City guide · Chongqing
A vertical city of fog, cable cars and cliff-side stilt houses, where the火锅 never stops boiling and the night skyline outshines Hong Kong.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
I only understood what 'mountain city' meant at Hongya Cave. At night it is genuinely beautiful — they say it used to be condemned buildings, and after the government redeveloped it, it became this old-town-like place. Clever, really.
Rabbit's travel diary, 'Chongqing, Starting From That Patch of Cloud'
I took the Yangtze cable car, and inside the cabin the mountain city unrolled slowly beneath my feet like a scroll. A lot of film crews have shot here, including 'Crazy Stone' — it feels very local, very special.
Taizi Zhaoming, 'Five Days in Chongqing, Having a Great Time'
Chongqing does not sit on the land so much as climb it. The Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet at the tip of a peninsula, and the city has built itself up the slopes in layers — roads stacked above roads, monorails threading through apartment blocks, and buildings whose ground floor is the eighth floor of the street behind them. A flat map is useless here. You navigate by altitude, by which riverside you are on, and by which of the many bridges you can see.
It is called the 'Fog City' because the humidity trapped between the mountains hangs in the air, softening the skyline into something almost cinematic, and the 'Furnace' because summer regularly pushes past 40°C and the whole city moves indoors into air conditioning. Neither nickname is an exaggeration. What surprises first-time visitors is the greenery — the hillsides are thick with ficus and camphor trees, and old buildings wear vines like coats.
Then night falls and it becomes the 'Little Hong Kong', a name the locals use without irony. Every ridge lights up, neon reflects off both rivers, the cable car sways across the water, and the stilt houses at Hongya Cave glow gold against the cliff. Many travellers rate this view above Shanghai's Bund or Victoria Harbour. You will not argue.
Chongqing
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
Chongqing is stacked on ridges where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet, so a flat map is useless — you will take an elevator down to a street, cross a bridge and find yourself on the 12th floor of somewhere else. The light rail runs along the riverbank past tilted apartment blocks, and on a foggy day the whole city looks like a scene from a film. Book a private Chongqing tour if you want someone else to handle the staircases and one-way streets.
Every evening the whole street smells of simmering chili and Sichuan peppercorn. The real thing is a nine-grid pot of beef tallow, served with a dipping dish of sesame oil, oyster sauce and raw garlic — no sesame paste, ever. Budget about CNY 60 per person at a serious hotpot house, and order the tripe, blood curd and luncheon meat like a local.
Locals say you have not been to Chongqing until you have seen it after dark, and they are right. The ridge-top viewing platform at Nanshan Yikeshu (CNY 20 entry) gives you the classic panorama of stacked neon, lit bridges and river reflections; the alternative is a boat on the river itself.
Ciqikou is the only preserved old town inside the urban core, a Ming and Qing lane network of teahouses and snack stalls on the Jialing River. Sit for an afternoon with one cup of tea and a storyteller, or push further out to Dazu for rock carvings that rank alongside Dunhuang and Longmen.
Chongqing is the least expensive of China's four municipalities: street snacks under CNY 10, a hostel bed from CNY 28–39, buses from CNY 1 and taxis from CNY 8 for the first 3 km. People talk loud and straight, help without being asked, and will argue with you about which hotpot shop is best.
Itinerary
The essential Chongqing in one compact loop — skyline, river, old town and the best night view in China. Everything here sits on metro lines 1, 2, 3 and 6, so you rarely need a taxi.
Start at Jiefangbei, the city's commercial heart and the best people-watching spot in town, then walk ten minutes to Hongyadong.
Stops: JiefangbeiHongyadongChaotianmen
Morning bus to Ciqikou, the only intact old town in the urban core, then head south to Nanshan for the panorama after dark.
Stops: Ciqikou Ancient TownNanshan Scenic AreaYikeshu Viewing Platform
Ride the Yangtze cableway across the water, then spend the afternoon on Ba Yi Road learning the city's wartime history.
Stops: Yangtze River CablewayThree Gorges MuseumEling Park
For travellers who want the wartime capital story and the single best piece of Buddhist rock art in southwest China, with a hotpot finish.
Bus 210 from Shapingba drops you at Baigongguan; the cemetery, Baigongguan and Zhazidong are clustered on the same hillside and all free to enter.
Stops: Geleshan Martyrs' CemeteryBaigongguanZhazidong
Take a 90-minute bus from Caiyuanba bus station (about CNY 50) to Dazu, then a local bus or CNY 30 taxi up to Baodingshan.
Stops: Dazu Rock CarvingsBaodingshan
Come back into the city, buy a bag of Chen Mahua twisted dough at Ciqikou, then eat your final nine-grid hotpot near Jiaochangkou.
Stops: Ciqikou Ancient TownJiaochangkouHongyadong
Sights
Night skyline icon
An 11-storey stilt-house complex wedged into the cliff face above the Jialing River, built in the Bayu diaojiaolou style — except here the stilts grow out of cracks in the rock and the windows open onto sheer drops. By day it looks like a period film set; after dark the whole thing glows neon and you understand why people call Chongqing 'little Hong Kong'. The top-floor viewing terrace sits level with the street above and the river below at once, which is the single best place to feel how vertical this city is.
Tip Floor 4 is a snack street that rivals the famous Haochi Street, and the bars and riverside cafes on the upper levels are where locals go to sit and let the river breeze do the work. Many of the souvenir shops are cheap but won't issue fapiao — ask before you buy if you need a receipt.
City centre & people-watching
The full name is the People's Liberation Monument, and it's the only monument in China built to mark victory in the War of Resistance against Japan. Today it's less a solemn obelisk than the beating heart of Chongqing's shopping and nightlife — the crossroads where Minquan, Minzu and Zourong roads meet, ringed by towers and department stores. It's also, by local consensus and more than one national survey, the best spot in the country for watching beautiful women walk past.
Tip Come at dusk when the office crowd pours out and the neon comes on — that's the real Jiefangbei.
Two rivers, one view
One of the seventeen original Ming-era city gates, sitting exactly where the Jialing meets the Yangtze. The name comes from the Southern Song, when imperial edicts arrived by boat through this gate — 'facing heaven'. Stand on the plaza and you get all three banks at once, the yellow Yangtze and the green Jialing refusing to mix for a long stretch downstream. At night locals sit on the steps along the water watching the lights, and the whole place feels improbably grand.
Tip The old wharf area doubles as a huge wholesale market — haggle hard and you can come away with a lot for very little.
Old streets & teahouses
The only well-preserved ancient town inside the main urban area, laid out along the 'one river, two streams, three hills, four streets' pattern that earned it the title of Bayu's number one old town. Stone-flagged lanes, crowded shops, and above all teahouses — sit in one for an afternoon with a cup of tea and a storyteller and the modern city simply stops existing. It's 14 km west of downtown on the Jialing River bank.
Tip Chen Mahua twisted dough is the local speciality, but every second shop claims the name. Only one has the certificates and the trophy and the queue that snakes down the street — the one with the biggest crowd is the real one. Bring your own water, because almost everything sold here is spicy.
The night view
A ridge of dozens of peaks on the south bank of the Yangtze, from Tongluo Gorge down to Jinzhugou, cool and green and effectively the city's oxygen bar. The Yikeshu viewing garden is the single best vantage point for the Chongqing night panorama — layer upon layer of lit-up towers stacked up the hillside, rivers reflecting the colour back. In spring the cherry blossoms turn the whole mountain into a pink blur.
Tip Bring a tripod — on a clear summer night the shot of ten thousand lights is worth the climb. Note that the mountainside name appears in Chinese as 老君洞 (Laojun Cave) on signage.
UNESCO day trip
Tang-dynasty and early-Song cliff carvings, mostly Buddhist, and by common consent the last great masterpiece of Chinese grotto art — 'north Dunhuang, south Dazu'. The scale is enormous and the figures are densely packed; as the old description goes, every image recorded in the Buddhist canon appears here somewhere. The Baodingshan cluster is the most concentrated and the most rewarding.
Tip Hire a guide, or hover near a tour group and listen in — every carving has a story and wandering without one is a completely different, much poorer experience. On the way in, stop for Youting crucian carp at a farmhouse restaurant.
Food
The reason you came. A furiously boiling red broth of chilies, Sichuan pepper and aromatics, a dozen plates of blood curd, sliced meat, seafood, tripe and cabbage around it, and a dipping bowl of sesame oil, oyster sauce and mashed garlic. Real Chongqing hotpot has no sesame paste — that's a northern habit. Order yuanyang (half red, half white) if you can't take the heat.
Duck blood cut into batons, stir-fried with duck breast, pork tripe, pork heart and ham, then finished with beef tallow. Numbing, spicy, fragrant, fresh and scalding all at once, with a glossy red broth. One of the three Ciqikou classics.
Sweet potato and pea starch noodles, slippery and chewy, in a sour-and-hot broth with a handful of coriander. Cheap, everywhere, and eaten standing or perched on a stool by the roadside.
Chongqing's signature 'jianghu' dish: freshwater fish poached in a bath of bullet chilies and Sichuan pepper, with bean sprouts and coriander thrown in before serving. Spicy without being harsh, numbing without bitterness — one bowl and you're ruined for the mild version forever.
As famous as hotpot and eaten for breakfast. Springy noodles, a deeply savoury dressing, 10 yuan a bowl. Good stalls have no seats left by mid-morning, so people eat standing at the kerb.
Free-range local chicken cooked in Nanshan spring water, usually served three ways — braised chicken, stir-fried offal, and blood curd soup. Head to the dedicated Quanshui Chicken street on the mountain.
Where to eat
Hotpot · five minutes from Jiefangbei
Probably the best-known hotpot house in the city and still reliable. Clean, fairly priced, and the smell of roasting chili hits you from half a block away. Ask for the nine-grid pot if you want the real thing, or the divided pot if you don't. Expect a wait at dinner — put your name down and go for a walk.
Sichuan · the 'father of boiled fish'
The kitchen kills the fish after you order, which is why the slices come out pearly white and still trembling. The classic shuǐzhǔyú is heavy on chili and Sichuan pepper; if anyone in your group is heat-shy, the tomato fish broth is the move. Service is brisk and the room is comfortable rather than fancy.
Nanshan · the busiest shop on the chicken street
The sign outside says 'walk all of Nanshan Road and Laoyao is still number one', and the crowds agree. Chicken with real bite, a heavier, more numbing seasoning than most, and outdoor tables where you eat looking up at the hill. Reserve or arrive early on weekends.
Street food · Bayi Road Good Food Street
There is never not a queue here. Everyone in the line is holding the same bowl of springy sweet-potato noodles with a generous scoop of minced pork, sour and hot in exactly the right proportion. It costs about CNY 6, and eating it while walking down the street is the local ritual.
Sleep
Best location for river views
Right on the Yangtze bank beside Chaotianmen wharf, ten minutes from Jiefangbei, with the Three Gorges Museum and Hongya Cave nearby and buses, light rail and ferries all close. The owner designed it himself; the walls are built from old bricks salvaged from demolished factories, every room has its own theme, and there's a mixed-style LOFT bar, a film area, laundry and five shared bathrooms.
Inside Ciqikou old town
Chongqing's first international youth hostel, tucked inside the thousand-year-old town. A clean bed plus books, wine, films and travellers from everywhere. Semi-self-service, with a big common room and a riverside terrace, decorated in a warm old-fashioned style.
Cheapest, close to Jiefangbei
A long-established hostel near Jiefangbei and a short hop from Shibati. Wooden tables and chairs, walls covered in travellers' graffiti, genuinely friendly staff, and metro, light rail and buses all within walking distance.
Mid-range with a view
In the Jiefangbei CBD, 20 storeys up with Bayu views over the yellow Yangtze and green Jialing. A short walk to Luohan Temple, a location used in the film Crazy Stone. Tidy, stylish rooms at a fair price.
Stay inside the landmark
A four-star hotel built into the Hongya Cave scenic area itself — lifts descend from the lobby down through the complex, with a snack street and craft street below. River-view rooms look straight onto the Jialing at night.
Top end, dead centre
A five-star landmark in the middle of the Jiefangbei pedestrian area, with shopping, dining and entertainment on the doorstep. Lavish public areas, warm rooms, first-class service.
Getting around
Chongqing has three civil airports, but almost everyone arrives at Jiangbei International, 19 km northeast of the city in Lianglu Town, Yubei District.
Four stations, though only two handle most passengers: Chongqing Station (Caiyuanba) in Yuzhong and Chongqing North (Longtousi) in Yubei. South and West stations are mostly pass-through.
Tickets can be booked two days ahead online without registering, and collected half an hour before departure with the ID you booked under. Main stations: Caiyuanba, Nanping, Longtousi, Shapingba, North Station, Chenjiaping and the Sigongli interchange hub.
Chongqing's signature transport. Since 2005 only the Yichang–Chongqing route remains, threading through small riverside towns along the way. Remaining local crossings include Chaotianmen–Jiangbei, Chaotianmen–Yemiaoxi, Ciqikou–Guihuayuan and Chaotianmen–Changshou.
Once the main way to move between hillside neighbourhoods, now a sightseeing experience unique in China and a location for Crazy Stone and Zhou Yu's Train. The Jialing cableway closed in 2011; only the Yangtze one remains.
Chongqing has almost no bicycles — the hills killed them — so buses are the backbone. Standard buses start at 1 yuan, air-conditioned at 2 yuan, mostly running 05:30–22:00. Taxis are cheap: yellow Tianyu cabs start at 8 yuan for 3 km then 1.8 yuan per km; white Mondeos start at 7 yuan then 2.4 yuan per km, with a 20% night surcharge.
Shopping
The single most useful souvenir in the city. Brands like Qin Ma, Little Swan and Dezhuang are everywhere; a pack costs CNY 7–12, and a couple of packs turn your own kitchen into a Chongqing hotpot night. Buy it at any supermarket rather than a scenic-area shop.
The fried-twist pastry that everyone queues for at Ciqikou. Look for the shop with the longest line — that's the one with the certificates and trophies, run by Chen Jianping. Supermarket versions are Chen Changyin brand. A bag runs CNY 10–18.
A century-old Chongqing product made from a local vegetable that's air-dried, salted, pressed in wooden vats and sealed in jars. Crunchy, salty, faintly sweet — about CNY 1 a packet, which makes it the cheapest edible souvenir you'll find anywhere.
Sliced so thin it's translucent — literally thin enough to cast a shadow, which is how it got its name. Spicy, dry-fragrant, cured; about CNY 18 per jin. Half snack, half edible handicraft.
A proper local craft with a real workshop tradition behind it: carefully chosen materials, fine workmanship, dozens of patterns, light in the hand and folds open with a flick. It survives the flight home, which is more than most souvenirs manage.
Five main retail districts: Jiefangbei (Yuzhong, the oldest and busiest, nicknamed the 'First Street of the West'), Jiangbei's Guanyinqiao, Yangjiaping in Jiulongpo, Nanping in Nan'an, and Shapingba. Chaotianmen's wholesale market is the place to bargain hard — Jiefangbei is where you pay full price and watch the crowds instead.
Practical
| Summer heat | Chongqing regularly hits 43°C and is one of China's three 'furnace' cities. Carry heatstroke medicine; if you use air conditioning, set it to 26°C and air the room daily rather than hiding indoors all day. |
|---|---|
| Humidity | It's damp enough that washing often won't dry overnight — bring extra light clothing. Activated charcoal sachets in your bag help. |
| Spice tolerance | The local diet is built on numbing heat. Bring cooling herbal medicine if you're not used to it, and start with yuanyang hotpot rather than the full red pot. |
| Hills | Expect a lot of up-and-down walking; good shoes matter more here than in most Chinese cities. After rain the temperature swings hard between day and night. |
| Altitude | Some outlying areas sit high enough to matter — don't sprint uphill, eat plenty of vegetables and fruit. |
| Safety | Chongqing is generally very safe with visible patrols, and locals are famously direct and helpful. Still, watch your wallet and phone in crowds and don't fall for 'bargains' offered by strangers. |
| Emergency numbers | Tourism complaints 023-63866315; Municipal Public Security Bureau 023-67625965. |
| Hospitals | Southwest Hospital, 30 Gaotanyan Main Street, Shapingba, 023-68754000; Xinqiao Hospital, 183 Xinqiao Main Street, Shapingba, 023-68755000; Daping Hospital, 10 Changjiang Branch Road, Yuzhong, 023-68811229. |
Where to eat
Most famous hotpot
Five minutes' walk from Jiefangbei and arguably the best-known hotpot house in the city. Clean, well-priced, and you can smell it from down the street. Order the nine-grid for full heat, or yuanyang if you need mercy. Expect a wait at peak times.
The original water-boiled fish
Billed as the father of Chinese shuizhuyu. Fish are killed to order, the slices come out pearly and tender, and the seasoning is properly heavy. If you can't handle heat, their tomato fish soup is excellent.
Nanshan institution
'Walk the whole of Nanshan Road and Laoyao is still number one.' The busiest shop on the Quanshui Chicken strip, with chewy chicken, a heavy numbing-spicy profile and outdoor tables looking into the hillside green.
Street-food legend
There is always a queue. Almost everyone walking down Haochi Street is carrying a bowl of their suanlafen, generous with minced pork, chewy noodles, and a sour-hot balance that is exactly right.
Old-school, late night
A scruffy local institution that only exists in Chongqing, and locals love it. Authentic flavour, long queues, open until 2 am — ideal if you're hunting food at midnight.
Modern, convenient
Loft-style, minimalist, open kitchen, both Chinese and Western menus, popular with younger diners and often running afternoon tea deals. Handy when you're shopping in the Jiefangbei core.
Background
Chongqing sits in the northern subtropics on the inland edge of the Sichuan Basin, with mountains along its north and southeast rim. The climate is mild and wet, averaging around 18°C, and the meeting of the Yangtze and Jialing traps moisture that the surrounding hills won't let escape — hence the name 'Fog Capital'. The same damp air is why local skin is famously good, and why chilies and Sichuan pepper, which locals believe drive out dampness, are in everything. The written record here goes back three thousand years; in 583 AD Emperor Wen of Sui set up Yu Prefecture, which is where the city's short name Yu comes from, and in 1189 Emperor Guangzong established Chongqing Prefecture — 'double celebration' — which gave the city its name. In 1997 it became one of China's five directly administered municipalities, the youngest of them.
During the War of Resistance, Chongqing served as the provisional capital and the political and cultural centre of the country, and much of its present layout dates from that period. That history gives it a weight few Chinese cities can match. Today it's also a city of faiths — Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism all coexist here among more than a million believers, with Luohan Temple, Ciyun Temple and Huayan Temple among the nationally important Buddhist sites, and Dazu carrying a thousand years of Buddhist carving. And it's a city of many peoples: Han, Tujia and Miao dominate, alongside another 47 ethnic groups, whose festivals — like the Tujia New Year in Xiushan, celebrated a day or more before Han New Year — have become a tourism draw in their own right. Bring a map if you like, but remember: a map is flat and Chongqing is not.
Further reading
Ning Hao, 2006
The black comedy that made Chongqing's cable car, its steep lanes and its whole vertical logic famous. Watch it before you arrive and half the city will feel familiar — the Yangtze Cable Car and Luohan Temple both appear.
Sun Zhou, 2002
Gong Li shuttling between two men and two cities, with the cable car and the river crossings as recurring images. A slower, more atmospheric look at the same landscape.
Luo Guangbin and Yang Yiyan
The novel that made Geleshan, Baigongguan and Zhazidong household names in China. Read it before the red-tourism circuit and those damp cells stop being just rooms.
The questions visitors ask us most about Chongqing, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Spring (March to May) and winter (December to February) are the most comfortable. Summer is brutal — temperatures top 40°C and the humidity makes it worse — while autumn brings frequent night rain, the 'Ba Mountain night rain' the poets wrote about. Winter rarely freezes and is a good season for the city's hot springs.
No — it is the cheapest of China's four municipalities. Street snacks are under CNY 10, a hostel bed starts around CNY 28–39, a mid-range hotel room runs CNY 130–300, buses start at CNY 1 and taxis at CNY 8. Budget travellers can eat and move around comfortably on CNY 150 a day.
Very spicy, and yes. Order a yuanyang (mandarin duck) hotpot, which splits the pot into a fiery red half and a mild white broth, and ask for 'wei la' (slightly spicy) elsewhere. Note that authentic Chongqing hotpot dipping sauce is only sesame oil, oyster sauce and garlic — there is no sesame paste, so do not ask for it.
Use the metro first — Lines 1, 2, 3 and 6 cover the main sights and interchange inside the stations. Line 2 in particular runs along the river and through the hills, so the ride itself is a sightseeing trip. Buses cost CNY 1–2, taxis CNY 8 for the first 3 km, and the Yangtze River Cableway crosses the water for CNY 5.
Yes, if you have a spare day. Dazu is about 90 minutes from Chongqing by bus, and the Baodingshan carvings alone are worth the trip — the ticket is CNY 180 in high season, CNY 130 in low season. Hire a guide or join a tour group, because every carving tells a story you will otherwise walk straight past.
Yes — it ranks high on national safety lists and there are visible police patrols across the city. The real hazards are heatstroke in summer, slippery rain-soaked steps, and the sheer amount of walking. Watch your bags in crowded markets and at Jiefangbei, and wear grippy shoes.
Plan this trip
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Guangxi
City guide · 12 tours
One autonomous region, a dozen landscapes — limestone peaks and rice terraces in the north, a Vietnam border and a warm gulf coast in the south.
Huizhou
City guide · 12 tours
A free West Lake, a Taoist mountain and 200 km of white-sand coast — the Pearl River Delta's most underrated weekend.
Beidaihe
City guide · 12 tours
Northern China's classic beach escape — one sunrise headland, 10 km of calm swimming water, and a bird flyway overhead twice a year.
Shanhaiguan
City guide · 12 tours
The town where the Great Wall stops being a rumour of mountains and walks into the Bohai Sea.
Baiyangdian
City guide · 12 tours
The biggest freshwater lake on the North China Plain — and almost none of it can be reached except by boat.
Qinhuangdao
City guide · 12 tours
126 km of Bohai coast in one municipality — a working port, two famous resorts, and the only desert dunes that meet this sea.
Yesanpo
City guide · 12 tours
Gorge country where the Taihang and Yan ranges collide — 52.5 km of canyon walls, a cave that spits fish, and a river to fall off.
Zhuhai
City guide · 12 tours
The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.
Wuyi Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.
Jiuzhaigou
City guide · 12 tours
108 mineral-blue lakes in one 55 km valley — the place that ruins water everywhere else for you.
Mount Siguniang
City guide · 12 tours
Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.
Hailuogou
City guide · 12 tours
A glacier that comes down to 2,850 m, hot springs in the forest, and Gongga Shan filling the sky above both.
Daocheng Yading
City guide · 12 tours
Three 6,000 m sacred peaks, glacial lakes at 4,600 m and twenty hours of road — the hardest, highest payoff in Sichuan.
Shunan Bamboo Sea
City guide · 12 tours
Seventy thousand mu of bamboo over twenty-eight hills, a red sandstone corridor under a closed green roof, and a banquet made entirely of bamboo.
Dujiangyan
City guide · 12 tours
Not a monument but a machine: three pieces of engineering with no dam, still doing their job after 2,270 years.
Qingcheng Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
The mountain where Daoism was organised, and the one Chengdu escapes to when the basin turns into an oven.
Qingdao
City guide · 12 tours
Red-tiled roofs, cold beer and a granite mountain that walks straight into the sea — the easiest good time on the Yellow Sea.
Mount Tai
City guide · 12 tours
1,545 metres, 6,290 stone steps and three thousand years of emperors — the one mountain in China that is also a document.
Jinan
City guide · 12 tours
A provincial capital with 700 springs under the pavement — people still queue at the spouts to fill their kettles.
Weihai
City guide · 12 tours
1,000 km of clean coast, a free bathing beach, the island where the Beiyang Fleet died — and thousands of wild swans every winter.
Qufu
City guide · 12 tours
One family, two thousand years of steles, and a ¥150 pass that covers the lot — the easiest serious day trip in Shandong.
Penglai
City guide · 12 tours
China's immortals' coast — a Song-dynasty naval harbour you can walk for free, a mythology nobody ever found, and the ferry to 32 islands.
Changdao
City guide · 12 tours
32 islands, one causeway, a ¥150 land pass, tens of thousands of gulls and nowhere you can drive — the place where everything happens by boat.
Nanjing
City guide · 12 tours
Capital of six dynasties, capital of the Republic, and the city that eats more duck than anywhere else on earth.
Suzhou
City guide · 12 tours
Two thousand five hundred years of canals, sixty surviving gardens, and a city that shuts its gates at half past five.
Zhouzhuang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine hundred years, fourteen bridges, one ticket — and a town that only makes sense before eight in the morning.
Tongli
City guide · 12 tours
Fifteen canals, seven islets, forty-nine bridges — and a town that still gets up at dawn because it lives here.
Wuxi
City guide · 12 tours
Taihu on one side, a Grand Buddha on the next hill, and ribs sweet enough to argue about — the most underrated city on the Yangtze delta.
Yangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A city built by salt merchants who had more money than restraint — gardens, a narrow lake, and the best breakfast in China.
Zhenjiang
City guide · 12 tours
Three hills, one ferry landing, and an unreasonable share of Chinese literature — the Yangtze city people drive past.
Changzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,500-year-old canal city that built a dinosaur park and refuses to apologise for it.
Wuzhen
City guide · 12 tours
A town that is two towns: the older, quieter East Zone and the lit-up West Zone you sleep inside.
Xitang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine canals, 122 lanes, one long roofed corridor — and a town that still works for a living.
Hangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A lake in the middle of a city, a tea village in the hills, and two thousand years of getting the mood right.
Xixi Wetland
City guide · 12 tours
Ten square kilometres of marsh inside Hangzhou, and the only way into half of it is a boat.
Ningbo
City guide · 12 tours
A 7,000-year-old port with Asia's oldest private library, a free waterfront 20 years older than Shanghai's, and the best seafood before the islands.
Mount Putuo
City guide · 12 tours
A Buddhist island with no cars, three great temples and a ¥10 lunch that is the point of the place.
Qiandao Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A thousand islands that did not exist sixty years ago, and the cleanest big-lake water in China.
Shaoxing
City guide · 12 tours
Two and a half thousand years of water-town China, and Lu Xun's house is free.
Zhoushan
City guide · 12 tours
1,390 islands, one road bridge in, and a harbour that lands more fish than almost anywhere on earth.
Hengdian
City guide · 12 tours
A backlot the size of a town, where the palaces are copies and the film crews are real.
Yandang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano that weathering turned into scenery — 500-odd sights of peak, cave and waterfall across eight scenic areas.
Zhejiang
City guide · 12 tours
One small, mountainous, absurdly rich province that holds a lake, two canal towns, a Buddhist island and a dead volcano.
Hong Kong Outlying Islands
City guide · 12 tours
Two hundred-odd islands, half an hour of ferry from the financial district, and not a car on three of them.
Hong Kong Shopping
City guide · 12 tours
A duty-free port where the tag starts lower, two citywide sale seasons knock a third off, and every mall sits on an MTR exit.
Macao
City guide · 12 tours
Four hundred years of Portuguese streets, a fake Venice under a painted sky, and the best egg tart in Asia.
Urumqi
City guide · 12 tours
The city furthest from the sea, with a snow range on its doorstep and dinner starting at nine.
Hong Kong SAR, China
City guide · 11 tours
A harbour skyline you already know by heart, dim sum trolleys at dawn, and 260 islands an hour from the neon.
Taiwan, China
City guide · 11 tours
Night-market alleys, high-mountain railways, and a coastline that changes character every hundred kilometres.
Qinghai Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A 4,400 sq km inland sea at 3,200 m, ringed by rapeseed gold, prayer flags and the best cycling road in China.
Mount Emei
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,099-metre Buddhist summit you can reach by cable car before lunch — and a mountain full of monkeys that will absolutely rob you.
Beijing
City guide · 11 tours
Six centuries of imperial red walls, a Great Wall you can climb before lunch, and the best roast duck on earth.
Taipei
City guide · 11 tours
A 24-hour bookstore, a night market that never stops sizzling, and a city that apologises when you bump into it.
North Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Alpine lakes the colour of poured enamel, a village of log cabins under birch trees, and the last tear the Atlantic ever sheds.
Lanzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A city split in half by the Yellow River, where beef noodles are a breakfast ritual and the Silk Road still runs through the streets.
Mount Hua
City guide · 11 tours
Five granite peaks, one plank road bolted to a cliff face, and a sunrise that justifies the 2am start.
Dunhuang
City guide · 11 tours
A desert oasis where Buddhist cave art survived a thousand years and a crescent lake refused to dry up.
Gannan
City guide · 11 tours
433 kilometres of the Yellow River's first bend, a 3.5 km prayer-wheel circuit, and Tibetan grasslands almost nobody has commercialised yet.
Sichuan–Tibet Highway
City guide · 11 tours
2,142 kilometres of cliff-edge switchbacks, four of China's most beautiful mountains, and a road the Tibetans walk on their knees.
Kangding
City guide · 11 tours
The town that gave Asia its most famous love song, a 7,556m sacred peak on its doorstep, and the last real Tibetan town before the road climbs to Lhasa.
Lhasa
City guide · 12 tours
A city of prayer wheels and butter lamps at 3,700 metres, where the sun shines 3,000 hours a year and the world's highest palace watches over it all.
Nyingchi
City guide · 11 tours
Tibet's greenest corner — peach blossom valleys, a 7,782 m peak that hides from almost everyone, and the world's deepest canyon.
Namtso
City guide · 11 tours
A 1,920-square-kilometre sheet of impossible blue at 4,718 metres, ringed by snow peaks and prayer flags.
Qiandongnan
City guide · 11 tours
A thousand Miao households stacked up a mountainside, drum towers and wind-rain bridges in Dong villages, and a 600-year-old Ming garrison town on the road to Guiyang.
Libo
City guide · 11 tours
Emerald rivers threading through karst peaks, a 600-metre forest growing out of a riverbed, and China's largest wild plum grove.
Guiyang
City guide · 11 tours
China's summer capital at 1,100 metres, where the nights run on sour fish soup, street-side barbecue and mahjong that never quite stops.
Zhenyuan
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,000-year-old river town where the Wuyang River carves an S through the mountains and every lane hides a story.
Huangguoshu
City guide · 11 tours
Asia's biggest waterfall, and the only one on earth you can walk behind, above and around — plus 600-year-old Ming dynasty villages a short drive away.
Harbin
City guide · 11 tours
Minus 30 degrees, a frozen river you can walk across, and a cathedral built by Russians who never went home.
Yunnan
City guide · 11 tours
Snow mountains, tropical rainforest, twenty-five minorities and a plate of rice noodles — all in one province.
Shanghai
City guide · 11 tours
A 1920s waterfront of colonial banks facing a science-fiction skyline, soup dumplings you eat with a straw, and 20 million people moving like clockwork.
Zhangjiajie
City guide · 11 tours
Three thousand sandstone pillars straight out of Avatar, a glass skywalk bolted to a cliff, and a cable car that leaves from downtown.
Guangzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,200-year-old trading port where dim sum is a religion, colonial islands sit beside 600-metre towers, and the food never stops.
Guilin
City guide · 11 tours
Karst peaks rising straight out of a green river, rice terraces carved into mountainsides, and the best bowl of noodles you'll eat in China.
Shenzhen
City guide · 11 tours
A fishing village that became a megacity in forty years — and it still has 500-year-old banyans, empty beaches and dim sum worth the border crossing.
Chengdu
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,000-year-old city where the schedule is tea, mahjong and hotpot — and the pandas are just the opening act.
Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Snow peaks, grassland, desert and oasis — one-sixth of China, and the longest road you will ever ride.
Xi'an
City guide · 14 tours
Thirteen dynasties of emperors, a terracotta army buried for 2,200 years, and a walled city you can cycle in 100 minutes.
Qinghai
City guide · 11 tours
China's high-altitude blue heart: a salt lake you can walk on, a 3,200-metre sea, and yak butter tea at the roof of the world.
Tibet
City guide · 11 tours
A plateau the size of Western Europe where the sky starts at your feet, prayer flags carry the wind, and the roads run past 8,000-metre peaks.
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