City guide · Shandong
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.
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 April the pear blossom stretches from ridge to ridge, like great drifts of snow or a thin, floating mist. Walking among the trees and lingering under them, you feel almost immortal. And by May the whole coast is a riot of colour, the sea a sheet of blue, the sand soft and clean, the pine belts green and lush.
Traveller note — 'A Yantai Travelogue'
I can still picture the three of us sitting on an unnamed shore on Changdao, watching the deep blue water and listening to the purest sound of the waves. Everything I had been turning over and could not let go of, all at once, was blown away — like a crumpled sheet of paper soaked in seawater and smoothed flat again.
Traveller note — 'Dalian, Yantai and Penglai in Five Days'
Yantai is a place people have long come to in search of something they could not quite see. In the third century BC, Qin Shi Huang is said to have stood on these cliffs hunting the elixir of life, and to have sent the envoy Xu Fu east across the sea toward three mythical islands. The mirage of Penglai — a trick of the air above the water — has been reported off this coast for two thousand years, and it gave the whole shoreline its name for fairyland.
Modern Yantai is more solid than that. It is a working port and a famous orchard town — Yantai apples are among the best known in China — and it holds a peculiar distinction as the city that made wine a serious Chinese industry: the Changyu company was founded here in 1892, and the vineyards still run along the same slopes.
The city's shape is easy to read. The centre clings to a low wooded headland, Yantai Hill, whose airy, European-looking old quarter was once a foreign concession, and the coast road opens out west along beaches. An hour to the north-west sits Penglai, the fairyland town, and beyond it the long island of Changdao.
Come in spring for the pear blossom that turns the hills white, or in summer for cool, dry beaches — Yantai is one of the few big Chinese ports that faces north, which keeps the summer air fresh. It pairs easily with the rest of the coast: Dalian across the Bohai by ferry, Qingdao an hour and a half south, and Rizhao further down the same shore.
Yantai
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
One of China's four great towers, on the Dan cliffs above the strait, wrapped in the myths of the Eight Immortals and the elixir of life. Climb it for the sea views and the old temple complex — the reason the whole coast is called fairyland.
The wooded headland at the north of the centre, with its lighthouse and European-style villas from the treaty-port era. Three sides in water, 53 metres high, and the best free hour in the city at sunset.
China's first world-class wine museum, built around the original 1892 cellars. The ¥50 ticket includes a tasting and a small bottle of brandy, and it tells the story of how one company founded an entire national industry here.
A 40-minute ferry offshore, the Long Island group holds the sheer cliffs of Jiuzhang Ya, the pebble beach of Half-Moon Bay and a working fishing fleet. A full day, weather permitting, and a world away from the mainland.
Yantai's west coast runs a long chain of flat, golden-sand beaches with clean water, a gentle slope and a pine belt behind — safe, family-friendly and free. Best in late summer.
Fushan cooking, one of the three pillars of Lu cuisine, was born here: seafood-led, fresh and unfussy. Sea snail, fish dumplings, braised prawns and the Penglai 'Eight Immortals' banquet.
Suggested itineraries
The three-day plan is Yantai and Penglai only. The five-day route stretches the same coast south through Weihai and Qingdao, with the island folded in.
The city, Penglai and a day on the water — the core of a Yantai trip.
Start at Yantai Hill and walk the old concession quarter beneath it — the lighthouse, the villas and the ring road with the sea on three sides. Stop for coffee in the leafy lanes behind.
Afternoon at the Changyu Wine Culture Museum on Dama Road: the 1892 cellars, the tasting, and the story of Chinese wine. Finish with seafood in the old town.
Stops: Yantai HillOld concession quarterChangyu Wine Culture MuseumDama Road
Take the hour-long bus or train north-west to Penglai. Spend the morning at the Pavilion and its old complex on the cliff; look out over the strait where the mirage appears.
Afternoon at the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea scenic area and the Sanxian Shan gardens, both a short ride away. Stay the night in Penglai rather than rushing back.
Stops: Penglai PavilionEight Immortals Crossing the SeaSanxian Shan
If the weather is fair, take the morning ferry from Penglai to Changdao: the cliffs of Jiuzhang Ya, Half-Moon Bay and a day among the fishing villages.
If the boats are off, head back to Yantai and give the day to the golden beaches at the development zone and a long, slow seafood lunch.
Stops: Changdao (Jiuzhang Ya, Half-Moon Bay)Golden BeachDevelopment-zone seafront
Yantai, Penglai, Changdao, Weihai and Qingdao on one long shore.
Use the three-day plan above — the city, the fairyland at Penglai, and the island if the sea is calm.
Stops: YantaiPenglaiChangdao
Head east along the coast to Weihai, the naval town of the 1894–95 Sino-Japanese War. See Liugong Island and its Beiyang Fleet relics, and Chengshantou — one of China's best places to watch the sun rise over the sea.
Stops: WeihaiLiugong IslandChengshantou
Continue south to Qingdao: the Zhanqiao pier, Badaguan's European villas and the Olympic sailing harbour. Add Laoshan, the 'first famous mountain over the sea', if you have the legs.
Stops: QingdaoZhanqiao PierBadaguanLaoshan
Sights
Ticket prices in China change without much notice. Treat these as a guide and confirm on arrival.
Headland · ¥50
The city's symbol: a 53-metre wooded headland at the north end of the centre, wrapped on three sides by the sea and crowned with a lighthouse. Around it stand the European-style buildings of the old foreign concession, now cafés and small museums. It has been celebrated as the finest of the Fushan views since the Kangxi era.
Tip Come for the hour before sunset and walk the full ring road with the sea on three sides. The lanes just inland have the best coffee and the most restored old houses.
Fairyland · ¥100 pass
The most famous sight on the whole coast: a Song-dynasty complex of halls and pavilions on the Dan cliffs above the strait, one of the four great towers of China alongside the Yellow Crane, Yueyang and Tengwang pavilions. Below it the 'immortals' bridge drops toward the water; around it, the pavilions, dragon-king and goddess halls climb the rock. This is where the mirage legend lives.
Tip Look for the fabled mirage on a clear, still morning after rain — a band of false islands floating above the strait. It is rare, but this is where it happens.
Wine · ¥50
One of the very few serious wine museums in the world, built over the original Changyu cellars of 1892 on Dama Road. It walks you through the 130-year history of China's oldest winery with bottles, documents, photographs and the cellars themselves. The ticket is really a two-tasting plus a small bottle of brandy.
Tip Book a tour if you can — the cellars and the old oak barrels are the point, and a guide makes the industrial history vivid. Buy a bottle of the flagship red in the shop, which is cheaper here than in town.
Island · day trip
A cluster of islands strung across the Bohai strait, reached by a 40-minute ferry from Penglai. The highlights are the sea cliffs and wind-carved rocks of Jiuzhang Ya, the glowing pebble beach of Half-Moon Bay, and the forest park and fishing villages of the northern isle. It is quiet, wild and genuinely offshore.
Tip Check the wind forecast first — winter sailings are frequently cancelled. Once across, take the shuttle between the northern and southern sights rather than trying to walk the whole island.
Beach · Free
The chain of beaches that runs from the development zone west of the city, flat and golden, with clean water, a gentle gradient and a pine belt behind. They are the reason Yantai has a summer-resort reputation at all, and they are free. Family-friendly, safe and uncrowded on weekdays.
Tip Late July and August are the swimming months; the water is cool but the air is dry. Hire a bike for the seafront and ride between the beach parks rather than staying at one.
Legend · ¥80
A Daoist-themed garden and pavilion complex on the Penglai waterfront, built around the tale of the eight immortals who sailed from here across the sea. Classical halls and artificial 'immortal islands' are set in a rock garden by the water, and it is the most atmospheric place to absorb the legend that named the whole coast.
Tip Pair it with the Sanxian Shan gardens next door for a full afternoon of the fairyland theme; together they explain why every other thing here is named after a myth.
Mountain · ¥110
A forested range on the Jiaodong peninsula, said to be the birthplace of Chinese Daoism and the origin of the mythical islands of Penglai and Yingzhou. Five scenic areas open onto temples, springs and waterfalls, with forest walks, cliff paths and the region's oldest Daoist traces. A half-day escape inland from the coast.
Tip It is a long way out, so go only if you want a genuine mountain day. The Wuransi and Jiulong pools are the gentlest walks; the summit paths are for fitter legs.
Eating
Yantai is the home of Fushan cuisine — one of the three pillars of Shandong cooking — and it is seafood-led, light, fresh and unfussy.
The local signature: fresh shellfish, fish and prawn dishes cooked simply to keep the flavour. Jiaodong cooking, centred on Fushan, is prized for being crisp, tender and true to the ingredient.
Yantai's most famous single dish: dumplings with a filling of minced mackerel or flounder, plump, thin-skinned and juicy, sharpened with chives and eaten with garlic, vinegar and sesame oil.
A Penglai institution: fine hand-pulled noodles in a broth of sea bream, thickened lightly with mung-bean starch and seasoned with soy, wood-ear and Sichuan pepper. A cheap, deeply local bowl.
Two of the coast's standbys — prawns cooked down with their roe until bright red, and the chewy sea-intestine 'sea sausage' served cold with cucumber or hot in a wok. Very Jiaodong.
Two ends of the scale: menzi, a cheap griddled sweet-potato-starch cake with a savoury dressing, and the Eight Immortals banquet, a lavish multi-course seafood feast laid out to echo the immortals' treasures.
The region grows more than two hundred varieties of apple, from Red Fuji to Guoguang, plus the famous crisp, juicy Laiyang pear. Buy a bag for the train; they travel well and taste like the trip.
Where to eat
Phone numbers are local landlines; add +86 and drop the leading 0 if calling from abroad.
Seafood · about ¥75
Tucked into the lanes of the old town, one street back from the sea, with a wide menu of fresh fish, prawns and shellfish at fair prices. The seafood dishes, mackerel dumplings and tossed sea-intestine are the ones to order, and the location near Yantai Hill makes it an easy dinner.
Traditional · about ¥75
An old-name restaurant with careful service and a classically decorated dining room, recommended for its braised pork intestine, three-fresh potstickers, fried prawns and shrimp dumplings — plus the local mackerel dumplings. A good single stop for a formal Jiaodong dinner.
Noodles · about ¥10
A small, no-frills shop famous for one thing: Penglai xiaomian, the hand-pulled sea-bream noodle soup that is the town's oldest dish. Cheap, authentic and worth the queue for anyone who wants to eat like a local.
Local dishes · about ¥55
A value-for-money local restaurant with a short, well-judged menu — seafood, spring-onion prawns, dry-fried cabbage and the distinctive Longkou delicacy. Popular with residents and a good place to eat the region's home cooking rather than a showpiece dinner.
Fusion · about ¥100
A restaurant with a Southeast-Asian-leaning menu — pineapple rice, durian pastry, curry prawns — that also does Jiaodong seafood, with live music in the evening. Slightly more expensive, but a change of pace from the seafood houses and easy for mixed groups.
Sleeping
Stay in the centre to walk to Yantai Hill, or in Penglai to be near the Pavilion. Prices rise in summer and over holidays — book early.
Five-star · from ¥760
Yantai's top international hotel, on the eastern coast road, with a broad buffet, good service and a setting that justifies the price if you want a proper full-service stay. Rooms are large and the staff handle English bookings; a business-traveller favourite.
Hostel · from ¥126
Shandong's first registered youth hostel, on the golden beach in the development zone. It has a restaurant, a reading room, a self-catering kitchen and a common room, with orchards and vegetable plots around it. Sociable and good value, though a long ride from the centre.
Hotel · from ¥360
An older development-zone hotel that has aged well: clean, roomy and right by the sea, three minutes on foot from a clean beach with plenty for children to do. Quiet mornings on the shore and easy access to the golden beaches make it a solid family pick.
Hotel · from ¥460
Penglai's smartest hotel, close to the coach station and the shops and less than five minutes on foot to the sea. Well-equipped rooms, generous breakfast and warm service — the convenient base if Penglai, rather than Yantai, is the heart of your trip.
Guesthouse · from ¥120
A warm, well-run little inn with a strong reputation for service, close to the water and easy to reach by bike in the evening. Simple rooms and a friendly landlord — the affordable choice if you want to sleep near the Pavilion without paying hotel prices.
Getting around
Buses cover the coast and the centre at ¥1; to Penglai, Changdao or Kunyu Mountain, a car or tour saves a lot of time.
Yantai Penglai International Airport (YNT) is about 15 km south of the city, with domestic flights across China and scheduled links to Korea and Hong Kong. The airport bus runs to the main coach station for ¥10; a taxi to the centre is around ¥50.
Yantai is the terminus of the Lanyan line, joined to the Jiaozhou–Jinan trunk, with direct trains to Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Jinan. High-speed services now link it to Qingdao in about 90 minutes, and the Yantai–Dalian rail ferry shortens the run to the north-east by about 400 km.
Yantai has several coach stations, with services to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu and around Shandong. Buses to Qingdao run every half hour (about 4 hours), to Jinan in 6 hours, and to Weihai or Penglai every 15 minutes in a little over an hour.
Over 60 bus routes run at ¥1 within 11 km, with a small surcharge beyond. Routes 3, 17, 28 and 49 are the coastal sightseeing line, linking the station to the harbour, Yantai Hill and the beaches past 18 waterfront sights. IC cards give a discount.
Taxis start at ¥8 for 3 km, then ¥2 per km; they are metered and easy to find. Yantai also runs a public bike scheme — ¥2 an hour, 24-hour rental, with a temporary card available to visitors on ID and a ¥500 deposit — perfect for riding the seafront.
Yantai's ports are the link to Dalian and to Changdao. Several operators run passenger ferries across the Bohai to Dalian, roughly five hours, and there are services to Korea. From Penglai, ferries run to Changdao about every 40 to 50 minutes and to Dalian's Lushun.
Shopping
South Avenue in Zhifu is the main shopping street; for specialities, the old-town shops and the wine museum beat the airport.
The obvious souvenir and the right one: buy a bottle of the flagship red or the brandy from the museum shop, where prices are lower than in town. It is the one thing that genuinely says Yantai.
Yantai is one of China's great apple regions, with more than two hundred varieties, and the crisp, juicy Laiyang pear is a local icon. Buy a box to eat and a box to travel with.
Two of the region's crafts: Laizhou jade, carved into ornaments and figures, and Yantai's wool embroidery, worked into wall panels and accessories. Look for them in the old-town craft shops, not the markets.
The coast sells black sea cucumber, scallops, prawns and abalone, fresh or dried. The old-town seafood stalls and the market halls around Zhifu do the best prices — buy vacuum-packed if you are flying home.
Practical
Staffed English help is not guaranteed. Save these before you need them.
| Emergency (police / ambulance / fire) | 110 · 120 · 119 |
|---|---|
| Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital | 20 Yuhuangding East Road, Zhifu district · 0535-6691999 |
| Yantai Laiyang Central Hospital | 111 Changshan Road, Laiyang · 0535-7232103 |
| Postcode | 264000 (Zhifu); Penglai 265600; Changdao 265800 |
| Tourist hotline | Yantai Tourism Bureau 0535-6246929; complaints 0535-6243148 |
| Cash & cards | Mobile pay works nearly everywhere; carry cash for buses and small stalls |
| Tipping | Not expected and sometimes politely refused — do not add one to the bill |
| Weather | Big day-night swings; bring a jacket even in summer, and sunscreen for the beach |
Tips
Penglai is the best thing on this coast and deserves more than a rushed day trip. Sleep there, catch the Pavilion in the soft morning light, and give the mirage a chance to show itself after rain.
Changdao is worth a day, but winter and rough weather cancel sailings without warning. Look at the forecast the day before, and keep a mainland beach plan as the fallback.
The Changyu museum tasting is included in the ¥50 ticket, cellar visit and all. Buy your bottle there afterwards — it is cheaper than the shops and you know exactly where it came from.
Penglai's attractions — the Pavilion, the Eight Immortals park, Sanxian Shan — are spread out, and a low-cost sightseeing shuttle threads them together. It saves a lot of taxi fares and a lot of walking.
Yantai looks north, so summer here is dry and cool rather than humid — but the sea breeze and evening air are chilly. Bring a light jacket even in July, and sunscreen for the beach at midday.
Bus 3, 17, 28 or 49 is a cheap sightseeing tour of the whole waterfront, past 18 sights from the station to the university. Sit on the sea side and use it to plan where you want to get off.
Background
Yantai lies on the eastern Shandong peninsula, with Weihai to the east, Qingdao to the south-west, and the Bohai and Yellow Seas to the north — it looks across the water to Liaoning and, beyond, to Korea and Japan. The land is low hills rather than mountains: a granite spine of ranges including Kunyu, whose 922 m summit is the highest point, with gentler, thicker-soiled hills rolling around them.
The defining fact is that Yantai faces north, one of the very few Chinese coastal cities to do so (Haikou, Keelung in Taiwan and Yantai's own Penglai are the others). The result is a drier, cooler summer and a milder, damper winter than the rest of the coast, with an annual average around 12°C — which is precisely why it became one of northern China's classic summer resorts.
Yantai's history is bound up with the sea and with the search for something beyond it. Under its old names of Zhifu and Zhifu Island it has been settled since the Qin; Qin Shi Huang is said to have come here three times on his eastern tours, and the legend of Xu Fu sailing east toward the immortal islands is rooted in this coast. Buddhism and Daoism both left their marks on the hills, and Kunyu Mountain is named as a cradle of Chinese Daoism.
In the modern era, Yantai became a treaty port and one of the first Chinese coastal cities opened to foreign trade, and its old concession quarter still stands on Yantai Hill. In 1892 the overseas Chinese businessman Zhang Bishi founded the Changyu winery here, and the city has been the centre of Chinese wine-making ever since. At the same time it grew into one of China's great orchard regions — apples above all — and a major fishing and shipping port.
Today it is a prosperous, mid-sized coastal city that wears its layers lightly: myth-struck cliffs at Penglai, a European quarter on the hill, vineyards on the slopes and long beaches to the west, all within an hour of one another. It is calm where Qingdao is buzzy, which is exactly its appeal.
Travel with them
Not guides — a TV serial, a book and a folk art in which this coast stands for the fairyland it has always claimed to be.
Television serial, 1985
The serial that fixed the Eight Immortals legend in a generation's imagination, and with it the name of Penglai. However old the effects look now, it is the reason a cliff-top pavilion on this coast means 'fairyland' to almost every Chinese visitor who climbs to it.
Ed. Diao Zhaoyan, Shandong Pictorial Press, 2004
A short, richly illustrated portrait of the city's culture, geography and people — the coast, the fairyland, the wine, the orchards — aimed at the reader who wants the story behind the beaches. A good primer to read before you go, and a reminder that Yantai is older and stranger than its resorts suggest.
Shandong folk tradition
The storytelling-song tradition of the Jiaodong peninsula around Yantai, sung to a drum and two metal clappers in a broad, rolling local accent. It is the sound the villages here made long before the wineries and beach hotels, and it still turns up at festivals and temple fairs along the coast.
The questions visitors ask us most about Yantai, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Three days is the comfortable minimum: day one for Yantai Hill, the old concession quarter and the Changyu museum, day two for Penglai Pavilion and its sights, day three for the beaches and — weather permitting — Changdao island. A fourth day lets you add Kunyu Mountain, the birthplace of Chinese Daoism, or the great landlord manor at Moushi.
Yes — it is the single best reason to come. Penglai Pavilion is one of China's four great towers, the cliff-top setting is spectacular, and the Eight Immortals and elixir-of-life legends give it a grip on the imagination that most seaside towns lack. It is about an hour from Yantai by bus or car, and easily a full day.
April and May, when the pear blossom turns the hills white, and July to September for the sea. Because Yantai faces north, summer here is drier and cooler than on most of the Chinese coast, which is exactly why it became a summer resort. Winter is cold, and the ferries to Changdao are often cancelled by wind.
Take a bus or train to Penglai, then a ferry from Penglai port. Sailings run roughly every 40 to 50 minutes and take about 40 minutes; an all-line island ticket is around ¥150. In winter, wind often suspends the boats, so check the forecast before committing to a day there.
Yantai is the home of Fushan cuisine, one of the three pillars of Shandong cooking: light, fresh and seafood-led. Try fish dumplings, stewed sea snail, braised prawns, fresh squid and the Penglai 'Eight Immortals' seafood banquet. Old-town restaurants near Yantai Hill, and the seafood street off Shangkuang West Road, do it best.
Yes. Ferries cross the Bohai from Dalian in a few hours — the rail-ferry route shortens the trip by about 400 km — and high-speed rail links Yantai to Qingdao in roughly 90 minutes. That makes Yantai an easy stop on a Shandong-Liaoning coastal itinerary.
Seldom outside the larger hotels and the wine museum, though Penglai's main sights have some English signage. Bring a translation app and have place names written in Chinese for buses and taxis. Mobile payments work everywhere, but keep some cash for small stalls.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
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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.
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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