Ten days in the sweltering heat of China’s summer does wonders to the post-GCSE victim. Exam-stressed daughter Miranda and I joined a group organised by Explore to cover thousands of miles plus Hong Kong, the terracotta soldiers, the Great Wall, the Li River gorges, Beijing plus several dozen street markets. Suddenly there wasn’t the time nor the energy to dwell on the merits of exam answers.

The tour schedule was brilliant (but insane) and made possible by our indefatigable leader, Claire Taylor. Incidentally those who turn up their noses at organised group travel should think again: our 11-strong group added a dimension of pleasure, rather as plum sauce does for Peking duck. And, as Miranda put it: ‘I liked getting to know people I might not have met without going on this tour. And it was nice for mum to have other old people to talk to’. (Thank you so much, darling).

Her highlights were the markets in Hong Kong and Xian, and the Great Wall at Mutianyu. We arrived early, long before the tourists and traders began cluttering up the Great Wall as we were leaving. Some stretches were so steep we climbed on all fours until we reached a small gateway where the wall beyond had crashed into oblivion down the hillside. As we looked back along the route we’d come, the misty humidity obscured the hills and made the wall look as if it was snaking into thin air.

For me, the highlight was the countryside around Yangshuo on the Li River where farmers and water buffalos tended fields of peanuts, cotton, sesame, aubergine, beans and rice. We visited Mrs Li’s house, s a 65-year-old farmer with a pig, a simple methane plant, a stone mill to make Soya milk and a large picture of Mao Tse Tung on her wall.

Her reverence for Chairman Mao was typical of all the Chinese we met. Hardly surprising given the peace and material advances he achieved for his people. Tracey, one of our three (excellent) Chinese guides, told us that her grandparents’ dream was for a bicycle, watch and radio; her parents’ for a TV and fridge; and her own dream is for an apartment, a washing machine and an opportunity to travel.

Yangshuo was one of the most beautiful places we visited and, despite the outrageous humidity and heat, we cycled through the limestone peaks and gorges that have inspired iconic Chinese paintings over the centuries. We breakfasted beside the River Li where bamboo rafts kitted out with bamboo armchairs took visitors skimming along the river and over rapids. Parts of the area had the air of the hippy trail in India twenty or so years ago. Today’s version features bamboo huts playing Razorlight while their inhabitants try to sell raft rides to mellowed-out chess players along the river bank.

We met a few travellers doing the overland trail from India to Korea and Australia; China is very much part of today’s itinerary. I also came across Gap year students who might once have gone to Venice to learn Italian, and were now coming to China to learn Chinese.

The first couple of days of the tour in Hong Kong were a hazy mix of jet lag and heat shock, but Miranda and I loved the city; Repulse Bay, where the Bhuddist Kwan Yin temple sells coke and other western delights, and Aberdeen where we chugged out into the harbour on a fishing boat.

Hong Kong’s clear blue skies would have been welcome in Beijing, which lurked under a grey hood of pollution. In Tiananmen Square, tall, blonde Miranda became a centre of attention. Some of the Chinese there were on a pilgrimage to Beijing to pay homage to Mao. It was the first time they had travelled outside their villages, let alone seen a blonde westerner like Miranda in the flesh. They jostled round asking to have pictures taken with her while a few creepy old men followed capturing images of her on their mobiles.

It was disarming and alien. The antidote to this alienation appeared miraculously: a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City . We ordered frappacinos and felt faintly ashamed. Boy, they were good. And a relief after some of the food we’d eaten. It wasn’t the content, which included snake and seahorse, so much as the discovery that I prefer English-Chinese food to the hotter, heavier genuine article. Miranda, once a dumpling fan, now reckons she’s dumpling-ed out but she enjoyed cow’s stomach in peanut sauce. Or maybe it just gave her chance to make fellow travellers squirm as she ate the strips of stomach or dangled them in front of the rest of our friendly group.

And it was a friendly group despite a gap of 12 years between Miranda and the next youngest traveller. Ages vary wildly from group to group and the next group that Claire was leading included three teens. The group also included ‘old people’ as Miranda so sweetly interprets her mother’s Youthful Middle Age.

Need to Know

Jane Owen travelled to China with Explore (0870 333 4001), specialists in adventurous small group travel worldwide, on the 11-day 'China Highlights' trip. Prices start from £1,729 per person including return flights with regional connections available, all transportation, nine nights' accommodation (eight nights' hotel and one night sleeper train), some meals and the services of a tour leader and local guides.

Visas for China are best bought via the special company Travcour (020 7223 5295)

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