Beijing, the Ningxia sands and Zhangye's rainbow — the Silk Road's front door
The northwest's front ranges at comfort pace: Beijing's icons, then the yellow river city of Yinchuan with its sand lake and film studio, the rainbow ridges of Zhangye, the Ming fortress wall-end at Jiayuguan and Dunhuang's singing dunes and Mogao cave masterpieces — with trains threading the Hexi corridor.
Forbidden City axis and Temple of Heaven; duck dinner.
Badaling or Mutianyu stretch with cable assist.
Zhenbeipu's western-film sets and Shuidonggou's 30,000-year site.
The colour-banded ridges' viewing decks, sunset from platform 4.
Short hop west; the wall's western end fort and the overhanging Great Wall section.
Arrive the oasis; dune sunset and the singing-sand slide.
The reserved-cave tour of silk-road murals (book a month ahead), afternoon at the Silk Road museum.
Crescent Lake's temple at dawn, dune buggies and camel strings; night market's apricot skins.
The southern pass ruins and grape-valley villages, or a slow oasis day.
Fly or train to Lanzhou/Xi'an; riverside noodles and city lights.
Lanzhou beef-noodle breakfast, then the flight home.
Travel in China