China

China's most cosmopolitan city dazzles with the futuristic Pudong skyline, historic Bund waterfront, and French Concession tree-lined streets. A global financial hub that blends old Shanghai charm with cutting-edge modernity, incredible food, and world-class art scenes.

China's capital is a treasure trove of imperial history — the Forbidden City, Great Wall, and Temple of Heaven are just the beginning. Ancient hutong neighborhoods, world-class Peking duck, and a rapidly modernizing cityscape make Beijing endlessly fascinating.

The capital of Cantonese cuisine and culture, Guangzhou is a megacity where dim sum reigns supreme. The Pearl River night cruise, Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, and bustling Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street showcase the city's blend of tradition and modernity.

The "Vegas of Asia" is much more than casinos — Macau's UNESCO-listed historic center showcases centuries of Portuguese-Chinese fusion in its pastel churches, temples, egg tarts, and cobblestone streets. Just a ferry ride from Hong Kong.

A dazzling vertical city where bamboo-scaffolded skyscrapers meet ancient temples, dim sum parlors, and one of the world's most spectacular harbors. East meets West at every turn.

The otherworldly sandstone pillar forests that inspired Avatar's Pandora. Glass skywalks, the world's longest cable car, and mist-shrouded peaks create a surreal landscape.

Tibet's capital at 3,656m — the Potala Palace (UNESCO 1994, former winter residence of the Dalai Lama), Jokhang Temple (holiest in Tibetan Buddhism), Barkhor Street pilgrim circuit, and the monks' debates at Sera Monastery (weekday afternoons). Required visa reality: foreigners need both a Chinese visa AND a Tibet Travel Permit via a registered operator; solo travel is not permitted. Access via Chengdu (CTU) flight or the Qinghai-Tibet Railway — one of the highest railways on Earth with oxygen piped into cabins. Best April–October.

Capital of Sichuan Province and the panda capital of the world — the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base houses over 200 pandas and is best visited at 7:30am during feeding. Sichuan cuisine (málà numbing-spice from Sichuan peppercorn) is China's most internationally influential regional cooking. Sichuan Opera's biàn liǎn face-changing tradition is a UNESCO intangible heritage art. The Leshan Giant Buddha at 71 meters tall is the world's largest stone Buddha.

China's ancient capital at the eastern end of the Silk Road — the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang (8,000+ soldiers, discovered 1974) is humanity's greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. The Ming Dynasty City Walls (1370) form a 13.7km complete circuit you can cycle atop. Xi'an's Muslim Quarter has maintained a 1,300-year-old Hui community whose street food — roujiamo (Chinese burger), biangbiang noodles — is among China's best.

The karst landscape on China's 20-yuan note — limestone peaks rising from emerald paddies along the Li River between Guilin and Yangshuo town. The four-hour bamboo-raft drift between Yangdi and Xingping is the most photographed river journey in China. Moon Hill (a hollowed-out limestone arch) and the Yulong River's quieter rafts are the village base; the Impression Sanjie Liu (a Zhang Yimou-directed open-air light show with 600 performers on the river) plays nightly. Bicycle the Ten-Mile Gallery for the village rice fields. Subtropical — best March–May and September–November.

The southern terminus of the Grand Canal and the city Marco Polo called the most beautiful in the world — West Lake (UNESCO 2011) is the cultural template every classical Chinese garden has imitated for a thousand years. The Su Causeway, Broken Bridge, Leifeng Pagoda, and the Tang-era Lingyin Temple anchor the lake. Longjing Village's tea terraces produce China's most prized green tea (Dragon Well, harvested before Qingming). Hangzhou is also Alibaba's home and the country's high-tech showpiece — the bullet train from Shanghai is just 45 minutes.

The karst-peak landscape that appears on China's 20-yuan banknote — the most photographed natural scenery in China, draped in mist along the Li River and the smaller Yulong tributary. The 4-5 hour Li River cruise from Guilin downstream to Yangshuo (83 km) passes the iconic Xianggong Hill viewpoint and the Ming-dynasty fishing village of Xingping; National Geographic ranked it among the world's top ten watery wonders. Add the 1,300-year-old cormorant fishing tradition, the 700-year-old Longji rice terraces (golden in September, mirror-flooded in May), the labyrinthine Reed Flute Cave, the Zhuang and Yao minority cultures, and the relaxed backpacker scene of Yangshuo's West Street, and Guilin is the most photogenic destination in southern China.

The 'Venice of the East' is just 30 minutes from Shanghai by high-speed train — a 2,500-year-old canal city that Marco Polo called 'the great and noble city' in 1276. Nine of Suzhou's classical gardens are inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list — the densest concentration anywhere on the planet, including the headlining Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, Lion Grove, and Master of the Nets. The Pingjiang Road historic quarter preserves 800 years of Song-dynasty street planning along its parallel canal; the I.M. Pei-designed Suzhou Museum is an architectural pilgrimage. Add the historic capital of Chinese silk and Su xiu embroidery, the Tang-dynasty Hanshan Temple, and easy day trips to Tongli and Zhouzhuang water towns, and Suzhou is the deepest cultural day trip from Shanghai — and worth at least one overnight to see the gardens at dawn.

An 800-year-old UNESCO-listed Naxi town at 2,400 m elevation in northwestern Yunnan — a labyrinth of cobblestone lanes, stone bridges over rushing canals, and traditional wooden courtyard houses with the 5,596 m Jade Dragon Snow Mountain rising directly above. Lijiang is the cultural heart of the Naxi minority who developed Dongba, the only living pictographic writing system in the world. Sunrise over the grey-tile rooftops from Lion Hill before the tour buses arrive is the moment that justifies the trip — the Old Town is undeniably beautiful, though the daytime crush of crowds is real. Pair with Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shuhe, and the new high-speed rail to Shangri-La for a full Yunnan circuit.

Anhui province's UNESCO granite range — 1,860m peaks rising from the yunhai sea-of-clouds layer that gave centuries of Chinese poets and ink painters their template for what a mountain should look like. Two cable cars (Yungu on the east, Taiping on the west) lift visitors past the four classic features (oddly-shaped pines, grotesque rocks, sea of clouds, hot springs) onto a plateau of summit hotels at Beihai, Xihai and Baiyun. Most visitors stay one or two nights for sunrise. Five hours from Shanghai by G-train.

The only fully intact Ming and Qing Han Chinese walled city in the country — a UNESCO-listed grid of grey-brick courtyards in Shanxi province ringed by 6km of 14th-century walls you can climb for the panorama. Rishengchang on South Street was the world's first draft bank when it opened in 1823, sending silver bills as far as Mongolia. The Confucian Temple, the County Government complex, and Shuanglin and Zhenguo temples nearby fill out the historical depth. Four hours from Beijing by G-train via Taiyuan, with siheyuan courtyard guesthouses inside the walls.

Heilongjiang's northeastern capital, built up by Russian engineers around the Chinese Eastern Railway at the turn of the 20th century — the result is a Mandarin city with onion-domed cathedrals, Art Nouveau facades, and a Russian-bakery street culture you find nowhere else in China. Saint Sophia Cathedral anchors Daoli district, Central Avenue (Zhongyang Dajie) runs 1.4km of restored European stone storefronts to the Songhua River, and every January the Ice and Snow World turns the riverbank into 600,000 square metres of illuminated ice sculptures up to 50m tall. Pack a parka — January averages around -19C.