Two Chinas in one week: the skyline that out-dreams fiction, and the lake that taught China poetry.
This journey is built as a diptych. First Shanghai — a city that renders science fiction mundane: a rooftop meeting with the architect of its tallest tower, the West Bund's museums, and a private terrace for the evening drone ballet over the river.
Then the pace changes. Business-class rail as a curated experience, and Hangzhou: Amanfayun's village lanes, the first boat on West Lake at first light, and tea with a Longjing master above the terraces that have grown this leaf for a thousand years.
Six days, two Chinas, each setting off the other — the sequence our travellers say they could not have built alone.
Evening arrival; dinner in the old French Concession, the Bund lit across the river.
Top of the tallest tower with its architect's team; the West Bund museums with a curator.
Private terrace for the evening show over the river; then tomorrow's rail north of dream-speed.
Business class to Hangzhou as a narrated experience; village lanes of Amanfayun by dusk.
The first boat on the water; then a Longjing master's table above the terraces.
A canal-town morning before the day boats; departure after.
The city from the top of its tallest building, with the team that drew it.
A closed terrace for the light show, away from every crowd.
Tea above the terraces with a master who grades the spring pickings.
Everyone sees the Wall. Almost no one has it to themselves.
Follow one leaf across a thousand years.
Our home ground. Nobody hosts Chengdu better than the people who live it.
First-picked Longjing at Meijiawu, West Lake in spring rain, a private boat up to the tea fields.
The 3,000-metre summer: Songtsam lodges, alpine meadows, a monastery library above the clouds.
The Wall in its best coat, golden ginkgo in the Forbidden City's courts, a duck feast after the day-trippers leave.
The Ice Festival before the gates open, Siberian tigers at feeding hour, a hotpot that thaws you whole.
A named tailor replies within 12 hours. Your first proposal within 24.