Luoyang Departure: Qingming Garden, Kaifeng, 4 Days 3 Nights

Two hours from Luoyang and the afternoon goes to the prefecture office. The building is a reconstruction, but the plan follows Song practice, gate to hall to plum chamber in a straight northward line. In front of the main hall the case of Judge Bao is staged on the hour, and the crowd gathers the moment the gong sounds, close enough at the front to read the painted faces. Behind the hall the Qingxin tower can be climbed, with the city wall and the lake below it. Out of the gate in the evening and a walk around the lake.

Attraction introduction: The Kaifeng prefecture office is rebuilt to Song administrative plan, with the ceremonial gate, main hall and plum chamber on the axis and the six bureaus along the sides. Fixed daily performances include Judge Bao hearing cases and martial demonstrations. The Qingxin tower at the rear looks over Baogong Lake and the city wall.

Tips: Performances run to a timetable, so collect the schedule at the gate and work backwards from it. Guests generally find the steps in front of the main hall the best vantage, worth claiming ten minutes early. In practice day one covers the yamen only, and the garden waits for tomorrow.

In at nine, and rather than chasing performances first, walk the Bian river bank and learn the Rainbow Bridge, the wharves and the taverns by position. Lunch inside, then acrobatics and drum troupes in the afternoon, processions moving from one end of the street to the other. After dark the garden changes character, lamps coming on one by one until the water holds all of them upside down. The staged show on the water is ticketed separately inside the park, and the exit comes after it.

Attraction introduction: The Qingming Riverside Garden is rebuilt from Zhang Zeduan scroll of the same name, laying out the Rainbow Bridge, the Bian river, gates and market lanes as the painting places them, with drum, acrobatic and cockfighting shows through the day. Lighting and reflections are the second life of the park after dark, and the water stage production sells its own tickets.

Tips: One day ticket covers nine until ten at night, so leaving and re-entering is the only way to waste it. Guests generally find the evening busier than the afternoon, and railing space by the water goes early. In practice the show is a separate purchase, and seats are bought at the park counter before the queue forms.

The morning goes to Yuwangtai, and the gate charges nothing. Up the Guchui terrace first, low and wide-stepped, with the hall of Yu Wang on top and a five-metre figure of the flood-taming king holding his tablet in both hands. East of the terrace stands the Three Worthies shrine, dedicated to Li Bai, Du Fu and Gao Shi, who climbed here together in 744 and drank and wrote. West is the shrine of water merits, tablets of flood engineers in rows. Out of the park in the afternoon, along Shudian street to the drum tower, and the night market after dark.

Attraction introduction: Yuwangtai is also called Guchui terrace, named for the Spring and Autumn musician Shi Kuang, who is said to have played here. The Three Worthies shrine was built in the Ming Zhengde years, the Yu Wang temple added under Jiajing, and the name Yuwangtai followed. The park covers more than 420 mu, with the terrace, hall, shrine, water-merit hall and imperial library ranged along the axis and its sides.

Tips: The park opens at 7:30 and shuts at 17:30, earlier in winter, so it cannot be left to the end of the day. Guests generally find tour groups absent here and the old trees generous with shade. In practice the morning leaves energy over, and the afternoon belongs to the old city with nothing paid on the schedule.

The last morning belongs to chrysanthemums. This year is the forty-fourth Kaifeng festival, running from 17 October to 17 November, with the main venue at Dragon Pavilion a short hop from the Qingming garden. Through the run, both flanks of the terrace are packed with pots stacked step by step to the top. Back for the bags, lunch, then the expressway and two hours to Luoyang.

Attraction introduction: The Kaifeng chrysanthemum festival runs through October and November each year, with Dragon Pavilion as the main venue, where displays are built from shaped chrysanthemums and terrace steps lined with pots across a month. The pavilion itself stands on the site of the Song palace, on a high platform looking over the Pan and Yang lakes.

Tips: The festival closes on 17 November and the displays come down with it, so a week late leaves bare steps. Guests generally find mornings quieter with better light and no backlighting on the steps. In practice the pavilion ticket is separate, and anyone uninterested can wait at the hotel instead.