Luoyang Departure: Hukou Waterfall, Yanan and the Yellow Emperor Tomb, 6 Days 5 Nights

Leave Luoyang in the morning and run west on the expressway past Sanmenxia and Weinan, then turn north as the ground rises and the roadside trees change from poplar to jujube and persimmon. A quick lunch at a service area, and Yichuan county town by evening. It is a small place with one main street, apple sellers out to the kerb, and the fruit at its sweetest in this month.

Attraction introduction: Yichuan sits in the southeast of Yanan prefecture in Shaanxi, with the Yellow River brushing its eastern edge, about forty kilometres from the county town to Hukou. The country here is loess plateau and gully, flat on the table land and cut deep between, and the earth cliffs along the road are the work of rain. Orchards on the plateau around Luochuan and Yichuan ripen slowly in the wide day and night temperature swing.

Tips: This day is almost entirely driving, seven to eight hours, so take motion sickness tablets in advance if you need them. Guests generally find the first day is best kept light and the evening early. In practice, lunch is at a service area and dinner is mutton noodles in town, with no extra stop added.

In at eight when the gate opens, and before the platform comes into view the sound arrives, low and constant like thunder a long way off. Close up, the river drops whole through the gap and throws up a fog of spray that goes white in the light, the rock walls banded layer over layer. The morning is for the lower walkway and the face of the main fall; back to the visitor centre for lunch and a rest, then in again at four when the slanting light often hangs a rainbow in the spray.

Attraction introduction: Hukou sits on the main channel of the Yellow River at Hukou town in Yichuan, where a bed several hundred metres wide closes to twenty or thirty and the water drops into a deep trench shaped like a spout. The channel below is called the dragon trough, and the river turns a corner there before running on. Two kilometres south, Mengmen Hill is a pair of islands in midstream that show only their tops in high water.

Tips: The spray is heavy, so protect cameras and phones, wear soles with grip, and expect the stones by the rail to be wet all year. The ticket is 80 yuan and the internal shuttle is charged separately. Guests generally find the light best between nine and eleven with smaller crowds, and rainbows most likely after four. In practice, we take a two-day ticket and enter twice, resting at midday rather than standing in the park all day.

North in the morning along a road that follows the rim of the loess table land, with abandoned cave dwellings visible now and then at the bottom of the gullies. Yanan by early afternoon, the Yan River cutting through the middle and the pagoda on Jialing Hill to the southeast. The climb is short, and the nine-storey octagonal brick tower at the top looks down the length of the river and the city on both banks. Yangjialing toward evening, its caves set in rows along the slope.

Attraction introduction: Baota Hill was once called Jialing Hill, and the pagoda on it was first raised in the Tang, the present nine-storey octagonal tower being a Ming structure that became the emblem of the city. The Yangjialing site northwest of town housed the central committee between 1938 and 1947, and the assembly hall and rows of cave dwellings are kept as they were. The Yan River crosses the city from northwest to southeast in a wide, shallow bed.

Tips: Baota Hill is free but needs a booking and an identity card at the gate, and the hill is windy, so a heavy coat is needed in November. Guests generally find the pagoda looks best in the last light, the brick turning warm. In practice, the hill comes in mid afternoon and Yangjialing toward dusk, ten minutes apart by road.

The morning goes to the Yanan Revolution Memorial, where the galleries run from the founding of the Shaanxi base onward and the caves in the photographs are the same caves still on the hillsides. Lunch is grated potato with flour and buckwheat noodles, plain household food. In the afternoon, Zaoyuan, where the jujube trees still stand in the yard and the stone tables outside the caves are very small. Anyone with energy left can climb Qingliang Hill for the Ten Thousand Buddha caves.

Attraction introduction: The memorial stands at Wangjiaping and opened in 1950, its collection built on documents, photographs and objects of the Yanan years. Zaoyuan northwest of town held the secretariat of the central committee from 1944 to 1947, with caves and low houses sharing one yard. Qingliang Hill rises on the east bank of the Yan River, its Ten Thousand Buddha caves cut in the Song dynasty and lined with small figures.

Tips: The memorial and Zaoyuan are free and need bookings, and most museums close one day a week, so confirm the day before. Qingliang Hill charges 40 yuan and is optional. Guests generally find the memorial takes more than two hours at an unhurried pace and twenty minutes at a trot. In practice, this day holds only three stops and leaves room for a proper lunch and a rest.

South from Yanan in the morning, a little over two hours to Huangling county town. In the yard of Xuanyuan Temple the cypress said to be planted by the Yellow Emperor needs several people to reach around it, its bark split like an old wall, the crown still pushing upward. Steles of many dynasties stand in two rows, their surfaces polished by hands. Behind the temple the stone stair climbs Qiaoshan to the tomb, cypress forest on both sides the whole way. Down by evening and a bed in town.

Attraction introduction: The tomb of the Yellow Emperor stands on Qiaoshan north of Huangling town and is held to be the burial place of Xuanyuan, with the temple below it founded in the Han dynasty. The cypress in the temple yard is traditionally attributed to the emperor himself and is counted in thousands of years. The forest on Qiaoshan is one of the larger planted cypress woods still standing, and the Hanwu terrace in front of the tomb is a rammed earth platform left from a Han sacrifice.

Tips: The tomb charges 75 yuan in peak season and 50 off season, and from October to March the gate closes at five, so a late start locks you out. Cypress drops needles on the steps, so take the descent slowly. Guests generally find the stair from temple to tomb takes about twenty minutes at an easy pace. In practice, Huangling is placed in the afternoon when the light slants into the cypress.

Leave Huangling in the morning, southeast on the expressway past Weinan and onto the Luoyang road, home by evening. Two stops at service areas, where dried persimmon and walnuts by the roadside are worth a small bag.

Attraction introduction: The road from Huangling to Luoyang crosses the eastern edge of the Guanzhong plain, with the Wei River running alongside for a stretch. This is persimmon and coarse grain country, and in autumn the roadside is lined with trays of dried persimmon dusted white. Huashan stands south of Tongguan, and on a clear day its pale granite face shows from the expressway.

Tips: The last day runs about seven hours, with two stops so that older travellers and children can walk about. Guests generally find this leg the most tiring and buy more than they can carry at the service areas. In practice, we aim to reach Luoyang before dinner and keep the driving out of the night.