City guide · Taiwan, China
Night-market alleys, high-mountain railways, and a coastline that changes character every hundred kilometres.
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 keep getting asked whether Taiwan is really as good as everyone says, and whether it's worth going back a second time. I always answer without hesitating: I love it, and not only for the scenery and the food — Taiwan makes all the things you imagined actually true.
Luoxufenfei, 'Taiwan: the most familiar strange place'
Something about the food there — old or inventive, familiar or completely new — quietly closes the distance between me and the place. In a city I've never lived in, I end up feeling unhurried and completely at ease.
Bi'an Claire, 'First taste of Taiwan'
Taiwan, China fits a surprising amount into a small island: you can drink coffee in a 24-hour bookstore in Taipei in the morning, ride a narrow-gauge forest train through Alishan's misty cedars by afternoon, and eat grilled squid on a beach in Kenting that same night. The west coast is fast, modern and dense with high-speed rail; the east coast is cliffs, tunnels and almost no development at all.
What pulls most travellers back is the texture of daily life. The Taipei MRT is spotless and quiet, with priority seats left empty out of habit. Temple incense drifts over a night market where a bowl of oyster vermicelli costs NT$55. A grandmother in Lukang will correct your pronunciation of a place name and then walk you to the corner you were looking for.
This guide is built around the classic 12-day loop, with real ticket prices, train times, and the honest version of what each stop is worth. If you only have five days, do Taipei plus one mountain — trying to bolt the whole island onto a short trip is how people end up exhausted and remembering only the inside of a bus.
Taiwan, China
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
The National Palace Museum holds over 650,000 artifacts — Shang and Zhou bronzes, jade, ceramics, calligraphy — with roughly 8,000 pieces on display at any time and the rest rotated every three to six months. At 160 TWD for the main exhibition hall, it is the single best-value cultural stop in the country.
Ringed by green mountains, the lake is split by Lalu Island into a sun-shaped east half and a moon-shaped west half. Day-trippers see it for two hours; stay one night and you get the mist at dawn and the glassy reflections at dusk that everyone photographs. Entry is 100 TWD; boats run 100 TWD per leg or 300 TWD for the full loop.
The mountain delivers five things at once: sunrise, sunset glow, cloud sea, ancient cypress forest and the narrow-gauge logging railway. Take the little train up from Chiayi, sleep on the mountain, ride to Zhushan for dawn. Weekend full fare is 200 TWD, half fare 100 TWD.
Taiwan's southern tip gives you white sand, warm water and a national park with forest, grassland and coral coast all in one. Rent a scooter, ride the peninsula, and you understand why 'The Most Distant Place' was filmed here.
Shilin alone draws a crowd that never seems to thin. Night markets are where Taiwan's real food lives — oyster omelettes, beef noodles, stinky tofu, shaved ice — and a full meal costs 50–200 TWD. Skip the restaurant and eat where the queue is.
Itinerary
The north in three days: the big museums and viewpoints on day one, the old harbour and hot springs on day two, the misty mountain towns on day three. Built for people landing at Taoyuan and not wanting to rush.
Start at the National Palace Museum when it opens at 9am — the tour buses arrive an hour later and the jade gallery gets wall-to-wall. After lunch hit the Shilin Residence (100 TWD) and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, where the guard change at the top of each hour is the thing everyone films. Finish on the 89th-floor observation deck of Taipei 101 (400 TWD full fare, last tickets 21:15) and eat your way through Shilin Night Market on the way home.
Stops: National Palace MuseumShilin ResidenceChiang Kai-shek Memorial HallSun Yat-sen Memorial HallTaipei 101Shilin Night Market
Mornings in Beitou are for the hot springs — the public pool at Longnai Tang is 70 TWD for 30 minutes, family pools 100 TWD per person, open 08:30–21:00. Visit the Hot Spring Museum and Thermal Valley, then take the MRT to Tamsui for the afternoon: Hongmao Castle, the old street, A-gei and iron eggs. Get to Fisherman's Wharf before 5:30pm — the sun drops behind Lover's Bridge and the whole pier stops to watch.
Stops: Beitou Hot Spring MuseumThermal ValleyTamsui Old StreetHongmao CastleFisherman's WharfLover's Bridge
Ride the TRA to Ruifang, change onto the Pingxi Line and hop off at Jingtong — the old timber station at the end of the line. Then take bus 825 up to Jiufen, walk the 300-plus steps of Shuchi Road from the police station up to Jiufen Elementary, and drink tea in an old teahouse while the sea fog rolls in. Jinguashi, ten minutes away, is the old gold-mining town that supplied the sets for A City of Sadness.
Stops: Ruifang StationJingtong StationPingxi LineJiufen Old StreetShuchi RoadJinguashi
The first three days of the classic 12-day island circuit — Taipei to Sun Moon Lake to Alishan — for travellers who want to see what the loop feels like before committing to the whole thing.
Take the HSR from Taipei to Taichung (roughly every 15 minutes from 6:30am, about 1 hour), then the Nantou bus from Taichung Gancheng Station to Sun Moon Lake — about 90 minutes, 180 TWD on the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle. Check in, then do the lake circuit by boat: Shuishe, Xuanguang and Ita Thao piers, 100 TWD per leg. Stay lakeside if you can; the colour of the water changes by the hour.
Stops: Taipei Main StationTaichung HSR StationTaichung Gancheng StationSun Moon LakeShuishe PierXuanguang TempleIta Thao
Catch the 9am Yuanlin bus from Sun Moon Lake to Alishan, or go via Chiayi and take the shuttle up. Check into a mountain guesthouse, walk the forest trails among the giant cypresses to Sisters Pond, and eat before 7pm — kitchens on the mountain close early. Set an alarm: the Zhushan sunrise train leaves in the dark.
Stops: Sun Moon LakeAlishan National Forest Recreation AreaSisters PondSacred TreeAlishan Village
Ride the forest railway to Zhushan for sunrise — you are above the cloud sea, and when it works it is the best 200 TWD you will spend in Taiwan. Back down, take the narrow-gauge train to Chiayi, then a train or bus south to Tainan. End the day at Chihkan Tower and whichever night market is open — Dadong or Garden, depending on the day.
Stops: ZhushanAlishan Forest RailwayChiayi StationTainanChihkan TowerGarden Night Market
Sights
Taipei · half a day
The world's deepest collection of Chinese imperial art, and the reason many people come to Taipei at all. The bronzes, jade and ceramics are rotated constantly, so you never see the same museum twice — the full collection on display would take nearly 30 years to work through. Go at 9am on opening, take the jade cabbage and the meat-shaped stone first, then loop back.
Tip Buy your ticket and head straight to the third floor before the tour groups clear the entrance hall — by 10:30 the jade gallery is shoulder to shoulder.
Nantou · overnight
A mountain lake that genuinely lives up to the postcards, split by Lalu Island into a sun-shaped half and a moon-shaped half. Boats loop between Shuishe, Xuanguang and Ita Thao piers, and the lakeside bicycle path is one of the best rides in Taiwan. The ropeway up to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village is a 300 TWD round trip.
Tip Stay one night. The lake at 6am, before the tour boats start, is a completely different place from the lake at noon — and there is nothing to do in the area after dark except eat and sleep, so book somewhere with a view.
Chiayi · 1–2 days
Taiwan's most famous mountain, and still worth it despite the crowds. The forest railway, the ancient cypress groves, Sisters Pond and the sunrise from Zhushan are the four things to tick off. The mountain sits above the cloud line often enough that sunrise here is a genuine gamble — but a sunrise above a sea of cloud is unforgettable when it lands.
Tip Book the sunrise train the afternoon you arrive, not the morning of. It sells out, and the guesthouse reception will do it for you in two minutes.
Pingtung · 2 days
The tropical south: white sand beaches, coral coast, grassland and forest inside one national park. Rent a scooter and ride the peninsula — Hengchun old town, the lighthouse at Eluanbi, Jialeshui and Baisha Bay are all within an easy half-day loop. This is where Taiwanese come for their own holidays.
Tip Do not try to see Kenting from Kaohsiung as a day trip. The bus alone eats four hours of your day and you will spend the rest of it sweating on a beach towel.
New Taipei · half a day
A former gold-mining town stacked up a hillside above the sea, now a maze of teahouses, snack stalls and staircases. Shuchi Road, the long flight of steps from the police station up to Jiufen Elementary, is the shot everyone comes for. It is said to have inspired parts of Spirited Away.
Tip Arrive by 4pm, stay for dusk, and take the bus down after the day-trippers have gone. The lantern-lit stairways after dark are the whole point, and the last buses back to Taipei still run late.
Food
The national dish. Braised beef shank, chewy handmade noodles, dark star-anise broth. Taipei's Lin Dong Fang and Yongkang Beef Noodle are the usual pilgrimages, and a good bowl costs NT$150–250.
Shilin alone will feed you for NT$200. Oyster omelette (NT$60–80), giant fried chicken cutlet (NT$70–90), stinky tofu (NT$50–70), and pepper pork buns you queue 20 minutes for.
Steamed pork soup dumplings at NT$180 a basket at the Xinyi Road original. Anthony Bourdain called it the world's best restaurant chain and the wait list agrees — book or go at 2pm.
A bowl of NT$40–55, eaten standing up outside on Emei Street with a plastic spoon because there are no seats. The house broth is the whole point.
Chun Shui Tang in Taichung invented bubble tea and still sells it for NT$50–70 a cup. Buy pineapple cakes and nougat from the Breeze food court at Taipei Main Station if you don't want to hunt down individual shops.
Where to eat
Xiaolongbao · Taipei
The original branch, and the one foreigners mean when they say they went to Ding Tai Fung. Expect a 30–60 minute queue at peak hours; the xiaolongbao are NT$180 a basket, the vegetable-pork dumplings and the chicken soup in a clay pot are the sleeper hits.
Street food · Ximending
You eat standing on the pavement, spoon in hand, in a crowd of locals doing exactly the same. The thick starchy soup with intestines is an acquired taste and a Taipei rite of passage. It's cheap enough to order two bowls.
Fried chicken · Taichung
A bone-in chicken cutlet fried in a custom batter, sauced and topped with house pickles — nine sauces to choose from. It's inside Fengjia Night Market, so eat it while walking between stalls. Open until 01:30, which is when it hits hardest.
Tea house · Taichung
The teahouse that started the global bubble tea craze. Order the pearl milk tea, then stay an hour — this is a sit-down cultural experience, not a to-go counter. The jade lemon and matcha latte are also house classics.
Where to sleep
Hostel · Zhongshan, Taipei
The only government-registered hostel in Taipei, tucked into a quiet office district with 40-plus bus routes and the Xingtian Temple MRT across the road. Airport buses drop you at the door. Book two months ahead in high season — it fills up on reputation alone.
Boutique hotel · Songshan
Designed by Chen Jui-hsien, the man behind the Eslite Xinyi flagship, and paired with Bar 333 downstairs. Serious coffee machine, iPod docks, service that reads your mood. It's the pick if you want a stylish Taipei base within a few MRT stops of everything.
Hostel · Sun Moon Lake
Right on the lake near Ita Thao, with 75 rooms ranging from Tang-style suites to forest cabins. Staying overnight is the whole point — you get the lake at dawn before the tour buses arrive. Bring a Youth Hostel card for the discount.
Getting around
Most international arrivals land at Taoyuan International Airport, about 40 km from central Taipei. Songshan Airport sits right in Taipei and handles many cross-strait and regional flights, while Kaohsiung's Xiaogang Airport takes some Southeast Asian and mainland routes. Direct flights from major Asian cities run daily, so you rarely need to route through Hong Kong unless you want to.
The THSR runs 345 km down the west coast from Taipei to Zuoying (Kaohsiung) in about 2 hours at up to 300 km/h, stopping at Banqiao, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi and Tainan. It is the fastest way to link Taipei with Taichung, Chiayi (for Alishan) and Kaohsiung. Book online or at station machines; seats rotate 180 degrees so groups can face each other.
Taiwan Railways covers the whole island with dense stops and useful branch lines. Trains are graded from fastest to slowest: Tze-Chiang (Ziqiang), Chu-Kuang, Fu-Hsing, ordinary and local; only ordinary and local skip seat reservations. On the east coast the fastest service is branded Taroko. The Pingxi branch line and the Alishan Forest Railway are attractions in their own right rather than just transport.
Taipei and Kaohsiung both have clean, signposted metro systems; Taipei's covers almost every major sight and runs 06:00–24:00, NT$20 to NT$50 per ride. City buses cost NT$15 (NT$12 for students and police) and do not give change, so carry coins or an EasyCard. Taxis are yellow, start at NT$70 for 1.5 km, add NT$5 every 300 m, and charge a 20% night surcharge between 23:00 and 06:00.
Shopping
The classic gift, sold everywhere from airport counters to the Breeze Center at Taipei Main Station, where you can buy brands from all over the island in one stop. Look for the ones with real pineapple jam rather than winter-melon filler, and check the expiry date — most keep only 10 to 14 days.
Chewy milk nougat, often studded with cranberries or nuts, travels well and packs small. Pair it with Sun Moon Lake Assam black tea or high-mountain oolong from Alishan — buy loose-leaf from a proper tea shop rather than a souvenir stand and you will taste the difference at home.
Eslite and smaller independent shops sell beautifully printed Chinese-language books, stationery and design objects you will not find elsewhere. The original Eslite Dunnan store on Dunhua South Road is open 24 hours, so it is a genuine late-night shopping option.
Ximending and the Xinyi shopping district carry local cosmetics, sheet masks, illustrated tote bags and quirky accessories. Prices on imported brands are often lower than on the mainland, and staff are famously patient — expect to be helped even if you only browse.
Practical
Taipei runs about 20–30% pricier than the centre and south. A basic double room in a minsu averages around NT$1,500 a night, more on Friday, Saturday and public holidays, so book ahead for weekends and the Lunar New Year, 228 Peace Memorial Day and New Year's Day, when locals travel too.
| Currency | New Taiwan dollar (NT$). Roughly 1 CNY = 4.6–4.7 NT$. Notes come in 2,000, 1,000, 500, 200 and 100; coins in 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1. Change money at the airport on arrival — rates are better than in Hong Kong. |
|---|---|
| Cards and ATMs | About 80% of ATMs accept UnionPay, and more than 6,000 shops take mainland UnionPay cards. Look for UnionPay-marked ATMs at 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and post offices. |
| Language | Mandarin is understood almost everywhere; you will hear more Taiwanese (Minnan) and Hakka in the centre and south, where asking a younger person for directions works best. Signs are in traditional characters, which most visitors can read. |
| Phone and internet | SIM cards are sold on the spot at Taoyuan, Songshan and Kaohsiung airports, at carrier shops and at 7-Eleven with two IDs. Free Wi-Fi is widespread: 7wifi works at over 4,800 7-Eleven stores, and TPE-Free covers metro stations and many public buildings. |
| Power | 110V with flat two-pin sockets. Phone, camera and most laptop chargers work fine; a three-pin laptop plug needs an adapter. High-wattage appliances like hairdryers will not work — borrow one from your hotel. |
| Entry rules | Mainland independent travellers need three things: the Exit-Entry Permit, the Taiwan Entry Permit and a personal tourism endorsement. Stays are capped at 15 days. Fruits, vegetables, cured fish and meat cannot be brought in; undeclared cash over US$10,000 equivalent is confiscated. |
| Emergency and etiquette | Ambulance 119, police 110. Country code +886, no time difference with Beijing. Give up the priority seats on the metro, stand on the right of escalators, and remember many museums close on Mondays. |
Background
Portuguese sailors passing in the 1500s called this island Ilha Formosa — the beautiful island — and the name stuck for centuries. Taiwan sits about 180 kilometres off the southeast coast of mainland China, roughly 394 kilometres long and 144 kilometres at its widest, with a spine of mountains running down the middle that tops out at Yushan, 3,952 metres, the highest point in Northeast Asia. That geography explains almost everything: why the west coast is flat, crowded and full of cities, why the east coast is cliffs and gorges, and why you can go from a subtropical beach to a cloud forest in a single day.
The island layers several cultures on top of each other. Indigenous Austronesian peoples — the Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun and a dozen more — were here for thousands of years before Han Chinese migrants arrived from Fujian and Guangdong in the 17th century, followed by waves of mainlanders after 1949. Hakka communities kept their own cooking and architecture; Japanese colonial rule from 1895 to 1945 left behind hot springs, railway lines and bento culture. The result is a food scene that borrows from everywhere: beef noodle soup from Sichuan via Taipei, oyster omelettes from Fujian, braised pork rice from the south, and a night-market vocabulary that no other place on earth quite matches. For a deeper dive into the food culture, see our Taiwan food and night market guide.
Think of Taiwan as four trips in one. The north is Taipei: museums, hot springs, a 508-metre tower and the best public transport in the country. The centre is mountains and lakes — Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, the misty highlands. The south is old towns and sunshine: Tainan's temples and lanes, Kaohsiung's harbour, Kenting's beaches. The east is drama: Taroko Gorge, the Qixingtan pebble beach, the coastal road that everyone photographs. Most first-timers do a 10 to 12-day loop; if you have less, pick two regions and go deep rather than sprinting around the whole island.
Reading & Watching
Hou Hsiao-hsien
The film that made Jiufen famous before the tourists arrived, and the one that gives you the 228 Incident and the White Terror era in human terms. Watch it before you walk the stairs of Shuqi Road and the tea houses will look different.
Compiled from oral tradition
Short, strange folk stories — including the Sun Moon Lake legend of the dragons who swallowed the sun and moon, and the fisherman Dajian and Shuishe who won them back. Read it on the bus to Nantou and the lake will mean more than a photo stop.
Chen Qizhen (Cheer Chen)
The unofficial soundtrack of the Taipei hills. Play it on the train to Ruifang, then again in a Jiufen tea house at dusk. For the other end of the spectrum, Wu Bai and Mayday are what the south actually sounds like.
The questions visitors ask us most about Taiwan, China, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Ten to twelve days for the full loop — three in Taipei, then Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Kenting and Hualien with a night or two in each. Five days is enough for Taipei plus one mountain, and anything shorter than that and you'll spend most of it on trains.
September to November. The autumn skies are clear and cool, typhoon season is largely over, and temperatures sit in the low twenties. Spring (March to May) is also good but wetter. July and August are hot, humid and squarely in typhoon season, and winter in Taipei is damp and grey — though the south stays pleasant.
Yes — it cuts Taipei to Kaohsiung from 4 hours 50 minutes on the regular train to about 2 hours. Tickets run NT$1,490 for a standard seat on that route, and you can book online, at station counters, at the automatic machines, or at any convenience store with the HSR logo. Trains run roughly every 15 minutes between 6am and 11:30pm.
Plan on CNY 500–670 (about NT$2,300–3,100) per person per day, covering a hostel or budget hotel bed from NT$400–1,500, street food at NT$50–200 a meal, and public transport. Taipei is the most expensive city; Tainan, Kaohsiung and Hualien are noticeably cheaper. A 12-day trip lands around CNY 6,000–8,000 all in.
Carry cash. Roughly 80% of ATMs accept UnionPay cards, and about 6,000 merchants — mostly large department stores and chains — take them, but night markets, small noodle shops, temples and taxis are cash-only. Change money at the airport on arrival; the rate is better than in Hong Kong if you're transiting there.
The four places that need real attention are the Suhua Highway (prone to landslides after heavy rain — check the forecast first), Taroko Gorge (falling marble; wear the provided helmet), Alishan (poorly maintained trails and foggy, winding roads, so don't drive tired), and Yehliu Geopark (don't cross the red warning line, the waves are genuinely dangerous). Elsewhere, anywhere a public bus reaches is generally fine.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
City guides
Dalian
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The Northern Pearl — China's most romantic coastal city.
Shenyang
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Where the Qing dynasty began — an imperial palace, a warlord's mansion and the cheapest good food in the northeast.
Changbai Mountain
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A volcano on the North Korean border, a jade-green crater lake at 2,189 m, and hot springs on the way down.
Kunming
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China's Spring City — a mild plateau capital of flowers, markets and the Stone Forest, with gulls on the lake in winter.
Dali
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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
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The quiet version of Lijiang — a Tea Horse Road village of canals, stone bridges and slow afternoons, 4 km from the crowds.
Lijiang
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A UNESCO Naxi old town of canals and cobbles beneath a 5,596 m snow mountain — the cultural heart of north-west Yunnan.
Xiamen
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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
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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
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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
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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
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China's tropical south — rainforest, wild elephants, Dai villages and the Mekong, wrapped around the gateway city of Jinghong.
Shangri-La
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A Tibetan town at 3,300 m in Yunnan's Diqing prefecture — monasteries, grassland, prayer wheels and cold thin air.
Nanchang
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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
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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
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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
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Three towns, two rivers and the best breakfast in China — a huge, blunt river city of bridges, lakes and cheap, brilliant street food.
Changsha
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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
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The stilt-house river town of Shen Congwen's 'Border Town' — glowing lanterns, stepping stones and the best two nights in western Hunan.
Lushan
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Beijing's port city next door — a river of 24 bridges, 2,000 colonial villas, and the best street breakfast in northern China.
Datong
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A frontier capital of carved Buddhas — the Yungang Grottoes, a temple pinned to a cliff, and the oldest wooden tower in China.
Taiyuan
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Shanxi's provincial capital and noodle heartland — the spring of Jinci, two Ming pagodas, and a museum that explains the whole province.
Pingyao
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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
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China's foremost Buddhist mountain — fifty-plus temples in one valley, crowned by five flat-topped peaks up to 3,058 m.
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
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Beijing's 600-year imperial palace — 8,700 rooms behind a 72-hectare wall, and the largest surviving wooden palace complex on earth.
Sanya
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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A free West Lake, a Taoist mountain and 200 km of white-sand coast — the Pearl River Delta's most underrated weekend.
Beidaihe
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Northern China's classic beach escape — one sunrise headland, 10 km of calm swimming water, and a bird flyway overhead twice a year.
Shanhaiguan
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The town where the Great Wall stops being a rumour of mountains and walks into the Bohai Sea.
Baiyangdian
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The biggest freshwater lake on the North China Plain — and almost none of it can be reached except by boat.
Qinhuangdao
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126 km of Bohai coast in one municipality — a working port, two famous resorts, and the only desert dunes that meet this sea.
Yesanpo
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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
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The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.
Wuyi Mountain
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Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.
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
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Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.
Hailuogou
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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.
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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