Dynastic Discovery: Exploring China's Heartland

13 days from £8,000 for 2025 per person

• Beijing
• Pingyao
• Xi'an
• Hangzhou
• Shanghai

China's origins are enigmatic and not widely understood: a vague vision of vast armies, endless defensive walls, all-powerful emperors and the rise and fall of countless dynasties. The real story is even more exciting and interesting. Find out for yourself on a personally tailored tour taking in the highlights of the Han Chinese heartland.

Start your journey with a stay in Beijing. The capital of today was the seat of power at various times over the last 1,700 years and is undoubtedly the core of modern communist China. Discover the Ming and Qing imperial indulgences in the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace while experiencing the morphing, thriving China of today all around you. A trip to the lesser visited Jinshanling section of The Great Wall will leave your mind reeling, particularly if you choose to experience the aerial views on a helicopter ride as a supplement.

Pre-revolution China was an intricate web of cart tracks and well organised staging posts. That web is today overlaid with railways. Hop on a "bullet" train to Pingyao where you'll find one of China's best preserved walled cities. Wander down immaculately paved alleyways that have felt hundreds of years of footfall. Pingyao was the empire's trade and finance centre for centuries. The country's first banks were here and the world's first cheque was drafted in one of them.

Another short blast on the highspeed train will bring you to Xi'An; the first capital of unified China in the 1st century AD. Here you'll have dinner in the vibrant Muslim Quarter of the city where the Far East and the Middle East blended 13 centuries ago. The following day you'll be dumbstruck by the sheer scale and wonder of the Terracotta Army; an astonishing symbol of imperial might.

Then it’s time to relax in Hangzhou. Unwind with a couple of days exploring idyllic villages among tea plantations with Buddhist temples and monasteries or taking a boat ride on XiluLake. You’ll be left rejuvenated and ready to end the holiday in the glitzy metropolis of Shanghai. If Beijing encompasses the China of today, Shanghai is the China of tomorrow. This is one of our favourite cities in Asia with opportunities to walk along the Bund with the famed skyline as a backdrop, visit world class museums, shop, party into the small hours and dine extremely well. After this trip you'll be desperate to return year on year!

If you want to maximise the luxury of your holiday then a couple of hotel supplements are the best way to go. In Hangzhou we’d recommend the Amanfayun with its divine tea field and bamboo grove surroundings. The Shanghai Peninsula really knows how to spoil its guests and offers the best views of the water and the towering Pudong skyline. Both properties are Ampersand Top 10 favourites.

This is purely a suggested itinerary, so it can be booked as it is or used as a starting point for creating your own luxury tailor-made holiday in China. If you'd like to see similar trips, take a look at our Family Holiday collection.

I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.
Bill Bryson