City guide · Guangdong
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.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
Guangzhou is a big city that never makes you feel small — it is prosperous but hugely tolerant, modern but still traditional, a bit chaotic but full of life.
Leisure Guangzhou 4-Day Trip
The food is everywhere — big restaurants, tiny stalls, even the dodgy-looking places. Every third step there's another one, and I never once ate something bad. So many flavours, none of them repeated, and cheap.
Three Meals a Day, Forever a Lingnan Native
Guangzhou wakes up early and eats first. By 7am the teahouses of Liwan are full of retirees nursing a pot of pu'er, ordering shrimp dumplings two at a time, reading the paper and arguing about nothing in particular. This is not a show put on for tourists — it is simply how the city has started its day for a century, and sliding into a chair beside them is the best introduction you will get.
Step out of the teahouse and the city splits in two. To the west, Liwan's arcaded qilou streets and the leafy, car-free lanes of Shamian Island still carry the bones of the old trading port, with 150-odd European buildings left over from the foreign concessions. To the east, Zhujiang New Town throws up glass towers and the 600-metre Canton Tower, its waist pinched like a slingshot, glowing pink and green across the river after dark.
What ties it together is the table. Cantonese cooking is the most exported Chinese cuisine on earth, and eating it here — fresh, cheap, unhurried — resets your idea of what it should taste like. You will spend more of your budget on food than on tickets, and you will not regret a yuan of it.
Guangzhou
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
Guangzhou is where yum cha was born, and locals still treat it as the slowest hour of the day — a pot of pu'er, two or three bamboo baskets, no rush. Order har gow, siu mai, chicken feet and a custard bun, and let the trolley come to you. Budget around CNY 60–100 per person at a proper old teahouse like Taotao Ju on Dishipu Road.
This former colonial concession holds more than 150 European-style structures across 42 standout examples — neo-baroque, mock-Gothic, veranda and neoclassical — plus 150-odd old banyan trees. It is completely free and open all day, five minutes on foot from Huangsha Station on Metro Line 1. Come at dusk when the wedding photographers thin out.
The riverfront lights up around 19:00 and the Canton Tower changes colour on the hour. Night cruises run from Tianzi Pier (Yanjiang Road, near Beijing South Road) and tickets step up in tiers from CNY 48 to 148. Ignore the touts working the pier approach — buy at the official window only.
Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street is the commercial face of Xiguan, but the real draw is the qi lou arcades — continuous covered colonnades built from the early 20th century so shoppers could walk rain-free in subtropical weather. Duck into any side lane off Dishipu Road and the crowds vanish. A Xiguan old house visit costs CNY 10.
Rice-noodle rolls, double-skin milk pudding, roast meats, white-cut chicken, turtle jelly, congee with pork liver and kidney — Guangzhou's food is cheap, varied and remarkably consistent. Silver Ji Rice Noodle Rolls on Shangjiu Road and Nanxin Dessert on Dishipu Road are the two addresses to memorise. Budget CNY 1,000–1,500 for three days including food, transport and a mid-range bed.
Itineraries
A low-effort loop that hits the historic core, the colonial island and the modern skyline, all linked by Metro Lines 1 and 2. Book your Canton Tower ticket online the day before — the 433 m observation deck (CNY 150) sells out on weekends.
Start at Yuexiu Park (free, 06:00–21:00), the city's biggest green space, and find the Five Rams statue that gave Guangzhou its nickname, plus the 28 m Zhenhai Tower. Ride Metro Line 2 to Beijing Road for lunch and shopping, then walk Shamian Island in the afternoon light. Finish with a night cruise from Tianzi Pier and a stop at Flower City Square and Haixinsha.
Stops: Yuexiu ParkBeijing Road Pedestrian StreetShamian IslandPearl River night cruiseFlower City SquareHaixinsha
Give the whole day to Chimelong in Panyu — either Chimelong Paradise (CNY 200, 09:30–18:00, nearly 70 rides including the vertical and ten-loop coasters) or the Safari World (CNY 200, 09:00–18:30, with a drive-through zone at CNY 200 per car, CNY 280 on holidays). If the weather turns cool, swap in the Chimelong Circus instead. The Chimelong Hotel on Yingbin Road starts around CNY 798 and puts you next door.
Stops: Chimelong ParadiseChimelong Safari WorldChimelong Water ParkChimelong International Circus
Begin at Lizhiwan Creek, the so-called Little Qinhuai, for old Xiguan canal scenery. Wander Longjin West Road and Wenchang South Road, then take afternoon tea at Taotao Ju on Dishipu Road. Spend the last hours in the Shangxiajiu arcades buying preserved sausage and cakes to take home.
Stops: Lizhiwan CreekWenchang TempleShangxiajiu Pedestrian StreetTaotao Ju
For return visitors or anyone who wants the temples, the revolutionary history and the southern coast as well as the classics. Days 1–3 follow the classic loop above; these are days 4 to 6.
Take the Guangfo Metro to the Foshan Ancestral Temple, founded in the Northern Song and the heart of Foshan culture, with a lion dance at 15:00 and a Ip Man Hall inside. Ride back to Xilang for the Guangzhou Wong Tai Sin Temple, which has a mango tree over a century old. Continue by metro to the Chen Clan Academy (CNY 10, 08:30–17:30), the best-preserved and most lavishly decorated ancestral hall in Guangdong. End on Beijing Road.
Stops: Foshan Ancestral TempleGuangzhou Wong Tai Sin TempleChen Clan AcademyBeijing Road
Head to Huangpu for the Whampoa Military Academy (CNY 15, 09:00–17:00, closed Mondays), which trained commanders for both the anti-Japanese war and the civil war. Reach it via Metro Line 8 to Pazhou, bus 262 to Xinzhou Pier, then the ferry. Afterwards cycle the greenway on Bio-Island — flat, empty and best in the hour before sunset.
Stops: Whampoa Military Academy1911 Revolution MuseumGuangzhou International Bio-Island
Lingnan Impression Park (CNY 60, 09:00–17:00) on Xiaoguwei Island recreates Lingnan village life with lanes, ancestral halls and shops across 16.5 hectares. Move on to Haizhu Lake, the city's second-largest artificial lake and its self-styled green heart. Close the trip with one more river cruise.
Stops: Lingnan Impression ParkHaizhu LakePearl River night cruise
Sights
Skyline
China's tallest tower and the fourth tallest in the world, standing 125 m back from the south bank of the Pearl River and facing Haixinsha Island across the water. The E observation deck at 433.2 m is the standard ticket. On top sits the world's highest horizontal Ferris wheel, 450 m up, with 16 crystal capsules that take about 20 minutes per revolution.
Tip Book online a day ahead. Go up about 45 minutes before sunset so you get daylight, golden hour and the light show on one ticket.
Free · Architecture
A sandbank at the fork of the Pearl River that served as the colonial concession, now a car-light island of 150-plus European buildings and more than 150 old trees. Look for the red-brick customs club at Nos. 2–6 Shamian Main Street, the old HSBC building at No. 54 with its domed rooftop pavilion, and the veranda-style block at No. 48. Our Lady of Lourdes chapel at No. 14 is small but mock-Gothic at the entrance.
Tip The White Swan Hotel is here, which is why the island stays quiet and green. Weekday mornings are the calmest.
Heritage · CNY 10
Built as the Chen family's ancestral hall in the late Qing, this is the most complete and most ornately decorated traditional building in Guangdong and a summary of Lingnan architectural craft in one courtyard. The wood, brick, stone and ceramic decoration is the reason to come, along with the folk art collection inside.
Tip Pair it with a walk through the surrounding Liwan lanes — the neighbourhood is as interesting as the building.
Free · City landmark
The largest comprehensive park in Guangzhou, named for the Western Han terrace that Zhao Tuo of Nanyue built on the hill. Zhenhai Tower, also called the Five-Storey Tower, is 28 m of Ming brickwork with a view over the whole city from the top floor. At ground level the Five Rams Sculpture is the city emblem, and the story behind it is where the name Goat City comes from.
Tip Come at 07:00 and you will share the hill with tai chi groups rather than tour flags.
Free · Gothic
Built between 1863 and 1888 — 25 years of work — and known locally as the Stone House because every wall and pillar is granite. It is the grandest Catholic church in the Guangzhou diocese and the twin spires are visible from a long way down Yide Road.
Tip It sits in the middle of the dried-seafood wholesale street, so the approach smells of scallops and shrimp — part of the fun.
Food
The benchmark dish of any dim sum order. A proper har gow has a wrapper thin enough to read a newspaper through, pleated into at least ten folds, and a whole prawn inside that snaps when you bite it. If the skin is thick or gluey, walk out.
Steamed sheets of rice batter rolled around pork, prawns or vegetables, drowned in sweet soy. You'll see them made on a stretched muslin cloth in old shops — the 'cloth-pulled' version is silkier than the machine-made kind. A standard breakfast, about CNY 8–15 a plate.
Char siu, roast goose, crispy-skinned pork belly — hanging in every second shop window by mid-afternoon. The best is carved to order and glazed with a sauce on the sweet side. Buy vacuum-packed lap cheong (cured sausage) at Guangzhou Restaurant or Huangshanghuang to take home.
Set twice so it forms a delicate skin on top, served warm or cold, silky and only lightly sweet. It's the classic Cantonese dessert, and it's supposed to be soothing rather than heavy — a bowl is about CNY 12–20.
Cantonese soup is a medicine cabinet in a bowl: three hours on the stove with pork bones, dried scallop, lotus root or coconut. Order the whole-coconut version with silky fowl and you'll understand why locals treat soup as the point of the meal, not a side.
Where to eat
Dim sum institution
A century-old teahouse on Shangxiajiu that still runs on the old rhythm — a pot of pu'er, two or three baskets, nobody rushing you out. Go before 9am for a seat without a wait; the queue by 11am is real. Order the durian pastry, har gow, chicken feet and custard buns, and note the trolley service is a show in itself.
Cheung fun specialist
The Shangxiajiu branch of a chain that has been pulling rice sheets by hand for decades. The rolls are slick, thin and generous with filling, and the place is loud and always full — share a table without complaint, that's the deal.
Dessert, old-school
A Liwan dessert shop where the double-skin milk custard and ginger-milk curd are measured against every other version in the city. The ginger hit is strong and the milk is clean and fragrant; the beef tripe in broth is a savoury counterpoint worth ordering. Tables are shared, so expect to sit with strangers.
Soup specialist
A tiny, long-running shop where the whole coconut double-boiled with silky fowl is the order everyone comes for — the coconut sweetens and deepens the broth, and one bowl resets an entire day of eating. Portions are big; go hungry or split one.
Where to stay
Mid-range, central
A long-established four-star on Huanshi Dong Road, which is where Guangzhou's biggest cluster of high-end hotels sits — five minutes' walk from the Friendship Store and the bar street, and easy for Line 5. Rooms are comfortable rather than flashy, and the location is the reason to book: you're in the middle of the business district with the metro and dim sum both close by.
Budget, good transport
A clean, no-frills chain hotel in Tianhe with a metro station (Line 5 Keyun Lu) right outside and reliably fast Wi-Fi — the value pick of this list. Rooms are small and plain, but you're paying for location and a decent bed, not atmosphere.
Resort, families
Booked as part of the Chimelong complex in Panyu, flanked by the safari park, the water park and the circus, with the only hotel atrium in China where white tigers and flamingos live. Stay here and you walk to the parks instead of commuting an hour each way — the single biggest reason families pick it.
Getting around
Baiyun International Airport sits about 28 km north of the city centre in Baiyun and Huadu districts, and it is one of China's three main hub airports. Terminal A handles international flights plus all domestic carriers except China Southern; Terminal B is China Southern and its group airlines. Arrivals exit straight from the arrivals hall — only metro and car-park access send you down to level B1. Airport enquiries: 020-36066999, gbiac.net.
Guangzhou runs three passenger stations and they are not interchangeable. Guangzhou South takes the high-speed through-trains that barely stop en route; Guangzhou East serves the Guangzhou–Shenzhen line and trains toward Beijing–Kowloon and Fujian; the old Guangzhou Station keeps the slower, cheaper, many-stop services, which is still your best bet for smaller cities.
Guangdong's coach network is dense and cheap, and buses also run in from Guangxi, Hunan and Fujian. On the water, Guangzhou has several passenger ports — Suigang, Zhoutouzui, Zengcheng Xintang, Panyu Lianhuashan and Nansha — with services to Hong Kong and to cities around the delta.
The metro already covers Lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, the Guangfo line and the APM shuttle, and it hits nearly every sight you will want — fares run 2 to 9 yuan. Buses start around 06:00 and run to 22:00 with night routes after that. Taxis are metered at 10 yuan flagfall, then 2.6 yuan per km after 2.3 km, and the cars come in many colours because each colour is a different company. Buy a Yangcheng Pass (80 yuan — 30 deposit, 50 loaded) at convenience stores and banks; it works on buses, taxis, metro and ferries, and gets you 5% off metro single fares.
Shopping
Cantonese lap cheong — sweet, fatty, wind-dried sausage — is the classic edible souvenir. Guangzhou Restaurant's Qiuzhifeng line and Huangshanghuang are the two names locals trust, and every supermarket has a dedicated cured-meat counter, so you do not need to hunt down a specialty shop.
Wife cakes, husband cakes, chicken仔 biscuits, almond cakes and blind-man cakes are sold at the old houses — Taotaoju, Lianxianglou, Guangzhou Restaurant — or at bakery chains like Donghaitang, Ronghua and Saint Anna. Lianxianglou's lotus-paste mooncakes are the benchmark; its pineapple cakes and custard buns travel well too.
Dried oysters, scallops, squid and longan flesh make easy gifts, with fish maw, shark's fin, sea cucumber and abalone at the top end. Supermarkets stock the basics, but for volume and quality go to the Yide Road dried-seafood market — and go with someone who can spot the fakes.
Hualinsi Jade Street specialises in jade, rosewood and blackwood furniture; Wende Road is the culture street for antiques, old books and birds-and-flowers; Haizhu has the electrical and fabric markets. If you want textiles or electronics, buy there rather than in a mall.
Practical
Guangzhou rewards slow travel: pick two or three districts a day rather than chasing a checklist across the whole city, and leave room for a long morning at a teahouse — that is the actual attraction. Book your Guangdong itinerary through our Guangzhou tour packages and we will handle the metro cards, teahouse reservations and the Pearl River cruise so you only have to decide what to eat next.
| Money | Budget roughly CNY 1,000–1,500 for three days. Most sights are free or under CNY 20, but hotel rooms run high and the food is where you will actually spend. |
|---|---|
| Best months | October and November — mild, dry, breezy, and good weather often stretches into mid-November. April–June is the rainy season, August–September is hot and typhoon-prone, and January–February brings the Spring Festival flower markets. |
| Closed days | Huangpu Military Academy is shut Mondays (9:00–17:00 otherwise). Chen Clan Ancestral Hall runs 8:30–17:30, Nanyue King Museum 9:00–17:30, both daily. |
| Cash and cards | Keep small notes for buses and metro machines. The Yangcheng Pass solves most of it, and it also pays at some supermarkets, fast-food counters and all 7-Eleven stores. |
| Safety | Watch your bag in crowds, especially around the railway stations. Do not linger at the stations, keep your phone out of sight on dark streets and in the urban villages, and skip the touts at the Tianzi Pier who try to sell you a river cruise — buy at the official window instead. |
| Health | Guangzhou food is rich and the portions generous; pace yourself over the first two days rather than eating five meals on day one. Emergency hospital: Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, 106 Zhongshan 2nd Rd, 020-83827812. |
| Useful numbers | Tourist complaints 020-81078277; tourist information 020-86666666; Guangzhou Tourism Bureau, 13–15/F Dongfang Finance Building, 140 Dongfeng West Rd, 020-81078225. Plan routes on zuoche.com. |
Background
Legend says Guangzhou was founded by five immortals who rode down on five-coloured rams, gave the starving locals rice and vanished, leaving the animals turned to stone. That is why the city is nicknamed Yangcheng, the City of Rams, and why the Five Rams Statue in Yuexiu Park is the city's emblem rather than some abstract sculpture. The first settlers here go back to 214 BC, when Qin emperor's armies marched south and took the South China Sea coast.
Guangzhou sits on the north bank of the Pearl River, and that position made it China's most important southern port for most of recorded history. Under the Tang dynasty (618-907) it was the departure point of the Maritime Silk Road; the Portuguese traded here in the 16th century and the British in the 17th. Even when China shut its doors to the outside world, the Canton Fair kept Guangzhou as the one place where Westerners could still do business. That trading instinct is why the city feels more outward-facing than most of inland China.
Cantonese, the local dialect, is not a variation of Mandarin but a separate language, and you will hear it in Hong Kong and Macau too. Yueju, or Cantonese opera, switched from stage Mandarin to Cantonese in the late Qing so ordinary people could follow the revolutionary plots; it was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009. The other local obsession is soup: a Cantonese family judges its cook by the slow-simmered laohuo liangtang, and if you are invited to one, the whole meal is built around it.
The arcaded qilou buildings that line Dishipu Road, Shangxiajiu, Zhongshan Road and Yide Road were built from the early 20th century, with the ground floor open to the street under a covered walkway and apartments above. They are the practical answer to a subtropical climate that delivers both blazing sun and sudden rain, and they are the single most distinctive piece of Guangzhou architecture you will walk under without noticing.
Further reading
Xie Wenjun, 2010, 42 min, Cantonese
A short documentary shot as a Beijing Film Academy graduation project, produced by Tian Zhuangzhuang. It follows the loss of Guangzhou's old arcades, tea houses and Dongshan villas to redevelopment, and it is the honest, unsentimental counterpart to every glossy travel promo about the city. Watch it on the plane over and you will look at the new towers differently.
Tian Fei and Li Guo
Part history, part walking guide, arranged by neighbourhood. It covers the imperial examination academy cluster at Yuexiu, the old clan halls on Shenjing island, the colonial streets of Shamian, the granite bulk of the Sacred Heart Cathedral and the Republican-era lanes off Xianlie Road. The best single volume to carry if you want the story behind the buildings rather than just the photo.
Dongshan Shaoye
A Cantonese pop track that stitches together a children's rhyme, Cantonese opera, rap and R&B, and became a viral hit among Guangzhou listeners within weeks of release. It is the easiest way to hear what modern Cantonese sounds like when it is not trying to be Mandarin pop. Pair it with He Jie's Guangzhou Love, an Asian Games theme-song finalist, for something more stadium-sized.
The questions visitors ask us most about Guangzhou, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
October to November — mild, dry and breezy, with clear skies that last until mid-November. Spring (March–April) is warm but wet and humid; summer (June–September) is hot, sticky and typhoon-prone; January–February is cool but brings the Spring Festival flower markets, when the 'Flower City' lives up to its name.
No — it is one of the cheaper big Chinese cities for sightseeing, since most attractions are free or under CNY 20. Budget around CNY 1,000–1,500 for three days including mid-range accommodation (roughly CNY 200 a night), metro fares (CNY 2–9 a ride) and a lot of eating. Where you will overspend is on food, happily.
The metro is the answer for almost everything — lines 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8 cover the main sights, fares run CNY 2–9, and trains start around 6am and run past 10pm. Buy a Yang Cheng Tong card (CNY 80, with CNY 30 deposit) for a 5% discount on metro rides, or just use single tickets. Taxis start at CNY 10 for the first 2.3km, then CNY 2.6/km.
Start with dim sum — har gow, siu mai, rice noodle rolls and char siu bao — then work through roast meats (Cantonese barbecue), white-cut chicken, double-skin milk pudding, and a bowl of slow-boiled soup. For a single meal, order a rice noodle roll (changfen) for breakfast, a plate of roast goose for lunch, and double-skin milk for dessert.
If you are in town for the Canton Fair (April and October), yes — but book hotels weeks ahead, because prices double and the Pazhou area fills up. Outside fair dates the same hotels are far cheaper, and the city is much easier to enjoy. Many travellers pair a fair visit with a day on Shamian Island and a dim sum breakfast.
Easily. Guangzhou South Station runs high-speed trains to Shenzhen in about 30 minutes and to Hong Kong West Kowloon in under an hour, and there are direct ferries from Nansha and Lianhuashan to Hong Kong. Many travellers use Guangzhou as a base and day-trip out, or slot it into a longer Pearl River Delta route.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
Nine days eating across four regional cuisines, with cooking classes, market walks and a Chengdu hotpot night that goes late.
From US$1,780/per person
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Guangzhou
Morning tea at a hall that opens before 07:00, then the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, Shamian Island and the medicine shops of the old town.
From US$99/per person
View tour
Guangzhou
The city from 450 metres, a Cantonese dinner on the south bank, then an hour on the water while the riverfront lights come up.
From US$109/per person
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Guangzhou
A Qing-dynasty garden in Shunde, a village of silk and fish ponds, and the Cantonese country cooking that Guangdong's chefs grew up on.
From US$95/per person
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Shanhaiguan
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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.
Chongqing
City guide · 12 tours
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.
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.
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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