The Buddha cliffs of the Northern Wei and the night city of the Northern Song — five hundred years, four days.
Luoyang was a capital to more dynasties than any other Chinese city — thirteen of them across some fifteen hundred years, from the Eastern Zhou to the Later Tang, most of them buried now under the modern suburbs. Forty minutes south of it, the Yi river runs through a cliff the Buddhas have been carved into since 493, and an hour east stands the temple that brought Buddhism to China in the year 68. Five hundred years after the last of those courts, the empire moved east again and the Northern Song built Kaifeng: the largest city on earth in the eleventh century, the first anywhere to live after dark, and the place where a Song bridge still stands in the bottom of an excavation with five later cities stacked on top of it. Four days reads the two in order — the city and its gate, the temple and the cliff, then east across the plain for the Song: its bridge, its pagoda, its night market, and a stage built from a painted scroll.
Everything on the ground is ours: our own guides, our own vehicles, our own crews — not a chain of subcontracted hands. The plan is written and priced line by line before you pay a deposit, and the same person answers you from the first email to the day you fly home.
And because this runs three days or more, the bed comes with the journey: 3 nights included, in places we have slept in ourselves, the same room throughout, booked by us, in your name, itemised in your quote.
The dynasties read in order as you move — what each age left standing, and why it still matters where you are standing.
Temples, teahouses, kitchens and workshops — the everyday side of the country, arranged so it happens around you rather than in front of you.
Your party only, your dates, your pace — one guide and one vehicle throughout, never shared with strangers.
Tickets, permits and timed entries held against your passport before you fly, then re-checked the week you travel.
“See the country in the order it was written.”
Arrive, and one gate after dark
Day 1A private car and an English-speaking guide meet you at Zhengzhou Xinzheng airport — the only hub in Henan with real international connections — and the fast train from Zhengzhou East puts you in Luoyang in forty minutes. The old city is a short hop from Luoyang Longmen station: check in, tea, and no rush. Dinner is a Luoyang table near the old town, and at 19:30 the day's one appointment, which is also the thesis of the next two days: the Yingtian gate, southern gate of the Sui-Tang imperial city, rebuilt on its original axis and lit after dark. In 690 Wu Zetian walked through it to proclaim a dynasty of her own — the only woman in Chinese history to do so — and the square in front of it is the quietest place in the city after nine. Half an hour, and back to the hotel; nothing else is asked of the first day.
China's first temple, then the cliff of Buddhas
Day 2Morning east to the White Horse Temple, held to be the first Buddhist establishment in China: two Indian monks, a white horse carrying the sutras, and an emperor's dream in the year 68. The compound is still a working monastery, its Chinese halls now joined by Indian, Thai and Burmese courts built in the last twenty years — and no tea ceremony is staged for us; the halls are the point. Lunch is Luoyang's own water banquet, twenty-four courses arriving in broth with a peony jelly to close, a court cuisine that predates the canal kitchens of the south, eaten at a table we use ourselves and without a tour of the kitchen. The afternoon belongs to the Longmen Grottoes, south of the city where the Yi river cuts between two limestone cliffs: from 493 onwards, court by court and century by century, more than one hundred thousand figures were carved into the banks. We walk the west bank in order, beginning with the Guyang cave, the oldest of them all, and finish at the Fengxian Temple — the Vairocana seated seventeen metres high, finished in 675, the face said to follow the Empress Wu Zetian, who paid for it with her own jewellery. We keep to the day ticket and leave the evening free: dinner near the hotel, and a second night in the same room.
East across the plain, into the Song capital
Day 3Across the plain, into the Song. The morning is a train rather than a coach: nine o'clock out of the hotel, 10:45 from Luoyang Longmen, and Kaifeng North at 11:51, with the bags travelling in the car. Lunch in the city, then the Zhou Bridge and Bian River site — the bridge from the painted scroll, in situ, under the middle of the modern city, with the excavation keeping the stack of six buried Kaifengs visible: Song at the bottom, Qing at the top. The Iron Pagoda of 1049 still stands above the silt, glazed brick the colour of iron, the one Song structure here that has never needed rebuilding. Late afternoon is the walk this city does best — the imperial street, the bookshop lane, the drum tower square — with dinner picked up along the way; the Northern Song invented the night market, a city that never quite shut, and this is where it started. At 20:10 the day closes on a Song stage at the Qingming Riverside Garden: The Great Song — A Dream of Dongjing, seventy minutes of the eleventh century performed on the water. Tonight the hotel is in Kaifeng.
A Song dress, a photograph, and the road home
Day 4The morning is a styling session: Song or Han costume, hair and make-up, about an hour and a half with a stylist we work with, and then the camera. The photographs are taken by your own guide rather than a hired studio — the rainbow bridge, the two banks of the Bian, the stages and teahouses the Qingming Riverside Garden rebuilt from the scroll, with the park still quiet at the start of the day. Lunch in the city, and then the road east: about an hour and a half by car to Zhengzhou Xinzheng, or twenty-five minutes by fast train from Kaifeng North to Zhengzhou East, timed to your flight. The journey ends with a card of Song-dressed photographs in your pocket rather than a souvenir in your bag.
Walking distances and start times are anchors, not walls — your guide flexes each day to the weather, the crowds and your legs, and the order of sights may adjust for timed-entry slots and closures. Nothing repeats and nothing is retraced.
A private journey — your party only, your dates, your pace. Best in spring and autumn; runnable in every season with the hours re-arranged.
A private journey, priced per person on twin share at the level below. Three hotel levels and two guiding levels are available on the same days — the daily plan does not change with the bed. Tell us your dates and we will send the itemised version, usually within one working day.
Small hotels, courtyard conversions and heritage properties we have stayed in ourselves, chosen for position and quiet rather than for a lobby. All licensed to receive foreign guests.
The days do not change with the bed. Comfort is our standard level; Signature steps up to design and heritage houses; Luxury is each destination’s best address, with a view to match.
Breakfast daily, taxes and service, twin or double as you prefer, and the bags taken up while you are out. Tell us about a hard bed, a soft pillow or a room away from the street — it goes to the hotel before you arrive.
Plenty of our travellers arrive with points or a favourite address. Point us at it, we plan the days around your door, and the accommodation comes out of your quote — nothing else about the journey changes.
China’s major sites run on real-name, timed entry booked against your passport, and the best-known ones cap visitors daily and release slots only days ahead. Once your dates are fixed we book the whole sequence, hold the confirmations, and re-check every one of them the week you travel — you bring the passport and walk past the queue.
Museums and palaces close one day a week (usually Monday); if your dates land on it, we re-order the days and tell you before you book, never after.
For spring and autumn dates, 60–90 days ahead is comfortable — the best houses and the timed slots both go early. Shorter notice? Ask anyway: we hold a small allotment in most cities and can usually move quickly.
This route sits inside a family of longer and shorter versions — ask us and we will send the alternatives side by side, with the days that would come out or go in, and what each one costs.
China runs across five climate zones, so the right months depend on the route rather than the country. Spring and autumn suit almost all of our journeys; the far west and the plateau we run later in spring and earlier in autumn.
Our days are built in short legs, broken every few hundred metres by something to see and something to sit down for. Where there are steps there are landings, and the vehicle is never further than the next gate.
Water and wipes ride in the car; a flask in cold months, shade and a long lunch in hot ones. Tell us about knees, hips and small legs in advance — the days bend around the answer, not the other way round.
Stone slabs, temple steps and long village lanes — broken-in walking shoes are the single best thing in the bag.
Mornings and afternoons differ by ten degrees or more across most of the year; a layer you can stash beats a coat you must carry.
A hat, sunglasses and a compact umbrella cover almost every day of the year.
Every timed entry is matched to it by name — carry it, and leave the queueing to us.
The vehicle carries the rest and meets you at every stop — pack for the morning, not for the day.
Refills ride on board, and hot water is what the country drinks — a thermos makes you local by day two.
Alipay or WeChat Pay set up before you land; we send a two-page guide with the booking. Cards work in hotels, cash almost nowhere.
Nothing starts before nine — no dawn calls, no rushed breakfast. We book each site's quietest slot instead, and let the day run at a civilised pace.
The Northern Wei cut the Yungang caves above their capital at Pingcheng, then moved the court to Luoyang in 494 and began the grottoes you have just walked. This journey follows that move: the two cave temples at either end of it, and the garrison town in between.
See the journey →The Buddha cliffs of the Northern Wei and the night city of the Northern Song — five hundred years, four days.
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