Luoyang Departure: Mount Tai, Dai Temple, 5 Days 4 Nights

We leave Luoyang Longmen in the morning and reach Taian by midday. Bags go to the hotel and the afternoon belongs to Dai Temple in the middle of town, entering at Zhengyang Gate and walking through to the Tiankuang Hall, the bronze pavilion and the courtyard of Han cypresses. Dinner is Mount Tai tofu noodles on Hongmen Road and an early night before the climb.

Attraction introduction: Dai Temple is where emperors held the great rites before ascending Mount Tai, founded in the Han dynasty and covering more than ninety thousand square metres, ranked with the Forbidden City and the Qufu temple as one of three palace complexes in China. The mural inside Tiankuang Hall runs over sixty metres and shows the god of the eastern peak on procession.

Tips: Dai Temple deserves more than a lap. Guests generally find that seeing it first makes the whole mountain legible afterwards. In practice we allow ninety minutes and concentrate on Tiankuang Hall and the cypress courtyard, letting the rest go.

We start at Hongmen and enter through Wanxian Tower. The first stretch is gentle past Doumu Palace and Huti Pavilion, reaching Zhongtianmen in about two hours. Lunch and a real rest there, then the eighteen bends, more than sixteen hundred steps climbing without relief until Nantianmen, where legs tend to shake. We walk a stretch of Tianjie at dusk and sleep on the summit.

Attraction introduction: The main peak of Mount Tai stands above 1,500 metres and the Hongmen route to the top covers over six thousand steps. The eighteen bends are the final and steepest section, split into three stages, and Nantianmen sits in the saddle between Feilong Rock and Xiangfeng Ridge, built in the Yuan dynasty.

Tips: Do not attack the bends in one push. Guests generally find that forty minutes of rest at Zhongtianmen makes the upper half faster, not slower. In practice anyone running out of legs can take the cable car from there for 100 yuan one way and save the strength for the summit and the sunrise.

Up at half past five and out in the dark to Riguan Peak for the first line of light around half past six. After sunrise we eat at the guesthouse, take the cable car down to Zhongtianmen and the shuttle to Tianwaicun. Lunch in Taian, then a train to Qufu East in about twenty minutes and a room at the edge of the old town.

Attraction introduction: Riguan Peak sits southeast of the summit and is the cleanest sunrise position on the mountain, with nothing blocking the eastern horizon, so the sky reddens before it brightens. Sunrise moves with the season, around half past six in early November, and the summit posts a daily table of times.

Tips: Claim a spot well before dawn. Guests generally find that half past five still gets a place at the front while anything after six gets a view of heads. In practice renting one of the army coats beats another layer, because the wind on the summit cuts far below the air temperature.

We enter the temple through the WANREN Wall in the morning, past the Jinsheng Yuzhen arch to the Dacheng Hall, with the thirteen stele pavilions and the Apricot Altar on the way. East of the temple is the mansion, front offices then family quarters. The forest comes after lunch by electric cart, to the grave of Confucius and the cypress said to be planted by his disciple Zigong. An evening train takes us to Jinan.

Attraction introduction: The three sites sit on one axis. The temple honours Confucius and its ten carved dragon columns in front of Dacheng Hall are original Ming work; the mansion housed his direct descendants with offices at the front and living quarters behind; the forest is the family cemetery, its wall running over seven kilometres and the longest continuous burial ground in China.

Tips: The distances between the three are real. Guests generally find the electric cart in the forest is not optional, since walking in and back eats half a day. In practice the combined ticket holds for seven days, so we take temple, mansion and forest in order with a meal in between and no rushing.

Morning at Baotu Spring, watching three jets push up from the pool floor and leave rings spreading across the surface. Ten minutes north on foot is Daming Lake, where we walk a stretch of the shore to Lixia Pavilion. Lunch is braised pork over rice and sweet porridge on Furong Street, then the afternoon train from Jinan West.

Attraction introduction: Baotu is the first of the seventy-two named springs in Jinan, three jets rising from the bottom with water that holds around eighteen degrees all year, so a thin mist sits on the surface in winter. Daming Lake gathers the city springs into more than forty hectares, with Lixia Pavilion on its central island, the pavilion Du Fu wrote about.

Tips: Early morning is the quiet window. Guests generally find that before nine you can stand at the railing and watch the jets, while after ten the groups arrive. In practice we put Daming Lake second, since the lake absorbs crowds and the timing stays flexible.