Shanghai Disneyland, Suzhou Gardens and Zhouzhuang in Six Days

A seven thirty train from Luoyang Longmen, east through Zhengzhou, Xuzhou and Nanjing, into Shanghai Hongqiao a little after one. Metro into the city, bags down near Nanjing East road, and toward dusk a walk down Fuzhou road to the Bund, moving north to south.

Attraction introduction: The Bund fronts the Huangpu along Zhongshan East road, from Waibaidu bridge in the north to Yanan East road in the south, its twenty-odd buildings mostly banks and trading houses of the 1920s and 1930s. Lujiazui faces it across the water, the Pearl tower, Jin Mao and Shanghai Tower stacked on the skyline. The promenade is free and open at all hours, and the lights come on half an hour after sunset.

Tips: Guests generally find the first evening on the Bund ends with sore legs, since the wind comes straight off the river. In practice this evening covers only Waibaidu bridge to Nanjing East road, twenty minutes, and then back to the hotel with the next day kept in reserve.

Breakfast at seven, line eleven to Pudong at half past, at the gate by eight. When the gates open we go first to Soaring over the Horizon in Adventure Isle, then to Pirates of the Caribbean in Treasure Cove, lunch inside the park, the parade in the afternoon, Tomorrowland toward evening, and the fireworks to finish.

Attraction introduction: The park holds seven lands around the castle: Mickey Avenue, Gardens of Imagination, Fantasyland, Adventure Isle, Treasure Cove, Tomorrowland and Toy Story land. Soaring is a dome-screen flight, Pirates a water ride through full-scale sets, and TRON a coaster ridden lying forward. Gates open at half past eight and close at half past nine, with tickets in six date-based tiers; a non-holiday weekday in November sits in the regular tier at 475 yuan.

Tips: Guests generally find twenty thousand steps in a day, which makes shoes the most important piece of kit. In practice lunch is taken before eleven to miss the noon queue, and after three, when the big rides shorten, the remaining two are moved into that window; the castle forecourt is claimed half an hour before the fireworks.

Wukang road at nine, from the flatiron block north to Hunan road, plane leaves all over the pavement and people walking dogs or carrying coffee. Check out at half past eleven, the twelve thirty train, Suzhou in twenty-five minutes, a guesthouse near Pingjiang road, and the canal walked at dusk.

Attraction introduction: The Wukang mansion is a ship-shaped apartment block of 1924, first named the Normandie, one of the earliest in the city. The villas around it went up in the 1920s and 1930s and are now half homes, half shops. Pingjiang road is the best preserved water lane in Suzhou, sixteen hundred metres long, canal and street running side by side, a dozen bridges, and houses mostly Qing in date.

Tips: Guests generally find Wukang road crowded after ten and that photographs involve waiting for a gap. In practice the walk is placed at nine and finished in an hour; and no garden is scheduled on arrival in Suzhou, so the afternoon is spent getting the legs working on Pingjiang road.

At the gate of the Humble Administrators Garden by half past eight, in with the first group. Through the Orchid Snow hall and west to the Hall of Distant Fragrance, where the central pond opens up and the lotus pavilion faces the boat hall across the water. Out at half past ten, ten minutes on foot to the Suzhou Museum for the latticed windows and the sliced-stone rockery. The afternoon is free, and Shantang street takes the evening.

Attraction introduction: The garden was begun in the Zhengde reign of the Ming and is the largest in the region, in three parts, with the central one built around a pond holding three islands; the Hall of Distant Fragrance is its main building. The museum was designed by I. M. Pei, white walls under grey geometric roofs, and its rockery is made of sliced stone standing in for ink washes. Shantang street follows the canal of the same name, cut under Bai Juyi in the Tang, and runs about seven li.

Tips: Guests generally find arrival at noon puts them in a single crowded corridor at the Hall of Distant Fragrance. In practice we enter with the first group and go straight to the far end of the central garden, working back as the crowd builds; the museum needs a booking, closes on Mondays, and releases tickets on its own mini programme.

Away from Suzhou at nine, Zhouzhuang in an hour. The car parks outside the town, and we walk in past the Quanfu bridge to the Twin Bridges. Lunch by the canal, then the Shen and Zhang houses in the afternoon, and at three a sculling boat through the arches, the boatwoman singing a line or two. The day trippers leave, and we stay the night.

Attraction introduction: Zhouzhuang, in Kunshan, grew rich in the Yuan through Shen Wansan, and is ringed by water with canals laid in a grid. The Twin Bridges are the Shide arch and the Yongan bridge, one crossing the other, one round opening and one square, and they are the emblem of the town. The Shen house was built by his descendants, seven courts deep with five gate towers, and its brick-carved gateway survives. A sculling boat seats six for 220 yuan and takes about twenty minutes around the town.

Tips: Guests generally find the daytime belongs to tour groups and that the town only quiets after seven. In practice the boat is taken at three, when the light rakes into the arches, and the night is spent in a riverside guesthouse rather than outside the gates, so the morning walk is possible.

Out at half past six with no visitors about, dew on the deck of the Twin Bridges and the water flat enough to hold the houses upside down. On to the Fu-an bridge to watch shopkeepers washing vegetables at the edge. Breakfast at eight, away at half past nine, Hongqiao in a little over an hour, and the train west to Luoyang just after eleven thirty.

Attraction introduction: Early morning is Zhouzhuang as it was, mist still on the canals and the boats lying under the arches. The Fu-an bridge is Yuan in date and carries a tower at each of its four corners, a bridge-and-tower arrangement rare in the region. The road to Hongqiao runs a stretch of the Shanghai Changzhou expressway with Dianshan lake on the right.

Tips: Guests generally find the last morning is easily slept through, and with it the quietest half hour of the trip. In practice the walk is written into the schedule at half past six sharp; the train is booked after eleven thirty, leaving an hour of slack on the road.