Old Capital,
New Capital.

Your private driver meets you at the airport and brings you to your hotel on the Bund. After settling in, step outside and let the evening unfold along the waterfront — the Bund's century-old buildings glow amber on one side, Lujiazui's towers pulse electric blue on the other. The two Shanghais, old and new, separated only by a river.

Dinner is at a Bund-side restaurant specialising in benbang cuisine — the rich, sweet-savoury flavours that define Shanghainese cooking. Braised pork belly with a glaze that catches the candlelight, crystal shrimp that snap with freshness. This is your first meal in the city, and already it feels like coming home to somewhere you've never been.

The morning begins with a helicopter ride that rewrites everything you thought you knew about Shanghai. At low altitude, the Bund's heritage facades and Lujiazui's glass towers rush past in minutes — the same contrast you walked last night, now seen from a god's-eye view. Lunch stays airborne: a kaiseki or French set menu on the 68th floor, the skyline you just flew over now framed by floor-to-ceiling windows.

Afternoon shifts from the vertical to the intimate. In a heritage qipao atelier, you choose silk, discuss cut, and watch a master tailor transform fabric into something that fits only you — from the drape of the collar to the curve of each frog button. Evening is yours: Xintiandi's stone-gate lanes glow with cocktail bars and bistros, the perfect place to end the day with a drink and a wander.

Sleep in, then head to Yu Garden after the early rush. Cross the Nine-Turn Bridge into a Jiangnan world of rockeries, pools, and five-hundred-year-old magnolias. Nearby, a dim sum master teaches you to fold xiaolongbao — sixteen pleats, a translucent skin, a burst of soup inside. Lunch is at Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant by the bridge, where the original recipe has been served for over a century.

The afternoon belongs to Wukang Road — Shanghai's most photographed, most romantic street. No plan needed: just walk under the plane trees, stop for coffee, browse a design shop, sit on a bench and let the light filter through. The road connects to Anfu Road, where every doorway hides a good restaurant. Pick one that calls to you, and let the evening unfold.

A gentle final morning in Shanghai — no rush, no checklist. Linger over breakfast, take one last walk along the Bund in the honest light of day, or simply pack and savour the view from your room. Farewell lunch is your choice: revisit a favourite, or let your guide point you to a hidden gem.

The afternoon train to Beijing is 4.5 hours of first-class comfort. Watch the landscape change through the window — the flat green of the Yangtze Delta giving way to northern plains. Shanghai's modernity recedes; Beijing's ancient gravity pulls you forward. By evening, you're checking into your Beijing hotel, ready for a different China entirely.

An early start brings you to Mutianyu, where the Great Wall is at its most dramatic — watchtowers marching along a mountain ridge, trees growing through the crenellations. You have two ways to meet it: a helicopter flight that reveals the Wall as a dragon sprawling across peaks, or a cable car ride up to walk the stones yourself. Best of all: do both, the aerial shock followed by the tactile intimacy of ancient brick underfoot.

Lunch is grilled rainbow trout at a village below the Wall — a Huairou specialty, simple and perfect after a morning of grandeur. Evening brings the journey's most theatrical moment: Yuxiandu, a 4,500 sqm immersive imperial dining experience directed by the man behind the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony. Three acts of ritual, cuisine, and spectacle unfold around your table as you eat dishes once reserved for emperors.

Morning opens at the Temple of Heaven, where the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests rises in triple-tiered blue above six-hundred-year-old cypresses. Walk the Danbi Bridge — the emperor's own processional path — and stand at the centre of the Circular Mound Altar, where a whisper bounces back from the sky. Around you, locals practise tai chi and sing Peking opera — the sacred and the everyday, side by side.

Afternoon is the Forbidden City, done properly. Your guide takes you past the main-axis crowds into the Western Six Palaces — chambers of empresses and concubines, courtyards overgrown with grass, stories that tour groups never hear. Exit through Shenwu Gate, cross the road, and climb Jingshan Park. From the Pavilion of Eternal Spring at the summit, the entire Forbidden City spreads below in gold — the finest sunset view in all of Beijing, and it costs two yuan.

The final morning belongs to the Summer Palace — China's largest imperial garden, where Kunming Lake stretches wide under willows and the 728-metre Long Corridor tells its stories in 14,000 painted panels. Take a boat across the lake if the weather is kind, and pause at the Marble Boat, the folly that cost an empress a navy.

Farewell lunch is copper-pot hot pot — Beijing's most elemental meal. Clear broth, hand-sliced lamb, sesame paste, pickled garlic to finish. Simple, ancient, perfect. Then to the airport, carrying seven days of memories: from Shanghai's helicopter dawn to Beijing's golden sunset, from xiaolongbao pleats to imperial feasts, from plane-tree shade to Great Wall stone. Two cities, two Chinas, one journey you'll never forget.