Luoyang Departure: Longmen Grottoes, Erlitou and Luoyi Old Town, 4 Days 3 Nights

The train stops at Luoyang Longmen station, and the grottoes begin a dozen kilometres south of it. Drop the bags at the old town first and have a bowl of local soup, then walk in at three in the afternoon. At that hour the sun sits low and the light rakes into the niches sideways, which is when the face of the Vairocana Buddha finally reads. Follow the path from Qianxi Temple to Fengxian Temple, climb the east hill for the view back across the river at the whole cliff, then slip into Xiangshan Temple before closing.

Attraction introduction: Carving at Longmen began around the Northern Wei move of the capital and continued through Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang and Song. Some 2,345 niches and caves survive. The Fengxian group was paid for by the Tang court, and its main figure stands 17.14 metres tall, with bodhisattvas and guardian kings flanking it at slightly lower height. The Yi River runs between the two hills, west facing east across the water.

Tips: The Longmen ticket is valid for one day only, so the west hill, east hill and Xiangshan Temple have to be finished in this single afternoon. Guests generally find the crowd thins between four and five, when there is room to stand in front of Fengxian. In practice nothing else is scheduled today; the circuit takes about two hours at an unhurried pace.

Head east out of Luoyang in the morning, forty kilometres to Zhai town in Yanshi. The Erlitou museum opens at nine, the gate reads a booking code, and Monday is a closing day. The galleries start from rammed earth foundations and move to bronze cups, spaced widely enough to look at one object at a time. Lunch in Yanshi is a local pork soup, and the afternoon goes north to the Han-Wei city museum east of Baima Temple, where the grid of the Northern Wei capital is laid out in model form.

Attraction introduction: The Erlitou site lies within Yanshi and dates to roughly 3,800 to 3,500 years before present; most scholars read it as a late Xia capital. The palace zone sits at the centre, and foundation number one measures eight bays across and three deep with covered corridors front and back, among the earliest large palace buildings found in China. The Han-Wei museum stands beside the original city wall line and explains gates, streets and residential wards.

Tips: Both museums are free but both require advance booking. Guests generally find the digital gallery at Erlitou runs on fixed sessions capped at fifty people, so a late arrival misses it. In practice the main galleries take the morning, the two o clock digital session follows lunch, and the drive onward still reaches the Han-Wei museum before its gates close.

No early start today. Yingtian Gate at ten, a reconstruction with two flanking towers framing a single passage, and from the middle of that passage the Mingtang and Tiantang halls line up on the axis to the north. The afternoon goes into the Mingtang to look at the column bases, round sockets set in dense rows where the timber posts once landed. By dusk walk east along Zhongzhou Road to Luoyi Old Town, free to enter with a booking made on the spot.

Attraction introduction: Sui Luoyang was founded in the first year of the Daye era and served as the eastern capital under the Tang, with the palace city at its centre. Yingtian Gate was the southern gate of that palace city, and its triple gate towers were a form reserved for the person of the emperor. Luoyi Old Town occupies the south east corner of the later walled city, keeps a stretch of old wall footing, and has a brick pagoda at its corner that almost nobody climbs.

Tips: Yingtian Gate by daylight and Yingtian Gate lit up are two different experiences. Guests generally find the square in front of the gate is at its busiest once the sky is fully dark, and photographs need waiting for a gap. In practice the day is split in two, with the halls and foundations in the afternoon and the lights after dinner, leaving time to eat and change in between rather than standing about.

The last day carries no distance. At seven, breakfast in the old town is beef or mutton broth with a sesame flatbread straight out of the oven, eaten standing at the counter and finished in ten minutes. Half past eight is for Xidajie inside Lijing Gate, where the old shops press peony cakes and cut starch blocks the same morning they sell them. Back to the hotel by ten to check out, then a transfer to Longmen or Luoyang station according to the train.

Attraction introduction: The old town of Luoyang grew up in layers over the foundations of the Sui and Tang eastern city from the Jin and Yuan onwards. Along Xidajie and the crossroads, shopfronts from the late Qing and early Republic still stand, with removable board panels that come down in the morning and serve as counters. Lijing Gate itself is a later reconstruction at the western mouth of the old town.

Tips: The market is at its liveliest between seven and eight. Guests generally find most stalls are packed away by nine, leaving only the souvenir tables. In practice the return train is best booked for midday or later, so that this hour and a half belongs to the old town instead of to a waiting room.