Voyage to the Roof of the World: Beijing to Lhasa

You are met on arrival and taken to the five-star Four Seasons. In the evening a welcome dinner gives you the chance to meet your fellow travellers.

Walk a restored section of the Great Wall at Badaling, with views over rugged hills to the horizon. The afternoon is free in Beijing, and in the evening you share a traditional Peking Duck feast at one of the city's most celebrated restaurants.

Spend the day among Beijing's imperial landmarks, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, or choose modern Beijing with the Olympic Village, the CCTV Tower and the National Museum. In the evening you board the Golden Eagle Silk Road Express for a special welcome dinner.

Wake in Luoyang to visit the Longmen Grottoes, where more than 100,000 Buddhist statues line the cliffs of the Yi River, and the Shaolin Temple, birthplace of Zen Buddhism and Kung Fu. After tasting water banquet dumplings in the old town, you reach Xi'an in the evening for a Tang Dynasty-style banquet with music and dance.

Walk the ramparts of Xi'an's ancient city walls, then after lunch at a local restaurant visit the Terracotta Warriors, more than 6,000 life-sized soldiers, horses and chariots made to protect China's first emperor. You return to the train in the evening.

After breakfast on board, stroll through Kuanzhai Alley, a preserved quarter of Qing Dynasty lanes, teahouses and courtyards. The Sichuan Opera Theatre is then reserved for your group for a performance of bian lian, the art of face-changing. In the late afternoon you check in to the Waldorf Astoria Chengdu, or similar, for one night.

Visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding among its bamboo forests. You return to the train for lunch, and the afternoon is free to enjoy the scenery from the 270-degree Observation Car.

After a relaxing morning crossing the Qinghai Plateau, arrive in Xining and visit Kumbum Monastery, with its golden roofs, thangka paintings and prayer halls, pausing for herbal tea and butter cookies in a quiet courtyard. Then choose between the Qinghai Provincial Museum and the lively Shui Jing Xiang Market before returning to the train.

With an expert guide, step into some of the finest grottoes of the Mogao Caves, the 'Caves of a Thousand Buddhas', followed by a live performance by local folk musicians and dancers. After lunch a camel ride crosses the dunes of the Gobi to Crescent Lake, an oasis that has survived for millennia.

After a final breakfast aboard the Golden Eagle Silk Road Express, you continue on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the highest railway in the world, through grasslands and past salt lakes beneath snow-capped peaks. Guests who prefer can fly directly to Lhasa instead, allowing more time to acclimatise.

Cross the Tanggula Pass, the railway's highest point at 16,640 feet, with views of the mountains and untouched valleys. After lunch on board you arrive in Lhasa and check in to the St. Regis for two nights. In the afternoon you can join an optional tour of the Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market, or take time at leisure.

Visit Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's summer palace, with its landscaped gardens and lotus ponds, then lunch on local cuisine with traditional folk music. In the afternoon climb to the Potala Palace, the great red-and-white former winter residence of the Dalai Lama. The evening ends with a farewell dinner.

You are transferred privately to Lhasa airport for your onward journey.