Get to grips with a 21st-century colossus

1. The Three Gorges

1. The Three Gorges

By 2009, China will have a new wall: a dam across the Yangtse River. The largest construction project in China since the Great Wall, it aims to flood the Yangtse's Three Gorges region to create a reservoir nearly 650km (400 miles) long. The Chinese government says this will make the river more navigable, less prone to floods, and provide electricity. Critics counter that the dam will displace hundreds of communities and is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, not least because it will hold back a vast lake on an earthquake fault line. Either way, the project will change the landscape of the Three Gorges, a region famed for its forest-carpeted canyons and dramatic riverboat cruises.

A new cruise ship to navigate the region is the Century Star, billed as the most luxurious vessel on the Yangtse. The Century Star begins its journey Chongqing (a city 1,000 miles inland but to become a port, in effect, when the dam is complete) and finishes in Shanghai. Trips can be booked with Viking River Cruises (www.vikingrivers.com) or in the UK, through Noble Caledonia (020-7752 0000; www.noble-caledonia.co.uk). A 10-night, all-inclusive trip costs from £1,295 per person, based on two sharing, including a seven-night cruise, two nights in five-star hotels (in Beijing and Shanghai), flights and transfers.

2. Shanghai

The New York of the East and the urban emblem of New China, can't seem to launch smart hotels fast enough. The pioneering Grand Hyatt opened on the top floors of a landmark Art Deco skyscraper in 1999 (and still offers superlative city views). The arrival of the smart international chains indicates a renaissance of the roaring Twenties, when the city was at its peak. The Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and Marriott franchises have made their first forays into mainland China in the past couple of years, as have the European designers. Louis Vuitton opened a store here at the end of last year, in Plaza 66, a flash mall on the Nanjing West Road, Shanghai's shopping hub. The city's nightlife and restaurant scene make up in ritz for what they have lost in raciness; business travellers regularly spend the average Chinese annual income in one, expense-account fuelled night in the swanky restaurants, bars and clubs on the Bund waterfront. But a taste of the seductive Old City remains in the Fuyou Lu antiques market and the jumble of old streets surrounding the buzzing Dajing Lu food market.

Regent Holidays (0117-921 1711; www.regent-holidays.co.uk) offers four-night breaks to Shanghai from £480 per person, based on two sharing, including return flights and b&b at the Jiulong Hotel, near the Bund and Nanjing Road.

2. Two-wheel tours

The group adventure tour specialist Explore Worldwide (01252 760 000; www.exploreworldwide.com) reports that its bookings to China have doubled in the past year. Join the 3 million-strong throng of Chinese cyclists and take a two-wheel tour with the "Great Wall and Guilin" bike trip, new to Explore's programme for 2005. This 15-day tour offers a "local" way to explore the country's classic sights. The tour is graded as "easy-moderate" and covers an average of 27km (17 miles) a day. The cost is £1,640 per person, based on two sharing and includes all equipment, guides, back-up vehicle and b&b accommodation. Flights from London to Beijing cost extra.

Other companies offering bike tours or excursions as part of an overland tour include: World Expeditions (0800 0744 135; www.worldexpeditions.co.uk); Exodus (0870 240 5550; www.exodus. co.uk); Dragoman (0870 499 4470; www.dragoman.co.uk) and Guerba (01373 826611; www.guerba.com).

3. Beijing

Go before 2008 if you want to see the Chinese capital's "hutongs" (old residential neighbourhoods) as they have been for the past seven centuries, before the Olympian bulldozers move in. Now is also the time to go if you want to catch the city before the costs are comparable to Hong Kong or Shanghai. Beijing is home to the best of China's most famous ancient sights: the Forbidden City (the largest and most intricate of China's imperial palaces), Mao's Mausoleum and Tiananmen Square. Newly renovated sections of the Forbidden City that have been closed to the public are due to open before the Olympics, including the Wuying Dian (Hall of Valiance and Heroism) and the Cining Huayuan (Garden of Love and Tranquility) in the western section of the palace. The few ancestral tablets that survived the Cultural Revolution are on show at the Lidai Diwang Miao (Temple for Emperors of Past Dynasties), after decades under restorative wraps.

China Holidays (020 7487 2999; www.chinaholidays.co.uk) is operating an email news bulletin for those travelling to the Olympics and can provide tailor-made and package tours to China during the games.

4. Beyond Beijing

The influx of tourists for the Olympics in 2008 is set to bring increased interest to the capital region if not China as a whole. Expect a flood of new excursions out of Beijingfrom the China tour operators and, for those with more time to spare, tempting new tours taking in the less trammelled parts of the neighbouring Silk Route and Great Wall.

Peregrine Adventures (01635 872300; www.peregrine adventures.co.uk) offers a 19-night guided tour of the classic Beijing and Silk Road sights, along with exploration of little-known stretches of the Silk Road, in Muslim China towards Kashgar and the Central Asian republics. The trip takes place three times a year and costs £1,857 per person, based on two sharing, including domestic flights, transfers, transport, guided sightseeing and b&b accommodation. The trip departs and ends in Beijing. International flights are not included.

5. Specialist tours

Gastronomic guided tours, art and antiques sightseeing and lessons in martial arts are offered in the new package tours for 2005.

China Holidays (020-7487 2999; www.chinaholidays.co.uk) is offering a handful of special-interest tours, including an eight-day culinary trip around Beijing and Xi'an, and a holistic health holiday offering the chance to learn Qigong, a traditional medicine, and sample curative cuisine. Cox and Kings (020-7873 5000; www.coxandkings.co.uk) is offering a guided wildflower holiday to Sichuan. CTS Horizons (020-7836 9911; www.ctshorizons.com) offers an antiques tour of Beijing with an expert guide, the dealer Trevor Cornforth, who maintains much of the antique loot confiscated during the Cultural Revolution was not destroyed but stored and is making its way slowly back into the market. And lovers of traditional art can take a tour of Guizhou with Steppes East (01285 651010; www.steppeseast.co.uk), which offers a "Textile and Embroidery" tour of the province, departing in May 2005.

7. China's wild west

The Altai, a vast stretch of mountains straddling the border between Russia, Mongolia and China, is ripe for adventure tourism. With white-water rivers and snow-capped mountains separated by the Central Asian Steppe, this region has been a favourite with generations of local hikers, climbers and rafters. Most adventure tours to this region offered by UK operators combine Mongolia and China's Northwest, such as the overland trips offered by Exodus (0870 240 5550; www.exodus.co.uk).

More can be arranged on the ground through companies such as Wild China (00 86 10 6465 6602; www.wildchina.com).

8. The first resort

Hainan Island, in southernmost China, shares the same latitude as Antigua and Hawaii. That this coral-fringed island has imperial origins as an offshore prison hasn't stopped a new generation of Chinese tourists - and a few savvy foreigners - making it the country's hottest beach holiday destination. The island drew 2 million visitors last year and in 2001, Guinness World Records named the Crowne Plaza Hainan Spa & Beach Resort (0800 8222 8222; www.crowneplazahainan.com) the largest resort in China and the largest indoor hot spring spa in the world.

Audley Travel (01869 276217; www.audleytravel.com) and Bales (0870 241 3208; www.balesworldwide.com) can arrange packages to Hainan.

9. Great rail journeys

Of all China's rail routes, Shanghai's billion-dollar airport shuttle is the most impressive, even though the journey only takes eight minutes. The world's fastest train floats above the tracks using magnetic levitation as it travels at 430km/h (270mph) from Pudong International Airport into the city centre. China has a 52,000km rail network reaching into every province, apart from Tibet. When completed in 2007, the Chinese government's railway into Lhasa looks set to rival the trans-Siberian Express as the country's epic rail route. Tracks will run from Golmud in Qinghai Province 1,925km through China's wild west at an average altitude of 3,200m, into the capital of Tibet. This will be the world's longest rail route at the highest elevation.

For trips on the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Manchurian railways (the latter runs parallel to the Tran-Siberian, detouring to the north east) contact The Imaginative Traveller (01473 667337; www.imaginative-traveller.com) or Russia Experience (020-8566 8846; www.trans-siberian.co.uk).

10. The ancient east

Many UK-based China tour operators now offer tours to China's southwest combined with a trip into Tibet.

Regent Holidays (0117 9211711; www.regent-holidays.co.uk) has been operating in China since the 1970s and this year introduces the "Peaks and Pandas" tour, an 11-day trip taking in Beijing, Sichuan and Tibet, including a chance for some panda spotting in Wolong. It costs £1,390 per person, based on two sharing, including half-board accommodation. International flights can be arranged. Haiwei Trails (0871 4084080; www.haiweitrails.com) is a China-based outfit specialising in trekking, cultural and overland tours to southwest China and Tibet.

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