City guide · Guizhou
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.
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 came to Guiyang expecting a transit city and stayed three nights. The night market on Hequn Road was still going at 3am, someone was playing cards under a tree at noon, and nobody once asked me to hurry up. It's the least stressed city I've been to in China.
Reader note, 'A Summer in Guiyang'
The monkeys in Qianling Park are not shy. One of them unzipped my backpack while I was taking a photo. Take the warning signs seriously — they know exactly what a plastic bag sounds like.
Reader note, 'Guizhou in Eight Days'
Guiyang sits on a plateau at around 1,100 metres, on the watershed between the Yangtze and Pearl river basins, and the altitude does something to the summer. July averages 23.7°C. Days above 35°C average 0.3 per year over the last five years. You will see almost nobody carrying a fan, and hotel rooms here often have no air conditioning at all, because they genuinely don't need it. Locals will tell you the city's own slogan — 'Shuangshuang de Guiyang', Refreshing Guiyang — and they mean it literally.
The city itself is compact and green, folded around hills and a river. Qianling Park is inside the urban area, a forested mountain with a Buddhist temple halfway up and free-ranging macaques that have learned exactly which pockets to check. The Nanming River runs through the middle, and Jiaxiu Pavilion — a three-storey Ming tower built on a boulder in the water — is the postcard shot. Everything downtown is a short taxi ride from everything else, though the traffic has a reputation and the taxis have a habit of stopping dead in the fast lane the moment they spot a fare.
Then there's the food, and this is the real reason to stay an extra night. Guizhou cooking is sour and hot in a way that's distinct from Sichuan or Hunan: sour soup made from fermented tomatoes, chillies smoked and pounded into a paste, and a herbal note from local hu辣椒 that you won't find elsewhere. Street food runs until four in the morning. The night markets are where locals actually eat, and the pace of the whole city — tea houses, mahjong tables, unhurried service — is genuinely relaxed rather than performed.
Guiyang
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
Guiyang's own slogan is 'Refreshing Guiyang', and the numbers back it: the annual average is 15.3°C, late July averages just 23.7°C, and in the last five years there were only about 35.8 days a year above 30°C. Locals sleep under thin quilts in midsummer — no air conditioning required.
Qianling Mountain Park sits northwest of downtown, all ancient trees, clear lakes and limestone caves, and it costs 5 yuan. Climb the Nine Bends Path past wild macaques to Hongfu Temple, the Buddhist heart of Guizhou. Get there by bus and get off at the Qianlingshan Park stop.
Qingyan Ancient Town, 29 km south of the city, was founded in 1378 and is one of Guizhou's four great old towns. Slate lanes, carved temples and drum towers, plus the famous braised pig's trotters. Peak-season entry is 34 yuan, off-season 30 yuan, and it never closes.
Guiyang eats late and eats well. Hequn Road, Shaanxi Road, Longjing Lane and Qingyun Road all fire up around 19:00 and keep going until 04:00 the next morning. Qingyun Road alone holds 200 food stalls. Come hungry and pace yourself.
This is the hometown of suan tang yu (sour fish soup), si wa wa vegetable wraps, chang wang noodles and tofu meatballs. Guiyang cooking splits 'numbing' and 'hot' into two separate crafts — which is why no other city's Guizhou food tastes quite like this.
Itinerary
The city's own headline sights, one big karst day, and a Ming town — all reachable on public buses, no car hire needed.
Start early — Guiyang's sights sit on the edges of town and the traffic crawls, so an 8am start buys you an hour of quiet and a cooler climb.
Stops: Qianling Mountain Park (5 yuan)Hongfu TempleJiaxiu Pavilion (4 yuan)Fuyu BridgeHongfeng Lake (40 yuan peak / 30 yuan off-season)
Bus 211 to Tianhe Lake, then bus 210 to Qingyan, then bus 210 back to Huaxi — it looks complicated on paper and is genuinely easy on the ground.
Stops: Tianhe Lake Scenic Area (50 yuan peak / 40 yuan off-season)Wolong Beach calcified waterfallQingyan Ancient Town (34 yuan peak / 30 yuan off-season)Huaxi Park (6 yuan)
A long but worthwhile history day: about 1.5 hours to Xifeng, an hour inside, then another 1.5 hours on to Zunyi, back in Guiyang by evening.
Stops: Xifeng Concentration Camp Memorial (free, closed Mondays)Zunyi Conference SiteRed Army StreetRed Army Martyrs' Cemetery
For travellers who came to Guizhou for the scenery: pack in the province's two heavyweight natural sites and still sleep in Guiyang every night.
The same southern loop, done at a relaxed pace — Huaxi Park is where you want to be late afternoon, when the light comes down the river.
Stops: Tianhe Lake water cave and dry caveQingyan Ancient TownHuaxi ParkHequn Road night market
Both stops are free or near-free, and both are essential to understanding modern Guizhou. Keep an eye on the clock so you're back in the city with time for dinner.
Stops: Xifeng Concentration Camp MemorialZunyi Conference SiteRed Army Martyrs' Cemetery on Red Army Mountain
Leave Guiyang after breakfast; the coach reaches Longgong in about 2.5 hours. Budget 1.5 hours for the boat through the central cave, then move on to Huangguoshu for the afternoon.
Stops: Longgong (Dragon Palace) CaveTianxingqiao Stone ForestHuangguoshu Great WaterfallShuilian CaveDoupotang Waterfall
Sights
City park · 5 yuan
Six scenic zones wrapped around one green mountain: Hongfu Temple, Qianling Lake, Sanling Bay and more. The Nine Bends Path climbs through stands of old trees and past limestone grottoes, and wild macaques patrol the upper stretches — hold your snacks and your phone. It's the single best half-day in the city, and it costs less than a coffee.
Tip Go before 9am. By mid-morning the path is a slow-moving queue, and the monkeys get bolder as the crowds grow.
Ming tower · 4 yuan
Built on a huge boulder in the Nanming River, first in the Ming dynasty and rebuilt in 1909 in its present form. Three storeys of white stone balustrades and red beams rise about 20 metres above the water; the Fuyu Bridge links it to both banks. Come at dusk, when the tower lights come on and the river turns to lacquer.
Tip Pair it with the surrounding Gongnan Pavilion and Cuiwei Pavilion, then walk the riverbank north for dinner — this is the city's most photogenic hour.
Ming town · 30–34 yuan
Founded in 1378, six centuries of Ming and Qing architecture packed into slate alleys and stone gateways, with temples, pavilions and drum towers layered up the hillside. It's one of Guizhou's four great ancient towns and one of China's most atmospheric small towns. The streets stay open around the clock.
Tip Eat the braised pig's trotters — locals call them zhuangyuan ti, 'top scholar's trotters'. Try the rose candy too, about 5 yuan per jin, made here since 1874.
Karst · 40–50 yuan
Waterfalls, springs, deep pools, odd rocks, caverns and a natural stone bridge, all in one compact valley in Huaxi District. The geology is textbook: over twenty calcified dams strung along the riverbed link more than twenty caves into a maze of open river, hidden passages, cave-in-cave and lake-in-cave. Open 08:00–17:30.
Tip Take bus 211 out, then bus 210 onward to Qingyan for lunch — the two sights stack neatly into one very full day.
Riverside park · 6 yuan
17 km southwest of downtown, Huaxi Park folds real mountains, real water, farmland scenery and minority culture into one place — the locals call it the 'Pearl of the Plateau'. The river runs through cliff and under bridge, breaking into small rapids, cascades and pools, with pavilions, footbridges and guesthouses scattered along both banks. Open 08:00–17:30, buses every 20 minutes.
Tip Climb little Lin Hill for the panoramic view over the whole valley — it's barely 100 metres high and takes fifteen minutes.
Food
The Miao signature and Guiyang's number-one dish. Fish goes into a naturally soured tomato broth, bright and clean rather than vinegar-sharp, with pickled chili and local herbs. Order it at Laokaili and expect a queue — roughly CNY 70 per person.
A palm-sized handmade wheat wrapper; you pile in bean sprouts, cucumber, carrot, a few fried soybeans and a spoon of smoky Guizhou chili dip, then fold the whole thing like a swaddled baby and eat it in one bite. Cheap, messy, addictive.
Guiyang's most famous breakfast: egg noodles, pork intestine, cubes of congealed blood, bean sprouts and crisp pork crackling in a red chili broth. Rich but not brutal — a bowl runs CNY 8–15.
Only a Guizhou cook gets the red beans to break down into that sandy, velvety base. Add 'ruan shao' (soft-fried pork) and it turns thick and deeply savoury. Budget around CNY 60 per person.
The braised pig's trotter of Qingyan, renamed for a Qing-dynasty scholar who ate them at the north gate night market. Red-brown, gelatinous, not greasy. Follow it with Qingyan rose candy — CNY 5 a jin, made from rose petals, sesame and walnut.
Where to eat
Sour fish soup
The benchmark for suantang yu, and busy enough that you should show up before 6pm or wait. The fish is killed to order and the soup comes to a rolling boil at the table. Core Guiyang eating, and an easy first-night choice.
Old-school courtyard restaurant
A genuine Guiyang institution hidden behind a modest facade — a two-storey courtyard where you eat flame-grilled beef and braised yellow croaker sitting on long wooden benches. Locals come for nostalgia as much as the food.
Breakfast noodle shop
Ask anyone in Guiyang where to eat Huaxi beef rice noodles and they'll point here. The broth is clean and beefy, the chili oil is sharp, and the noodles themselves beat the touristy lookalikes that borrow the Huaxi name. Go for breakfast.
Night-market grill
A Qingyun Road night-market staple: pick your fish, it's killed and grilled over coals, then buried under chili, peanuts and herbs. The fish is more deeply seasoned than most grilled fish you'll find elsewhere in Guizhou.
Where to stay
Five-star, central
The most convenient high-end base in the city: right in the busiest commercial stretch of downtown, 15 minutes to the airport, and walking distance to the night markets. Worth it if you want Guiyang as a comfortable hub between Huangguoshu and Zunyi.
Mid-range, best-located budget option
Hard to beat for position: a few hundred metres from Penshuichi, the snack street, Parkson and the craft shops, seven minutes by car to the airport bus and train station. Rooms are plain but clean and the price is honest.
Hostel
A proper traveller hostel near Jiaxiu Pavilion, the ethnic culture palace, Wenchang Pavilion, the snack street and Qianling Park. Dorms from CNY 40 — the cheapest bed in the city, and the easiest place to find people to split a car to Qingyan or Huangguoshu.
Getting around
Guiyang Longdongbao International Airport sits 12 km from the city centre — about 15 minutes by car on the airport expressway, and 20 minutes by shuttle. It runs 81 routes: 60 domestic departures, 15 through-flights, 2 regional and 4 international, covering nearly 50 Chinese cities plus Hong Kong, Taiwan and Bangkok, flown by 20 airlines.
Guiyang is the transport hub for the whole province and rail is the main way in and out. Lines connect to Chongqing, Chengdu, Liuzhou in Guangxi, Kunming and Zhuzhou, with direct services to Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Zhanjiang and Beihai. Inside Guizhou, tourist trains run Guiyang–Liupanshui (for Huangguoshu Falls) and Guiyang–Yuping (for Fanjing Mountain), with ordinary services to Tongzi, Kaili and Duyun.
Since 1 May 2010 the city's five scattered bus stations — including the tourist coach station and the Huangjin Road departure point — moved to the temporary Jinyang terminal, roughly three years before a permanent West Station opens near Jiangjunshan.
Taxis start at CNY 8 plus a CNY 1 fuel surcharge, covering the first 3 km; after that it is CNY 1.60/km by day (06:30–22:00) and CNY 1.92/km at night (22:00–06:30). Hailing one is genuinely hard and the same trip can cost CNY 9 or CNY 20 depending on the jam. Buses are exact-fare, one yuan in the city and two yuan on suburban routes out to Jinyang and Huaxi, with the fare posted on the window; minibuses cover 30-plus city routes at CNY 1.20 (CNY 1.40 after 22:00) and are the cheapest, easiest way to move around.
Shopping
Guizhou is the home of batik, and Guiyang's artisans have pushed the traditional wax-resist technique into modern painting, producing framed decorative panels and cloth with strong Miao and Bouyei motifs. The city gathers the best batik work from all over the province — buy at Qiancuixing or the museum shop rather than at a scenic-spot stall.
Pingmian chillies from Baiyi township outside the city are long, bright and aromatic; Dangwu chillies from Huaxi are hotter and more fragrant still. Brands to look for are Laoganma, Fenglazi and Lajiaowang. Jilajiao — chilli chicken paste, essentially a chunky Laoganma — is sold all along the old street at Qingyan and keeps for three months or more.
Rose sugar started in 1874: rose petals, brown sugar, glutinous rice, wheat, sesame and walnut pressed into bars and blocks, CNY 5 per jin, crisp and perfumed. There is also a rose petal jam to stir into honey water. At the gate of Qingyan old town farmers sell fist-sized golden pumpkins engraved with 'fortune' or 'joy' when tiny, so the character grows with the fruit — CNY 2 each and cheerfully tacky on a kitchen shelf.
Guizhou tea is distinctive; Duyun Maojian, Zunyi Maofeng and Guiyang's own Yang'ai Maofeng are the famous ones, and Zhaosi tea from Zhaosi village in Qiantao township is a pan-fired green with even leaves and a pale yellow-green, fresh brew. The province grows more than 4,000 medicinal plants and is one of China's four great herb regions — eucommia and gastrodia are the ones to buy. Raw-wood art, made from vines and stems with the bark left on, is rustic and oddly modern at once.
Practical
Prices and phone numbers here come from locally published listings and drift over time — treat them as a planning baseline, confirm the big-ticket items (rafting, hot springs, high-season entry) before you set out, and keep small change for buses, which take exact fare only. If you would rather hand the logistics to someone who knows which villages are worth the drive, our Guiyang private tour desk builds itineraries around Qingyan, Huaxi and the falls. For a wider loop through the province, see our Guizhou tour packages, and if you are still deciding how to split your days, the Guiyang travel guide itinerary section above lays out two- and three-day routes in detail.
| Money and costs | Budget roughly CNY 800 per person for two days. Sights are cheap: Qianling Park CNY 5, Jiaxiu Pavilion CNY 4, Qingyan old town CNY 34 high season / CNY 30 low, Tianhetan CNY 50 / 40, Hongfeng Lake CNY 40 / 30, Nanjiang Grand Canyon rafting CNY 155, Xifeng hot springs CNY 48, Yangming Cave CNY 6, Xiangzhigou CNY 11. The forest park is free. |
|---|---|
| Opening hours | Tianhetan 08:00–17:30; Hongfeng Lake 08:00–18:00 high season, 08:30–17:30 low; Nanjiang Grand Canyon 09:00–17:00; Xifeng hot springs 09:30–22:00; Yangming Cave and Xiangzhigou 08:00–18:00; the forest park 08:00–17:00. Qingyan old town never closes. The Xifeng concentration camp memorial is free but shut on Mondays. |
| Best time to go | March to October is the golden season. The annual average is 15.3°C, with an extreme high of 35.1°C and low of -7.3°C. Late July averages 24°C and early January 4.6°C — no brutal summers, no severe winters, no dry air, no sandstorms. Locals boast that while Suzhou and Hangzhou may be paradise, for climate Guiyang beats them both. |
| Rain and layers | The plateau weather is unstable and wet — 'no three days without rain' is the local saying. Carry an umbrella every day and pack a windproof jacket; the temperature drops sharply after rain, and the scenic areas run cooler than the city. On high mountains the saying is that one rain turns the season to winter. |
| Food and chilli tolerance | Guiyang cooking is numbing-and-hot, close to Sichuan and Hunan but distinct: ma comes from a blend of spices, la is extracted from chillies. If you cannot handle either, say so when you order. The good news is that food is everywhere, at any hour — the big night-market streets trade through the night, so missing mealtime is not a problem. |
| Night markets | Hequn Road is the self-styled number one night-market street, running 19:00 to 04:00 the next morning (bus to Qianling West Road, then 5 minutes on foot). Shaanxi Road also runs 19:00–04:00. Qingyun Road, with 200 stalls, took over from the old Xingguan Road market and is twice its size. Longjing Lane holds decades-old names like Cheng Changwang. |
| Safety and etiquette | Guiyang is generally safe, but watch your bag in crowds and around the railway station, and do not stay out too late. Be aware that some roads are dangerous — steep slopes, dense forest, cliff paths, fast water and deep caves — so travel with others rather than alone. Guizhou has many ethnic minority communities; respect local customs and festival etiquette. |
| Emergencies and useful numbers | Tourist complaints 0851-12301 or 6515376; city public security 0851-7588872; guide service centre 0851-6508357 or 6510947; medical assistance 96999 or 96996; Guiyang CDC 0851-5667543; city emergency office 0851-7987000. Hospitals: the Affiliated Hospital of Guiyang Medical College, 28 Guiyi Street, 0851-6855119, and Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital, 83 Zhongshan East Road, 0851-5922979. |
Background
Guiyang sits in the middle of the Qiandong plateau, on the divide between the Yangtze and Pearl River systems, with the Miao Ling ridge running through the municipal area. The general tilt is high in the southwest and low in the northeast: the highest point, Miaowoding in Shuitian township, is 1,659 m, while the lowest, where the Nanming River leaves the city, is 880 m — a 100–200 m relative drop across the settled parts. That layered landform gives you the city's signature look: karst peaks and dish-shaped hollows, funnel caves, underground streams and the flat little basins at Huaxi, Mengguan, Wudang and Jinhua where people actually built. The Nanming River runs southwest to northeast straight through the urban core and drains about 70% of the municipal area, which is why bridges, not boulevards, define downtown.
Guiyang has a subtropical humid monsoon climate with an annual average of 15.3°C. Summer is the point: the July average is only 23.7°C, daytime highs usually sit between 25 and 28°C, and over the last five years the city has averaged just 35.8 days above 30°C and 0.3 days above 35°C. UV only reaches level 4 for a short window around noon. Summer rain is heavy — around 500 mm — and about 70% of the city's annual rainfall falls at night, so mornings are often clear. Even on a 30°C day the evenings are cool enough that locals sleep under a thin quilt, and most homes have no air conditioning. The coldest stretch, the first ten days of January, averages 4.6°C. Bring a rain shell and a light windproof layer year-round; up in the hills, locals say one rainstorm turns the season to winter.
Going further
Directed by Lu Chuan, starring Jiang Wen
The film that put Qingyan on the map for Chinese audiences. Jiang Wen plays Ma Shan, a small-town policeman in a southwest border town who wakes up after his sister's wedding to find his service pistol gone — and three bullets still unaccounted for. Lu Chuan shot it in Qingyan Ancient Town, 30 km south of Guiyang on the road toward Huishui, and the film's grey stone lanes, walled courtyards and rain-slick flagstones are the town as you will actually find it. Watch it before you go and the walk from the north gate to the old exam hall will feel like a set you have already been on.
Huang Yao, compiled by the Guiyang Municipal Archives
Huang Yao drew this sixty-odd years ago, and it reads as much as a poem as a comic. Horses lead the way through the four whitewashed city walls, the bells ring long and loud, and the landmarks — Jiaxiu Lou, the old Bronze Statue Terrace — appear as they were before the ring roads. It is the best antidote to the assumption that Guiyang is a city with no past; the archive edition reproduces the original drawings and is the standard souvenir for people who want the city's older face.
A Youduo
A Youduo was born in southeast Guizhou, in what people there call 'a world of song and an ocean of dance', and was known as the little Miao singer while still a child. The record is the easiest entry point to the Miao and Bouyei vocal styles you will hear at the April 8 and June 6 festivals — buy it before you fly and the lusheng-and-reed sound of a Huaxi festival will already be familiar when you arrive. Pair it with a live performance if your dates land on a festival day.
The questions visitors ask us most about Guiyang, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
March to October, with July and August the sweet spot — the city averages 23.7°C in late July while the rest of China swelters. Summer is also the wettest period, around 500 mm of rain, and most of it falls at night, so mornings are usually clear. Winter is mild but grey, averaging 4.6°C in early January, and there's no snow to speak of.
Worth two full days of your own time, not just a transfer. The city has a genuine park inside it, a 600-year-old stone town 29 km south, and one of the best street-food scenes in southwest China. Most travellers use it as a base for Huangguoshu Falls and Zunyi, which is fine — but skipping the city itself is a mistake.
Longdongbao International Airport is 12 km from the centre, about 15 minutes by road. The airport shuttle runs to the CAAC ticket office near the Zunyi Road/Qingyun Road junction via Hebin Park and the stadium, costs CNY 10 and takes about 20 minutes. A metered taxi is roughly CNY 30, though drivers have a long-standing habit of quoting a flat CNY 50 — insist on the meter. Public buses 46, 244, 234 and 216 also serve the airport.
Spicier than you probably expect, and sour as well as hot. Guizhou cooking uses fermented tomato sour soup and smoked chilli paste rather than the numbing Sichuan peppercorn heat. Changwang mian, sour fish soup and lazi ji are all genuinely hot. If you can't take it, say 'bu yao la' when ordering and expect them to dial it down only slightly — the heat is structural, not a garnish.
Two days for the city: one for Qianling Park and Jiaxiu Pavilion, one for Qingyan Ancient Town and Huaxi. Add a third day for Huangguoshu Falls (2.5 hours by bus) and a fourth if you want Zunyi and the Xifeng concentration camp memorial. Anything less and you're just passing through the airport.
Generally safe, with the usual caveats. Petty theft happens in crowded places, especially around the railway station, so keep your phone and wallet out of back pockets. The bigger practical annoyance is taxis — drivers may refuse a fare if you name a destination before getting in, so state your destination only once you're seated. Unlicensed cabs are everywhere and cheap but not worth the risk.
Plan this trip
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Nanning
City guide · 12 tours
Guangxi's green capital is a gateway to Detian Falls, Beihai and Vietnam — and a genuinely excellent food city if you let it slow you down.
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.
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.
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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