Iconic Landscapes of China

Draped in subtropical vegetation and wreathed for much of the time in wisps of mist, the scenery at Zhangjiajie has, over the centuries, inspired many famous Classical Chinese scroll paintings, ink drawings and poems. It also featured prominently in James Cameron’s blockbuster, Avatar! Over the past decade, the government has equipped the park with state-of-the-art access infrastructure, such as cable cars, eco buses, trams and monorail trains – and even a giant, glass-sided elevator. This means you can reach the main viewpoints with ease. Numerous hikes of varying lengths and degrees of difficulty are also available for those wishing to sidestep the crowds and take to the trails.

Flanked by huge red rock towers, the Jinbian valley is carpeted in lush forest. An 8-km pathway winds along the bank of the stream flowing through it, making a memorable final walk in the park. Later, you’ll be met by your driver for the onward journey to Fenhuang (‘Phoenix’), whose famously pretty wooden houses are stacked in picturesque fashion around a bend in the Tuo Jiang River.

Strategically situated on the Grand Canal connecting the Yangtze and Yellow River basins, Huangzhou became the imperial capital in the 12th and 13th centuries, when Marco Polo described it as ‘the most beautiful and magnificent (city) in the world’. A wonderful collection of shrines, tombs, temples and pagodas adorn the willow-lined shores of Xi Hu, or ‘West Lake’, Hangzhou’s pride and joy, where you can cycle or stroll along medieval backroads, passing picturesque pagodas, old humpback bridges and bamboo groves.

Close to Tunxi town, on the way to Huangshan, are the otherworldly Tangyue Memorial Archways, built over a 400-year period beginning in 1420. You’ll also stop Chengkan, where the ornately carved Baolun Hall typifies the elegant local style of architecture. Huangshan brings the day’s journey to an end: you’ll arrive at the foot of the mountain in time to take a cable car up to your hotel on the summit ridge.

Characterised by wind-bent pines and giant pinnacles of eroded blue-grey rock, Huangshan’s timeless scenery is quintessentially Chinese. Your guide will lead you around a series of trails to viewpoints over the escarpments and deep valleys surrounding the massif, culminating with the sunset view from the ‘Cloud Dispelling Pavilion’. Be sure to get an early night – you’ll be up before dawn the following day!

On the western edge of the Sichuan Basin, Chengdu is the largest city in Western China, with an ultra-modern hi-rise centre that belies its role as a regional capital for over 4,000 years. Brocaded silk from here found its way to the bazaars of ancient Rome, and the city’s presses were the source of the world’s first printed bank notes. Today, however, the Sichuan capital is best known as the bastion of China’s beloved Giant Panda (which you’ll see on Day 11).

Spend the rest of the day exploring the many shrines, monasteries, pavilions and viewpoints scattered around the summit plateau of the mountain. A total of 76 Qing and Ming monasteries cluster around the three summits of this mist-shrouded massif, interconnected by a network of old stepped trails that wind through forests of twisted pines and waterfalls. For clients wishing to undertake the whole of the ascent on foot, we can provide English-speaking guides and arrange rooms in one of the hotels or guesthouses that line the trekking route. Speak to your TransIndus consultant for more details.

Weather permitting, another spellbinding sunrise will get your day atop Emeishan off to a spectacular start. Soon after breakfast, you’ll take the cable car back down to the main station, and pick up another back up to the Wannian Temple, the grandest of over thirty monasteries nestled on the massif. Then it’s back down the mountain to re-join your driver for the onward journey to Leshan, where you’ll have a face-to-face encounter with the famous Giant Buddha, hewn from a cliff of red sandstone. Enjoy a short (40-minute) cruise along the river – well worth doing for the view of the Buddha from the water. From Leshan, it takes a couple of hours to reach Chengdu by road.

After lunch, explore the heart of Chengdu with a visit to the beautiful Wenshu Temple. With its bamboo furniture and distinctively Sichuanese atmosphere, the traditional tea house behind it is a great place to relax, snack and people watch. Don’t be dismayed by the sound of the house speciality – ‘monkey head dumplings’. The tea house is 100% vegetarian!

On arrival at Jiuzhai airport, you’ll be met by your driver and guide for the onward journey to Huanglong Scenic Area, a national park famed for the beauty of its alpine valleys, flanked by snow-capped mountains and glaciers, and for the profusion of wildflowers in spring. Huanglong attracts many photographers, who come to capture the vivid colours of its turquoise and yellow travertine pools. You’ll stay at a hotel close to the park gates.

In addition to the popular waterside boardwalks, you’ll be guided to viewpoints over some of the dramatic waterfalls for which Jiuzhai is renowned. It will also be possible to visit a local Tibetan village if you wish.

Eco buses are on hand for excursions to the virgin forest of the Rize Valley, which you can descend on foot, taking lunch at one of the little Tibetan restaurants near Nuorilang Falls. Afterwards, you’ll continue your walk with an ascent of the Shuzheng Valley – one of the park’s scenic highlights.