Shanghai to Beijing via Zhangjiajie, Chongqing & Chengdu, 13 Nights

Met by the driver at Pudong International and taken into the city, around an hour. After check-in, walk down to the Bund for the first evening: the old banks and customs house on one bank of the Huangpu, Pudong's towers glowing on the other. It is worth setting up a phone payment app and a Chinese-language card listing any foods you avoid tonight, as this is a long and varied journey.

A full day with the guide. The Jade Buddha Temple first, home to two white-jade Buddhas brought from Burma, then Yu Garden in the old town, a sixteenth-century garden of rockeries and fish ponds, and a silk workshop. After lunch the Bund on foot, free time on Nanjing Road, and at dusk the lift to the 88th floor of the Jin Mao Tower, with the whole city lighting up below.

A morning flight into western Hunan; the slower train is possible if preferred. Zhangjiajie's airport and the lower station of the Tianmen Mountain cable car are both close to the city, so the afternoon goes up the mountain: a long ride over rooftops and up the cliffs, walkways along the summit edge, and the switchback road down to Heaven's Gate, a great arch through the rock reached by a long flight of steps.

A full day in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, among the thousands of sandstone columns that make up the Wulingyuan World Heritage area. Shuttle buses link the viewing areas; Yuanjiajie, whose towers inspired the floating mountains of Avatar, is the high point, and the Bailong lift carries you down the outside of a cliff in a glass cabin. Expect several kilometres of paved walking. Evening meals here are Hunanese and hot; ask for mild.

West by train to Chongqing, the fastest services taking around two and a half hours. Chongqing is built on steep hills where the Jialing meets the Yangtze, with monorails running through buildings and roads stacked on roads. In the evening, Hongyadong, a cliffside complex of stilted wooden buildings lit gold above the Jialing, and a river cruise at night to see the skyline from the water.

The Great Hall of the People, a domed 1950s assembly hall modelled on Beijing's Temple of Heaven, starts the day. Then the Yangtze River cableway, a short commuter cable car swinging across the river between the city's two banks. After lunch, Ciqikou, a riverside old town of stone lanes and teahouses once known for its porcelain trade, and in the evening Jiefangbei, the liberation monument at the heart of the shopping district. Chongqing hotpot is famous and fiery; mild and vegetarian broths are easy to order.

An early high-speed train to Chengdu, around an hour and a half, so the Giant Panda Base can be reached while the animals are still active; they tend to feed in the morning and sleep through warm afternoons. Later, Wenshu Monastery, a working Chan Buddhist temple with a vegetarian restaurant, and People's Park, where the teahouse is Chengdu life in miniature. The evening is for Jinli, an old-style street of lanterns, snacks and crafts.

South to Leshan, about two hours by road, where a seated Buddha some seventy metres tall was carved into the red sandstone cliff above the meeting of three rivers in the eighth century. A narrow stairway cut into the rock beside it leads from the head down to the feet; queues on the steps can be long at weekends and holidays. Back in Chengdu for the evening, perhaps a performance of Sichuan opera with its lightning mask changes.

The high-speed line to Xi'an crosses the Qinling mountains in a string of tunnels, arriving in about three and a half to four hours. Met at the station and taken to the hotel. In the evening, the square beneath the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Tang tower raised to hold the scriptures the monk Xuanzang brought back from India, where the musical fountains play after dark.

East of the city to the pits of the Terracotta Army, where thousands of clay soldiers, horses and chariots stand guard over the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, each face individually modelled. A pottery workshop shows how the figures were made. Returning to the centre, a stop at the fourteenth-century city wall, still unbroken around the old town, and free time in the Muslim Quarter for noodles and flatbreads.

The final rail leg, around four and a half hours from Xi'an North to Beijing West across the north China plain. Met at the station and taken to the hotel. The evening is free; the hutong lanes near the Drum and Bell Towers and the lakes of Houhai are close to the centre and good for a walk and a meal after a day of sitting.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, walked north through the great halls to the Imperial Garden; the palace closes on Mondays and entry is by advance ticket linked to your passport, so the two Beijing days may be swapped. In the afternoon, the Temple of Heaven, its round triple-roofed hall and a park full of local people exercising, and in the evening Wangfujing, Beijing's main pedestrian shopping street.

Out to Juyongguan, where the Great Wall climbs steeply up both sides of a mountain pass north-west of the city; the steps are irregular and the views reward whatever height you reach. The Summer Palace is on the way back, with Kunming Lake, the painted Long Corridor and the marble boat, and the Olympic Green's Bird's Nest stadium is a short stop. A farewell Peking duck dinner is easy to arrange.

Breakfast and the private transfer to Capital or Daxing airport, about an hour, for the flight home. With a late departure the hotel will hold bags after check-out, and Jingshan Park, whose small hill overlooks the Forbidden City's roofs, makes a gentle final hour close to the centre. It is a fitting place to end a journey that began on the Bund two weeks earlier.