City guide · Hunan
The South Great Peak: a pilgrimage mountain of 72 summits where the temples run all the way to the top, and the sunrise over the cloud sea is the whole point.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
It rained when we arrived and misted over when we left, but the day we climbed was clear as could be. If sincerity can move the heavens, and the heavens happen to be on good terms with Zhurong, then that day was a gift. Thank you, Hengshan.
Traveller note — 'A Trip to Nanyue Hengshan'
Hengshan is no longer mainly about the poet's lines — it is famous for prayer. Apart from the Grand Temple, the whole mountain up to the summit is temples; every manner of deity and Buddha is there, and you see the devout bowing from the foot of the mountain to the top.
Traveller note — 'Notes on Hengshan'
Mount Heng in Hunan is a mountain you climb with other people, and that is its charm. As the Nanyue, the South Great Peak, it is one of China's Five Great Peaks, and it has been a place of pilgrimage for well over a thousand years. The path up is lined with temples and shrines from the foot to the summit; pilgrims bow their way up in groups, and everyone else comes for the sunrise, the cloud sea and, in winter, the rime ice that turns every pine to white crystal.
It is also called the Longevity Mountain. The theme runs through everything: a vast bronze Ding cast with 10,000 'long life' characters, a Grand Temple whose 72 stone pillars stand for the 72 peaks, and a mountain where Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism have shared the same compound for centuries. The temple at the foot — Nanyue Grand Temple — is the largest of its kind in southern China, a nine-hall complex the size of a small palace, and it is the first thing to see.
Above it all rises Zhurong Peak at 1,290 m, named for the fire god. On a clear day the Xiang River winds away below and the ridges run off in layers of blue. The sunrise from the top is the reason people sleep in mountain lodges and start up in the dark; the rime, from December to early February, is why southerners drive up from Guangdong and Guangxi.
One warning worth repeating: this is Hengshan in Hunan. There is another, entirely separate Hengshan in Shanxi, hundreds of kilometres north. When you buy a ticket or tell a driver, say 'Nanyue Hengshan scenic area' (南岳衡山风景区), not just 'Hengshan' — locally, 'Hengshan' means the county town, not the mountain.
Mount Heng (Hengshan, Hunan)
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
The summit at 1,290 m is where everyone gathers before dawn to watch the sun come up over the cloud sea. It is named for the fire god Zhurong, and the view — peaks running off in layers, the Xiang River below — is the reason to sleep up here.
Southern China's largest temple complex, built in the Tang and expanded to nine halls and 98,500 m². Its east side holds eight Taoist halls and its west side eight Buddhist ones — a rare three-faith mix that is the temple's defining feature.
Built in 1942, the only large cemetery on the mainland for Nationalist soldiers killed fighting the Japanese. Two hundred and seventy-six stone steps rise through pine to the commemorative hall, and the whole place keeps a deliberate silence.
One of the 'Four Wonders of Nanyue': a waterfall 60 m high, best after rain, where the overflow of a cliffside channel hangs like a curtain. The cliffs carry inscriptions from the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing, including 'Number One Spring under Heaven'.
The cradle of Chan (Zen) Buddhism's southern school, where the master Huairang is said to have polished a brick into a mirror to teach a monk. Fuyan Temple, one of the ten great monasteries of Chinese Buddhism, sits on the slope just above it.
A colossal bronze cauldron 9.9 m tall and 56 tonnes, cast with 10,000 'longevity' characters and certified the largest in the world. It stands on Jiahe Peak at the entrance to the mountain, where the theme of longevity that runs through Hengshan begins.
Suggested itineraries
The two-day plan sleeps near the top for the sunrise. The one-day plan gets the highlights in about six hours, but only by leaning on buses and the cable car.
The comfortable classic — the Grand Temple and the Martyr Shrine, a night near the top, then a slow descent through the temples.
Start at the Grand Temple, southern China's largest complex, then walk to the nearby Zhusheng Temple with its five-hundred carved luohan. Visit the Martyr Shrine to pay your respects.
Continue on foot or by shuttle to the Half-Mountain Pavilion and South Heaven Gate, then on to Zhurong Peak, where you stop for the night to be ready for the sunrise.
Stops: Grand TempleZhusheng TempleMartyr ShrineHalf-Mountain PavilionSouth Heaven GateZhurong Peak
Get up early and take your place on Zhurong Peak for the sunrise. After it, walk down to the Scripture Library and its grove of rare trees.
Descend past the Mirror-Polishing Platform and its view over Nanyue town, then on to Fuyan Temple and Nantai Temple. Before heading down, take in Shuilian Cave and its waterfall, and finish.
Stops: Zhurong Peak sunriseScripture LibraryMirror-Polishing PlatformFuyan TempleNantai TempleShuilian Cave
For the short of time — you ride the buses and cable car, and walk only what you cannot ride.
Begin at the Grand Temple, then take the shuttle to the Half-Mountain Pavilion and the cable car or bus to South Heaven Gate. The last stretch to Zhurong Peak is on foot.
Come back down to South Heaven Gate, then bus to the Martyr Shrine to pay your respects. The whole loop is about six hours, and it is worth it only if you must do the mountain in a day.
Stops: Grand TempleHalf-Mountain PavilionSouth Heaven GateZhurong PeakMartyr Shrine
Sights
Chinese ticket prices change without much notice. Treat these as a guide and confirm on arrival.
Temple · ¥50
The largest palace-style temple complex in southern China, at the foot of the mountain: nine halls on a north-south axis, from the memorial arch and the old opera stage to the main hall and the rear gate, across 98,500 m². Its distinguishing feature is that its east side houses eight Taoist halls and its west side eight Buddhist temples, so three faiths share one compound — the 'Palace of the South', they call it.
Tip The main hall is a scaled-down echo of the Forbidden City's Hall of Supreme Harmony, with 72 stone pillars for the 72 peaks. Come early on a festival day to watch the crowds of pilgrims, and dress respectfully.
Summit · In the through-ticket
The summit at 1,290 m, named for the fire god Zhurong and the highest point on the mountain. The top is bare granite and the views are enormous: the ridge running away in waves, the Xiang River like a ribbon below, in a pattern the locals call 'five dragons holding up the sage'. It is the sunrise spot, and worth the climb for that alone.
Tip Near the summit is the Huixian Bridge, a narrow rock span over a deep drop that the timid should admire from a distance. There is food and lodging near the top, so you need not carry everything up.
History · In the through-ticket
A solemn memorial built in 1942, the only large cemetery on the mainland for Nationalist soldiers killed in the war against Japan. It climbs a slope between pines and streams, with a granite avenue and 276 steps linking the arch, the memorial tower, the hall and the shrine, over 14,400 m². Thirteen large tombs hold the remains of soldiers of the Ninth War Zone.
Tip This is a place of mourning. Keep your voice down, do not play music, and give the graves the room they deserve. It is the sort of stop that stays with you longer than the views.
Waterfall · ¥30
One of the 'Four Wonders of Nanyue', 4 km from Nanyue town under Zigai Peak. Water from the peak flows into a rock channel and overflows in a curtain about 60 m high, best in the days after rain, when a rainbow hangs in the spray. The cliffs carry inscriptions from four dynasties, including a Ming 'Number One Spring under Heaven'.
Tip Go after rain for the full fall. In a dry spell it can be a trickle, and then the cliff inscriptions are the attraction instead. The Snow-Wave Pavilion below is a fine place to sit and watch.
Zen history · In the through-ticket
The cradle of the southern school of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, where the master Huairang is said to have polished a brick to teach a monk — the 'polished brick' koan — and where his tomb and an inscribed pagoda still stand. Fuyan Temple just above, one of the ten great monasteries of Chinese Buddhism, is a working monastery famous for its teaching line.
Tip The view from the platform over Nanyue town, with old pines around, is one of the best on the mountain. Fuyan Temple is a monastery, not a museum — if the monks are at prayer, be quiet and do not intrude.
Monastery · In the through-ticket
Said to be the 'source of Buddhist law under heaven', Nantai Temple is a monastery that the Japanese Soto school regards as an ancestral temple — a status that once brought gifts of scriptures from Japan. Behind it rises the Vajra Relic Pagoda, a 48 m octagonal tower on a 24 m granite base, the largest high-mountain pagoda of its kind in the Yangtze region.
Tip The pagoda's relics are objects of worship and not on show, but visitors may climb to the eighth floor for a sweeping view over the countryside and Nanyue town. The temple's collection of rare plants — including the odd leafless 'snow flower' — is a quiet bonus.
Landmarks · ¥30 · In the pass
At the foot, on Jiahe Peak, stands the Wanshou Ding — a bronze cauldron 9.9 m tall and 56 tonnes, cast with 10,000 'longevity' characters from every dynasty, and certified as the world's largest. Higher up, the Scripture Library, founded in the Southern Dynasties and rebuilt in the 1930s, sits in a grove of rare trees with three famous oddities: a 'money tree', twin trunks and interlocked branches.
Tip The Ding is a quick stop on the way in, and a good photograph. The Scripture Library is worth seeking out on the way down for its ancient trees and the cool, deep quiet of the grove.
Eating
The mountain is a Buddhist and Taoist stronghold, so vegetarian dishes are the signature, with the many kinds of tofu leading the way. But this is still Hunan — the chilli is real.
The mountain's signature: tofu in a dozen treatments — home-style braised, clay-pot, meatball, stuffed, cold-dressed, fried — cooked so that the flavours run sour, sweet, salty, hot and fragrant. The dishes of a Buddhist temple banquet, and better than they sound.
Made from good soybeans and sweet mountain spring water, then served barely set and faintly sweet — a yuan a bowl in the old town, best before 9am. It is the cheapest and most local thing you will eat on Hengshan.
A Hengyang snack: rice pressed and cut into short lengths, rolled into little dumplings and boiled, then served with spring onion and white pepper. The broth is clear, the balls soft, and the whole bowl finishes hot and sharp.
A local snack known as 'drinking snails': field or river snails fried with tea oil and chilli, then boiled in broth. You suck them from the shell. Hot, fragrant, sharp and moreish — a beer-garden classic.
A Hengyang speciality: a bighead carp head with half a fish, glazed with soy and chilli-bean paste and sugar, then braised with tofu, mushroom and ginger. The broth comes out deep, savoury and just hot enough — a proper Hunan fish dish.
A Hengyang country dish of a thousand years: seasoned rice mixed with egg, lean pork, roast meats, shrimp, chicken and mushroom, wrapped in a fresh lotus leaf and steamed. Yellow and white, oiled, glossy, faintly perfumed — best eaten in summer when the leaves are on.
Where to eat
Phone numbers are local landlines; add +86 and drop the leading 0 if calling from abroad.
Hunan · Old-fashioned
An honest Hunan restaurant with an old-fashioned feel and a friendly owner. The kitchen is a little oil-heavy, so if you like it light, say so when you order — but the flavours are true. Good for a first proper Hunan meal off the mountain.
River fish · Very local
A local favourite for river fish, cooked properly but decidedly hot — if you cannot take chilli, either ask them to ease off or order elsewhere. This is the sort of place locals bring friends for a big, honest Hunan fish dinner.
Hunan · Big flavours
A restaurant for those who like it heavy — sturdy, spicy Hunan cooking done in the local way. Popular with locals and convenient for a large meal after a day on the mountain.
Country cooking · Cheap
A small, plain place for proper local country cooking, right on the centre-mountain route near Zhusheng Temple. No frills, low prices, and the kind of food that tastes best after a lot of walking.
Night food · Until late
The evening food scene in Nanyue town, about 50 m behind the Grand Temple, where the smell of chilli and grilled food runs until three or four in the morning. The flavours are Hunan and Nanyue, mostly hot, and the prices ordinary.
Sleeping
Stay near the summit to see the sunrise, or in Nanyue town or at the Half-Mountain Pavilion for comfort and value. Peak season and festival days fill fast.
Hostel · from ¥50 a bed
The first international youth hostel on Hengshan, loved by backpackers for its cartoon wall art and its 20 Mbps wifi, board games and cosplay nights. Simple, sociable and cheap. Beds from ¥50.
Farmhouse · from ¥156
One of the earliest farmhouse inns in the centre-mountain area, combining food, lodging, leisure and summer cool. It neighbours the Magu Fairyland and Lingzhi Spring, with forests on all sides and the Mirror-Polishing Platform and Fuyan Temple a short way off.
Inn · from ¥168
An inn of 45 individually themed rooms close to the Grand Temple, two minutes on foot from the centre scenic area and convenient for the bus station. Good location and complete facilities, with the old town's life right outside.
Hotel · from ¥331
A newer, near-five-star resort-style hotel on Zhurong South Road in the scenic area, facing the mountain's highest peak and near Tianshan Forest Park. Comfortable rooms and easy road access — a good choice if you want a proper hotel rather than an inn.
Hotel · from ¥220
Sitting 500 m from the foot of the mountain, beside National Road 107 and 20 minutes from the Beijing–Zhuhai expressway, with a large car park and a bus stop for the mountain. A good, easy base for drivers.
Getting around
Social vehicles cannot enter the scenic area, so you ride the green shuttle buses and the cable car.
Hengshan has no airport of its own. The usual gateway is Changsha Huanghua (CSX), with 86 routes to more than 60 cities, from which buses run on to Nanyue in about two hours.
Two useful stations: Hengyang, 45 km from the scenic area, and Hengshan, just 16 km. Hengshan West on the high-speed line is closest of all. Note that Hengshan Station and Hengyang Station are not the same place.
Tell your driver 'Nanyue Hengshan scenic area', not just 'Hengshan' — locally 'Hengshan' means the county town, which is the wrong place.
The green shuttle buses run the mountain from the gate, connecting the temples and the viewing spots. Social cars are not allowed, so this is how everyone moves between the lower stops.
The cable car runs from the Kangjialong gate area up to South Heaven Gate, taking most of the steep work out of the climb. Fares rise in the ice season.
Between South Heaven Gate and Zhurong Peak, porters carry visitors up the final stretch in sedan chairs — a historic service, and a genuine option if the stairs are beyond you.
In Nanyue town, buses 1–4 are free and run 06:00–18:00, which covers most of the town. Taxis are cheap; from Hengyang, a metered or negotiated ride to Nanyue is about ¥100–150.
Shopping
Hengshan sits on the north-south divide, so its specialities are hard to find elsewhere — good gifts, especially the tea.
Said to be 4,000 years old, from a cake the emperor Shun is supposed to have tasted on his southern tour. Sweet but not cloying, crisp and light, and a fixture of the shrine's incense-season offerings — a fitting Hengshan gift.
Hengshan's own tea, brisk and fragrant, sold all over the town and at the summit. A packet makes an ideal souvenir: brew a pot at home and the mountain comes back to you.
A white spirit infused with cordyceps, lingzhi, goji and other herbs and blended with mountain spring water. Smooth and warming, marketed as a tonic — the traditional gift for an elder.
Among the dozens of mushrooms on the mountain, this is the prized one: pale brown, umbrella-shaped, tender and fragrant, good in noodles, soup or stir-fried with meat. Dried, it travels well.
Practical
Staffed English help is thin on the mountain. Save these before you need them.
| Emergency (police / ambulance / fire) | 110 · 120 · 119 |
|---|---|
| Tourism enquiries and complaints | 0734-5671111 · 0734-5663315 · 0734-5673377 |
| Medical assistance | 0734-5678120 · 0734-5675120 |
| Hengyang Central Hospital | 12 Yancheng Road · 0734-8275760 |
| Hengshan County Hospital | 7 Baishi Lane, Kaiyun town · 0734-5826911 |
| Nanyue police stations | Nanyue town 0734-5662345 · Zhurong Peak 0734-5663018 |
| Best months | Late summer for clear air; December–February for rime ice |
| What to pack | Rain gear, a warm layer (the top is about 10°C cooler than the town), snacks and water |
Tips
Locally, 'Hengshan' means the county town, which is the wrong place. Always say 'Nanyue Hengshan scenic area' (南岳衡山风景区) when you ask directions, buy a ticket or book a car.
Hengshan sits under cloud for nearly seven months of the year, and the forecast on your phone does not know the mountain. A light rain shell is more useful than an umbrella, which the wind will take.
The top runs about 10°C colder than the town below, and the sunrise is cold whatever the season. Bring a proper jacket even in summer, and expect the wind to bite at Zhurong Peak.
The mountain's waymarking is sparse and unclear, and it is easy to take the wrong path. If you get lost, head for the sound of vehicles — reaching the road gets you out.
Store anything you do not need at a guesthouse near the Grand Temple before you climb, and carry only a small pack. You will thank yourself on the stairs.
The traditional incense season peaks on the first day of the eighth lunar month, when crowds top 100,000 and every hotel is full. Unless the pilgrimage is why you came, pick another week.
Background
Mount Heng is built from granite laid down about 180 million years ago, and its 72 peaks run for 400 km across Hunan, from Huiyan Peak in the centre of Hengyang in the south to Yuelu Mountain in Changsha in the north. The scenic core, with Zhurong Peak at its centre, rises to 1,300 m above the Nanyue district of Hengyang. Its climate is gentler than the other Four Great Peaks — lush, green, endlessly wooded — which is why the poets called it 'the South Great Peak, alone like flying'.
The mountain is wrapped in cloud for nearly seven months of the year and divides visibly into three 'layers of sky' as you climb, each cooler than the last. Mist and low cloud are common, which is why locals say the mountain looks best on a grey day, and why the rime ice of winter — rare this far south — forms so readily.
Hengshan is one of the Five Great Peaks named in China's oldest texts — the Book of Documents, the Rites of Zhou, the Classic of Mountains and Seas. It became a place of worship early and never stopped: by the Tang it was drawing pilgrims in numbers, and the custom of coming to burn incense lasted through the dynasties and still runs today. Its other name, the Longevity Mountain, comes from the star it is said to govern, the star of human lifespan, and from the imperial titles that fixed it as the 'mountain of longevity'.
It is also rare in being both a Buddhist and a Taoist holy mountain at once, and in letting the two share the same compound. The Grand Temple has eight Taoist halls on one side and eight Buddhist temples on the other; round the mountain there are more than 200 temples, shrines and monasteries. Nantai Temple is an ancestral temple for Japan's Soto school, and the mountain held an important place in the transmission of Chan Buddhism. Today it is a working pilgrimage site as much as a scenic one — a mountain of both faith and views.
Travel with them
Not guides — a sitcom, a wuxia novel and a guzheng piece, each with a thread back to the mountain.
2006
One of China's most-watched sitcoms, set in a fictional Ming-era inn where the great martial schools of the picaresque world cross paths. One of its leads is the sister of the 'Master of the Hengshan School', a running joke that has made the mountain's name familiar to a whole generation of viewers.
Jin Yong
Jin Yong's classic wuxia novel, in which the Five Great Peaks' sword schools — Hengshan among them — scheme and duel for supremacy. Bound up in the mountain's name is a whole imagined world of sect politics, and it is the reason many Chinese readers first wanted to see Hengshan for themselves.
Fu Na (guzheng)
A Buddhist song about the pilgrims who come to pray at Nanyue, reworked as a solo guzheng piece. Wordless and unhurried, it captures the mood of the mountain — the one that makes people climb the whole way just to bow at the top.
The questions visitors ask us most about Mount Heng (Hengshan, Hunan), answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
No — they are entirely different mountains. This is Mount Heng in Hunan, the Nanyue or South Great Peak, a Buddhist and Taoist pilgrimage mountain above Hengyang. The other Hengshan is in Shanxi, far to the north. Make sure your tickets and your driver both say Hunan's Nanyue.
Late summer and early autumn, when the air is clearest and the slopes still green, is the classic season. Winter, from December to early February, is the second great season for the rime ice that coats the mountain. Avoid the first day of the eighth lunar month, when pilgrim crowds top 100,000.
Yes, and it is the main event. The spot is Zhurong Peak; most people sleep near the summit or start up in the dark. There is accommodation and food near the top, and early shuttle buses, but check the sunrise time on your hotel's notice board and leave plenty of margin — the mountain paths are poorly signposted.
No. Shuttle buses and a cable car cover most of the climb from the gate to South Heaven Gate, leaving only the final stretch to Zhurong Peak on foot. That said, the temples and scenery between are the point, so most people walk at least the middle section. A day pass on the sightseeing bus is ¥25.
Nanyue Grand Temple at the foot is the one not to miss — southern China's largest complex, nine halls, and a rare Taoist-Buddhist-Confucian mix. Further up, Zhusheng Temple, Fuyan Temple and Nantai Temple are the important monasteries, and the Martyr Shrine is a moving historical stop. Keep the shrine's hush in mind and keep your voice down.
The mountain is a Buddhist and Taoist stronghold, so vegetarian food is the signature — especially the many tofu dishes, and the soft tofu pudding sold in the old town for a yuan a bowl before 9am. Order the local river-fish head with tofu, and if you like heat, the Hunan-style river-fish restaurants are excellent.
By air, fly to Changsha Huanghua (CSX) and take a bus to Nanyue, about two hours. By rail, Hengyang Station is 45 km from the scenic area and Hengshan Station just 16 km; from Hengshan West on the high-speed line, a bus reaches the Nanyue gateway in 15–20 minutes. Remember Hengshan Station and Hengyang Station are two different places.
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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.
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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