City guide · Yunnan
A 2,680 m lake on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, home to China's last matrilineal people, pig-trough canoes and a great deal of doing nothing.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
Doing nothing here counts as a serious activity. Brew a tea, pick up a book, or just prop your head on your hand and watch the still water — total relaxation is surely the point of travelling.
Traveller note — 'Memory of a Walk in Yunnan: Lugu Lake'
Every night the Mosuo villages hold a bonfire dance. The young men and women sing the Lugu Lake love songs, and they pull you in to dance around the fire until the whole square is shouting together.
Traveller note — 'Lugu Lake Journal'
Lugu Lake is what people imagine Yunnan to be before they have been: one deep, still sheet of water at 2,680 m, closed in by mountains steep enough that until recently the only way in was a full day of switchbacks. Half of it is in Yunnan and half in Sichuan, and that isolation is exactly why the Mosuo — a matrilineal people with a culture found nowhere else in China — have held on to their way of life here.
The Mosuo live in extended households headed by women, and traditionally keep 'walking marriages' in which a man visits a partner at night and returns to his mother's house by morning. It is a stable system of long partnerships, not free love — property, name and home all pass down the female line. Come curious rather than prurient, and people will talk to you about it honestly.
The lake holds five islands and three peninsulas, ringed by eighteen villages. Lige, on a small thumb of land on the west shore, is the loveliest and the best base; Luoshui is the biggest and busiest; Xiaoluoshui and Luowa are quiet. A pig-trough canoe — a single hollowed log, first cut for fishing — is still how you cross the water, and on a windless morning the surface turns to glass.
There is essentially one thing to do here, and it is to slow down. Circle the lake once, take a boat at sunrise, eat grilled fish by the water, and let the altitude and quiet do the rest. If you need a packed itinerary, you will be disappointed; if you want to stop moving for three days, this is the place.
Lugu Lake
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
A narrow thumb of land on the western shore, where wooden guesthouses hang over the water and the lake laps the doorsteps. It is the prettiest place on the lake and the best base, with the classic sunset view back towards Gemu Mountain.
The Mosuo's signature boat — one log hollowed out and pointed at both ends — still goes out for fishing and for sunrise trips from Lige and Luoshui. Leave before the sun clears the ridge, when the whole lake is mirror-flat.
The ring road runs past Lige, Nise, Xiaoluoshui, Dazui, the Goddess Bay, Lugu Lake town, Caohai and Luowa. Do it by car or e-bike in a day and stop often; the eastern shore is the quiet half and the western shore has the views.
Caohai is a shallow reed wetland at the north-west end of the lake, crossed by a 300 m wooden bridge that gives it its name. A second, older bridge lies half-sunk among the reeds beside it, and the marsh holds over a hundred bird species.
At 3,754 m it is the highest peak around the lake, worshipped as the goddess Gemu and known in Chinese as Lion Mountain. A cable car climbs to the Goddess Cave near the top, and from there you see the lake's whole outline at once.
The grandmother's house is the heart of every Mosuo family, with its fire altar and heavy timber walls, and a home visit is the quickest way to understand how the household works. Every village then holds a nightly bonfire dance in its main square — loud, friendly and worth an hour.
Suggested itineraries
There is essentially one road around Lugu Lake, so every itinerary is a version of the same loop at a different speed.
Arrive and settle, circle the lake, then finish with a canoe and the Grass Sea before driving out.
Take the morning bus from Lijiang and reach the lake by mid-afternoon, then walk the Lige Peninsula and find your guesthouse. Keep the first evening easy — you are at 2,680 m and the body needs a night to catch up.
Watch the sun drop behind Gemu Goddess Mountain from the peninsula, then eat grilled lake fish and turn in early.
Stops: LijiangLige PeninsulaGemu Mountain
Rent a car or an e-bike and go clockwise: Lige, Nise with its 'lovers' trees', Xiaoluoshui on the provincial border, Dazui, the Goddess Bay and Lugu Lake town.
Cross to Caohai for the Grass Sea and the Walking-Marriage Bridge, then finish at Luowa jetty, the spot locals say has the best sunset on the lake.
Stops: NiseXiaoluoshuiCaohaiLuowa
Get up before sunrise for a pig-trough canoe out onto the still water, then visit a Mosuo home and its grandmother's house.
Have lunch by the water and take the afternoon bus back towards Lijiang, or stay one more night if the weather has turned good.
Stops: Pig-trough canoeMosuo home visitLijiang
Add the western shore, the quieter villages and a lashings of doing nothing — the way the lake is meant to be seen.
Spend a night in Lijiang or Shuhe on the way in, and take the winding road over the passes to the lake on the second morning.
Stops: ShuheLashi LakeLugu Lake
Skip the bus tour of the main stops and head to Xiaoluoshui and Luowa instead, where the villages are smaller and the boats are cheaper.
Stops: XiaoluoshuiLuowaGoddess Bay
Take a long canoe crossing, ride the cable car up Gemu Mountain, and give yourself a full day of simply sitting by the water before the road home.
Stops: Gemu cable carLiwubi IslandLijiang
Sights
Ticket prices in China change without much notice, and the lake is shared by two provinces with two ticket gates. Treat these as a guide and confirm on arrival.
Base · Lakeshore
A small peninsula reaching out into the lake from the western shore, with the twenty-odd households of Lige strung along it. Almost every house is a guesthouse built out over the water, which makes it the most photographed and most convenient place to stay. It is also the departure point for the best sunrise canoes.
Tip Book a room with a lake-facing balcony if you can — waking up over the water is the whole point of staying in Lige, and the difference in price is small.
Wetland · Bridge
Caohai is the shallow, reedy northern end of the lake, where silt has built up over centuries into a green wetland that locals call the 'kingdom of birds'. A 300 m wooden bridge runs across the reeds to the far shore — the traditional 'walking marriage' crossing — and a century-old predecessor lies half-sunk in the water beside it. It is the most atmospheric corner of the lake.
Tip Come early or late: the light on the reeds is best then, and it is the one part of the lake that genuinely feels wild rather than tended.
Sacred peak · Cable car
The highest mountain around the lake at 3,754 m, held sacred by the Mosuo as the goddess Gemu and climbed by a cable car to a cave near the summit. The cave is said to hold a natural rock formation shaped like a woman; even if you skip the legend, the panorama over the lake and the surrounding valleys from the top is the best in the area.
Tip The summit is 3,754 m and the air is thin — go slowly, and do not go up on your first morning at the lake before you have slept at altitude.
Island · Temple
One of the lake's 'three fairy islands', in the south-central water, with a stone jetty, a winding path lined with azaleas and wild cherry, and a Tibetan Buddhist temple at the top beside a white stupa. The temple's painted eaves are unusual: the phoenix sits above the dragon, the reverse of the imperial custom elsewhere.
Tip Combine the boat with a temple visit rather than a plain lake lap — the return trip from Luoshui to the island is the most worthwhile of the standard boat runs.
Viewpoint · Sunset
The jetty at Luowa sits on the peninsula that divides the Grass Sea from the open 'bright sea', so from one point you see reeds on one side and clear water on the other. It is widely reckoned the best place on the lake to watch both sunrise and sunset, with the wooden dock, the scattered canoes and Gemu Mountain all in frame.
Tip Stay for the afterglow, not just the sunset — the light on the reeds lasts twenty minutes longer than most people wait.
Village · Mosuo life
A Mosuo village of only twenty-odd households in a small valley on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, one of the oldest settlements by the lake and one of the least developed. Fishing boats still work from its reeds, and it is the place to see the everyday rhythm of village life before the tourist boats arrive.
Tip Walk in from Lige through Nise if you have the time — it is the finest stretch of the whole circuit on foot, and you will likely have it to yourself.
Eating
Mosuo cooking is plain and relies on the lake and the highland fields: cured pork, freshwater fish, buckwheat and a mild rice wine. The food is simple, so eat it by the water — that is the real seasoning.
The Mosuo showpiece: a whole pig boned out, rubbed with salt and Sichuan pepper, sewn up and pressed into the shape of a lute, then air-cured. Sliced and warmed it is rich but not greasy, traditionally served to honoured guests and once a sign of household wealth.
The standout dish of the lake, and the one every restaurant does: freshwater fish straight from the water, grilled or boiled with ginger and a little cured pork. The broth comes in a clear and a red version; take both if there are two of you.
The traditional drink of the lakeside households, brewed from barley, rice, buckwheat and corn. It is pale orange, low in alcohol and slightly sweet — locals call it 'Mosuo beer' and serve it in a bowl, warmed, to every guest.
A staple flatbread of the highland villages, made from bitter buckwheat and baked in the embers of the fire. It keeps for a fortnight and is eaten dipped in winter honey — bitter first, sweet after, which is exactly the local aesthetic.
The preserving dish of the Mosuo and Pumi kitchens: small fresh fish layered in a clay jar with salt, pepper and spice, sealed and left cool for a fortnight. It arrives tangy and firm, and it is a taste you will not find in the lowlands.
The Ninglang hills grow a crisp, sweet apple sold as whole fruit and as sun-dried chips with nothing added. The dry, bright plateau climate does the work, and a bag of the chips is the easiest edible souvenir to carry home.
Where to eat
Phone numbers are local landlines; add +86 and drop the leading 0 if calling from abroad. Most kitchens are family-run and prices are low — a full meal is usually ¥30–60 a head.
Local · Grilled fish
The best-known restaurant on the lake, in Zhaojiawan, run by a family whose reputation rests as much on an old rescue story as on the food. Order the fried potato, the matsutake fish soup and the matsutake chicken soup, and try the local 'guangdang' liquor if you are curious.
Mosuo · Traditional
A restaurant built around proper Mosuo home cooking — natural ingredients, many small dishes and a mix of cooking styles, presented as the family would serve it. If you want one meal that reads as 'Mosuo' rather than 'lakeside restaurant', this is it.
Barbecue · Lake fish
A roadside grill between Lige and Luoshui where the fish come straight from the lake — the family here do not farm, they fish. The fish is cooked simply in water with ginger, cured pork and vegetables, and served as clear broth and red broth in two pots.
Fish · Courtyard
A small restaurant in traditional Mosuo style, built up the hillside on the Lige Peninsula, with reasonable prices and a good grilled-eggplant dish done split open over the coals. The grilled suckling pig, chicken and lake fish on the shore alongside are also worth ordering.
Street · Snacks
A row of local stalls on one side of the bridge at Caohai selling grilled potato, duck eggs, frog and skewers, plus a much-loved buckwheat pancake stand. It is the easiest place to eat while touring the lake, and cheap.
Sleeping
Lige is the best base and books out first; Luoshui is the busiest and cheapest for supplies; Xiaoluoshui and Luowa are for quiet. In high season (May and October holidays) book weeks ahead.
Lake-view hotel · from ¥168
A step from the Lige Peninsula, with nine lake-view rooms that each open onto an oversized private terrace just metres from the water. Rooms have Wi-Fi, TV, kettles, electric blankets and 24-hour hot water; it is the most comfortable option right on the peninsula.
Hostel · from ¥164
A Mosuo courtyard house of three timber storeys right by the jetty at Luoshui, with the water close enough to touch. There is a sunlit glass reading room and an old grandmother's fire altar where you can drink butter tea; the hostel rents bicycles and runs a bar.
Hostel · from ¥70
On the upper slope of Lige, with the widest views of the lake of any guesthouse in the village and a big glass window over its own bar. Rooms have private bathrooms, Wi-Fi and varied décor, and there is a courtyard, a reading area and parking.
Guesthouse · from ¥300
A lakeside house at the far end of Luoshui with twenty-three lake-view rooms, three of them duplexes, a restaurant, a bar and a courtyard. Every room has a balcony angled for the sunrise, and the owner is a reliable source of advice on boats and villages.
Boutique guesthouse · from ¥300
Built at the very end of the Lige Peninsula in traditional Mosuo log style, quiet and close, with every room opening directly onto the water. It is the most romantic spot in Lige — and priced accordingly — so book early for the few water-edge rooms.
Getting around
There is no rail or air service at the lake; every approach is by road, and the road is long. Inside, everything moves around the ring road or by boat.
The standard approach for most travellers. Direct buses run from Lijiang to Luoshui in about 5–6 hours, and a tourist line continues to Lige itself; guesthouses book the seats for you.
The other way in, shorter on paper but on rougher roads. Buses leave Xichang for Lugu Lake town (Zuosuo) and the Sichuan ticket gate.
From the Sichuan side you can also cross to the Yunnan side by boat from Caohai or Luowa (¥80–120), which is a far nicer way to switch provinces than the road.
The lake's own transport — a single hollowed log, historically used for fishing and now for visitors. Boats run from Lige, Luoshui and Xiaoluoshui to the islands and across the water.
The ring road is the best thing to do here, and a bicycle or e-bike is the way to do it slowly. The hills are real, so take the e-bike unless you are a confident cyclist.
For the lake circuit, the far villages or a run back to Lijiang, a chartered car is the most flexible choice, with shared vans filling the gaps between villages.
Shopping
Shopping at Lugu Lake is small-scale and mostly genuine — hand-woven cloth, dried fruit and local oil. The one thing to avoid is the cigarettes, which are not what they claim.
The hand-woven shawls sold all over Lijiang are actually made around Lugu Lake, so buying them at the source is both cheaper and more honest. Look for the weaving frames on the street in Luoshui, where the maker is often the seller.
Real produce from the dry plateau hills: whole apples and, better for travel, sun-dried apple chips with no added sugar. They are unsophisticated next to factory versions and far better for it.
A Mosuo speciality pressed from the local green-thorn berry and used for centuries as both food and medicine, prized for its unsaturated fats. Sold in small bottles; a genuinely local thing to carry home.
Stalls here sell 'Dongba', 'Naxi' and 'caravan' cigarettes that are said to be Burmese and are sold at absurd markups. They are not worth the money and not what they claim — buy shawls and fruit instead.
Practical
The lake spans two provinces with two area codes (Yunnan 0888, Sichuan 0834). Save these before you go — phone and internet coverage thins out on the mountain road.
| Emergency (police / ambulance / fire) | 110 · 120 · 119 |
|---|---|
| Scenic-area enquiries | 0834-6390322 · 0834-6390302 |
| Lugu Lake tourist police | 0888-5881110 |
| Ninglang (Yunnan) tourism bureau | Via the Lijiang hotline · Yunnan complaints 0871-4608315 |
| Nearest clinic | Lugu Lake town central health centre · 0888-6390120 |
| Entry tickets | ¥100 (Yunnan gate) · ¥80 (Sichuan gate) |
| Activity fees | Home visit ¥10 · bonfire ¥15–30 · boat ¥30–40 |
| Cash | Lige has no ATM; only Luoshui and Lugu Lake town do, and they are unreliable |
Tips
At 2,680 m, do not climb Gemu Mountain or race around the lake on the afternoon you arrive. Sleep, drink water and eat lightly; the second day will be far better for it.
Lige has no ATM, and boats, bonfires, home visits and village fruit are all cash. The Luoshui and Lugu Lake town machines run out — bring notes from Lijiang.
The lake is snow-fed and cold enough to chill you to the bone even in summer, and the shoreline is uneven. Admire it from a boat, not in it.
Both approaches are long, winding mountain routes with motion-sickness in store. Take tablets, start early, and do not plan anything for the evening you arrive.
Do not step over the fire altar or point your feet at it, do not photograph people without asking, and in particular do not raise matters of love in front of a family's elders. In a home visit, follow your host's lead.
For the classic canoe shot, be on the water about 40 minutes before sunrise in spring and autumn. Arrange the boat the night before — the operators do not wait at the jetty.
Background
Lugu Lake lies at 2,680 m on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, in the mountains where the Hengduan range begins to fold down towards the tropics. It was formed when a fault blocked the drainage of the surrounding valleys, and at its deepest it is over 90 m, which keeps the water cold, clear and slow to warm. Five islands and three peninsulas break its surface, and eighteen villages ring the shore.
The climate is a highland monsoon: mild, sunny and dry for much of the year, with a sharp day-to-night temperature gap and a rainy season from July to September. The average is about 17°C, but the mornings and evenings are cold and a single mountain cloud can drop the temperature fast. The dry, bright air is also why the apples and the tea grown in these hills taste the way they do.
The Mosuo are an ancient people of the Ninglang hills, documented in Chinese records for more than 2,000 years. They live in large extended households in which descent and inheritance run through the female line: the eldest woman heads the family, the grandmother's house is its physical and spiritual heart, and children belong to their mother's household rather than their father's.
Within that system, partnerships traditionally take the form known as 'walking marriage', or zouhun — a man visits a woman at night and returns to his own mother's house by morning, and the relationship is sustained for as long as both want it. It is not the exotic free-love the tourism brochures once sold, and it is fading in the more accessible villages even as it survives in the remoter ones. What remains everywhere is the structure of the family itself, which shapes daily life by the lake more than any single custom.
Travel with them
Not guides — the books and music that made the lake famous, and that still colour how people see it.
Yang Erche Namu
The memoir that put Lugu Lake on the world's map. Born by the lake, the Mosuo author left in 1983 and wrote her way from a mountain village to Shanghai, Beijing and beyond — and in doing so gave outsiders their first real account of a matrilineal world seen from the inside.
Bai Hua
A novel built on the love story of two young Mosuo, written with both lyricism and humour, that describes the old matrilineal ways and sets them against modern life. It asks hard questions about tradition and change, and it is the literary counterpart to Namu's memoir.
Zuoxiao Zuzhou and Zhu Jing
A modern setting of the Mosuo courtship songs that once rang out across the water, sung as a duet. The melody winds and lingers, and it captures the romantic charge the lake has carried for travellers ever since people started writing about it.
Alu Azhuo
A Yi singer's album drawing on Mosuo tradition and the 'kingdom of women' legend, sung with a voice trained far from the lake. A good thing to have on as the road climbs towards Ninglang.
The questions visitors ask us most about Lugu Lake, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Three days. Day one you arrive, settle into Lige and catch the sunset off the peninsula; day two you circle the lake by car or e-bike and take in the Grass Sea; day three you go out in a canoe at dawn, visit a Mosuo home and drive back out. Two days is only worth it if you are already nearby and willing to skip the lake circuit entirely.
By road, in about 5–6 hours, and there is no alternative. Direct buses leave Lijiang's stations for Luoshui around 09:00 and 12:00 (about ¥73 including insurance), and a tourist line runs straight through to Lige — ¥100 one way, ¥160 return — leaving the old-town car park around 08:00. Almost every guesthouse will book the ticket for you the night before.
Yes, if what you want is the Mosuo culture and the lake rather than a list of attractions. It is a full day each way on winding mountain roads, which is why three days is the sensible minimum. In return you get one of the clearest and quietest highland lakes in China, and a living matrilineal culture that survives nowhere else.
Rarely. At 2,680 m most people notice nothing beyond a little breathlessness on a flight of stairs, and only a minority get a mild headache or a poor first sleep. Take the first day slowly, drink water, eat lightly and avoid alcohol; if you are going on to Shangri-La, use Lugu Lake to start acclimatising.
It is a form of partnership in a matrilineal society: a man visits a woman at her family home at night and returns to his mother's household in the morning, and any children belong to the mother's family. It is voluntary and typically long-lasting, and it is not something staged for visitors. Treat the households you visit with the same respect you would a private home anywhere.
April to June and September to November, for clear skies and easy walking. July to September is the rainy season but leaves the Grass Sea at its greenest, and winter is cold, bright and very quiet — bring a down jacket. The March–April azaleas and the November cosmos planted along the shore are the two things worth timing a trip around.
Enough for three days: the boats, the lake circuit, a Mosuo home visit and the nightly bonfire dance. Past that, Lugu Lake is deliberately a place to do very little — read on a balcony, watch the light change, eat grilled lake fish. If you need constant stimulation, two nights will be enough and you should spend the rest of your time in Lijiang and Shuhe instead.
Plan this trip
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Jiuzhaigou
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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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