Classic China: Warriors, Pandas & Stone Pillars

Your driver meets you at arrivals and brings you into the heart of Beijing, a short walk from the Forbidden City. The rest of the day is for landing softly: a first wander through the hutongs around the Drum Tower and the Houhai lakes as the lights come on, and dumplings or skewers in the lanes whenever hunger calls.

Your guide walks you through the Forbidden City with timed entry booked ahead — the great parade of throne halls first, then the quieter eastern courtyards where the emperors actually lived. Climb Jingshan hill straight after for the view back over the sea of golden roofs, the photograph everyone remembers taking. An afternoon loop through the hutongs by the Drum Tower rounds it off; the evening is free, with your guide's dinner picks in hand.

Out early with your guide and driver to Jinshanling, about two hours north-east of the city — restored at its western end and wilder the further east you go, and far quieter than Badaling or Mutianyu. A cableway lifts you to the ridge, then it's two to three hours of proper wall walking, watchtower to watchtower, before the path winds back down. Back in the city by late afternoon. If you'd rather gentler walking closer to town, Mutianyu is the ready swap.

The Temple of Heaven first thing, when the park fills with tai chi and fan dancers under the cypresses. Then the bullet train west — first class, about four and a half hours across the North China Plain. Your Xi'an driver brings you inside the Ming city walls, and the evening belongs to the Muslim Quarter close by: lamb skewers off the grill, persimmon cakes, the steam and neon of one of China's great street-food districts.

Out to Lintong with your guide to meet the Terracotta Army in the right order — Pit 1's massed ranks first, before the big tour groups build, then Pits 3 and 2 for the command post and the kneeling archer. Back in the city, bikes go up on the Ming wall — tandems if the children would rather ride with a parent — for as much of the 14-kilometre loop as everyone wants, the moat and the rooftops wheeling past below.

The morning train south-west — about three hours, first class, straight over the Qinling mountains that divide China's north from its bamboo-green south. Your Chengdu guide meets the train and eases you into the city's favourite pastime: bamboo chairs and lidded cups of jasmine tea at the Heming teahouse in People's Park, ear-cleaners and chess players all around. A stroll through the old lanes on the way back, then the evening free.

The day everyone talks about afterwards. An early drive into the mountains to the Wolong Shenshuping panda base, for a full working day as volunteer keepers — sweeping enclosures, splitting bamboo, preparing panda cakes and watching feeding time from closer than any visitor path, with your guide alongside all day. Places are capped and reserved well ahead. Back to Chengdu by early evening, and a bowl of dan dan noodles.

An hour's drive north with your guide to Sanxingdui, where a Bronze Age culture more than 3,000 years old was dug out of sacrificial pits in a Sichuan field — gold masks, a towering bronze spirit tree, faces with eyes on stalks. The museum holds children and adults alike, and timed entry is reserved ahead. Back by mid-afternoon for downtime before three mountain days, and a proper Sichuan hotpot for dinner.

The bullet train east — just under four hours, first class — into the mountains of north-western Hunan, then a forty-minute drive up to Wulingyuan, the village at the gate of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Four nights here, a few minutes' walk from the gate, so the big days can start before the coaches arrive. First sight of the sandstone towers from the valley floor, an early dinner and an early night.

Through the gate early with your guide, then the Bailong Elevator — a glass lift up a cliff face — straight onto Yuanjiajie's amphitheatre of floating peaks, including the pillar that inspired Avatar's Hallelujah Mountains. Easy rim paths lead on to the Tianzi Mountain viewpoints, the whole stone forest spread out below, and the cableway carries you down to finish along the Ten-Mile Gallery's valley floor under a parade of named peaks.

A short drive to Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon for the morning the children have been waiting for: the glass-floored bridge strung about 300 metres above the gorge, timed entry reserved ahead, nerves optional. The afternoon is the gentlest walk in the park — Golden Whip Stream, flat and shaded beneath the towers, with macaques working the crowd (keep snacks zipped away). Back by late afternoon; the evening is free for hotpot in the village.

An early drive into Zhangjiajie city for your cableway slot — nearly half an hour on one of the world's longest cable-car lines, over the rooftops and straight up into the mountain. Tianmen Cave first, the colossal arch punched through the mountain wall, then the summit rim at your own pace: the cliff-hanging walkways and glass skywalks, the forest paths between the viewpoints. The express cable brings you down to finish, and a farewell hotpot back in Wulingyuan.

A late-morning flight east — about two hours — swaps the sandstone towers for glass ones. Your hotel sits at the north end of the Bund by the Waibaidu Bridge, so the evening walk is right outside: along the promenade as the 1920s facades are floodlit and Pudong's skyline switches on across the Huangpu.

Your last full day, with your guide. Yu Garden and the old town in the morning — Ming rockeries, pavilions and zigzag bridges — or, if the children get the vote, the Shanghai Astronomy Museum out at Lingang, silver spheres and a domed theatre built for exactly the questions they ask. The afternoon is a slow walk under the plane trees of the former French Concession: villas, corner bakeries, a gelato stop that earns its place. After dark, the river ferry across to Pudong costs pocket change.

A last morning by the river, then the private transfer to Pudong for your flight home.

The food follows the route west and south. Beijing is lacquered Peking duck; Xi'an is the Silk Road on a plate — lamb skewers, roujiamo, hand-pulled biangbiang noodles. Chengdu turns the heat up with hotpot, dan dan noodles and mapo tofu, and every kitchen will make a mild version for anyone who wants one. In the Zhangjiajie hills it's Tujia smoked pork and san xia guo, the 'three-pot' stew, and Shanghai sends you home on soup dumplings. Lunches and dinners are arranged to suit each place whenever you'd like them included.