City guide · Fujian
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.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
In Xiamen all you need is the mood to slow down and walk — every turn is a view. On Gulangyu all you need is the certainty that getting lost is the point.
Traveller note — 'A Xiamen Daydream, Wandering Gulangyu'
If heaven wanted to spoil someone, it would set them down gently in Xiamen. Every day there can be easy and happy, with nothing at all to think about.
Traveller note — 'April's Blossom and Sunshine'
Xiamen is the kind of city that makes you slow down without asking. It sits on its own island off the Fujian coast, ringed by a coastal boulevard, and its pleasures are undramatic: a bowl of satay noodles at a market stall, a ferry crossing to a car-free island of old villas, a bike ride with the sea the whole way along one side of the road.
It is a big, modern port — one of China's first Special Economic Zones — but the old town still runs on Minnan culture: southern Fujian dialect, southern Fujian religion, and a kitchen built on seafood, peanuts and a distinctive, light, faintly sweet hand with sauce. This is not your standard Chinese menu.
Most people use Xiamen as a launch pad. Gulangyu floats just offshore, the tulou roundhouses are a drive into the hills, and Fujian's other big city, Fuzhou, is two hours north by rail. That is fine — but give the city itself its own three days first, because the parts tourists skip, the markets and the back lanes, are the parts worth the trip.
Come in spring or autumn. Summer is hot, humid and punctuated by typhoons from July to September; winter is mild. Whatever the season, pack an umbrella and a healthy appetite.
Xiamen
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
A coastal boulevard along the whole south shore, from the university out to the exhibition centre, with the sea on one side and sculpture parks on the other. Flat, car-light in the bike lane, and best done on a rented bike.
One of the loveliest campuses in China, backed by hills and the coast, with the working temple of Nanputuo at its edge. Visitors enter on a reserved quota — register ahead.
The colonial-era shopping street and the old fishing harbour behind it, now the city's coffee-and-studio district. This is where Xiamen's unhurried, small-scale side lives.
The city's oldest wet market, a block from the ferry pier and still working at dawn. Come for the seafood, the dried scallops and the stall food locals actually queue for.
Satay noodles, oyster omelettes, seafood jelly, peanut soup, ginger duck. Light, seafood-led and faintly sweet — a regional cooking style quite different from the rest of China.
The great round earthen clan houses of the highlands, part of the Fujian tulou UNESCO site, a long day trip inland. Circular villages built to be defended, and still inhabited.
Suggested itineraries
The three-day plan is city-only, on foot, bikes and one ferry. The eight-day route folds in the tulou and an overnight on Gulangyu.
Enough for the islet, the coast and the old town without rushing any of them.
Take the morning ferry across to Gulangyu and spend the whole day on the island — the colonial villas, Sunlight Rock for the view, Shuzhuang Garden and the piano museum. Book the crossing in advance with your passport.
If you are not staying overnight, take the last ferry back and eat dinner in the old town. If you are, you get the island at its quietest after the boats stop.
Stops: GulangyuSunlight RockShuzhuang GardenPiano Museum
Start at Nanputuo Temple, then walk into Xiamen University next door and around its lakeside campus. Come out of the Baicheng gate onto the beach.
Rent a bike and ride the Island Ring Road east, past Zengcuo'an and the sculpture parks, as far as you fancy. Lunch or dinner in Zengcuo'an's lanes.
Stops: Nanputuo TempleXiamen UniversityBaicheng BeachIsland Ring RoadZengcuo'an
Begin early at the Eighth Market, before the best of the seafood is gone, then wander the lanes of Shapowei and the old harbour.
Walk Zhongshan Road, eat your way through the side streets, and finish with a bowl of peanut soup for dessert.
Stops: Eighth MarketShapoweiZhongshan RoadHuaxin Road
The long version, adding the mountain roundhouses and a proper overnight on the island.
Use the three-day city plan above — Gulangyu as a day trip first, then the coast and the old town.
Stops: XiamenNanputuoIsland Ring RoadZhongshan Road
Drive three hours inland to Nanjing county. Day one is the Tianluokeng cluster, the leaning Yuchang Lou and the village of Taxia; day two is Hegui Lou and the cobbled lanes of Yunshuiyao.
Stay a night in a tulou guesthouse, eat Hakka food, and come back to the coast the next afternoon. The site of the main film 'Yun Shui Yao' is the village that gave it its name.
Stops: Tianluokeng tulouYuchang LouTaxia villageHegui LouYunshuiyao
Return to Xiamen, catch up on Jimei and the Chen Jiageng memorial, then cross to Gulangyu and sleep on the island for two nights.
With the island as your base, mornings and evenings are yours alone, and you can use the last day to leave on your own schedule rather than a ferry timetable.
Stops: Jimei School VillageGulangyuLongtou RoadSunlight Rock
Sights
Ticket prices in China change without much notice. Treat these as a guide and confirm on arrival.
Campus · Free (quota)
Regularly named among the most beautiful campuses in China — laid out across hills and coast, with its own lake and a wooded valley the students call Lovers' Valley. The old buildings mix Chinese roofs with European bodies, which locals describe as 'a Western suit and a straw hat'. Visitors enter on a free daily quota, so you register in advance with your passport.
Tip Register the night before and arrive when the gate opens. The campus is a working university, so the quota exists to keep the teaching day intact — do not test it by turning up unbooked.
Temple · Free
A working Buddhist temple built in the classic Minnan style, tucked against the hill directly beside Xiamen University. Its halls run up the slope, from the Hall of Heavenly Kings to the Great Compassion Hall and the scripture library, with release ponds and lotus pools between. It is free, busy and genuinely religious rather than a museum piece.
Tip The temple kitchen serves a famous vegetarian menu — light, cheap and a pleasant change from seafood. Eat it at lunchtime, when the dining rooms are open.
History · Qing coast defence
A coast-defence fortress built in 1894 on the headland just past Xiamen University, part of the Qing self-strengthening programme. Its draw is the German-made Krupp gun, one of the largest surviving coastal guns in the world, still mounted in its emplacement. The rest of the site is earthworks, barracks and a small wax museum of Qing naval life.
Tip There is a small cannon-firing demonstration, usually at 10am and 4pm. It is worth timing your visit around; otherwise the fort is a quick add-on to the university and beach.
Coast · Bike route
The boulevard that traces the south shore of Xiamen Island, from the university out to the exhibition centre — locally called the Golden Coastline. The sea side carries a run of sculpture parks and beaches, and the whole route is flat, signposted and made for bicycles. The stretch around Zengcuo'an and the music and calligraphy plazas is the most popular.
Tip Ride east in the afternoon so the sun is behind you, and stop at a beach to eat. The road is long — pick a start point and a half-way turn rather than trying to do all of it.
Village · Cafés and B&Bs
A former fishing village folded between the hills and the ring road, now the city's guesthouse and street-food quarter. Behind the main drag it is still recognisably a Minnan village, with a mix of temples and shrines unusual even for Fujian. It is touristy, but it is also where a lot of Xiamen's young travellers stay.
Tip Come after dark, when the day-trip buses are gone and the lanes turn into a long, low-lit food street. The crowd is young and the food is cheap.
Old harbour · Studios
Xiamen's old fishing harbour, a sheltered bay of wooden boats, fish markets and lanes that has quietly become an art and coffee district without losing the boats. It is the best place in the city to see the old waterfront and the new creative scene in the same frame, especially at sunset.
Tip Go in the late afternoon. The light on the moored boats is the whole point, and the surrounding cafés fill up with students from the university.
Market · Local life
The oldest wet market in Xiamen, a short walk from the ferry pier and still the city's real kitchen at dawn. Rows of seafood, dried scallops and shrimp, pickles and cooked stalls, all of it aimed at locals shopping for dinner rather than at visitors. It is loud, wet underfoot and one of the best half-hours in Xiamen.
Tip If you want to buy dried seafood to take home, this is the place, and prices are lower than on Gulangyu. Go early and, if you can, go with someone who speaks the language.
UNESCO · Day trip
The great circular earthen clan houses of the Fujian highlands, built from rammed earth as defensible villages and home to Hakka and Minnan families for centuries. About three hours inland by road, the sites are spread across villages — the four-round-one-square Tianluokeng cluster, the deliberately leaning Yuchang Lou, and the walled village of Yunshuiyao are the classics.
Tip A single day only fits one cluster and a lot of driving. If the tulou are a real reason for your trip, sleep a night in a village and do two clusters properly instead.
Eating
Minnan food is light and seafood-led, with a sweet edge and a love of peanuts. Order widely and share — the plates are small.
Xiamen's signature bowl. A peanut-and-shrimp satay sauce, built up over months of salting and frying, loosened into a broth and poured over wheat noodles with whatever you ask for — squid, pork, tofu, blood sausage.
Small oysters fried into a soft egg-and-starch omelette, crisp at the edges, served with a chilli sauce. Locals eat it as a breakfast side dish with congee; you can eat it any time.
The one that divides everyone: a sea-worm, cooked down until its collagen sets into a clear, cool jelly, eaten with soy, vinegar, garlic and mustard. Texturally odd, genuinely delicious once you commit.
Boiled until the peanuts melt and the broth turns milky, then sweetened. A Xiamen institution, and often served with a raw egg cracked in to cook in the heat of the soup.
Duck braised slowly with old ginger and rice wine until the flesh gives way. Warming, faintly medicinal and a winter favourite — you will smell it down the street before you see it.
Very fine wheat noodles cooked down into a thick soup with seafood stock, egg and shredded pork, often with fried dough on the side. The classic local breakfast, sold out by late morning.
Where to eat
Phone numbers are local landlines; add +86 and drop the leading 0 if calling from abroad.
Snacks · Old name
Started in the 1940s as a single peanut-soup stall and now a Xiamen institution with branches across the city. The soup is the point — milky, sweet but not cloying — and it doubles as breakfast or a dessert. Come for a bowl and add an egg if you like.
Snacks · Local favourite
A long-running snack house best known for shrimp noodles and its award-winning street snacks. Almost all the customers are locals, which is exactly the recommendation. The shrimp-noodle broth is deep, red and made for the bowl rather than the prawn.
Satay noodles · Institution
The best-known satay-noodle shop in the city, near Xiamen University, and worth the queue. You build your own bowl from the toppings behind the counter — squid, pork, tofu, meatballs, greens. Go early; the good toppings run out.
Snacks · Cheap
A famous little shop on Zhongshan Road selling one thing very well: a fat sticky-rice parcel with pork, chestnut, egg and mushroom, dunked in a sweet chilli and peanut sauce. Even eaten cold it works. Add a bowl of satay noodles to turn it into a meal.
Breakfast · Early
A breakfast-only noodle soup the city lives on: fine noodles thickened with sweet-potato starch in a bone broth, with your choice of squid, oyster, shrimp or pork intestine, and fried dough on the side. It sells out by about 11am, so go first thing.
Sleeping
Stay near the university or Zhongshan Road to walk to the sights. Prices rise sharply over the National Day and Spring Festival holidays — book early.
Hostel · from ¥50
The city's classic backpacker address, a three-storey Nanyang-style house on the leafy creative street of Nanhua Road. There is a sunlit common room and a water garden, and the hostel runs talks and meet-ups. Simple, sociable and close to the university and the ring road.
Guesthouse · from ¥160
Trim, standard rooms inside the university itself, at the south gate side. It is not luxurious, but the location — inside the prettiest campus in the city, walkable to Nanputuo and the beach — is hard to beat at the price. Book well ahead.
Hotel · from ¥660
The city's smart, high-end option, in the centre and within a few minutes' walk of the ferry pier to Gulangyu. Rooms are large, the location is unrivalled for sightseeing, and the price reflects both. Best if you want comfort and a walkable base rather than a bargain.
Five-star · from ¥640
A full-service hotel on the shore of Yundang Lake and beside Bailuzhou Park, in the financial district and next to the lakeside café-and-bar street. Good for a comfortable stay slightly away from the tourist crush, with the old town a short ride away.
B&B · from ¥100
The ring road's beach village is full of small converted guesthouses, some of them twenty metres from the water with a sea view from the window. Cheerful, colourful and popular with younger travellers. Quality varies widely — read recent reviews and check the exact address.
Getting around
The metro covers the airport, both stations and the old town. For anything coastal, a bike beats a car.
Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport (XMN) sits on the northeast corner of the island, 10 km from the centre, with dense domestic service and international routes across East and Southeast Asia.
Two main stations: Xiamen Station on the island, near the old town and the ferry, and Xiamen North on the mainland side in Jimei. High-speed trains link both to Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen.
If you want to walk to the old town and the ferry, book a train into Xiamen Station rather than Xiamen North. North is faster to reach by train but a long way from everything.
The metro and the elevated BRT together cover the airport, the stations, the university and the old town cheaply and in English. Line 1 is the useful one for visitors, running across the island to the coast.
Over 200 bus routes at ¥1 a ride cover the whole city, plus small private minibuses that pick up along fixed corridors. Cheap and extensive, but bring coins — the front-door fare box does not make change.
Plenty of taxis with honest meters, and cheap by big-city standards — about ¥50 crosses most of the island. They get hard to hail in rush hour and in the rain, so allow extra time for a flight or a train.
The one crossing you cannot drive. Ferries to the car-free island leave from the Xiagu Pier at the International Cruise Centre by day and the downtown Lundu Pier at night, and tickets are capped and booked by passport.
Shopping
Buy specialities in Xiamen, not on Gulangyu — the island marks almost everything up.
Xiamen's oldest commercial street, running down to the sea, with department stores on the main drag and better small shops in the side lanes. Start here for a normal city shop or a souvenir.
Xiamen's traditional crafts: bead embroidery worked into slippers, bags and wall panels, and Fujian-style lacquer pieces. Look for these in the craft shops off the main streets rather than in the airport.
The classic edible souvenirs — pineapple cake, peanut brittle, coconut pies and the local filled pastry — sold everywhere and reliably good. Buy a box to eat and a box to take home.
This is tieguanyin and jasmine-tea country. Buy loose-leaf tea from a proper tea shop, taste before you commit, and expect the price to track the grade closely. The markets around the old town have the best selection.
Practical
Staffed English help is not guaranteed. Save these before you need them.
| Emergency (police / ambulance / fire) | 110 · 120 · 119 |
|---|---|
| Xiamen First Hospital | 55 Zhenhai Road, Siming District · 0592-2137177 |
| Xiamen Second Hospital | 566 Shengguang Road · 0592-6159520 |
| Post office | Lundu Post Office, opposite the ferry pier on Lujiang Road |
| Cash & cards | Cards, WeChat Pay and Alipay accepted almost everywhere; carry coins for buses |
| Tipping | Not expected and sometimes politely refused — do not add a tip to the bill |
| Visa | Many nationalities now enter China visa-free for short stays — confirm your passport's status before booking |
| Typhoons | July–September is typhoon season; watch forecasts, as flights and coastal sights can close |
Tips
The island caps daily arrivals, so the crossing is booked by passport and sells out days ahead in peak season. There is no turning up and buying a ticket on the day.
The Island Ring Road is flat, coastal and made for bicycles. Hire one near the university and ride east for as long as you like — it is the single best thing to do in the city on a clear day.
July to September is typhoon season. A storm can ground flights and close coastal sights for a day or two, so build a little slack into any summer itinerary and check the forecast.
The Eighth Market is at its best before 9am, when locals are shopping and the seafood is fresh; Zengcuo'an is at its best after dark, when the day-trippers have gone and it becomes a food street.
The campus lets visitors in on a free daily quota with your passport. Register online the night before, and pair it with Nanputuo Temple next door, which needs no booking at all.
Fujian is one of the wettest provinces in China and the weather turns fast. If you are taking the ferry to Gulangyu or a boat trip, a little preparation saves an unpleasant crossing.
Background
Xiamen is built on an island — about 128 km² for the main island, with the city's six districts spilling onto the mainland across a string of bridges and tunnels. The urban core of Siming and Huli sits on the island itself, with Jimei, Haicang, Tong'an and Xiang'an on the far side. It sits on the Fujian coast facing Taiwan across the strait, and Kinmen island is close enough to see on a clear day.
The climate is subtropical: warm, humid and green all year, averaging about 21°C, with rain concentrated from May to August and 3–4 typhoons a year, mostly between July and September. That gives Xiamen its lush, slightly overgrown look — banyans, palms and bougainvillea everywhere — and its slow, outdoor way of life.
Xiamen has been a busy port since the Song dynasty, and by the seventeenth century it was the base from which the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong, better known in the West as Koxinga, ran his campaign against the Qing and across the strait to Taiwan. When the Qing later opened China to foreign trade, Xiamen was one of the five treaty ports forced open by the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing.
The foreigners who came — thirteen countries in all — did not settle on Xiamen island so much as on the smaller island next door. Gulangyu became their concession, and the villas and consulates they built still stand there. Much of China's tea export passed through Xiamen's harbour in those years.
The twentieth century was hard: Japanese occupation from 1938 to 1945, then decades as a frontline city facing Taiwan, which kept investment and industry away. Everything changed after 1978, when Xiamen was named one of China's first Special Economic Zones. The investment that followed, much of it from Taiwan and the overseas Chinese diaspora, turned the island into the modern, prosperous city it is today.
Travel with them
Not guides — films, books and music made here or set here, that show the city the way the people in it see it.
Dir. Ning Hao, 2009
A manic crime comedy that folds four storylines — a disgraced cyclist, two hapless thieves, a Taiwanese gang and two over-keen cops — into one chase across Xiamen. It was shot all over the city, along the Island Ring Road, at the airport, on Gulangyu and on Zhongshan Road, and it is as good a portrait of the place's edge-of-the-sea energy as any.
Gao Zhenbi
A photographer's love letter to the parts of Xiamen that are disappearing — the old harbour, the wharves, the back lanes and the shophouses — compiled over years of walking the city with a camera. It is the best way to understand what the old town looked like before the cafés arrived.
Cheer Chen
Cheer Chen's quiet, unhurried folk-pop is the soundtrack many locals put on for a slow afternoon of coffee and wandering. Taiwan's answer to Xiamen's mood: low-key, wistful and entirely without hurry.
The LifeJourney
An indie-rock summer anthem written for the city — exactly the sound of riding the ring road with the windows down. Loud, warm and deliberately uncomplicated.
The questions visitors ask us most about Xiamen, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Three days for the city and Gulangyu, four if you add the tulou. Day one is Gulangyu, day two the university, Nanputuo and the ring road, day three the old town and its markets. If you have a spare day, spend it on the tulou roundhouses — they are three hours inland and worth the trip.
Yes, and it is underrated. Winter in Xiamen runs roughly 8–18°C — no snow, no real cold, and far fewer tourists. It is a genuinely good season to visit, with the only caveat being occasional grey drizzle. Summer is the one season to think twice about, because of the heat, the humidity and the typhoons.
Start with satay noodles (shacha mian) and an oyster omelette, then try the 'bamboo shoot jelly' (tu sun dong, a seafood jelly you will either love or hate), peanut soup, ginger duck and misua noodles. Minnan food is light, seafood-led and faintly sweet — unlike anything else in China. The stalls off Zhongshan Road and inside the Eighth Market are the places to begin.
Yes — Gulangyu caps how many people land each day, and the ferry is booked in real name with your passport. In peak season tickets sell out days ahead and there is no walk-up option. Book through the official Xiamen Ferry service; day boats leave from the Xiagu Pier at the International Cruise Centre, and the crossing takes about 20 minutes.
Yes, but on a free daily quota with registration in advance — bring your passport. It is one of the prettiest campuses in China, ringed by hills and the coast, so it fills up fast. Register online the night before, arrive early, and combine it with Nanputuo Temple next door and the beach at Baicheng just beyond.
The roundhouses are about three hours inland by road, in Nanjing and Yongding counties, so it is either a long day trip or an overnight. A driver-guide for the day is by far the easiest way, because the sites are spread across villages with thin public transport. The Tianluokeng group and Yunshuiyao are the two to prioritise.
Mostly. Metro line 1 links the airport, the railway station and the old town, and signs are bilingual; taxis are cheap and metered. English is thin at ticket desks and in markets, so keep a translation app handy. For the tulou and any day trip out of town, having a driver makes a real difference.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
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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
City guide · 12 tours
Gorge country where the Taihang and Yan ranges collide — 52.5 km of canyon walls, a cave that spits fish, and a river to fall off.
Zhuhai
City guide · 12 tours
The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.
Wuyi Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.
Jiuzhaigou
City guide · 12 tours
108 mineral-blue lakes in one 55 km valley — the place that ruins water everywhere else for you.
Mount Siguniang
City guide · 12 tours
Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.
Hailuogou
City guide · 12 tours
A glacier that comes down to 2,850 m, hot springs in the forest, and Gongga Shan filling the sky above both.
Daocheng Yading
City guide · 12 tours
Three 6,000 m sacred peaks, glacial lakes at 4,600 m and twenty hours of road — the hardest, highest payoff in Sichuan.
Shunan Bamboo Sea
City guide · 12 tours
Seventy thousand mu of bamboo over twenty-eight hills, a red sandstone corridor under a closed green roof, and a banquet made entirely of bamboo.
Dujiangyan
City guide · 12 tours
Not a monument but a machine: three pieces of engineering with no dam, still doing their job after 2,270 years.
Qingcheng Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
The mountain where Daoism was organised, and the one Chengdu escapes to when the basin turns into an oven.
Qingdao
City guide · 12 tours
Red-tiled roofs, cold beer and a granite mountain that walks straight into the sea — the easiest good time on the Yellow Sea.
Mount Tai
City guide · 12 tours
1,545 metres, 6,290 stone steps and three thousand years of emperors — the one mountain in China that is also a document.
Jinan
City guide · 12 tours
A provincial capital with 700 springs under the pavement — people still queue at the spouts to fill their kettles.
Weihai
City guide · 12 tours
1,000 km of clean coast, a free bathing beach, the island where the Beiyang Fleet died — and thousands of wild swans every winter.
Qufu
City guide · 12 tours
One family, two thousand years of steles, and a ¥150 pass that covers the lot — the easiest serious day trip in Shandong.
Penglai
City guide · 12 tours
China's immortals' coast — a Song-dynasty naval harbour you can walk for free, a mythology nobody ever found, and the ferry to 32 islands.
Changdao
City guide · 12 tours
32 islands, one causeway, a ¥150 land pass, tens of thousands of gulls and nowhere you can drive — the place where everything happens by boat.
Nanjing
City guide · 12 tours
Capital of six dynasties, capital of the Republic, and the city that eats more duck than anywhere else on earth.
Suzhou
City guide · 12 tours
Two thousand five hundred years of canals, sixty surviving gardens, and a city that shuts its gates at half past five.
Zhouzhuang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine hundred years, fourteen bridges, one ticket — and a town that only makes sense before eight in the morning.
Tongli
City guide · 12 tours
Fifteen canals, seven islets, forty-nine bridges — and a town that still gets up at dawn because it lives here.
Wuxi
City guide · 12 tours
Taihu on one side, a Grand Buddha on the next hill, and ribs sweet enough to argue about — the most underrated city on the Yangtze delta.
Yangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A city built by salt merchants who had more money than restraint — gardens, a narrow lake, and the best breakfast in China.
Zhenjiang
City guide · 12 tours
Three hills, one ferry landing, and an unreasonable share of Chinese literature — the Yangtze city people drive past.
Changzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,500-year-old canal city that built a dinosaur park and refuses to apologise for it.
Wuzhen
City guide · 12 tours
A town that is two towns: the older, quieter East Zone and the lit-up West Zone you sleep inside.
Xitang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine canals, 122 lanes, one long roofed corridor — and a town that still works for a living.
Hangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A lake in the middle of a city, a tea village in the hills, and two thousand years of getting the mood right.
Xixi Wetland
City guide · 12 tours
Ten square kilometres of marsh inside Hangzhou, and the only way into half of it is a boat.
Ningbo
City guide · 12 tours
A 7,000-year-old port with Asia's oldest private library, a free waterfront 20 years older than Shanghai's, and the best seafood before the islands.
Mount Putuo
City guide · 12 tours
A Buddhist island with no cars, three great temples and a ¥10 lunch that is the point of the place.
Qiandao Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A thousand islands that did not exist sixty years ago, and the cleanest big-lake water in China.
Shaoxing
City guide · 12 tours
Two and a half thousand years of water-town China, and Lu Xun's house is free.
Zhoushan
City guide · 12 tours
1,390 islands, one road bridge in, and a harbour that lands more fish than almost anywhere on earth.
Hengdian
City guide · 12 tours
A backlot the size of a town, where the palaces are copies and the film crews are real.
Yandang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano that weathering turned into scenery — 500-odd sights of peak, cave and waterfall across eight scenic areas.
Zhejiang
City guide · 12 tours
One small, mountainous, absurdly rich province that holds a lake, two canal towns, a Buddhist island and a dead volcano.
Hong Kong Outlying Islands
City guide · 12 tours
Two hundred-odd islands, half an hour of ferry from the financial district, and not a car on three of them.
Hong Kong Shopping
City guide · 12 tours
A duty-free port where the tag starts lower, two citywide sale seasons knock a third off, and every mall sits on an MTR exit.
Macao
City guide · 12 tours
Four hundred years of Portuguese streets, a fake Venice under a painted sky, and the best egg tart in Asia.
Urumqi
City guide · 12 tours
The city furthest from the sea, with a snow range on its doorstep and dinner starting at nine.
Hong Kong SAR, China
City guide · 11 tours
A harbour skyline you already know by heart, dim sum trolleys at dawn, and 260 islands an hour from the neon.
Taiwan, China
City guide · 11 tours
Night-market alleys, high-mountain railways, and a coastline that changes character every hundred kilometres.
Qinghai Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A 4,400 sq km inland sea at 3,200 m, ringed by rapeseed gold, prayer flags and the best cycling road in China.
Mount Emei
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,099-metre Buddhist summit you can reach by cable car before lunch — and a mountain full of monkeys that will absolutely rob you.
Beijing
City guide · 11 tours
Six centuries of imperial red walls, a Great Wall you can climb before lunch, and the best roast duck on earth.
Taipei
City guide · 11 tours
A 24-hour bookstore, a night market that never stops sizzling, and a city that apologises when you bump into it.
North Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Alpine lakes the colour of poured enamel, a village of log cabins under birch trees, and the last tear the Atlantic ever sheds.
Lanzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A city split in half by the Yellow River, where beef noodles are a breakfast ritual and the Silk Road still runs through the streets.
Mount Hua
City guide · 11 tours
Five granite peaks, one plank road bolted to a cliff face, and a sunrise that justifies the 2am start.
Dunhuang
City guide · 11 tours
A desert oasis where Buddhist cave art survived a thousand years and a crescent lake refused to dry up.
Gannan
City guide · 11 tours
433 kilometres of the Yellow River's first bend, a 3.5 km prayer-wheel circuit, and Tibetan grasslands almost nobody has commercialised yet.
Sichuan–Tibet Highway
City guide · 11 tours
2,142 kilometres of cliff-edge switchbacks, four of China's most beautiful mountains, and a road the Tibetans walk on their knees.
Kangding
City guide · 11 tours
The town that gave Asia its most famous love song, a 7,556m sacred peak on its doorstep, and the last real Tibetan town before the road climbs to Lhasa.
Lhasa
City guide · 12 tours
A city of prayer wheels and butter lamps at 3,700 metres, where the sun shines 3,000 hours a year and the world's highest palace watches over it all.
Nyingchi
City guide · 11 tours
Tibet's greenest corner — peach blossom valleys, a 7,782 m peak that hides from almost everyone, and the world's deepest canyon.
Namtso
City guide · 11 tours
A 1,920-square-kilometre sheet of impossible blue at 4,718 metres, ringed by snow peaks and prayer flags.
Chongqing
City guide · 12 tours
A vertical city of fog, cable cars and cliff-side stilt houses, where the火锅 never stops boiling and the night skyline outshines Hong Kong.
Qiandongnan
City guide · 11 tours
A thousand Miao households stacked up a mountainside, drum towers and wind-rain bridges in Dong villages, and a 600-year-old Ming garrison town on the road to Guiyang.
Libo
City guide · 11 tours
Emerald rivers threading through karst peaks, a 600-metre forest growing out of a riverbed, and China's largest wild plum grove.
Guiyang
City guide · 11 tours
China's summer capital at 1,100 metres, where the nights run on sour fish soup, street-side barbecue and mahjong that never quite stops.
Zhenyuan
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,000-year-old river town where the Wuyang River carves an S through the mountains and every lane hides a story.
Huangguoshu
City guide · 11 tours
Asia's biggest waterfall, and the only one on earth you can walk behind, above and around — plus 600-year-old Ming dynasty villages a short drive away.
Harbin
City guide · 11 tours
Minus 30 degrees, a frozen river you can walk across, and a cathedral built by Russians who never went home.
Yunnan
City guide · 11 tours
Snow mountains, tropical rainforest, twenty-five minorities and a plate of rice noodles — all in one province.
Shanghai
City guide · 11 tours
A 1920s waterfront of colonial banks facing a science-fiction skyline, soup dumplings you eat with a straw, and 20 million people moving like clockwork.
Zhangjiajie
City guide · 11 tours
Three thousand sandstone pillars straight out of Avatar, a glass skywalk bolted to a cliff, and a cable car that leaves from downtown.
Guangzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,200-year-old trading port where dim sum is a religion, colonial islands sit beside 600-metre towers, and the food never stops.
Guilin
City guide · 11 tours
Karst peaks rising straight out of a green river, rice terraces carved into mountainsides, and the best bowl of noodles you'll eat in China.
Shenzhen
City guide · 11 tours
A fishing village that became a megacity in forty years — and it still has 500-year-old banyans, empty beaches and dim sum worth the border crossing.
Chengdu
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,000-year-old city where the schedule is tea, mahjong and hotpot — and the pandas are just the opening act.
Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Snow peaks, grassland, desert and oasis — one-sixth of China, and the longest road you will ever ride.
Xi'an
City guide · 14 tours
Thirteen dynasties of emperors, a terracotta army buried for 2,200 years, and a walled city you can cycle in 100 minutes.
Qinghai
City guide · 11 tours
China's high-altitude blue heart: a salt lake you can walk on, a 3,200-metre sea, and yak butter tea at the roof of the world.
Tibet
City guide · 11 tours
A plateau the size of Western Europe where the sky starts at your feet, prayer flags carry the wind, and the roads run past 8,000-metre peaks.
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