Luoyang Departure: Xishuangbanna, Wild Elephant Valley and Gaozhuang Night Market, 5 Days 4 Nights

Leave in the morning and land at Gasa airport after a change. The heat hits at the terminal door, a different season entirely. Check in at Gaozhuang with a room facing the Lancang River. In the evening the starlight market, stall after stall: lemongrass grilled fish, pineapple rice, pounded chicken feet. Pick the busiest stall and sit down.

Attraction introduction: Jinghong is the seat of Xishuangbanna prefecture, with the Lancang running through the middle of the city. Gaozhuang Xishuangjing is a recent Dai-style quarter; the great golden pagoda stands by the river and the night market spreads across the square in front of it.

Tips: Days run to twenty-seven or eight degrees in November and nights drop to the mid teens, so carry a light jacket. Guests generally find little room for bargaining at the market. In practice, eat lightly on the first night; the body needs a day to adjust to the humidity.

North in the morning, an hour to the valley. Cable car up, over the top of the rainforest with the canopy directly below, green without a break. Down and onto the elevated walkway, ten-odd metres above the ground, looking through dipterocarp and banyan. If you are lucky the elephants are there; most days the evidence is footprints and fresh dung. Lunch inside the valley, then the elephant show in the afternoon, and back to Jinghong.

Attraction introduction: Wild Elephant Valley lies in Mengyang township, Jinghong, in the experimental zone of the Xishuangbanna national nature reserve, which holds around three hundred Asian elephants. The elevated observation walkway runs about two kilometres, an unusual chance to move through the rainforest canopy.

Tips: Keep voices down on the walkway, because noise pushes the elephants away. Guests generally find the cable car quieter before ten. In practice, walk the loop in one direction and stop at the platforms rather than pressing on.

Two hours to Menglun in the morning. The garden occupies a peninsula in the Luosuo River, and the first thing past the gate is a stand of palms. Take a guide, because otherwise every tree looks the same. The upas tree carries a warning sign on the trunk; a strangler fig has wrapped its host completely and left only a hollow shell. Lunch inside the garden, then the palm garden, the banyan garden and the flower garden, and sit by the river at the end.

Attraction introduction: The Xishuangbanna tropical botanical garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was founded in 1959 by the botanist Cai Xitao. It covers about 1,100 hectares and holds more than thirteen thousand species of living plants, the largest and most diverse garden of its kind in the country.

Tips: The site is large and the walking adds up, so the shuttle pass is worth buying. Guests generally find the light in the palm garden best in the morning. In practice, take the shuttle to the far end and walk back towards the gate.

Back to Jinghong in the morning with a stop at Ganlanba, where the Dai park holds five natural villages and the stilt houses can be seen in use. Lunch in town, then Manting Park in the afternoon, once the royal garden, with the chief temple inside, white walls and gilded roofs. Back to Gaozhuang in the evening and up the Golden Pagoda for sunset over the Lancang, the water turning gold. Another pass at the night market, this time for the barbecue.

Attraction introduction: Manting Park lies southeast of Jinghong and is more than 1,300 years old, the oldest park in Xishuangbanna. The chief temple is the highest-ranked in the prefecture. The Golden Pagoda stands by the river at Gaozhuang, its body gilded, and is the landmark of Jinghong.

Tips: Shoes off and trousers below the knee at any temple. Guests generally find the light on the pagoda best after six. In practice, go up twenty minutes before sunset and stay for the river at dusk.

No alarm. Buy tea and coffee in the market: Pu'er cakes, small-bean coffee, dried tropical fruit. Leave for the airport at ten, fifteen minutes away. Midday flight, Luoyang by evening.

Attraction introduction: Xishuangbanna is a main producer of Pu'er tea, with the Menghai and Yiwu mountains inside the prefecture. Small-bean coffee is also grown here, the cherry small and the cup strongly aromatic.

Tips: Judge a Pu'er cake by the pressing and the storage rather than the date on the wrapper. Guests generally find the airport shops a little dearer than town. In practice, allow an hour and a half to reach the airport and check in.