Nature Wonders with Hong Kong — 16 Days

Arrive in Hong Kong and transfer to your hotel. The rest of the day is free to settle in and enjoy the harbour at your leisure.

Today is unscheduled, leaving Hong Kong to you — its peaks, markets and waterfront — or simply a day of rest.

Take the high-speed train to Guilin, the Guangxi city famed for its karst scenery. On arrival visit Elephant Trunk Hill, a rock outcrop shaped like a trunk dipping into the river, and the Sun and Moon Pagodas standing on Ronghu Lake.

Drive into the Longji Rice Terraces, a network of hand-built fields carved into the hillsides over some 650 years by the Zhuang and Yao peoples. You walk among the layered paddies and the scattered village houses that follow the contours of the slopes.

Cruise the Li River past the rounded karst peaks that have inspired Chinese landscape painters for a thousand years, then continue to the Yulong River and the Ten-Mile Gallery of rural scenery. The day ends in Yangshuo West Street, a lively lane of cafés and shops beneath the mountains.

Take the high-speed train to Zhangjiajie, the Hunan region of pillar-like quartz-sandstone peaks. The rest of the day is free for you to rest ahead of the park visits.

Enter Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and ride the Bailong Elevator, a glass outdoor lift rising 326 metres up the cliff face. Your guide points out the sandstone column known as Avatar Hallelujah Mountain, the inspiration for the floating peaks in the film Avatar.

Take the cable car up Tianmen Mountain and cross the glass skywalk fixed to the cliff edge, then walk through Tianmen Cave, the 130-metre-high natural arch that gives the mountain its name, 'Heaven's Gate'.

Fly to Chongqing, the sprawling Yangtze metropolis built on hills. The remainder of the day is free for you to rest or sample the city's famously spicy cooking.

Wander the old lanes of Ciqikou Ancient Town, a Ming and Qing river port preserved as a market street. Watch the light rail pass through a residential block at Liziba, climb Kuixinglou for a view, cross the Yangtze on the river cableway, and end at Hongyadong, the hillside complex of stilted buildings lit at night.

Ride the high-speed train to Xi'an. On arrival walk the Ming-dynasty City Wall and the Muslim Quarter, and take an exterior view of the Bell and Drum Towers, once used to mark the hours of the day.

Stand before the Terracotta Army, the thousands of life-sized warriors buried since 210 BCE to guard Qin Shi Huang's tomb. Continue to Daci'en Temple and its Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the 7th-century tower raised to hold Buddhist scriptures from India, then stroll the Tang Paradise Never Night City.

Take the high-speed train north to Beijing. The rest of the day is free for you to rest or explore the capital on your own.

Begin in the Forbidden City, the Ming and Qing palace of twenty-four emperors at the centre of Beijing, then climb Jingshan Park for a view over its roofs. In the afternoon visit the Temple of Heaven, the Ming emperors' altar complex where they prayed for a good harvest.

Travel to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, a Ming-dynasty section rebuilt in the 16th century where you walk the ramparts between watchtowers, then return to the Summer Palace, the Qing lakeside retreat centred on Kunming Lake.

Transfer to the airport for your departure flight, bringing the tour to an end.