City guide · Zhejiang
One small, mountainous, absurdly rich province that holds a lake, two canal towns, a Buddhist island and a dead volcano.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
Shaoxing is more than Lu Xun and more than Wang Xizhi. Its cultural depth kept surprising me, and the closer I got to it the more I had to look up. Here I found that the refinement of this region comes from the inside — it is the sediment of history. The soil here is too rich; it nourishes people too well. This is the water town among water towns, the Jiangnan above Jiangnan.
'Meeting Shaoxing in the rain', a traveller's note
Ningbo was not what I expected. I had always assumed it was a small city of old charm, something like Shaoxing, and I could not have been more wrong — the place is as busy as Beijing. Walking round Tianyi Square I thought I had wandered into Xidan. But I found the Ningbo I had in mind anyway, down the small lanes: white walls, black eaves, unhurried and at ease. I understood then that the Ningbo in my head was the old one, drowned inside all this bustle — catch it in the right light and the lustre still shows through.
'Plum rains: my Zhejiang trip in June', a traveller's note
Zhejiang is a small province with an outsized reputation. It occupies the southern flank of the Yangtze Delta, pressed between the East China Sea on one side and Fujian, Jiangxi, Anhui, Shanghai and Jiangsu on the others, and it manages to be several quite different countries at once. There is the lake city of Hangzhou, which has been called paradise for eight hundred years. There are the canal towns of Wuzhen and Xitang, where the water still runs down the middle of the street. There are the tea hills above the West Lake, the Buddhist island of Putuo Mountain out in the Zhoushan archipelago, the studio backlot at Hengdian, and the rhyolite peaks of Yandangshan down on the Wenzhou coast.
The cliché is that Zhejiang is a soft province — willow, water, silk, a civilised and rather feminine sort of place. The truth is less tidy. The Qiantang, its largest river, empties into the sea in a tidal bore that people have travelled to watch since the Han dynasty, and the same coast that produces the bore also produces typhoons. Inland, the standard description is seven parts mountain, one part water, two parts farmland, and the high point — Huangmaojian in Longquan — reaches 1,929 m. Hangzhou is polished, wealthy and slightly languid; two hours south, Wenzhou is a city of traders famous across China for starting businesses nobody else would touch.
What holds the province together is money and movement. Zhejiang has been rich since the Southern Song moved its capital to Hangzhou, and the wealth shows in the food, the gardens and the sheer density of well-kept old towns. It shows just as much in the transport: Xiaoshan airport with three terminals, the coastal high-speed line, and coach services that reach villages. In practice that means you can circle the province properly — a lake, a canal town, a Buddhist island and an extinct volcano inside one nine-day trip.
Zhejiang
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
The capital, and the anchor of every Zhejiang itinerary. The West Lake sits inside the city and is entirely free; walking or cycling the loop is the whole point, and every one of the old and new ten scenes has a poem attached. Add Lingyin Temple in the hills, the tea villages at Longjing and Meijiawu, and the wetland at Xixi.
The prefecture that holds both of the province's great canal towns. Wuzhen, in Tongxiang, is the polished one; Xitang, in Jiashan, is the shabbier and quieter one, famous for its 1,300 m of covered riverside walkways. Then there is South Lake, with the boat that started the Party and the Misty Rain Tower Jin Yong wrote about.
The water towns gave it its freshness and Hemudu, 7,000 years of it, gave it its depth. It is where the maritime Silk Road and the porcelain road set out: the oldest bone flute, the oldest loom parts and the oldest ship's oar in the world were all found here, and the Tianyi Pavilion is the oldest private library still standing in China.
The city of Lu Xun, of Wang Xizhi's Orchid Pavilion, of black-awning boats working the canals. It is a water town among water towns, and the yellow wine is the drink the place is built around — warm one up in a riverside tavern and drink it from a blue-and-white cup.
The sea is the reason to go east: 1,390 islands, the Buddhist island of Putuo Mountain, the sand sculpture beaches of Zhujiajian, and the blue water of Dongji and Shengsi. Shenjiamen is the largest natural fishing harbour in China and its night market is the argument for staying the night.
Hengdian is a backlot the size of a town: a Qin palace built for Chen Kaige, a 1:1 Forbidden City, a 19th-century Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Want to time-travel? Look up — half the faces walking past are on television. Two days, and stay for the night park.
Trunk routes
The high-speed-rail sampler. Three cities, one lake, one theme park, one volcano — and very little waiting around.
Land in Hangzhou and start on the lake. Walk or hire a bike and take the circuit: Broken Bridge and the Bai Causeway first, then the Su Causeway, Leifeng Pagoda and Taiziwan Park, out to the Yanggong Causeway. Stop whenever you feel like stopping — the lake is the one sight in Zhejiang you do not have to queue for.
Stay around the lake: it puts the old town, the tea hills and the night streets all within walking distance.
Stops: West LakeSu CausewayLeifeng PagodaBroken Bridge
Take the morning for Lingyin, hidden in the hills north-west of the lake — the name means the place where the immortals hid. Most people come to climb rather than pray, and the recommended ridge route runs Lingyin to Shangtianzhu, the Nine Dragons and Eight Pagodas, Tianmen Mountain, the Ten-Li Langdang ridge, Wuyun Mountain, Linhai Pavilion and down to Nine Creeks.
Come back to the lake in the evening and walk the South Hill Road strip for the cafés and galleries.
Stops: Lingyin TempleFeilai PeakSouth Hill Road
Train down to Ningbo and give the day to the theme park, then come back into town for the Moon Lake circuit and the old Bund — the Bund reads better at night than in daylight.
Eat Ningbo: the dumplings, the seaweed and the salted-and-dried fish.
Stops: Phoenix Mountain Harbour ParkMoon LakeOld Bund
Continue south to Yandang Mountain and spend the day on the peaks and the falls — Lingfeng, Lingyan and the Grand Dragon Waterfall. Sleep at the foot of the mountain.
If you have an extra day, the Nanxi River in Yongjia is an hour away and much quieter.
Stops: LingfengLingyanGrand Dragon Waterfall
The classic loop. Lake, tea, two canal towns, wine country, a port city and two days of islands.
Lingyin in the morning, the lake in the afternoon, and Hefang Street after dark for the imitation Southern Song street, the Dingsheng cake and the Hu Qing Yu Tang pharmacy — still a working dispensary for Hangzhou people.
Sleep in Hangzhou.
Stops: Lingyin TempleWest LakeHefang Street
Morning up in the tea villages: taste at a grower's own house, it costs nothing, and the leaf is better and cheaper than in the city. In the afternoon walk Qinghefang and the Imperial Street, then cross to the new city across the river for the skyline.
Move on to Shaoxing for the night.
Stops: Longjing villageQinghefangQianjiang New City
South-east of the city, the tomb of Yu the Great who tamed the floods and lies buried here. Then the Orchid Pavilion, where Wang Xizhi and his friends floated wine cups down a winding stream and drank whatever stopped in front of them.
Sleep in Shaoxing.
Stops: Dayu's TombOrchid Pavilion
The East Lake for the cliffs and the black-awning boats, Shen Garden for the Song garden and the story of Lu You and Tang Wan, then the Lu Xun precinct — the memorial hall, his ancestral house, the family home with the Hundred-Plant Garden, and the Sanwei Study.
Finish on Cangqiao Straight Street and move on to Ningbo for the night.
Stops: East LakeShen GardenLu Xun Native PlaceCangqiao Straight Street
The temple and the guild hall in the morning, the Bund and the square in the afternoon, Moon Lake at dusk — quieter than the West Lake and better for it.
Sleep in Ningbo.
Stops: Qita TempleQing'an Guild HallOld BundMoon Lake
The old city core, then the Tianyi Pavilion — the oldest surviving private library in China, with its own ideas about fire, air and damp. Then cross to Zhoushan for the night.
Stops: Xiantong PagodaDrum TowerTianyi Pavilion
Dinghai is the only historic island city in the country, with the Opium War memorial park on Zhushan above it. Climb Huangyangjian, 503.6 m, for the view over the archipelago, then finish at the harbour for the sunset and the night stalls.
Stops: Dinghai old cityZhushan parkHuangyangjianShenjiamen
Fast boat out to Taohua for the 1,370 m sweep of Tanwan Golden Sand, the Song-style sets of the Condor Heroes studio town below Sanhua Peak, and Anqi Peak at 540 m, the highest ground in the islands.
Stops: Tanwan Golden SandCondor Heroes studio townAnqi Peak
Come back to the mainland for the two halves of Wuzhen — the old residential and workshop quarter of the East Side in the morning, the canal-side stretch of the West Side after lunch. Sleep in Hangzhou, or take the late train out.
Stops: Wuzhen East SideWuzhen West Side
Xixi wetland and Hengdian are the two things you must not skip — a trip that lets you feel the emotion of 'If You Are The One' and step back into a hundred dynasties.
The standard opening. Sleep in Hangzhou.
Stops: Lingyin TempleWest LakeHefang Street
Give the morning to the wetland park west of the city — boat it, or walk the banks. It is the sight that the film made famous, and it is still the best half-day in Hangzhou outside the lake. Move on to Jinhua for the night.
Stops: Xixi wetland
The cave cluster north of Jinhua, then the Lu family complex — a proper old merchant house. Sleep in Jinhua.
Stops: Shuanglong CaveBinghu CaveLu residence
The full Hengdian day, and it is worth staying for Dream Valley after 16:00, when the volcano show runs. Sleep in Jinhua.
Stops: Qin PalaceAlong the River During QingmingDream Valley
Into Wenzhou and the city sights: the garden on Chashan and the island in the Ou river, which heads the list of the four famous islands of China. Eat Wenzhou: fish cake, fish balls, rice lamp cakes.
Stops: Chashan gardenJiangxin Island
Out to Dongtou for the coast, then back to Wenzhou for the flight or train home.
Stops: Dongtou islands
The version for people who came for the sea and would rather not see a city at all.
Start on the main island: the old city, the war site at Zhushan, the writer Sanmao's family home in Xiaosha, and the climb to the island's high point.
Stops: Dinghai old cityOpium War siteSanmao ancestral houseHuangyangjian
A full day on the Buddhist island: the 18 m bronze Guanyin, the temple of the Guanyin who would not leave, Chaoyin Cave where the tide thunders in, then Puji, Fayu and Huiji temples.
Stops: Nanhai GuanyinChaoyin CaveBukenqu Guanyin TemplePuji TempleFayu TempleHuiji Temple
Dawn on the high ridge, midday on the sand and in the sculpture square, and the black pebble beach in the late afternoon.
Stops: Mount DaqingSouth SandSand Sculpture SquareWushi Tang
The quieter island, with the rock scenery, the long beach and the summit.
Stops: Taohua YuTanwan Golden SandAnqi Peak
The eastern isles, for the cliffs, the lighthouse and the cleanest water in the province. One boat a day — plan to be on it.
Stops: MiaozihuDongfu Mountain
The cities
The capital
Start here and give it three days. The West Lake is the only great sight in the province that costs nothing, and you can walk or cycle the entire circuit. Lingyin Temple sits in the hills behind it, the tea villages of Longjing and Meijiawu climb the slopes above, and Xixi wetland — made famous by 'If You Are The One', which cost it its free Mondays — spreads across the west of the city. If you are driving out, the Thousand Island Lake reservoir is the obvious day trip.
The canal towns
The prefecture is called the land of fish and rice and the home of silk, and it is Wuzhen and Xitang that earn it. Wuzhen, in Tongxiang, is one of the six great canal towns of the Yangtze Delta with 6,000 years behind it and a theatre festival in front of it; do the East Side in the morning and the West Side in the afternoon. Xitang, in Jiashan, is China's first batch of famous historic towns — bridges, lanes and 1,300 m of covered walkway along the water.
The north-east
Ningbo set out the maritime Silk Road and the porcelain road, and the ground here has given up the oldest bone flute, the oldest loom parts and the oldest ship's oar in the world. The Tianyi Pavilion is the oldest private library still standing in China. Closer to the surface: Moon Lake, the Drum Tower, the old Bund — which reads better at night — and the biggest freshwater lake in the province, Dongqian, four times the size of the West Lake.
Water town of scholars
Lu Xun wrote the place into everyone's head, so the Lu Xun precinct is where you start — the memorial hall, the ancestral house, the family home with the Hundred-Plant Garden, and the Sanwei Study; tickets are free against an ID card, capped at 2,000 reservations a day. Then the Orchid Pavilion, the East Lake's black-awning boats, Shen Garden, and Dayu's Tomb. The cooking is salty rather than sweet, and the yellow wine is what the city runs on.
The far east
The archipelago city, named for the shape of its main island, which the locals say looks like a boat moored in the water. Putuo Mountain is one of the four great Buddhist mountains; Zhujiajian has the sand and the sculpture; Taohua is the wuxia island. Out at Dongji the water finally turns the deep blue that the mainland coast never manages. No trains — you fly, drive the bridges, or take a boat.
The middle
Jinhua keeps itself modestly behind its scenery, which is why most people know Hengdian without knowing Jinhua. The studio town is the largest backlot in Asia — 12 bases, eight big scenic areas, a Qin palace and a 1:1 Forbidden City — and films and television shoot here year-round. Around it: the Shuanglong caves, the Bagua village laid out as an eight-trigram diagram by Zhuge Liang's descendants, and the Fangyan cliffs at Yongkang.
The far south
The southern end of the province is the most mountainous and the least visited. Yandangshan is a 120-million-year-old rhyolite volcano and a world geopark with 500-odd sights. The Nanxi River in Yongjia is called the finest water under heaven and the cradle of Chinese landscape painting. The Nanji islands are a national marine reserve. And the She minority counties around Jingning and Taishun — Jingning is the province's only minority autonomous county — carry a culture none of the canal towns have.
Anchor sights
Free
The lake sits in the middle of the city and every sight on it is free: from Broken Bridge and the Bai Causeway round to the musical fountain, Leifeng Pagoda, Taiziwan Park and the Yanggong Causeway. Walking or cycling is the right way to do it — walk a stretch, rest a while. Of the newer ten scenes, look out for Nine Creeks in Mist, Sweet Osmanthus Rain at Manjuelong, Dragon Well Tea and Precious Stone Hill in Rosy Cloud. Allow three hours.
Tip Chartering a whole boat costs ¥80 and the price is written on the boat. Do not take the boat that the touts with the elastic prices try to push you into — a friendly boatman will tell you stories all afternoon.
The film's doing
West of the city, running from Wen'er West Road to Tianmushan Road and covering a great deal of ground: boat it, or fish off the bank, in spring for the green, in summer for the water caltrop, in autumn for the reeds, in winter for the plum. Eight sights opened in the first phase. It became famous through 'If You Are The One' — which is also why the free-Monday offer was withdrawn. Three quarters of the wetland is still free.
Two kinds of canal town
Wuzhen, on the northern edge of Tongxiang, is one of the six great canal towns — Zhouzhuang, Tongli, Luzhi, Xitang, Nanxun and Wuzhen — with 6,000 years of history and the name of Wudun and Qingdun before the present one. Its four old streets cross in the shape of the character for ten. Xitang is one of China's first batch of famous historic towns, and its three features are bridges, lanes and covered walkways; more than 1,300 m of those walkways survive.
Guanyin's island
One of the four great Buddhist mountains of China, ringed by sea, and called the first pure place among men. The three great temples are Puji, Fayu and Huiji; there is the 18 m bronze Guanyin on the shore, the Chaoyin Cave where the tide thunders, and the temple of the Guanyin who would not leave. A joint ticket covers most of the island.
Tip Book ahead at the big holidays, and note that on the three great incense days — the 19th of the 2nd, 6th and 9th lunar months — even locals lose their free entry and the island is at its most crowded.
The reservoir
The great lake made when the Xin'an river was dammed west of Hangzhou, with more than a thousand islands standing out of it and water clear enough to be the province's drinking-water joke and its pride. It is the easiest substantial add-on to a Hangzhou base, reachable by coach, and the reason many itineraries give the capital four days rather than three.
The reading list
The Lu Xun native place precinct on Lu Xun Middle Road is a whole historic quarter: the memorial hall, the ancestral house, the family home with the Hundred-Plant Garden and the folk-custom exhibition, the Zhu family gatehouse and the Sanwei Study. Free tickets against an ID card, 2,000 a day. Then the Orchid Pavilion, the East Lake, Shen Garden, Dayu's Tomb and Cangqiao Straight Street.
The backlot
Asia's largest film base, built since 1996 in the Dongyang countryside and known as the Hollywood of the East: 12 shooting bases, roughly 4,963 mu, eight scenic areas including the Qin Palace, the Qingming scroll, the Ming-Qing palace, Guangzhou and Hong Kong Streets, and Dream Valley. Whole crews work here year-round.
The volcano
The Cretaceous rhyolite volcano on the Wenzhou coast, opened up in the Northern and Southern dynasties, grown through the Tang, at its height in the Song, and called the finest sight under heaven. Its three wonders are Lingfeng, Lingyan and the Grand Dragon Waterfall; the Lingfeng night view and the Lingyan flying figures are each reckoned unmatched in China.
The quiet south
Called the finest water under heaven and the cradle of Chinese landscape painting, with seven scenic areas and more than 800 sights — the Stone Mast Crag, Cangpo village, Furong old village, the Lion Rock and the Lishui old street among them. The villages of the middle and lower river still keep their historical fabric, and the place is the province's only national scenic area prized for farmland-and-water rather than peaks.
The Wenzhou coast
Jiangxin Island stands in the Ou river north of the city, heads the list of China's four famous islands and is called the Penglai of the Ou. The Dongtou islands are further out, reachable by ferry from the Anlan Pavilion pier for ¥45, or by high-speed boat for a little more.
Timing
Spring and autumn are the two seasons the province recommends for itself — the temperature and the humidity are both moderate, and the flowers are out.
| March–April | The plum rains begin — carry an umbrella every day, rain or not. Taiziwan's cherry season runs late March to early April: more than a hundred Japanese early and late cherries, plus tulips. In Ningbo, the Changjie razor clam festival and the Sangzhou tea festival both fall in April. |
|---|---|
| Late April | The Hangzhou animation festival, 26 April to 1 May, at the Baima Lake animation plaza in Binjiang. |
| May | The West Lake music festival, and Xiangshan's seafood festival over the May holiday at Songlan Bay. The best of the spring weather, before the summer heat. |
| June | Cixi's bayberry festival at Henghe, south of the city. Also the end of the plum rains and the start of the typhoon watch. |
| July–September | Typhoon season on the coast — ferries to the islands can stop for a day or two. This is the window for Zhoushan's beaches, and for seeing the Grand Dragon Waterfall at full volume after a storm. |
| July–October | The Zhoushan seafood festival runs out of Shenjiamen harbour: stall showcases, a seafood month, a folk arts gathering and the Shengsi mussel festival. |
| July–November | The Zhoushan international sand sculpture festival on Zhujiajian, built as a competition with a new theme every year. |
| Mid-October | The West Lake international fireworks, and the Hangzhou West Lake Expo running into early November. |
| October | The Jinhua international Wong Tai Sin festival. |
| November | The Putuo Mountain Nanhai Guanyin culture festival — grand dharma assemblies, Buddhist concerts, pilgrimages, a lotus lantern fair and exhibitions. The busiest fortnight after New Year. |
| Avoid | Golden Week. On the Su Causeway you will find irritation, not the romance you came for. |
Food
One of the eight great cuisines of China, and the four things its cooks agree on: be particular about the raw material, cook it with a distinctive hand, keep the original flavour, and make it carefully. The four schools are Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing and Wenzhou, and each tastes quite different from the others.
The signature is qing shuang bie zhi — clean, cool, deliberate. Ingredients are seasonal, the work is fine, the range is wide, salt and freshness are married rather than fought, and the result is light. Dongpo pork, West Lake vinegar fish, West Lake beef soup and West Lake water-shield soup are the four to order.
The Ningbo kitchen is about seafood, cooked by steaming, roasting and slow-braising so that fresh and salted meet. Tofu skin wrapped round yellow croaker, seaweed cubes, bamboo with salted greens — cheap and excellent — plus the 'stinky trio', the glutinous rice balls, the red-roe crab and Xikou flaky pastry.
Shaoxing food is the savoury end of Jiangnan — salty, certainly not sweet. The kitchen works in freshwater fish and shellfish, poultry and beans, and wants things fragrant, crisp, soft and glutinous, in their own stock, light on oil and without chilli. Braised pork with dried mustard greens, drunken chicken, fennel beans, cream xiaopan and stinky tofu, and the yellow wine.
Light oil, light starch, heavy knife work, and seafood above all. The three masterpieces are three-shred beaten fish, quick-fried cuttlefish and brocade fish shreds. Then the snacks: fish cake, fish balls, beaten-fish soup, duck tongues, lamp-bowl cakes, pig-offal noodles, Changren wontons and Airen rice cakes.
Jinhua cooking works by braising, steaming, stewing, simmering and frying, and it is famous for two things above all — the ham and the flaky pastry. Add the bergamot, Dongyang noodles, Jinhua soup dumplings, Lanxi egg pancakes, Pujiang wheat cakes, Pan'an pulled noodles and bayberry spirits.
Wushan shortbread, Jinhua dried-greens pastry, horseshoe pastry, Pujiang wheat cakes, crab-roe soup dumplings, shrimp-roe noodles, Shaoxing stinky tofu, Zhoushan seafood noodles, bangbang chicken, and Jinhua ham and chestnut zongzi.
Zhejiang's famous snack houses: Hangzhou's Zhiweiguan; Huzhou's Ding Lianfang and Zhu Laoda; Jiaxing's Wufangzhai; and Kuanyuan House, a century old and still doing Ningbo noodles.
Where to eat
The Hangzhou name
The most famous of the old Hangzhou snack houses, and the one to go to for the local canon done properly — Dongpo pork and West Lake vinegar fish in the same meal, plus the lake's own water-shield soup. Expect it to be busy at every hour the city eats.
A century of noodles
A hundred years old and still built around one thing, the Ningbo-style big noodle bowl: a broad bowl of noodles under a thick, dark, seafood-heavy topping. The plainest order on the menu is usually the right one.
The zongzi
The name every Chinese traveller knows from motorway service stations, and better here than anywhere else. There is a branch near Hui Jing Garden, and a dozen yuan buys a rice bowl with a meat zongzi on the side, which is a perfectly good lunch.
The Huzhou pair
Huzhou's two old snack houses, both still working the same local repertoire of rice-and-bean sweets and noodle dishes that the rest of the province largely forgot. Worth an hour if your route crosses the northern plain.
The seafood
If it is seafood you came for, this is where the province answers: a mile of stalls along the ten-li harbour cooking whatever came off the boats that morning. Walk the row and point at what is still moving.
Where to stay
The capital
The top-end hotels cluster at Wulin Square and in the West Lake scenic area; the budget chains are in the university district and around Wushan Square; and there are some thirty-odd youth hostels now, plus a growing number of small design inns. The hostels sit mainly in three villages — Siyanjing (best transport, ten to fifteen minutes' walk to the Su Causeway), Qingzhiwu (lots of good food, next to the botanical garden) and Lingyin Baile (harder to reach but very quiet, good for summer heat).
The canal towns
There are plenty of hotels and guesthouses around South Lake, and the small private ones have room to haggle. Around Yuehe Street, local families rent rooms in their own houses — cheaper, and a better feel for the place. Book ahead in high season, and if you are here for Wuzhen or Xitang, consider sleeping inside the town instead.
The port
Hotels and restaurants cover every price bracket across Ningbo, so finding somewhere decent is not the problem. The best base is Haishu district close to Tianyi Square and the City God Temple — Moon Lake, the Tianyi Pavilion, Ningbo South station and the temple are all within reach. Alternatively stay where Haishu meets Jiangbei, by the Three Rivers confluence, for the night view.
The middle
Jinhua's sights are scattered across its counties — Dongyang, Yiwu, Lanxi, Yongkang — so the sensible thing is to sleep near whichever one you are seeing. If you do stay in town, the north bank around People's Square is the centre and has the railway station; the south bank has the city government and a wide choice of hotels.
The south
Wenzhou has several five-star hotels, which tells you how developed the trade is, and every price band in between. Wuma Street is the busy shopping centre and very close to Jiangxin Island. Around the railway station the hotel trade is dense — pick there if you are catching an early train.
The islands
Accommodation on the main island concentrates in Dinghai and Shenjiamen, and families on the outer islands run guesthouses. For backpackers Shenjiamen is the right base — it sits next to the fishing harbour, the ferry piers and the coach station, so food, bed and the next boat are all within minutes, and it is the easiest place to leave from. Bingang Road and Donghai East Road are lined with hotels from about ¥150 to ¥500 a night.
Shopping
The two classic Hangzhou takeaways. Department stores and brand shops here discount harder than elsewhere in the country, which is why Hangzhou has become a shopping city as well as a lake city; most of the famous shops sit on and around Yan'an Road.
The two traditional specialities that made Jinhua's name abroad, alongside its flower tea, lotus-root starch and bergamot. Yiwu, in the same prefecture, has become the country's small-commodity capital — its trade city stocks almost every everyday manufactured good there is.
Gonggan, also called shell vegetable, is dried mussel meat — sweet, and very nutritious; boil it, pick off the beard and the shell, and cook it with radish and seaweed. Ningbo mats are prized for being tight, crisp, soft and easy to store. The bayberry belt runs some 40 km of hills from Linghu in Cixi to Mazhu in Yuyao.
Not to be missed if you are in Jiaxing. This is the national leader in the leather trade — the country's distribution centre for leather garments, fur coats, bags, hides and pelts, and the place where prices and trends are set. Phase one covers about 160,000 sq m across four floors. The one rule everybody repeats: bargain hard.
In Shaoxing's Zhuji, the largest pearl market in the country. Worth building into a Shaoxing day if jewellery is your weakness.
Wenzhou's tourist crafts are stone carving, rice-paste sculpture, dragon-whisker mats, Ou embroidery, Ou sculpture and Taishun lacquered chopsticks; the local produce is Ou tangerines and long-tailed anchovy. The shopping ring in town is made by Renmin Road, Wuma Road, Chan Street, Jiefang Road and Xinhe Street.
Transport
Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport is the province's main gateway — three terminals, about an hour from the centre, and an airport bus at ¥20 (enquiries 0571-86661234 / 86661236). Two other airports matter regionally: Ningbo Lishe, 12 km from downtown with more than thirty domestic routes plus Hong Kong and Seoul, and Wenzhou Yongqiang in the far south. If you are flying to Hengdian, Yiwu is nearer than either.
This is the province's spine. The coastal Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou high-speed line carries most long-distance traffic, and it is why Yandangshan — once a long coach ride — now has its own station ten minutes from the scenic centre. Ordinary trains and the Hangzhou–Shaoxing line fill the gaps; Hangzhou's two working stations are the main city station and Hangzhou South, with Hangzhou East under reconstruction.
Hangzhou railway station is chaotic — unlicensed private buses work the forecourt touting for passengers. Do not get on one.
Coaches are the connective tissue, cheaper than rail, more frequent and reaching towns the trains skip. Hangzhou has four main long-distance stations: Jiubao terminal for Ningbo and Shanghai, South for Wenzhou and Fujian, West for Anhui and Jiangxi, and North for Suzhou and Nanjing. Ningbo has six public stations, Wenzhou has the new South station plus East, Central, Huanglong and Shuangyu terminals, and Jinhua has West and South. There are free shuttle buses from Hangzhou railway station to the relevant coach terminal.
Two parts of Zhejiang do not work like the rest. Zhoushan has no railway at all — the cross-sea bridges carry road traffic to the main island and everything else is by ferry, with schedules that shift by season, tide and weather. And inside the big scenic areas, the sightseeing buses run to timetable in peak season and stop in the off-season, when fares no longer cover the tunnel tolls and parking; you then charter a car, roughly ¥150–200 a day. Confirm the boat the day before you move.
Practical
The short version: come in spring or autumn, base in Hangzhou, and give the islands their own two days.
| Best seasons | Spring and autumn. Zhejiang's summer is unbearably hot and its winter is damp and cold, so do not come in either. |
|---|---|
| Plum rain | March to April is the plum-rain season. Take an umbrella even when it is not raining — the sky will catch you out. |
| Prices | Zhejiang is famously rich and travel here is not cheap; compared with Beijing and Shanghai it may even be worse. But the West Lake is the best-value sight in China precisely because it is free, and beds start around ¥60. |
| Hangzhou buses | Hangzhou runs at an easy pace, public transport included — many buses do not run at weekends. Check the operating hours of the service you need before you set out. |
| Golden Week | Do not come. Walk the Su Causeway then and irritation is all you will get; the romance you came for will not be there. |
| Getting around the west lake | Walking or cycling is the right way — do a stretch, then stop. Three hours is a reasonable circuit. |
| Wuzhen and Xitang | Both are in Jiaxing; Wuzhen in Tongxiang, Xitang in Jiashan. They are a couple of hours apart and pair naturally with Hangzhou. |
| Islands | Zhoushan's 1,390 islands run from Putuo Mountain out to Dongji and Shengsi. Ferries are the only way out, and the blue water is at the far end. |
| Language | Most of the province speaks Hui dialect, with Minnan, Manhua, Manjiang, She and Mandarin in pockets. English is fine in Hangzhou and at the big sights, thinner in the small towns. |
Background
Zhejiang carries the titles land of fish and rice and home of silk, and the heavier one, land of culture. Its history is long and its economy has been developed for a very long time: after the national economic centre of gravity moved south into Jiangnan during the Eastern Jin and Southern dynasties, Zhejiang came from behind and led almost without interruption for a thousand years. The terrain is summed up as seven parts mountain, one part water, two parts farmland, tilting from the south-west down to the north-east across six zones: the northern plain, the western hills, the eastern hills, the Jinhua–Quzhou basin, the southern mountains, and the coastal plain with its islands. Huangmaojian in Longquan, at 1,929 m, is the highest point. The coast runs more than 6,400 km — the longest of any province — with over 3,000 islands, and 230,000 sq km of continental shelf shallower than 200 m.
Zhejiang is one of the places Chinese civilisation started; there are more than a hundred Neolithic sites alone. The Jande people came first, then the primitive cultures of Hemudu, Majiabang and Liangzhu opened the chapter. Legend has it that the descendants of the emperor Shun were enfeoffed at Shangyu and Yuyao, that Yu the Great came here to control the water and was buried at Shaoxing, and that by pre-Qin times this was the centre of Baiyue culture. The Yue state of the Spring and Autumn period, the Sun Wu of the Three Kingdoms and the Wuyue of the Ten Kingdoms all began here.
The Southern Song made Lin'an its capital, and Hangzhou became one of China's seven great ancient capitals; the Song City theme park still stands as a reminder. Of the country's first batch of famous historic cities, Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Ningbo all made the list. The monuments are innumerable: the Six Harmonies Pagoda, the Orchid Pavilion, Yu's Tomb. And the great temples line the route from Hangzhou east to Ningbo — Lingyin, Tiantai, Tiantong and Ashoka — with mountain shrines scattered through Jinhua and Lishui besides.
Zhejiang's oldest theatre is the Southern drama, grown between the late Northern Song and the end of the Yuan and one of the earliest mature forms of Chinese opera — it went under many names, including Wenzhou variety play and Yongjia variety play. Yue opera began around Sheng county in Shaoxing and is now one of the five great opera traditions of China and a national intangible heritage; it was once called the little song troupe. In the hills of the south, Jingning is the province's only minority autonomous county and the home of much of its She population, while the covered bridges of Taishun are as plain and varied as anything in the province.
The questions visitors ask us most about Zhejiang, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Nine days is the honest first loop: three in Hangzhou, half a day each in Wuzhen and Xitang, one in Shaoxing, one in Ningbo and two out on the Zhoushan islands. Six days covers Hangzhou, one canal town, Hengdian and Yandangshan; four days is really only Hangzhou, Ningbo and one extra stop.
Spring and autumn, when both the humidity and the temperature are moderate — the province's own tourist material says the same. Summer is scorching and winter is damp and raw, so skip both if you can. March and April is the plum-rain season: carry an umbrella every day, because the sky will surprise you.
Yes, by Chinese standards — prices here can match or exceed Beijing's and Shanghai's. The great exception is the West Lake, which is completely free, so Hangzhou can still be done on a budget. Beds start around ¥60 and rooms run to several hundred a night, so the real variable is you.
High-speed rail is the backbone. The coastal line links Hangzhou, Ningbo, Taizhou and Wenzhou, and most hops take one to three hours. Coaches are cheaper and more frequent and reach smaller towns and scenic areas. The exception is the sea: Zhoushan has no railway, so the islands are ferry-only and the timetables move with the weather.
No. Walk the Su Causeway during Golden Week and what you get is irritation, not the romance you came for. The same goes for the big incense days on Putuo Mountain and the opening fortnight of the sand sculpture festival — book very far ahead or shift your dates by two weeks.
Wuzhen if you want the finished, theatrical version — 6,000 years of history, a proper theatre festival and a waterfront that has been staged for you. Xitang if you would rather have the shabbier, lived-in one, with 1,300 m of covered walkways and the smell of stinky tofu on every lane. If you have the time, do both; they are only a couple of hours apart.
Yes. The Thousand Island Lake reservoir west of Hangzhou is worth a day, the Jinhua countryside around Hengdian has the Bagua village of Zhuge Liang's descendants, and the Nanxi River in Yongjia is the quietest good scenery in the south. The She minority counties around Jingning and Taishun add something none of the canal towns do.
In Hangzhou, at the big sights and in the hotels, yes — and the high-speed stations are well signed. In the canal towns, on the islands and in the smaller cities, much less. Write your hotel, station and sight names in Chinese for taxi drivers, and keep a translation app on hand for restaurants and ticket offices.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
City guides
Dalian
City guide · 15 tours
The Northern Pearl — China's most romantic coastal city.
Shenyang
City guide · 12 tours
Where the Qing dynasty began — an imperial palace, a warlord's mansion and the cheapest good food in the northeast.
Changbai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano on the North Korean border, a jade-green crater lake at 2,189 m, and hot springs on the way down.
Kunming
City guide · 12 tours
China's Spring City — a mild plateau capital of flowers, markets and the Stone Forest, with gulls on the lake in winter.
Dali
City guide · 12 tours
A walled Bai town between a 4,000 m mountain and a great lake — wind, flowers, snow and moon, and life at a slower speed.
Shuhe
City guide · 12 tours
The quiet version of Lijiang — a Tea Horse Road village of canals, stone bridges and slow afternoons, 4 km from the crowds.
Lijiang
City guide · 12 tours
A UNESCO Naxi old town of canals and cobbles beneath a 5,596 m snow mountain — the cultural heart of north-west Yunnan.
Xiamen
City guide · 12 tours
A subtropical island city of temples, fishing-village lanes and the best street food in Fujian — with the car-free islet of Gulangyu a 20-minute ferry away.
Gulangyu
City guide · 12 tours
A car-free island of colonial villas, pianos and cats, twenty minutes off Xiamen — and the one place where the trick is simply to stay the night.
Fuzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,200-year-old capital of banyan trees and mountains-within-the-city, where the Ming lanes of Sanfang Qixiang meet the dockyard that built China's modern navy.
Lugu Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,680 m lake on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, home to China's last matrilineal people, pig-trough canoes and a great deal of doing nothing.
Xishuangbanna
City guide · 12 tours
China's tropical south — rainforest, wild elephants, Dai villages and the Mekong, wrapped around the gateway city of Jinghong.
Shangri-La
City guide · 12 tours
A Tibetan town at 3,300 m in Yunnan's Diqing prefecture — monasteries, grassland, prayer wheels and cold thin air.
Nanchang
City guide · 12 tours
Jiangxi's 'hero city' on the Gan River — one great Tang pavilion, a 160-metre Ferris wheel, and the best claypot soup you will eat in China.
Hefei
City guide · 12 tours
Anhui's 2,000-year-old capital: the hometown of China's model judge, a moat-turned-garden ring, and the fast rail gateway to Huangshan.
Hongcun
City guide · 12 tours
A 900-year-old Hui village laid out as an ox, with water running to every door and a mirror-still crescent pond at its heart.
Wuhan
City guide · 12 tours
Three towns, two rivers and the best breakfast in China — a huge, blunt river city of bridges, lakes and cheap, brilliant street food.
Changsha
City guide · 12 tours
Hunan's loud, young capital: a 3,000-year-old city that eats chilli-hot food, stays up all night and treats foot massage as a civic duty.
Fenghuang Ancient Town
City guide · 12 tours
The stilt-house river town of Shen Congwen's 'Border Town' — glowing lanterns, stepping stones and the best two nights in western Hunan.
Lushan
City guide · 12 tours
A cloud-wrapped granite mountain with a Victorian hill station on top, waterfalls in three tiers, and the mist that Su Shi said you could never see through.
Wuyuan
City guide · 12 tours
China's 'most beautiful countryside' — dozens of white-walled Huizhou villages strung along streams and terraced into the hills, and two weeks a year of gold.
Mount Heng (Hengshan, Hunan)
City guide · 12 tours
The South Great Peak: a pilgrimage mountain of 72 summits where the temples run all the way to the top, and the sunrise over the cloud sea is the whole point.
Huangshan
City guide · 12 tours
Yellow Mountain: 82 granite peaks of twisted pines and grotesque rock, a sea of cloud that changes by the hour, and hot springs at the foot.
Wudang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
The Taoist first mountain of China — a gilded bronze hall on a 1,612 m summit, temples hung off cliff faces, and the birthplace of tai chi.
Luoyang
City guide · 12 tours
Thirteen dynasties, 100,000 Buddhas carved into a river cliff, China's first Buddhist temple — and a whole city that turns peony-pink every April.
Yuntai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A UNESCO geopark in Henan where red-stone gorges squeeze a river to a slot, a 314 m waterfall drops in one plunge, and every path leads to another pool.
Rizhao
City guide · 12 tours
A low-key Shandong beach town where the sun rises straight out of the Yellow Sea, the sand runs 60 km and a seafood dinner costs less than a coffee in Shanghai.
Yantai
City guide · 12 tours
A northern Shandong port of fairy-tale cliffs, wine cellars and long golden beaches — where emperors once hunted the elixir of life and China's wine industry still begins.
Lianyungang
City guide · 12 tours
A working Jiangsu port with a myth in the middle of it — the Flower-Fruit Mountain of Journey to the West, a sea causeway to a big island beach, and some of the cheapest seafood on the coast.
Sanqing Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A vertical forest of granite pillars in Jiangxi — the Python Out of the Mountain, the Goddess of the East Sea, two cable cars and a cliff-hugging walkway at 1,660 metres.
Tianjin
City guide · 12 tours
Beijing's port city next door — a river of 24 bridges, 2,000 colonial villas, and the best street breakfast in northern China.
Datong
City guide · 12 tours
A frontier capital of carved Buddhas — the Yungang Grottoes, a temple pinned to a cliff, and the oldest wooden tower in China.
Taiyuan
City guide · 12 tours
Shanxi's provincial capital and noodle heartland — the spring of Jinci, two Ming pagodas, and a museum that explains the whole province.
Pingyao
City guide · 12 tours
China's best-preserved ancient walled town — a Ming wall, the first Chinese bank, and two temples of painted clay just outside the gates.
Wutai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
China's foremost Buddhist mountain — fifty-plus temples in one valley, crowned by five flat-topped peaks up to 3,058 m.
Hulunbuir
City guide · 12 tours
China's finest grassland — a 263,000 km² sweep of steppe, birch forest and border river, best driven with the windows down.
The Forbidden City
City guide · 12 tours
Beijing's 600-year imperial palace — 8,700 rooms behind a 72-hectare wall, and the largest surviving wooden palace complex on earth.
Sanya
City guide · 12 tours
China's only true winter-sun coast — four very different bays, a coral island and a 108 m sea Buddha, all at 18° north.
Haikou
City guide · 12 tours
Hainan's capital is the island's living city — 600-year-old arcade streets, a volcanic village, and a morning-tea-to-midnight food culture.
Beihai
City guide · 12 tours
24 km of fine white sand on one side, a volcanic island of coral and lava on the other — plus a 19th-century arcade old street in between.
Nanning
City guide · 12 tours
Guangxi's green capital is a gateway to Detian Falls, Beihai and Vietnam — and a genuinely excellent food city if you let it slow you down.
Guangxi
City guide · 12 tours
One autonomous region, a dozen landscapes — limestone peaks and rice terraces in the north, a Vietnam border and a warm gulf coast in the south.
Huizhou
City guide · 12 tours
A free West Lake, a Taoist mountain and 200 km of white-sand coast — the Pearl River Delta's most underrated weekend.
Beidaihe
City guide · 12 tours
Northern China's classic beach escape — one sunrise headland, 10 km of calm swimming water, and a bird flyway overhead twice a year.
Shanhaiguan
City guide · 12 tours
The town where the Great Wall stops being a rumour of mountains and walks into the Bohai Sea.
Baiyangdian
City guide · 12 tours
The biggest freshwater lake on the North China Plain — and almost none of it can be reached except by boat.
Qinhuangdao
City guide · 12 tours
126 km of Bohai coast in one municipality — a working port, two famous resorts, and the only desert dunes that meet this sea.
Yesanpo
City guide · 12 tours
Gorge country where the Taihang and Yan ranges collide — 52.5 km of canyon walls, a cave that spits fish, and a river to fall off.
Zhuhai
City guide · 12 tours
The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.
Wuyi Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.
Jiuzhaigou
City guide · 12 tours
108 mineral-blue lakes in one 55 km valley — the place that ruins water everywhere else for you.
Mount Siguniang
City guide · 12 tours
Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.
Hailuogou
City guide · 12 tours
A glacier that comes down to 2,850 m, hot springs in the forest, and Gongga Shan filling the sky above both.
Daocheng Yading
City guide · 12 tours
Three 6,000 m sacred peaks, glacial lakes at 4,600 m and twenty hours of road — the hardest, highest payoff in Sichuan.
Shunan Bamboo Sea
City guide · 12 tours
Seventy thousand mu of bamboo over twenty-eight hills, a red sandstone corridor under a closed green roof, and a banquet made entirely of bamboo.
Dujiangyan
City guide · 12 tours
Not a monument but a machine: three pieces of engineering with no dam, still doing their job after 2,270 years.
Qingcheng Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
The mountain where Daoism was organised, and the one Chengdu escapes to when the basin turns into an oven.
Qingdao
City guide · 12 tours
Red-tiled roofs, cold beer and a granite mountain that walks straight into the sea — the easiest good time on the Yellow Sea.
Mount Tai
City guide · 12 tours
1,545 metres, 6,290 stone steps and three thousand years of emperors — the one mountain in China that is also a document.
Jinan
City guide · 12 tours
A provincial capital with 700 springs under the pavement — people still queue at the spouts to fill their kettles.
Weihai
City guide · 12 tours
1,000 km of clean coast, a free bathing beach, the island where the Beiyang Fleet died — and thousands of wild swans every winter.
Qufu
City guide · 12 tours
One family, two thousand years of steles, and a ¥150 pass that covers the lot — the easiest serious day trip in Shandong.
Penglai
City guide · 12 tours
China's immortals' coast — a Song-dynasty naval harbour you can walk for free, a mythology nobody ever found, and the ferry to 32 islands.
Changdao
City guide · 12 tours
32 islands, one causeway, a ¥150 land pass, tens of thousands of gulls and nowhere you can drive — the place where everything happens by boat.
Nanjing
City guide · 12 tours
Capital of six dynasties, capital of the Republic, and the city that eats more duck than anywhere else on earth.
Suzhou
City guide · 12 tours
Two thousand five hundred years of canals, sixty surviving gardens, and a city that shuts its gates at half past five.
Zhouzhuang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine hundred years, fourteen bridges, one ticket — and a town that only makes sense before eight in the morning.
Tongli
City guide · 12 tours
Fifteen canals, seven islets, forty-nine bridges — and a town that still gets up at dawn because it lives here.
Wuxi
City guide · 12 tours
Taihu on one side, a Grand Buddha on the next hill, and ribs sweet enough to argue about — the most underrated city on the Yangtze delta.
Yangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A city built by salt merchants who had more money than restraint — gardens, a narrow lake, and the best breakfast in China.
Zhenjiang
City guide · 12 tours
Three hills, one ferry landing, and an unreasonable share of Chinese literature — the Yangtze city people drive past.
Changzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,500-year-old canal city that built a dinosaur park and refuses to apologise for it.
Wuzhen
City guide · 12 tours
A town that is two towns: the older, quieter East Zone and the lit-up West Zone you sleep inside.
Xitang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine canals, 122 lanes, one long roofed corridor — and a town that still works for a living.
Hangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A lake in the middle of a city, a tea village in the hills, and two thousand years of getting the mood right.
Xixi Wetland
City guide · 12 tours
Ten square kilometres of marsh inside Hangzhou, and the only way into half of it is a boat.
Ningbo
City guide · 12 tours
A 7,000-year-old port with Asia's oldest private library, a free waterfront 20 years older than Shanghai's, and the best seafood before the islands.
Mount Putuo
City guide · 12 tours
A Buddhist island with no cars, three great temples and a ¥10 lunch that is the point of the place.
Qiandao Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A thousand islands that did not exist sixty years ago, and the cleanest big-lake water in China.
Shaoxing
City guide · 12 tours
Two and a half thousand years of water-town China, and Lu Xun's house is free.
Zhoushan
City guide · 12 tours
1,390 islands, one road bridge in, and a harbour that lands more fish than almost anywhere on earth.
Hengdian
City guide · 12 tours
A backlot the size of a town, where the palaces are copies and the film crews are real.
Yandang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano that weathering turned into scenery — 500-odd sights of peak, cave and waterfall across eight scenic areas.
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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