Great Wall at Mutianyu — a beautifully restored section with cable car access and views across unspoilt mountain forest. Afternoon: Summer Palace. Day 4: Lama Temple, Olympic Park photo stop, Peking Duck farewell dinner before the evening high-speed train to Xi’an.

Arrive Xi’an by high-speed train. Meet your Xi’an guide and transfer to the hotel. The 14th-century city wall — 14 kilometres of Ming Dynasty fortification encircling the old town. The Small Wild Goose Pagoda, built in 652 AD. The Muslim Quarter at night — the most atmospheric street food district in China, where Hui Muslim culture has flourished for a thousand years. Hotpot dinner.

Private morning access to the Terracotta Warriors — the eighth wonder of the world and the eastern terminus of the Silk Road. Your archaeological guide explains the three pits, the battle formation, and the extraordinary individual craftsmanship of each warrior. Lunch at the museum. Evening: Tang Dynasty Dumpling Banquet with traditional song and dance performance — the same tradition that made Xi’an the cultural capital of Tang Dynasty China 1,400 years ago.

Bullet train west to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province — the narrow corridor through which all Silk Road traffic passed. The Shaanxi History Museum in the morning is one of China’s finest: Tang Dynasty gold, Han silk, Zhou bronzes. Arrive in Lanzhou by late afternoon. The Yellow River Mother Statue on the riverside. White Pagoda Hill Park with its 80-foot high Buddha overlooking the river.

Drive to Xiahe — high on the Tibetan plateau at 2,900 metres. Labrang Monastery: the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery outside Tibet, home to over a thousand monks, with six institutes of learning, 18 halls of worship and a 3-kilometre prayer wheel circuit. Day 9: the Sangke Grasslands, where Tibetan nomadic herders still live in traditional yak-hair tents and move their animals with the seasons. A rare encounter with a way of life unchanged for centuries. Drive back to Lanzhou.

Drive northwest through the Hexi Corridor — the narrow strip of land between the Gobi and the Qilian Mountains through which every Silk Road caravan passed. Wuwei: the Lei Tai Han Tombs and the original Flying Horse of Gansu. Continue to Zhangye and the Danxia National Geological Park — the Rainbow Mountains, where millennia of mineral deposits have created layered rock formations of red, orange, yellow and green unlike anything else in the natural world. Best seen at sunset.

Jiayuguan Fort — the westernmost fortress of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall, where the wall ends at the edge of the Gobi Desert. Beyond this gate lay the wilderness. Officials, merchants, soldiers and exiles all passed through this single point. The fort is extraordinarily well preserved, its towers and walls standing as intact as the day they were built. Beyond: the Wall extends into the desert for several kilometres, ending in a cliff edge over the Taolai River gorge.

Dunhuang — the great oasis city where merchants rested before the desert crossing west. Day 13: the Mogao Caves. Private access to the restricted grottoes with an archaeological specialist. 492 caves carved into a sandstone cliff between the 4th and 14th centuries, containing 45,000 square metres of murals — the finest collection of Buddhist art in the world, mixing Indian and Chinese styles in extraordinary synthesis. The Library Cave, walled up in the 11th century and rediscovered in 1900, contained 50,000 manuscripts. Day 14: Mingsha Sand Dunes and Crescent Moon Lake at sunset, followed by optional overnight desert camp under the stars.

Bullet train from Dunhuang to Turpan — 80 metres below sea level in the Turfan Depression, one of the lowest and hottest places on earth, yet famous for its grapes and melons for two thousand years. Bezeklik Caves: walls covered in Buddhist frescoes from the 5th to 14th centuries. The Flaming Mountains — the red sandstone range that gave birth to the Journey to the West legend. The ancient city of Gaochang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site: once a sanctuary of world religious culture where the monk Xuanzang stopped on his journey to India. The 2,000-year-old Karez underground irrigation system.

Drive to Urumqi — capital of Xinjiang, home to 49 minority ethnic groups, set at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. Day 17: Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake) — a high-altitude mountain lake in Tianshan National Park, 1.5 hours from the city, set in a valley of snow-capped peaks. The Xinjiang Autonomous Region Museum, where 1,000-year-old mummies are displayed alongside extraordinary collections of Silk Road artefacts. Day 18: the Erdaoqiao International Bazaar — carpets, spices, dried fruit, jewellery and crafts from across Central Asia. Dinner with Uyghur minority dancing.

Fly to Kashgar — the fabled city at the junction of the northern and southern Silk Road routes, where the Taklamakan Desert meets the Tianshan and Pamir Mountains. The faces in the streets reflect twelve centuries of crossroads culture: Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Han and traders from across Central Asia. The Id Kah Mosque — the largest mosque in China, its yellow-tiled courtyard holding 20,000 worshippers at Friday prayer. The Tomb of Abakh Khoja and the Old City — white-washed walls and winding alleys unchanged for centuries. Day excursion to Lake Karakul — 3,914 metres above sea level in the shadow of Muztagh Ata (7,546m), one of the most extraordinary mountain lake settings in the world. Sunday Bazaar — the world’s largest weekly market, where animals, carpets, food and crafts are traded as they have been for a thousand years.

Fly from Kashgar to Shanghai. Two days in Shanghai for decompression and contrast — the Bund, the French Concession, Suzhou day trip. Departure from Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Your Open China specialist arranges all onward connections.