Sichuan to Yunnan Yading and Shangri-La

Down into the Danba valley, home of the Gyarong Tibetans, stopping at the Wori manor, the former residence of a local hereditary chieftain.

Then Jiaju, a village of red, white and black stone houses scattered across a steep hillside, named by a Chinese travel magazine among the most beautiful in the country, and Zhonglu at sunset, with its old stone watchtowers and orchards. Around 110 km and two and a half hours of driving.

A morning at Suopo, where tall stone watchtowers, some centuries old, still rise above the village houses. Then up onto the plateau to the Huiyuan Temple, built in 1729 under the Qing, where the 7th Dalai Lama lived for several years in the 1730s.

On to Tagong and its grasslands, with the gold-roofed Muya Monastery, Gyergo nunnery and a great field of mani stones. On a clear evening, the snow peaks of Gongga Shan and Zhara Lhatse light up at sunset. Around 165 km and four and a half hours of driving.

A morning at Tagong Monastery, whose statue of the Buddha is said to be a companion to the Jowo in Lhasa, with Zhara Lhatse, 5,820 metres, rising behind the town.

Then south-west through Xinduqiao, with a view of Gongga Shan, 7,556 metres, on a clear day, to Litang, at around 4,014 metres one of the highest towns in the world. Visit Litang Monastery, founded in 1580 by the 3rd Dalai Lama, and the old house where the 7th Dalai Lama was born. Around 225 km and five hours of driving.

South over the high Haizi Shan plateau, a landscape of granite boulders and small lakes, to Daocheng and the town of Riwa, gateway to the Yading reserve. (Riwa is also known as Shangri-La Town, not to be confused with Shangri-La city in Yunnan, where the journey arrives on Day 7.)

In the afternoon, by park bus into Yading to Chonggu Monastery, at around 3,900 metres, and a walk across Chonggu meadow to Pearl Lake below Chenresig, the northernmost of the three sacred peaks. Around 230 km and four hours of driving.

A full day in Yading, whose three peaks are named for bodhisattvas: Chenresig, 6,032 metres, and Jambeyang and Chana Dorje, 5,958 metres each. Park buses and trails lead to Luorong pasture, at around 4,150 metres, where the explorer Joseph Rock photographed the mountains in 1928.

For those with energy to spare, the trail climbs on to Milk Lake and Five-Colour Lake, at around 4,500 and 4,600 metres, a demanding extra four to five hours with some of the finest views in western China.

South to Qingde in Xiangcheng county, whose Tibetan farmhouses are built of stone and whitewashed, standing out against the fields.

Then through the deep Dongwang gorge and across the border into Yunnan, arriving in the evening in Shangri-La, the Tibetan town of Gyalthang, at around 3,280 metres. Around 306 km and five and a half hours of driving.

A day by bike, around 40 km in all. First Songzanlin, founded in 1679 and the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan, its gilded roofs rising above the town in a way that has earned it the name Little Potala.

Then out across the Napahai grasslands, a seasonal lake that fills in summer and becomes a wetland in winter, when black-necked cranes arrive to feed, with time for butter tea in a village along the way.

South to Baishuitai, the White Water Terraces, a series of travertine pools below Haba Snow Mountain that is held sacred by the Naxi and said to be the birthplace of their Dongba religion.

Then Tiger Leaping Gorge, where the upper Yangtze squeezes between Jade Dragon and Haba Snow Mountains, more than 3,000 metres from peak to river, with a walk into the gorge to see the river at close quarters. On to Lijiang. Around 261 km and five hours of driving.

Lijiang old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, a web of cobbled lanes, canals and wooden houses, with the view over its roofs from Lion Hill, and the Black Dragon Pool with Jade Dragon Mountain reflected in the water.

Then the Dongba museum, devoted to the pictographic script of the Naxi priests, the Ming-era murals of Baisha, and the house at Yuhu where Joseph Rock lived for much of the 1920s to 1940s.

The journey ends after breakfast in Lijiang. We can arrange your transfer to the airport or onward travel.