Shanxi, Shaanxi & Beijing Heritage Trail — 11 Days

Arrive in Beijing and transfer to your hotel. The rest of the day is free for you to rest after your flight and begin acclimatising to the city at your own pace.

Begin at the Forbidden City, the Ming- and Qing-dynasty palace enclosure that housed twenty-four emperors behind its vermilion walls. Cross to Jingshan Park for a panorama over the rooftops, then travel to the Summer Palace, the Qing imperial retreat built around Kunming Lake. Your guide explains the layout of the courtyards and the role the sites played in court life.

Drive north to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, a Ming-dynasty stretch restored with watchtowers and fewer crowds than other sections. Walk the ramparts and take in the ridge-line views before returning to the city for a photo stop at the Bird's Nest (exterior), the stadium built for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Spend the morning at the Temple of Heaven, where Ming and Qing emperors performed the annual rites of prayer for a good harvest within its circular, sky-bound halls. Later stroll Shichahai's lakeside lanes and the adjacent hutong, then walk Qianmen Street, a historic commercial thoroughfare rebuilt in traditional style.

Fly to Datong and transfer to your hotel within or near Datong Ancient City, whose Ming- and Qing-era walls still enclose the old town. The remainder of the day is free for you to walk the ramparts or the surrounding lanes at your own pace.

Visit the Yungang Grottoes, a 5th-century Buddhist complex of several hundred rock-cut caves carved under the Northern Wei dynasty and filled with statues of the Buddha. In the afternoon see the Hanging Temple (Xuankong Temple), a wooden monastery fixed to a cliff face and built over a thousand years ago to honour Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism together.

Take the bullet train to Pingyao. Spend the afternoon inside Pingyao Ancient City, one of China's best-preserved walled towns, laid out in the Ming dynasty and once a banking centre on the trade routes. Your guide walks you along the streets and explains the courtyard architecture.

Spend the day at the Wang Family Courtyard, a vast Qing-dynasty residential complex of hundreds of rooms and courtyards built by a merchant clan over generations. Your guide explains the hierarchy encoded in its layout and the wealth that the family drew from trade and finance.

Take the bullet train to Xi'an. Visit Daci'en Temple and its Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Buddhist tower raised in 652 by the monk Xuanzang to hold scriptures he brought from India, then walk Tang Paradise Never Night City, a district lit to recall the Tang capital's splendour.

Tour the Terracotta Army, the buried army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, China's first unifier, unearthed in 1974 after more than two millennia underground. Return to walk the Ming-dynasty City Wall, still largely intact, and end in the Muslim Quarter, home to Hui communities who have traded here for centuries.

Transfer to the airport for your departure flight. Your guide sees you off at the close of a journey through four of northern China's historic cities.