Luoyang 4-Day Private Tour: Laojun Mountain, Hangu Pass and Xiaolangdi

Leave the city at half past seven; ninety minutes on the expressway puts you at the gate around half past nine.

Take the park shuttle to the cable station, then the first-stage cable car up to Zhongtianmen. Laojun Mountain uses two stages: one from the base to Zhongtianmen, and the Fenglin cable from Zhongtianmen to the entrance of Shilihuaping. Taking both saves a good deal of climbing.

From Zhongtianmen the path enters Shilihuaping, where the cliff face looks tool-cut and the walkway hugs the rock. Continue through the Immortal Realm tunnel to the Golden Summit, built on a platform at the cliff edge with the Funiu ridge running east and west below.

Lunch near Zhongtianmen; the county's chicken soup and corn cakes are filling. The gentler ground south toward Taiqing Palace has macaques that take things from visitors. Do not chase them with your phone.

Descend by cable in the late afternoon and stay in Luanchuan town, which sits well below the summit. Note that the first-stage cable stops taking uphill passengers at half past three, so an evening summit visit means going up early.

Stay on the mountain in the morning and walk between Shilihuaping and the Laozi cultural garden. On clear days the cloud sea is thicker before noon than after, so an early start pays off.

Descend for lunch in Luanchuan, then drive to Xin'an, ninety minutes on mountain road.

Hangu Pass is a modern reconstruction, but the position is genuine — the Qin state set the pass here. From the tower you can see the Yellow River and the line of its valley. The Lingbao elixir furnace sits on the other side of the site.

Stay in Xin'an county town, known for its apples in autumn.

Xiaolangdi sits in Mengjin, fifty kilometres from Xin'an. Reach the dam around ten and walk the crest first, looking at the spillway gates and the channel below.

Then board a boat into the reservoir. After about twenty minutes the open water narrows into a gorge, and the waterline stains on the rock walls show how high the lake rose. This is the quietest stretch of the trip, with weak phone signal.

Lunch at a farmhouse outside the park, where the carp is reservoir-raised. Drive back toward Luoyang in the afternoon, stopping at the old ferry crossing in Mengjin if time allows.

Stay in the city; a Luoyang water banquet is a good dinner option nearby.

Drop-off after breakfast, timed to your schedule. Luanchuan is about forty minutes from Luoyang Longmen and ninety minutes from Zhengzhou East, so an early departure is not necessary.

Pack the night before and leave the bags by the door. No sights are scheduled on the last day, so an early train still works.

Over four days you see a mountain, a frontier pass and a reservoir — three terrains, one a day.