The Great Wall of China curls for 4,100km (2,550 miles), but it's still difficult to find a stretch where, alone, you can sense its still, silent might. But just an hour north of Beijing exists such a spot. And it even has a stylish hotel included.

To wake in the morning, draw the blinds and look out directly on the Great Wall gleaming golden in the sunlight is a treat available nowhere else on Earth. The Commune by the Great Wall is the brainchild of one of China's most innovative property developers, Pan Shiyi, and his wife, Zhang Xin. The couple commissioned 11 architects to build 11 futuristic houses at the foot of the Great Wall.

They then called in Kempinski hotels to oversee an expansion that included building copies of some of these prototype houses in jagged gullies stretching up the steep hillside. Hiking boots and a thick down jacket are essential for a mid-winter visit when the wind whipped temperatures as low as -6C (22F) — and that was with the Sun shining.

A scramble up a snowy path brought me to the foot of the Great Wall. Its Ming dynasty (1368-1644) bricks snaked for miles over the hills, defying gravity to cling to almost vertical cliff faces. It's a cliché, but the visitor can't help marvelling at this feat of engineering and how many lives it cost.

I am there to enjoy the solitude. This section of the Great Wall lies within the boundaries of the Commune. No postcard hawkers leap out to try the hard sell. Not a water seller to be seen. The only sound is the soughing of the wind and the twitter of birds. I am alone to puff and pant up and down the steep slopes, picking my way among the ancient bricks, sometimes tumbled into ragged piles, with a view of the chic hotel on one side and the mountains to Mongolia on the other.

The hotel, or rather my minimalist room in one of the brick-red Cantilever Houses, beckons with thoughts of hot tea and a steaming bath. And I can lie in the bath and still catch a view of the Wall. For dinner, there is a choice of Chinese food and even Peking roast duck, as well as a Western menu with a glass of Beaune Premier Cru served by waitresses eager to please, even if they are still struggling a little to master their English.

Muscles wearied by the Great Wall find respite in a late-night massage in scented oils at the hotel's spa. I sleep deeply and the Great Wall is still there to be admired over my tea in the morning.

As I make the most of a lounge chair on the sprawling balcony, I wonder how it will look in May surrounded by spring blossoms.

A door opens and I step into a lost world

To take a step back in time is no easy feat in bustling Beijing. But in a corner of the Forbidden City, home to generations of imperial dynasties, is a courtyard where the visitor can be alone — or almost.

More than 1.6 million tourists tramp through the halls and throne rooms, theatres and gardens, each year. On any given day, a visitor feels surrounded by a considerable portion of the number, all shouting, hawking and taking snapshots in the palace in which the emperors held court.

But, for a fee, you can escape the madding crowd and enter a lost world. My guide knocks on a pair of dark wooden double doors that swing open and are closed swiftly behind us. The bustle and rush is left behind. In front of me stands an empty courtyard with a brightly painted outdoor theatre in its centre. I am alone. Well, alone except for the tour guides and a gaggle of security staff. I learn that they have been ordered to open these courtyards just for me.

I am standing in the heart of a series of rooms that were home to one of the greatest emperors of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) when he was just a teenager. Emperor Qian Long governed China from 1735 until his abdication in 1796, but in effect ruled until his death in 1799. He moved into the Chonghuagong when he was 17 and spent the first years of married life in the series of three courtyards that compose the Palace of Repeated Glory.

These rooms retain an intimacy that long ago disappeared from the palaces outside. The guide points to two huge, heavily carved chests of boxwood. “These were a wedding present from the emperor's parents and they have been here ever since.” I certainly sense a frisson at being close enough to touch the cupboards in which palace eunuchs would have stored the emperor's robes and quilts.

An ornate gilt clock, a gift from Britain, holds pride of place in the emperor's bedroom. The guide insists that everything here — the raised platform where he slept, the wooden screens from which curtains hang to give the emperor some privacy — is original. “Not the curtains, of course, but everything else is from the Qing dynasty.”

Shelves of gaudy porcelain vases and bright, enamelled trinkets are said to be from the collection of one of the greatest patrons of the arts in Chinese history. The array is somewhat tawdry. I can't help thinking that, given the number of greedy eunuchs and rapacious warlords who have invaded this palace, little remains that was touched by the hands of an emperor.

All too soon my tour in a lonely state is over. The main front door creaks open and a curious Chinese tourist peers in. “This is closed to the public,” the guide says, gesturing to the man to move back. The doors swing shut on insights to an emperor's intimate moments that I will never glimpse again, leaving only memories of a palace life before the public entered the Forbidden City.

Need to know

The Commune by the Great Wall Kempinski Beijing (00800 426 31355, www.kempinski.com) offers an entire house with room for a party of eight or more from about £1,500 a night, including breakfast. A double room costs from £140.
Black Tomato (020-7610 9008, www.blacktomato.co.uk) offers a private guided tour of the Forbidden City, including Chonghuagong and Sufangzhai, Emperor Qian Long's other living quarters, which are otherwise inaccessible to the public, from £600pp.
Reading: Beijing (Time Out Guides, £12,99); The Rough Guide to China (£12,99); Great Wall of China (Bradt Guides, £13.18).

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