City guide · Sichuan
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.
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 had not expected that a place this close to Chengdu could feel so far away. The moment the bus came over the Zheduo Pass and I saw the first string of prayer flags strung across the valley, I knew I was in a different country — not China, not Tibet, but somewhere in between.
Beiliuchi, 'Gongga: Where the Wind Stops'
We arrived in Kangding at about five in the afternoon, ate skewers at the night market, then found a Tibetan bar with a singer and a yak-butter lamp. I had planned to leave the next morning. I stayed three days.
June1988lj, 'Taking the Bus to Kangding'
Kangding is a town built for a song. Every Chinese child can hum the Kangding Love Song, and the lyric about the 'running horse mountain' is not a metaphor — Paoma Shan rises right behind the streets, and from the top you look down on a valley of whitewashed Tibetan houses, red monastery roofs and the fast grey ribbon of the Zheduo River cutting through the middle. The town is loud, wet and cold in the way high mountain towns are, and it smells of butter tea, diesel and pine smoke.
This is where the Tibetan plateau actually begins. Drive west out of Kangding and within thirty minutes the road crosses the Zheduo Pass at 4,298m, and everything changes — the trees get shorter, the sky gets bigger, and the prayer flags start appearing on every ridge. Xinduqiao, 80km further on, is the stretch of G318 that photographers call the 'world of light and shadow', and Tagong, 110km from Kangding, is a grassland ringed by snow peaks where nomads still herd yaks the way they have for centuries.
Most travellers use Kangding as a staging post for something bigger — the Sichuan–Tibet Highway, Mt. Gongga, or the run up to Danba and the watchtowers. But give it a day of its own. Walk the old town, eat a bowl of Kangding liangfen, sit in a Tibetan bar with a glass of highland barley wine, and watch the evening light come down the gorge. It is the most Tibetan town you can reach from Chengdu in a single bus ride.
Kangding
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
Paoma Shan — 'Riding Horse Hill' — is the 'liu liu de' slope every Chinese speaker can hum, and it sits right on the edge of town. Walk up in about two hours, or take the cable car and be on the summit in fifteen minutes. From the top you look straight down at the whole of Kangding stacked along its river gorge.
Mugecuo sits 17 km out of town at the head of an 8 km gorge of waterfalls, ringed by dozens of smaller lakes — Red Sea, Black Sea, White Sea. Morning fog rolls across the water, noon sun turns it to hammered silver, and the golden beach on the west shore is nicknamed Lovers' Beach for good reason. Autumn is when it burns brightest.
Xinduqiao is not a sight so much as a stretch of road — poplars turning gold, a shallow stream hugging the highway, Tibetan farmhouses, yaks grazing on painted grassland. Photographers have been coming here for decades and calling it heaven; September and October are when the poplars deliver.
Gongga Shan tops out at 7,556 m, the highest peak in the province, with 145 ice peaks clustered around it. It is harder to summit than Everest and kills more climbers who try — which is exactly why the rest of us should just look at it. Hailuogou, at its foot, gets you close enough to feel small.
Tagong means 'the place the Buddha loves'. It is 110 km from Kangding, past Zheduo Pass and beyond Xinduqiao, and it delivers the Tibetan plateau postcard: a monastery at the centre, nomad tents trailing smoke, and horse festivals where herders arrive in their finest.
Itineraries
The route local travel lovers recommend for a first visit — all out-and-back from Kangding, so you can leave your big bag at the guesthouse.
Leave at 8–9am for the 17 km run out to Mugecuo, spend the day on the lake and the waterfall gorge, and be back in town by 3–4pm. On the way home, stop at Erdaoqiao hot springs and soak — or check in there for the night.
Stops: Mugecuo LakeThousand Waterfall GorgeLovers' BeachErdaoqiao Hot Springs
Head out in the morning over Zheduo Pass for Xinduqiao's ten kilometres of photographer's road, then north to Tagong grassland and its monastery. Best in summer and autumn. Sleep at a Tibetan family guesthouse in Xinduqiao if you want the full slow version.
Stops: Zheduo Pass (4,298 m)XinduqiaoTagong MonasteryTagong Grassland
Return to town and finish with the hill that started it all. Walk up if you have the legs, cable car if you don't. Then eat your way through the old streets before the bus back to Chengdu.
Stops: Paoma ShanCable carOld town streets
For drivers with their own wheels. The glacier comes first, the lake comes last, and the red-stone beach in between only exists if you're driving.
Drive the G318 west to Moxi Ancient Town, the village at the gate of Hailuogou. Almost everyone visiting the glacier sleeps here. Eat, rest, get an early night.
Stops: ChengduYa'anMoxi Ancient Town
Soak at Camp 2, ride the cable car up to Camp 4 for the glacier, then stop at the Yajiageng red-stone beach on the drive over to Kangding. Bus passengers usually miss the red stones — this is a driver's bonus.
Stops: Hailuogou GlacierCamp 4 cable carYajiageng Red Stone BeachKangding
A full day at the lake with no schedule — shoot the fog in the morning, the golden beach at midday, the water turning to gold at sunset. Stay in Kangding or at Erdaoqiao.
Stops: Mugecuo LakeGolden BeachErdaoqiao
Drive back to Chengdu on the G318, or push west into the wider Garze plateau if you've got more days in you.
Stops: KangdingLudingChengdu
Sights
Lake & gorge
The headline sight of Kangding and worth the ticket: an alpine lake at the head of an 8 km waterfall gorge, surrounded by forest, grassland and snow peaks, with dozens of smaller lakes scattered around it like satellites. Come in autumn when the colours peak.
Tip Go in the morning — fog sits on the water early and burns off by mid-morning, so you get both the misty and the glittering versions in one visit.
Hill & city view
The hill from the love song, right on the edge of town, with the whole of Kangding visible from the top. The Tibetan name is Lamu Ze, 'Fairy Mountain'. Locals joke that you'll regret it forever if you don't go, and regret it forever if you do — ignore them, the view is the point.
Tip There is no road all the way up, so if you're not a walker, pay the CNY 30 for the cable car without guilt. Sunset from the top beats midday by a mile.
Photography
Not a single sight but ten kilometres of road west of town that photographers have been calling heaven since the 1990s. Golden poplars, a shallow stream running beside the highway, Tibetan villages, yaks and goats on the grassland, and light that seems to come from somewhere else entirely.
Tip Shoot in the two hours after sunrise and the two before sunset. Midday light here is flat and you'll wonder what the fuss was about.
Glacier & hot springs
The easiest way to get close to Gongga Shan, the 7,556 m 'King of Sichuan Mountains'. A massive icefall drops through the forest, and the reward afterwards is a hot spring pool with snow peaks all around you. Backpackers have been putting up with the rough road for decades to see it.
Tip The descent from the forest down onto the glacier is genuinely rough and the ice is slick — a slip can drop you a metre or four into a crevasse. Proper grip on your boots, no exceptions.
Grassland & monastery
'The place the Buddha loves', 110 km from Kangding over Zheduo Pass and past Xinduqiao. Tagong Monastery anchors the whole area, with rivers, forest, nomad tents and Tibetan farmhouses strung along the highway. Horse festivals here are the real deal — herders ride in from all directions in festival dress.
Tip Morning is when it works: nomad tents smoking, herders milking, cows heading out with the sound of singing drifting back. Afternoon is just a field.
Food
Made from local white peas, cut into thick glossy strips that hold together on the chopsticks, then drowned in red oil, salt and bean paste. The signature version is yellow, and it comes out numb, hot, fragrant, soft and tender all at once. The most famous shop is Xiaolan Liangfen; Tian Liangfen down the narrow lane at Shuijingzi is the local alternative and sells out early, so go before 9am. A few yuan a bowl.
Sweet potato starch noodles in a broth boiled from pork intestine and pork bone, topped with preserved mustard, pickled vegetable and fried soybeans. The intestine is braised soft, mild rather than funky, and the red oil on top is the whole point. Locals send you to the traditional shop opposite the mosque on Dongda Jie; Ding Sange Laozihao at Dongda Jie 114 is the old-name beef house that also does a fine bowl for about CNY 8.
High energy, low fat, and the red blood cell and haemoglobin counts run 50 to 100 percent above ordinary cattle because the animals graze at 3,000 to 5,000 metres on clean grassland and eat herbs like caterpillar fungus and fritillaria along the way. Eat it as hand-grabbed steak at a Tibetan restaurant, or buy it dried — the "Zhang Dage" brand is the one everybody names.
A white sour broth fermented slowly from clear rice water, a Guizhou technique that a Guizhou owner has been running in Kangding for over 20 years and has turned into a local institution. Tart, warming, and the right thing after a cold day on the mountain. The shop is at Nanjiao Jiaotong Huayuan; call 0836-2811083 to reserve, because it fills up. Budget CNY 70–80 per person.
Kangding is full of tiny snack shops selling spring rolls, pot-sticker dumplings and fried dough twists with tofu pudding, and almost any door you walk through will feed you well. Spring rolls run about CNY 3 a portion. Guotie here is a Han Chinese pan-fried dumpling, usually pork with whatever vegetable is in season — try Huixiang Xiaochi in the prefecture grain bureau lane, or Datong Xiaochi opposite the Agricultural Bank on Xida Jie. From Xinduqiao westward the food turns Tibetan: tsampa, barley, butter tea and mutton everywhere, and street food so cheap that a few yuan fills you up.
Where to eat
Special occasion · Xiangyang Qiao
A roast chicken shop that roasts the birds the crudest way possible: wood, an iron frame and a mud pit. You will recognise the smell before you see the fire. The meat picks up a clean wood-grain fragrance, and a plate of roast potatoes plus a few bottles of beer turns it into a proper evening. One chicken is around CNY 90, so bring people.
Cheap and local · Jiangjun Qiao
A husband-and-wife shop whose entire reputation rests on one bowl of noodles costing CNY 6. The broth is savoury, the noodles soft and fragrant, and locals rate it as the real taste of the town rather than a tourist version of it. Go for breakfast, sit down, eat, leave. It is opposite Anjue Temple near the Kangding Hotel.
Old name · Dongda Jie
The best-known beef house in Kangding, run as a Muslim restaurant. Beef offal soup is the thing to order, and the beef steamed dumplings and butter tea are both good. Nothing on the menu really goes above CNY 8, which makes it the obvious breakfast stop before you get on a bus to the grasslands.
Tibetan · Shuijing Square
Built to look like a Tibetan chieftain's hall, with waitresses in full dress, which sounds like a gimmick until the food arrives. Hand-grabbed steak is CNY 38, a dozen steamed buns CNY 12–20, and a pot of butter tea is CNY 15 and comfortably serves five or six people. About CNY 20 per head if you order sensibly. On the 6th floor of Shuijing Square on Yanhe Dong Lu.
Where to stay
Backpacker · Xida Jie
The biggest travel guesthouse in Kangding, with two branches a short walk apart, plenty of twin rooms, and a distinctly local feel — there is even an automatic mahjong table. They will help you arrange a chartered car, though the price they get is not the cheapest you could find on your own. Beds CNY 25, standard twin CNY 80. Next to the Gesar Hotel at Xida Jie, North Second Lane 6; phone 0836-2823009.
Quiet · Baitukan
The wooden floors here are visibly cleaner and warmer than at other Kangding guesthouses, and the price you pay for that is a 15-minute climb up the hill at Baitukan on Zier Po. Find the Kangding Hotel and keep walking uphill to the left. Dinner and beer are available up there, and hot water runs on solar, so shower early rather than late. Beds CNY 35, standard twin CNY 200; phone 0836-2831100.
Tibetan-run · Dongguan bus station
If you want to feel Kham the moment you arrive, this is the pick: everyone from the manager to the cleaners is Tibetan, and some of the staff barely speak Mandarin but the service still holds up. Rooms are larger and noticeably cleaner than others at the same price. Standard twins CNY 120–140, directly opposite the Dongguan long-distance bus station, which makes it the obvious base if you are leaving early. Phone 0836-2879999.
Getting around
Kangding Airport sits at 4,280 m on Zheduo Mountain and is the second-highest airport in the world — pilots literally wear oxygen masks on approach. There are no buses or licensed taxis at the terminal, only the airport shuttle into town, about one hour. Book the shuttle at the county ticket office (0836-2871111); it leaves around 06:00.
There is no train station in Kangding — almost everyone comes via Chengdu. Buses leave from Xinnanmen Tourist Transport Centre, Shiyang and Chengbei stations; fares run CNY 107–127. From Luding, shared Santana sedans take about an hour and leave once four or five seats fill.
Two self-drive routes from Chengdu. The fast one follows the G318 west over Chengya Expressway to Ya'an, then past Tianquan — tight switchbacks after Tianquan, but the Erlangshan tunnel section is now complete and 60 km/h is comfortable the whole way. The scenic alternative runs via Wolong, Xiaojin (Siguniangshan) and Danba, 504 km total.
Kangding has only taxis — no pedicabs, no three-wheelers, motorised or otherwise. Fares start at CNY 3/km, then CNY 1.2/km; a trip entirely inside town rarely tops CNY 5. Long-distance drivers (Guzan, Luding, Mugecuo, Tagong) wait at the small lot opposite Great Wall Hotel and at the bridgehead on Yanhe East Road, or ask at the bus station dispatch office for a charter. Two city bus lines run 07:00–23:30.
Shopping
The signature buy: high energy, low fat, and the local yak graze on cordyceps, sanqi and fritillaria, which is why the old Tibetan saying goes "the cow eats the caterpillar fungus, I eat the cow." The 'Zhang Dage' brand is the best known and the safest bet. Sold vacuum-packed everywhere around Qingge Square.
Kangding exports matsutake to Japan long-term, so what you buy here is the real thing — thick-stemmed, pure white flesh, intensely fragrant. Also look for dried porcini-type mushrooms and morel. Buy from grocery shops rather than souvenir stalls for better prices.
This is prime growing country for cordyceps (dong chong xia cao), fritillaria, rhubarb, astragalus, gastrodia, angelica, rhodiola and seabuckthorn. Rhodiola in particular is the standard altitude-sickness remedy and worth picking up before you head higher. Prices swing wildly — compare at two or three shops.
Kangding green peas, snow peas, Sichuan pepper and walnuts ship nationwide and make light, unbreakable souvenirs. On the Tibetan clothing stretch south of the mosque on East Street, be warned: most of the fabric is Jiangsu and Guangdong cloth cut by Han tailors, and 'ethnic' shops are not cheap. The one genuinely interesting buy is a Tibetan pop CD — the local charts sound nothing like the mainland's. If you need outdoor gear, Yala Outdoor on the south side of Qingge Square has it.
Practical
Altitude is the one thing that catches people out here: Kangding itself is harmless at 2,600 m, but you cross a 4,298 m pass to reach Tagong and Xinduqiao, and the Gongga trekking routes go far higher. Give yourself the first night to acclimatise in town, drink more water than feels necessary, and if you plan to hike near Gongga, read up on the serious kit list — waterproof shell, fleece, down sleeping bag, insulated pad, high-cut mountain boots, trekking poles, headlamp, SPF50 sunscreen, lip balm and at least five days of food are not optional extras.
| Altitude | Kangding town sits at about 2,600 m — low enough that most people feel nothing. But Zheduo Mountain Pass is 4,298 m, Hailuogou runs 2,200–3,200 m, and the Gongga peaks are 6,000–7,000 m. Ascend slowly, and consider rhodiola or Gaoyuan'an in advance. |
|---|---|
| Banking and ATMs | As the capital of Ganzi Prefecture, Kangding has branches and 24-hour ATMs of the four major banks plus Postal Savings, concentrated on both sides of Qingge Square. Withdrawing cash in town is easy; carry some before heading out to Tagong, Xinduqiao or the Gongga trailheads. |
| Post office | No. 148 West Street, on the south side of Qingge Square. Open 08:00–17:00. |
| Emergency numbers | Luchen Town Police Station 0836-2832739; Ganzi Prefecture Tourism Bureau 0836-2835469; Kangding County Tourism Bureau 0836-2822928; Hailuogou Scenic Area Administration 0836-3266203. |
| Health kit | Bring stomach medicine, cold medicine, vitamins and altitude tablets. Pharmacies in the county town are plentiful, but do not count on finding your specific brand out on the plateau. |
| Tibetan etiquette | When offered a drink, dip your ring finger in it and flick three times to the sky, earth and ancestors, then sip — your host refills each time, three sips in all, and you drain the fourth. Accept butter tea only once your host has handed it to you with both hands. Walk clockwise around monasteries, mani piles and stupas. Never touch anyone's head. |
| Best seasons | May to July is the sweet spot between dry and rainy season. July and August bring wildflowers across the grasslands but also sudden rain mid-shoot. Skip the rainy season for Gongga; Xinduqiao is at its most photogenic in September and October. |
Background
Kangding was Qiang land before the Three Kingdoms period, when Shu Han renamed it Dajianlu, or 'forge the arrows' — the name stuck for centuries. Under the Tang it fell to the Tibetan empire, the Yuan and Ming ran it as a frontier office, and the Qing finally made it Kangding Prefecture. Its whole reason for existing was the road: it sat on the only practical pass between the Sichuan basin and the Tibetan plateau, which made it the great tea-and-horse trading post on the Chamagudao. Until 1950 it was the capital of the short-lived Xikang Province; today it is the seat of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and the political, commercial and transport heart of the whole prefecture. The single road over Zheduo Shan, west of town, is still the dividing line locals use — 'inside the pass' east of it, 'outside the pass' west.
Kangding is one of the most mixed corners of western Sichuan: Tibetan and Han dominate, but Hui, Yi, Qiang, Miao, Mongolian, Tujia, Lisu, Manchu, Yao, Dong, Naxi, Bouyei, Bai, Zhuang and Dai all live here too. That mix is why the food runs from Muslim beef noodle shops to Guizhou-style sour soup chicken to Tibetan butter tea, often on the same block. If you are invited to drink with Tibetan hosts, dip your ring finger in the cup and flick three times to honour sky, earth and ancestors, sip, let them refill, and repeat three times — on the fourth pour you finish it in one go. Accept butter tea only once your host has offered it with both hands, and always walk clockwise around monasteries, mani piles and stupas. Never touch anyone's head.
Zheduo Shan splits the county into two completely different worlds. East of it you get deep subtropical valleys — locals call this the 'Kangba Jiangnan' — with peach blossom, orchards and rich farmland. West of it the land opens into high plateau: herds, monasteries, white stupas, the classic Tibetan landscape. The county's high point is Gongga Shan at 7,556 m, its low point is the Dadu River at 1,390 m, and the county seat, Luzheng, sits at 2,560 m. That is why locals say 'one mountain, four seasons; ten li, a different sky'. Kangding town itself, around 2,600 m, is low enough that most visitors feel nothing; it is the 4,298 m pass and the 3,200 m-plus glacier country that will find you out.
Reading & watching
Dir. Wang Xiaolie, 32 episodes, starring Tao Hong, Hu Jun, Siqin Gaowa
The big-budget melodrama that made the song a national brand all over again: a Muya chieftain's family torn apart by a forced second marriage, a fire, and a lost daughter who grows up on the Tagong grasslands. Filmed in the prefecture, it is the reason half of China can hum the tune. Watch two episodes and you will understand why every guesthouse lobby plays it.
Dir. Jiang Ping, 99 min, starring Alec Su and Ju Wenpei
A 1950s PLA road-building romance: an engineering graduate arrives to help build the Sichuan-Tibet highway, rescues a Tibetan serf girl named Dawa and — predictably — falls for her. Sentimental and dated, but the location footage of the Zheduo Shan road and the old town is worth it if you want to see Kangding before the tunnels and the towers.
Traditional Kangba folk song, UNESCO-listed as a world-class folk song
You will hear it in every taxi, teahouse and hotel lobby between Chengdu and Litang. The lyrics are about the horse-racing hill and a girl called Liuliu; the melody was carried abroad by missionaries in the 1940s and is now one of the most recognised Chinese tunes on earth. Learn the first line before you arrive and you will get free drinks.
The questions visitors ask us most about Kangding, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
May to July and September to October. May and June is the transition between the dry and wet seasons, with the clearest skies; July and August brings wildflowers across the grasslands but also daily rain; September and October is the golden season for Xinduqiao's poplars and the clearest window for seeing Mt. Gongga. Avoid the summer rainy season for Gongga treks, and expect snow on the passes from November to March.
Probably not. Kangding town sits at 2,560m, which is well below the 3,000m threshold where most people start to feel symptoms. But the Zheduo Pass on the road west is 4,298m, Hailuogou runs between 2,200m and 3,200m, and the Gongga massif is far higher — so if you are heading on, take it slowly, drink water, and carry Rhodiola (红景天) or Gaoyuan'an, both sold in every pharmacy in town.
The cheapest way is the long-distance bus from Chengdu's Xinnanmen, Shiyang or Chengbei stations, CNY 107–127, about 6–7 hours on the G318. There is also a daily flight from Chengdu Shuangliu to Kangding (07:15–08:10) and back (08:55–09:45), but the airport is at 4,280m — among the highest in the world — and the 1-hour airport bus drops you in town. Driving yourself is easy in good weather; the road over Erlang Shan is now fully rebuilt and safe at 60km/h.
Worth at least one full day of its own. Most travellers use it as a staging post for Tagong, Xinduqiao, Gongga or the Sichuan–Tibet Highway, but the old town, the night market, Paoma Shan and the Tibetan bars are genuinely good, and the town has a rough, lived-in character that the more polished tourist towns in Sichuan lack. Three days is the right amount if you also want Mugecuo and a day trip to Xinduqiao.
Start with Kangding liangfen — cold white-pea noodles in red oil, chili and garlic, the town's signature dish, best at Xiaolan Liangfen. Then try the Sichuan-Tibetan hybrid feichang fen (pork intestine rice noodles) opposite the mosque, and move on to Tibetan food — hand-grabbed beef ribs at Malaya Tibetan Restaurant (CNY 38), yak-butter tea by the pot (CNY 15, serves 5–6) and tsampa. The night market skewers are cheap and good, and a bowl of noodles at Dingsan Ge will set you back CNY 8.
For Kangding and the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture itself, no permit is needed for foreign travellers — you can travel freely in Kangding, Tagong, Xinduqiao and Gongga. However, if you are continuing west past the Ganzi prefecture into the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), foreign passport holders need a Tibet Travel Permit arranged in advance through a licensed travel agency, and you must join an organised tour. Chinese citizens need no permit for Kangding.
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Hulunbuir
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China's finest grassland — a 263,000 km² sweep of steppe, birch forest and border river, best driven with the windows down.
The Forbidden City
City guide · 12 tours
Beijing's 600-year imperial palace — 8,700 rooms behind a 72-hectare wall, and the largest surviving wooden palace complex on earth.
Sanya
City guide · 12 tours
China's only true winter-sun coast — four very different bays, a coral island and a 108 m sea Buddha, all at 18° north.
Haikou
City guide · 12 tours
Hainan's capital is the island's living city — 600-year-old arcade streets, a volcanic village, and a morning-tea-to-midnight food culture.
Beihai
City guide · 12 tours
24 km of fine white sand on one side, a volcanic island of coral and lava on the other — plus a 19th-century arcade old street in between.
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.
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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