby and an early night set up the one full Shanghai day that follows.

Morning in the old walled town at Yu Garden, a Ming family garden of rockeries, pavilions and carp pools. The Shanghai Museum on People's Square follows, strongest on bronzes and porcelain. After lunch, across the river to Pudong for the 88th-floor deck of the Jin Mao Tower, with the Shanghai Tower rising beside it. The late afternoon is free along Nanjing Road or in the leafy lanes of the former French Concession.

A morning high-speed train from Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing South, roughly four and a half to five hours across the eastern plains. Met at the station and taken to the hotel. In the evening, a first look at the capital with the guide: the restored lanes of Qianmen south of Tiananmen, and then Wangfujing, whose side streets fill with food stalls after dark. Beijing has plenty of Indian and vegetarian restaurants if a familiar dinner appeals.

Tiananmen Square, and then north into the Forbidden City, the palace of the Ming and Qing emperors, walked from the Meridian Gate through the great halls to the Imperial Garden. It closes on Mondays and entry is by passport-linked advance ticket, so this day and the next may swap. The afternoon goes to the Temple of Heaven, its circular hall and the park around it, busy with Beijingers exercising, singing and playing chess. A drive past the Olympic Green's Bird's Nest stadium closes the day.

Out to Juyongguan, north-west of the city, where the Great Wall straddles a mountain pass and climbs both hillsides in steep flights of steps. Go as far as your legs are happy to. The Summer Palace lies on the way back: the imperial lakeside retreat with Longevity Hill, the long painted gallery beside Kunming Lake and the stone boat at the water's edge. Pack for the steppe tonight; tomorrow is an early start north.

The high-speed line north-west through Zhangjiakou reaches Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, in around two and a half hours. From there it is a road journey of about three hours south-west, across the Yellow River, to the edge of the Kubuqi, a desert of tall, shifting dunes. Late afternoon is the time to be out on the sand, when the light turns the crests gold. Camel rides and sand-sledging are available locally on direct payment for anyone keen.

Sunrise over the dunes is worth an early alarm. After breakfast the long drive begins, back past Hohhot and up onto the plateau to the Xilamuren grassland, about four to five hours in all. The steppe here is open, rolling and dotted with white round tents. Stays usually include a welcome with milk tea and a performance of Mongolian horsemanship and wrestling; riding is available locally. At night the sky out here is dark and full of stars.

An unhurried morning on the grassland, then the drive of about an hour and a half down to Hohhot. If there is time before the train, the Dazhao, the city's old Tibetan Buddhist monastery, is a short stop in the centre. The high-speed train returns to Beijing in around two and a half hours, and the afternoon and evening are free for a hutong walk near the Drum and Bell Towers or a last Peking duck dinner.

Breakfast, check-out and the transfer to Capital or Daxing airport for the flight home, roughly an hour's drive. With a later flight, the hotel will hold bags after check-out, and a morning stroll in Jingshan Park, looking down over the roofs of the Forbidden City, is an easy last outing close to the centre. Anyone who bought felt, cashmere or dried dairy sweets in Inner Mongolia should pack them in checked luggage.