Everyone sees the Wall. Almost no one has it to themselves.
This is our founding journey — the one we built the house standard around. It is sequenced around a single idea: the most famous sights in China are best met either before the city wakes or after it closes.
A palace historian walks you through the Forbidden City as the coaches queue outside. At dawn you stand beneath the Temple of Heaven while the sky is still grey. And on the fourth evening, after the gates of Simatai have closed to the public, you dine beside a Ming watchtower as the ridgelines go dark around you.
Between the set pieces: a hutong supper behind unmarked doors, a Peking opera seen from the wings, and time with the artisans keeping imperial crafts alive. Five days, two rare accesses in writing, zero crowds.
Private transfer to a courtyard-house hotel in the hutongs. Evening supper behind an unmarked door, then the night lane on foot.
Opening-hour entry with a palace historian — the halls before the crowds. Afternoon: the imperial workshop street with a master restorer.
In before the city wakes, when the colonnade belongs to the light. A hutong afternoon: kite-maker, calligrapher, tea.
North to Simatai. As the gates close, climb to a watchtower for a private dinner — the mountains going dark around you. Night in the village below.
A morning at leisure; then backstage with the company before an evening performance. Departure after.
A private dinner beside a watchtower after the section closes to the public.
Meet the performers mid-make-up before the evening curtain.
The Forbidden City at opening, led by a scholar of the inner courts.
Follow one leaf across a thousand years.
Our home ground. Nobody hosts Chengdu better than the people who live it.
Two Chinas in one week: the skyline that out-dreams fiction, and the lake that taught China poetry.
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.