City guide · Guangdong
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.
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've lived in Shenzhen for over three years and I still find new places. One weekend a few friends and I hike, the next we cycle to the coast — honestly, that's the happiest part of living here.
Traveller note, 'Shenzhen Impressions, One Stop a Week'
You expect a young city to feel empty of culture. Then you spend an afternoon at the printmaking village in Guanlan, walking between the old Hakka houses and the vegetable plots, and everything goes quiet.
Daisy_Butterfly, 'A Song After the Rain — Guanlan Printmaking Village'
Shenzhen has no old town to speak of, and that is exactly the point. In 1979 it was a fishing county called Bao'an; four decades later it is a city of over 17 million people with the tallest skyline in Guangdong and a metro that reaches further every year. You come here not for dynasties but for the sheer momentum of the place — and for the food, which is quietly some of the best in southern China.
The downtown core is a chain of theme parks strung along Shennan Boulevard: Window of the World with its scaled-down Eiffel Tower, Splash World next door, and the Splendid China folk village a stop away. It sounds like a gimmick and it partly is, but families genuinely love it and the evening parades are well staged. Between the parks, the OCT-LOFT creative district fills old factory buildings with galleries, coffee and small design shops.
Then there is the coast. The Dapeng peninsula in the east has the cleanest water in the Pearl River Delta, a 600-year-old Ming-dynasty garrison town at Dapeng Fortress, and the village of Yangmeikeng where the coastal cycling path curves right along the sea. Most tourists never make it out here, which is precisely why you should.
Shenzhen
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
Window of the World packs 130-odd scaled-down global landmarks — Niagara Falls, the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids — into 480,000 square metres on the Shenzhen Bay shore, and the ticket is CNY 160 (CNY 80 after 8pm). Buy the little "passport" at the gate and get it stamped as you go; it is genuinely fun. Splendid China next door shrinks the whole country into one park for CNY 150.
Dameisha is free, sandy and packed on weekends; Xiaomeisha charges CNY 30 and is calmer, with its own Sea World aquarium. Push further east to Dongchong and Xichong on the Dapeng Peninsula for the cleanest water and emptiest sand in the city — both free, both reachable by bus from Nan'ao. Summer here is a real beach season, not a compromise.
The Futian Mangrove reserve on the Shenzhen Bay shore is a free national bird sanctuary where the black-faced spoonbill — rarer than a panda — winters every year. Come August and September for the migration. It is ten minutes from some of the most expensive office towers in Asia, and it costs nothing.
Built in 1394 under the Ming as a coastal defence post, Dapeng Suocheng has Ming and Qing lanes, temples and garrison houses still standing, and it is the first of the "Eight Sights of Shenzhen". Entry is CNY 20, open 08:00–20:00. Bus 818 from Dapeng station gets you to the nuclear-power-plant stop, then walk.
China's number-one electronics street: entire malls of components, drones, phone cases and cables at prices that make you question your home currency. Even if you buy nothing, spend two hours wandering the stalls. It is five minutes from Huaqiang Road metro station, and the bargaining is half the entertainment.
Itineraries
The greatest hits on the metro's Line 1 and Line 2, no long transfers, no wasted afternoons. Best for first-timers and families.
Start at Window of the World the moment it opens at 9:30 — you want two hours before the tour buses arrive, and the CNY 160 ticket covers a full day if you stay for the 8:30pm night parade. Metro Line 1 or 2 to Window of the World station, exits H1, I or J.
Stops: Window of the WorldSplendid China Folk VillageOCT-LOFT Creative Culture Park
Give Happy Valley a full day — CNY 180 entry, open 09:00–22:00, and the night session from 18:30 is only CNY 60. The rides worth queueing for are the plunge coaster and the Snow Mountain Flying Dragon, China's first suspended roller coaster. Metro Line 1 to Window of the World, exit A, then walk three minutes.
Stops: Happy ValleyDiwang Mansion observation deckDongmen Old Street
Bus 308, 380 or the holiday shuttle to Dameisha for a free morning on the sand, then back into the city for the Futian Mangrove reserve — free, open all day, best in August and September when the migratory birds come through. End on the Diwang Mansion 69th-floor deck (CNY 80, open 08:30–22:00) to watch the lights come on over Shenzhen Bay.
Stops: Dameisha BeachFutian Mangrove ReserveDiwang Mansion
For people who have done the theme parks and want the sea, the old villages and the hills. Carry cash, wear proper shoes, and do not attempt this on a public holiday.
Bus 103 straight to Xiaomeisha — CNY 30 entry, quieter water than Dameisha, and the Sea World aquarium next door runs ten shows a day with a one-hour water-ballet and dolphin programme. Check into a Xiaomeisha resort, swim, then walk the beach boardwalk after dark.
Stops: Xiaomeisha BeachXiaomeisha Sea WorldXiaomeisha boardwalk
Bus 360 or 364 to Dapeng, then 818 to the fortress. CNY 20 gets you into the Ming-era garrison town, the oldest surviving settlement in Shenzhen. Give it three hours, then head to Jiaochangwei village for a homestay and a seafood dinner cooked by the family that runs it.
Stops: Dapeng FortressJiaochangwei villageDapeng Peninsula
The Dongchong–Xichong traverse is the best coastal hike in the city: rocky scrambles, wild pineapple in the scrub, and two of the finest beaches in Guangdong at either end. Both are free, both are sandy and clean. Bus 360 or 364 to Nan'ao, then a local minibus or a hired car for the last 20 minutes.
Stops: Dongchong BeachXichong BeachNan'ao town
Sights
Theme park
A 480,000-square-metre park on the Shenzhen Bay shore where the world's landmarks are rebuilt at scale — the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids, Niagara Falls — with a simulated flash flood that still startles people who have seen it three times. The night session from 20:30 is cheap and the parade is worth staying for.
Tip Buy the park passport at the entrance and get it stamped at each landmark — it sounds gimmicky and it is, but it keeps kids moving for six hours.
Theme park
Shenzhen's answer to Disneyland and, by common consent, the best amusement park in the city. The headline rides are the world's tallest-drop log flume, China's first suspended roller coaster, and a 4D cinema that combines sight, sound and motion. Evening tickets are a third of the price and the queues are half as long.
Tip Go on a weekday and go at opening. On a Saturday in July the queue for the log flume alone can be 90 minutes.
Historic site
A Ming-dynasty coastal garrison founded in 1394, now the best-preserved old settlement in Shenzhen and the first of the city's "Eight Sights". The lanes are genuine Qing stone, the houses are lived in, and the temples are still working. Twenty yuan is a bargain for an hour inside real history.
Tip Pair it with a homestay in nearby Jiaochangwei village — the seafood dinners there are cooked by the owners and cost a fraction of city prices.
Nature
A free national bird sanctuary on the Shenzhen Bay shore where the black-faced spoonbill — fewer of them exist than pandas — comes to winter every year. The boardwalks thread through mangrove, shallow water and mudflat, and the whole thing is ten minutes from the CBD. August and September are the best months for the migration.
Tip Bring binoculars and go at low tide. At high tide the birds are out on the water and you will see almost nothing.
Viewpoint
The 69th floor of the Diwang building — Shenzhen's first skyscraper and once the tallest in the country — with six high-powered telescopes and a full 360-degree sweep of the bay, the border and, on a clear day, Hong Kong. It is the cheapest skyline view in a city full of expensive ones.
Tip Go up about 45 minutes before sunset. You get the daylight view, the dusk view and the full city lights for one CNY 80 ticket.
Food
The Shenzhen breakfast of choice: a thin sheet of rice batter steamed to order, scraped off the cloth, folded around beef or prawns and drowned in sweet soy. Look for the ones made fresh in front of you — 'white as snow, thin as paper' is the local standard. A plate runs CNY 6–12.
A Shunde import that became a Shenzhen obsession — whole milk simmered twice so a wrinkled skin forms on top, served warm and barely sweet. Order the ginger version (jiang zhuang nai) if you want the sharper, warming one. Around CNY 12–18 a bowl.
Charcoal-roasted goose, honey-glazed char siu and braised soy chicken, hanging in the window by the dozen. The best roast goose in town is famously at a tiny spot near Huaqiangbei — get there before 1pm or the good cuts are gone. Rice plates from CNY 25.
Shenzhen sits where the Pearl River meets the sea, so the seafood is genuinely excellent. Yantian's seafood street and the Shekou fish stalls do it simply — steamed, salt-and-pepper fried, or in congee. Expect CNY 80–150 per person and pick your own fish from the tank.
Not tea as you know it — a bitter Chinese-medicine brew sold from street-corner shops, drunk warm in tiny cups for everything from heatstroke to a late night. The classic brands are all over the city. A cup costs CNY 5–10; don't sip it slowly, knock it back.
Where to eat
Roast goose · Huaqiangbei
A hole-in-the-wall next to the clay-pot soup place that serves what many call the city's best Cantonese roast goose and char siu. It's tiny, it's busy, and the goose rice is worth the squeeze. Go early — the good cuts sell out by early afternoon.
Rice rolls · Jianshe Road
An old-school favourite with locals who have been coming for years. The rice rolls are translucent and silky, the beef-and-cilantro version is the one to get, and the dry-fried beef ho fun holds its own. Cheap, fast, no frills.
Seafood · Shekou
A husband-and-wife operation opposite the Shekou theatre that cooks only a handful of dishes, all of them good and all of them cheap. This is the seafood you came to Shenzhen for, without the Yantian markup.
Beef hotpot · Huaqiangbei
Hand-beaten beef balls with real bounce, served with the house shacha sauce that regulars come back for. It's cheap, it's fresh, and it's the kind of unglamorous meal you end up recommending to everyone.
Where to stay
Luxury · Luohu
Occupies the top of the 100-storey KK100 tower on Shennan East Road, with a 95th-floor lobby that looks straight down over the whole city. It sits on top of a high-end mall, minutes from the Luohu border crossing and the metro. The splurge option, and the view is the point.
Mid-range · Luohu
Directly opposite the Luohu border crossing, Shenzhen railway station and the metro, with Dongmen and Huaqiangbei ten minutes away by metro. There's a downtown check-in terminal 50 metres from the front door with airport shuttle buses — the most practical base if you're crossing to Hong Kong.
Budget · Nanshan
A chain budget hotel on the west side of Happy Valley, walking distance from Splendid China, the Folk Culture Village and Window of the World. Clean, cheap and perfectly placed if you're doing the theme-park circuit. There's also a youth hostel in OCT from CNY 75 a bed if you want to go cheaper still.
Getting around
Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport sits out at Fuyong in the far west, and Metro Line 1 connects the terminal to the city through a covered walkway — no taxi needed unless you are hauling serious luggage. The ride from the airport to Luohu takes about 68 minutes and costs 9 yuan flat, which is a fraction of the 130 yuan a cab will run you (that figure already includes the 20 yuan expressway toll). Ten airport shuttle routes fan out to every district, and the 330 main line runs to the railway station west square from 07:30 until the last flight lands for 20 yuan.
Shenzhen Station in Luohu is the southern terminus of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen railway and sits right beside the Luohu border checkpoint — walk through immigration and you are on the Hong Kong side. High-speed trains use Shenzhen North in Longhua, which is the stop for the Xiamen–Shenzhen line and the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong express. Shenzhen West (Nantou) handles a smaller set of services. If you are coming from Guangzhou or Hong Kong, book the high-speed train rather than a bus; it is faster and the stations connect straight to the metro.
The metro is the only sane way to cross this city. Lines cover Luobao (1), Shekou (2), Longgang (3), Longhua (4) and the Huanzhong loop (5), and any two lines interchange, so you can get from the Window of the World to Dongmen without surfacing. Use it for the theme parks, the border, the airport and the shopping districts. Fares are distance-based and cheap; a Shenzhen Tong card gets you a discount on both metro and bus.
Buses run on more than 1,000 routes and are colour-coded: blue for trunk lines, yellow for branch, green for express. Fares are 0.22 yuan per km on air-conditioned buses and 0.17 on non-AC, with a 2 yuan starting fare and a 10 yuan cap on the longest routes. Watch the route numbers carefully — 309 and M309 stop at the same places but go completely different ways. Taxis come in three colours: red runs everywhere, green is outside the special zone only, yellow inside it. Red and yellow start at 10 yuan for 2 km then 2.4 yuan per km; green starts at 6 yuan for 1.5 km. A 30% night surcharge applies from 23:00 to 06:00 on red and yellow cabs.
Shopping and local produce
The local claim is that the world's lychee is in China, China's is in Shenzhen, and Shenzhen's is in Nanshan — and Nanshan lychee is the only lychee in the world with geographical indication protection. Varieties like nuomici, guiwei and feizixiao are soft, juicy and intensely sweet, and were already being sent to the imperial court as tribute in the Tang and Song dynasties. Best in June and July, and best eaten fresh rather than carried home.
Shenzhen's most famous local product, farmed where the Pearl River meets the sea in Shajing, Bao'an District. The oysters are plump, milky white and tender, and they have followed Chinese communities around the world. Buy them dried if you want to take them home, or eat them grilled on the spot along the Yantian seafood strip.
Nan'ao is one of the largest land-based abalone farms in the country, and the town's slogan is simply that if you want seafood, you go to Nan'ao. The meat is slippery, crisp and tender, and traditionally treated as a delicacy. Look for it on menus in the Dapeng Peninsula rather than in city-centre restaurants.
Huaqiangbei is billed as China's number one electronics street, and it is the reason IT people and hardware tinkerers put Shenzhen on their map. You can find everything from components to accessories, plus export-grade goods, snacks and cheap seafood in the surrounding blocks. Know your prices before you haggle, and test anything you buy before you leave the stall.
Practical information
Shenzhen is warm for most of the year — roughly March through the following January — and there are fewer than 20 genuinely cold days annually. Pack light layers plus one jacket for evenings, bring sun protection for the beaches, and if you plan to eat seafood, wait an hour before swimming or drinking anything cold. For a tailor-made route through the theme parks and the coast, see our Shenzhen tour packages.
| Tourism complaint hotline | Shenzhen 0755-82002253, Guangdong province 020-87513619 |
|---|---|
| Hospitals | Shenzhen People's Hospital, Luohu, 0755-25533018; Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Futian, 0755-83923333; Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, 0755-83366388 |
| Post offices | Jianshe Road branch, Luohu, 0755-25168303; Civic Center branch, Futian, 0755-82002641 |
| Internet | Most hotels provide broadband; many hotels and restaurants have Wi-Fi. Internet cafes are scattered across the city. |
| Travel agencies | Shenzhen China International Travel Service, 0755-88849603; Shenzhen Kanghui International, 0755-82185656; OCT Travel Service, Nanshan, 0755-83662323 |
| Tourist information | Shenzhen Tourist Distribution Center, Jiatian Road, Luohu, 0755-27336678 |
| Best time to go | Winter and early spring. Rainfall is low from November to March, and the annual average temperature is 22.5°C. July averages 28.8°C; January averages 15.4°C. Typhoons rarely hit the city directly because the mountains break them up. |
Background
Shenzhen's story goes back far further than its skyline suggests — archaeologists have found pottery here dating to the Neolithic period, roughly 6,000 years ago, when small fishing and moon-worshipping clans settled the coast. From 1573 the town of Xin'an administered both this land and what is now Hong Kong, its economy built on salt, tea, spices and rice. The Opium War split the two: the 1842 Treaty of Nanking handed Hong Kong to Britain, and the remaining territory was renamed Bao'an.
On the very last day of 1980 that county town was reborn as the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, China's first experiment with market reform. Deng Xiaoping picked it precisely because it sat across the water from Hong Kong, and the gamble paid off — in four decades a town of around 30,000 grew into a metropolis of over 17 million. Almost everyone you meet here is a migrant from somewhere else, which is exactly why the food, the festivals and the ambition feel nothing like the rest of Guangdong.
That restlessness has a flip side worth knowing before you arrive: Shenzhen has very few genuinely old sights. Its pleasure is contemporary — theme parks built at enormous scale, a coastline that stays warm from March into January, and a creative class that turned former factory floors into galleries. Come expecting a young city that is still figuring itself out, and the place rewards you.
Shenzhen sits on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary, bordered by Hong Kong across the Shenzhen River to the south and by Dongguan and Huizhou to the north, with Daya Bay and Dapeng Bay opening onto the South China Sea. The average annual temperature is 22.5°C, the frost-free period runs 355 days, and the coldest month, January, still averages 15.4°C — cool enough for a jacket at night, warm enough for a T-shirt at noon. July averages 28.8°C, tempered by sea breezes that make it far more bearable than inland summers in Wuhan or Beijing.
Typhoons are the one real weather risk. The mountains that ring the city blunt most of them, and a direct hit on Shenzhen averages less than once a year, but the season runs from roughly June to September and can shut the beaches and ferries for a day or two. Winter and early spring — November through March — are the driest and most comfortable months, and the ones locals themselves consider prime visiting time.
The city runs east to west along a single spine, Shennan Boulevard, with the dense commercial core around Luohu and Futian in the centre, the theme-park belt at OCT in Nanshan to the west, and the beaches and old fishing villages of the Dapeng Peninsula stretching away to the east. Get your head around that line and the rest of Shenzhen is easy.
Further reading
Directed by Wing Shya and Tony Chan, 2010
A six-strand romance anthology stitched across Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Beijing — a Hong Kong taxi driver falling for a Shenzhen foot-massage girl, a Wasabi pining after a sushi chef, a factory hand who collides with a stunt rider. It is light, but it is one of the few mainstream films that actually shoots Shenzhen as a place where people come to start over.
Murong Xuecun, 2004
The novel that gave a generation a language for what the boom cost. Murong traces a group of graduates chasing fortunes in Shenzhen from the first flush of money through betrayal and collapse. If you want to understand the ambition and the anxiety underneath the skyline, this is the book locals pass around.
Liu Xijun
A bright, easygoing pop track by one of the city's own singers, and a decent soundtrack for a first evening on the Shenzhen Bay promenade. Pair it with the group number Shenzhen Lover, written by He Muyang, whose lyrics are essentially a love letter to the city's lights — listen to it on the ride back from the beach at dusk and it lands differently.
The questions visitors ask us most about Shenzhen, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Shenzhen is worth 2–3 days on its own, especially if you want Cantonese food, theme parks and beaches without Hong Kong prices. It is 20 minutes by metro from the Futian checkpoint, so plenty of people do both in one trip — but treat Shenzhen as a destination, not a stopover, and you will be surprised.
October to March. Winter is short and mild — often 15–20°C — and dry, which is why it is peak season. Summer runs from May to October at 30°C-plus with high humidity and occasional typhoons, though the sea breeze makes it bearable and the beaches are at their best.
Take the MTR East Rail to Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau and walk across at Luohu or Futian — the crossing takes about 20 minutes once you clear immigration. High-speed trains also run from Hong Kong West Kowloon to Futian and Shenzhen North in 14–20 minutes. Bring your passport and, depending on nationality, a visa.
Mobile payment rules here — WeChat Pay and Alipay are accepted almost everywhere, including taxis and street stalls. Foreign cards can be linked to both apps. Carry a little cash (CNY 200–300) as backup, and note that some small vendors genuinely cannot make change for a CNY 100 note.
Two days covers the downtown theme-park strip and Dongmen; three days adds a beach or the Dapeng peninsula. If you want to slow down on the coast, give it five. Distances are long — the metro from Luohu in the centre to the Dapeng beaches takes about two hours.
Cantonese roast goose and char siu, rice-noodle rolls (changfen) for breakfast, double-skin milk pudding, and seafood at the Yantian seafood street near the eastern coast. The city is a migrant city, so you will also find excellent Hunan, Sichuan and Northeast Chinese cooking within a few blocks of each other.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
Shenzhen
Fifteen minutes on the train, then Kowloon, the Star Ferry, Central's banking district and the tram up to Victoria Peak.
From US$149/per person
View tour
Shenzhen
Watch painters work in a village that once supplied the world's hotel lobbies, then cross town to Shenzhen's contemporary art district.
From US$89/per person
View tour
Shenzhen
A Ming garrison town 600 years older than Shenzhen, then a bay of fishing boats and a beach that most visitors never find.
From US$99/per person
View tourCity guides
Dalian
City guide · 15 tours
The Northern Pearl — China's most romantic coastal city.
Shenyang
City guide · 12 tours
Where the Qing dynasty began — an imperial palace, a warlord's mansion and the cheapest good food in the northeast.
Changbai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano on the North Korean border, a jade-green crater lake at 2,189 m, and hot springs on the way down.
Kunming
City guide · 12 tours
China's Spring City — a mild plateau capital of flowers, markets and the Stone Forest, with gulls on the lake in winter.
Dali
City guide · 12 tours
A walled Bai town between a 4,000 m mountain and a great lake — wind, flowers, snow and moon, and life at a slower speed.
Shuhe
City guide · 12 tours
The quiet version of Lijiang — a Tea Horse Road village of canals, stone bridges and slow afternoons, 4 km from the crowds.
Lijiang
City guide · 12 tours
A UNESCO Naxi old town of canals and cobbles beneath a 5,596 m snow mountain — the cultural heart of north-west Yunnan.
Xiamen
City guide · 12 tours
A subtropical island city of temples, fishing-village lanes and the best street food in Fujian — with the car-free islet of Gulangyu a 20-minute ferry away.
Gulangyu
City guide · 12 tours
A car-free island of colonial villas, pianos and cats, twenty minutes off Xiamen — and the one place where the trick is simply to stay the night.
Fuzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,200-year-old capital of banyan trees and mountains-within-the-city, where the Ming lanes of Sanfang Qixiang meet the dockyard that built China's modern navy.
Lugu Lake
City guide · 12 tours
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.
Xishuangbanna
City guide · 12 tours
China's tropical south — rainforest, wild elephants, Dai villages and the Mekong, wrapped around the gateway city of Jinghong.
Shangri-La
City guide · 12 tours
A Tibetan town at 3,300 m in Yunnan's Diqing prefecture — monasteries, grassland, prayer wheels and cold thin air.
Nanchang
City guide · 12 tours
Jiangxi's 'hero city' on the Gan River — one great Tang pavilion, a 160-metre Ferris wheel, and the best claypot soup you will eat in China.
Hefei
City guide · 12 tours
Anhui's 2,000-year-old capital: the hometown of China's model judge, a moat-turned-garden ring, and the fast rail gateway to Huangshan.
Hongcun
City guide · 12 tours
A 900-year-old Hui village laid out as an ox, with water running to every door and a mirror-still crescent pond at its heart.
Wuhan
City guide · 12 tours
Three towns, two rivers and the best breakfast in China — a huge, blunt river city of bridges, lakes and cheap, brilliant street food.
Changsha
City guide · 12 tours
Hunan's loud, young capital: a 3,000-year-old city that eats chilli-hot food, stays up all night and treats foot massage as a civic duty.
Fenghuang Ancient Town
City guide · 12 tours
The stilt-house river town of Shen Congwen's 'Border Town' — glowing lanterns, stepping stones and the best two nights in western Hunan.
Lushan
City guide · 12 tours
A cloud-wrapped granite mountain with a Victorian hill station on top, waterfalls in three tiers, and the mist that Su Shi said you could never see through.
Wuyuan
City guide · 12 tours
China's 'most beautiful countryside' — dozens of white-walled Huizhou villages strung along streams and terraced into the hills, and two weeks a year of gold.
Mount Heng (Hengshan, Hunan)
City guide · 12 tours
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.
Huangshan
City guide · 12 tours
Yellow Mountain: 82 granite peaks of twisted pines and grotesque rock, a sea of cloud that changes by the hour, and hot springs at the foot.
Wudang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
The Taoist first mountain of China — a gilded bronze hall on a 1,612 m summit, temples hung off cliff faces, and the birthplace of tai chi.
Luoyang
City guide · 12 tours
Thirteen dynasties, 100,000 Buddhas carved into a river cliff, China's first Buddhist temple — and a whole city that turns peony-pink every April.
Yuntai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A UNESCO geopark in Henan where red-stone gorges squeeze a river to a slot, a 314 m waterfall drops in one plunge, and every path leads to another pool.
Rizhao
City guide · 12 tours
A low-key Shandong beach town where the sun rises straight out of the Yellow Sea, the sand runs 60 km and a seafood dinner costs less than a coffee in Shanghai.
Yantai
City guide · 12 tours
A northern Shandong port of fairy-tale cliffs, wine cellars and long golden beaches — where emperors once hunted the elixir of life and China's wine industry still begins.
Lianyungang
City guide · 12 tours
A working Jiangsu port with a myth in the middle of it — the Flower-Fruit Mountain of Journey to the West, a sea causeway to a big island beach, and some of the cheapest seafood on the coast.
Sanqing Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A vertical forest of granite pillars in Jiangxi — the Python Out of the Mountain, the Goddess of the East Sea, two cable cars and a cliff-hugging walkway at 1,660 metres.
Tianjin
City guide · 12 tours
Beijing's port city next door — a river of 24 bridges, 2,000 colonial villas, and the best street breakfast in northern China.
Datong
City guide · 12 tours
A frontier capital of carved Buddhas — the Yungang Grottoes, a temple pinned to a cliff, and the oldest wooden tower in China.
Taiyuan
City guide · 12 tours
Shanxi's provincial capital and noodle heartland — the spring of Jinci, two Ming pagodas, and a museum that explains the whole province.
Pingyao
City guide · 12 tours
China's best-preserved ancient walled town — a Ming wall, the first Chinese bank, and two temples of painted clay just outside the gates.
Wutai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
China's foremost Buddhist mountain — fifty-plus temples in one valley, crowned by five flat-topped peaks up to 3,058 m.
Hulunbuir
City guide · 12 tours
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.
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.
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.
Related reading
Visas
Do I Need a Visa for China? Requirements, Costs and How to Apply
China's entry rules changed more in the last three years than in the previous twenty. Here is exactly who needs a visa, what it costs, how long it takes and which passports now walk straight through.
9 min read
Visas
China's 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit: Who Qualifies and How It Works
Ten days in China with no visa application, no fee and no fingerprints — if you hold the right passport and leave for a third country. Here is the rulebook, port by port.
8 min read
Money
Paying in China: Alipay, WeChat Pay, Cards and Cash
Roughly nine in ten urban payments in China now run through a phone. Set up two apps before you fly, carry a modest cash float, and you will never be stuck at a till.
8 min read
Transport
China's High-Speed Rail: How to Book, What It Costs, How Fast It Goes
The fastest way to cross China is also the most pleasant. Here is how to book a ticket with a foreign passport, what the three classes actually give you, and how to survive a Chinese station at rush hour.
9 min read
Planning
Best Time to Visit China: Month by Month, Region by Region
China is the size of Europe, so 'the best month' depends on where you stand. Here is the month-by-month answer for the north, the Yangtze valley, the south and the plateau.
8 min read
Planning
What to Pack for China: The Complete 2026 Checklist
Twenty thousand steps a day, three climate zones and a phone that has to do everything. This is the list we give our own travellers, minus the things they never used.
7 min read
Food
Chinese Food Culture: Eight Cuisines, One Table
There is no such thing as Chinese food. There is Cantonese, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Shandong — and knowing which one you are eating changes everything.
8 min read
Traditions
Chinese Tea Culture: Six Classes, One Pot, Two Fingers
Tea in China is not a beverage category, it is a social technology: it fills silences, seals deals and sets the pace of a meal. Here is how to sit down in one and not look lost.
7 min read
Traditions
Chinese Festivals: The Calendar, the Dates and the Crowds
Lunar dates mean the calendar moves every year — and two of the festivals move several hundred million people at once. Plan around them or plan into them, but never by accident.
8 min read
Etiquette
Chinese Etiquette: What Matters, What Does Not, and Why
Most etiquette advice for China is either obvious or wrong. These are the dozen behaviours that actually change how you are treated, and the reasoning behind each.
7 min read
Free itinerary design, a revised plan within one working day, and nothing charged until you approve the final version.