Luoyang Departure: Yuntai Mountain, Hongshi Gorge and Zhuyu Peak, 3 Days 2 Nights

Leave Luoyang at eight and reach the Yuntai Mountain gate in about two hours. Check into the guesthouse inside the park first and leave the bags there; most are a short walk from a shuttle stop. In the afternoon walk Tanpu Gorge, also called Xiaozhaigou, three kilometres in and out along a stream that keeps producing waterfalls. The Y-shaped fall has the widest pool, and that is where everyone stops. Back by six, and dinner at Anshang service village, where the tables order donkey meat balls and the local peppery donkey broth.

Attraction introduction: Yuntai Mountain lies in Xiuwu county, Jiaozuo, on the southern flank of the Taihang range, and takes its name from the cloud that often fills the valleys. The scenic area covers Hongshi Gorge, Tanpu Gorge, Quanpu Gorge, Macaque Valley and Zhuyu Peak, and was listed among the first World Geoparks in 2004.

Tips: Accommodation inside the park is split between Anshang, Heishiling and a few smaller hamlets, and Anshang is closest to the Hongshi Gorge entrance. Guests generally find the light in Tanpu Gorge best in the afternoon, when the water reads blue rather than grey. In practice, keep the first day light so the early start tomorrow is comfortable.

Into Hongshi Gorge at half past seven. The entrance is a flight of steps going down, and once inside the light narrows to a slot overhead. The water at the bottom is shallow, the rock a deep purplish red, the stream green. There is one path and no turning back: past White Dragon Pool and Yellow Dragon Pool, and at the narrowest point two people pass shoulder to shoulder. Two kilometres, an hour and a half, and the exit comes out beside Zifang Lake. Lunch at the guesthouse, then the shuttle to the foot of Zhuyu Peak and the cable car up. The summit platform looks out over ridge after ridge stepping away into haze.

Attraction introduction: Hongshi Gorge runs about 1,500 metres and is in places only a few metres wide, cut into purplish-red quartz sandstone roughly 1.2 billion years old; iron oxide gives the walls their colour, and the stream has carved a chain of pools and falls along the floor. Zhuyu Peak is the highest point of Yuntai Mountain at 1,308 metres, with a temple to the Zhenwu Emperor on top.

Tips: The gorge is one-way and the stone is wet, so a rain jacket beats an umbrella. Guests generally find the queue at the entrance worst between nine and eleven. In practice, going in before eight leaves the first half almost empty, and the light on the red walls is better too.

Choose according to energy. Macaque Valley is a short walk along a stream where the Taihang macaques are genuinely wild and will sit by the path working out whether you are carrying food. If that sounds like too much, Wanshan Temple instead: a small courtyard, two very old cypresses, and nobody in a hurry. Collect the bags at half past ten, leave at eleven, and stop in Xiuwu town for a bowl of peppery donkey broth on the way. Luoyang by three.

Attraction introduction: Macaque Valley is one of the gorges of Yuntai Mountain and holds a resident population of Taihang macaques. Wanshan Temple was first built in the Ming dynasty and is the Buddhist temple inside the scenic area, its halls set against the slope.

Tips: The macaques will go through plastic bags, so do not open a pack in front of them. Guests generally find the Zhengzhou-Yuntai expressway saves about an hour over the national road. In practice, on a public holiday add half an hour to the departure time.