Start where you land

Imperial capital, hutong breakfasts, and the easiest Great Wall day trips. Big, but the subway makes it simple — and almost everything now books with a passport number.

The Bund at dawn, art-deco lanes, and Pudong's towers across the river. China's easiest first city — English-friendly, and a metro signed in English reaches almost everything in this guide.

Pandas, teahouses, and the best food in China. The most laid-back of the big cities — and the easy gateway west to Leshan, Mount Emei and beyond.

The Terracotta Army, a Ming-era city wall you can cycle, and the best street food in the country. The old Silk Road capital — compact, walkable, and easy on a first trip.

West Lake at dawn, tea hills above the city, and willow causeways made for cycling. The classic easy day trip from Shanghai — 45 minutes by bullet train, and worth a night of its own.

The karst-peak postcard: a Li River cruise down to Yangshuo, then days cycling rice paddies and bamboo-rafting the Yulong. Low budget, high payoff, and barely a word of Chinese needed.

China's millennia-old trading port and the capital of Cantonese food — slow mornings over yum cha, Lingnan courtyards, and the Pearl River glowing at night. English-friendly and a breeze on the metro.

A vertical city where the harbour, the Peak and a thousand dai pai dong sit minutes apart. Its own border, currency and open internet make it the softest landing into — or out of — China.

China's startup metropolis — grown from Bao'an county town into a megacity since 1980. Glass towers, design districts, beaches and theme parks, with Hong Kong a metro ride across the border.

The 8D mountain megacity — skyscrapers stacked on cliffs, a monorail that runs through a building, two great rivers, and the spiciest hotpot in the country.

The City of Eternal Spring — mild all year, ringed by lakes and the karst pillars of the Stone Forest. China's launchpad into Yunnan: Dali, Lijiang and the road to Shangri-La.

The Venice of the East — 2,500 years of canals, whitewashed water towns and UNESCO gardens designed like living paintings. Just 25 minutes from Shanghai by high-speed rail, it's the perfect slow day out.

Capital of six dynasties, wrapped in the world's longest surviving city wall. Ming tombs under the plane trees, lantern-lit Qinhuai nights, and museums that hold both the grandeur and the grief of China's history.

Yunnan's mellow heart — a walled Bai old town strung between the blue sweep of Erhai Lake and the green wall of the Cangshan range. Cycle the shore, wander the markets, and slow right down.

A maze of cobbled lanes, willow canals and grey-tiled roofs under the white crown of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The Naxi old town is pure romance — and the launchpad for Tiger Leaping Gorge and the road to Shangri-La.

China's Ice City, where winter is the main event: a whole metropolis of illuminated ice castles, Russian onion domes on cobbled streets, and −25°C air that makes the lights glow harder. Come for the cold, stay for the spectacle.

China's most relaxed seaside city — palm-lined promenades, the car-free piano island of Gulangyu, a campus that opens onto the beach, and a café-and-pastry culture that rivals any in the country.

Red roofs and German spires tumbling down to the Yellow Sea — Qingdao pairs a cobbled colonial old town with proper beaches and the brewery that gave China its most famous beer. Salt air, seafood and a stein, basically.

The rooftop of the world: the Potala rising white and red above the city, pilgrims turning prayer wheels around the Jokhang, and thin, brilliant high-altitude light over everything. Sacred, singular — and the trip that needs the most planning.

The great Silk Road oasis — a thousand years of Buddhist murals hidden in the Mogao grottoes, a crescent spring cupped impossibly between roaring sand dunes, and camel trains on the rim of the Gobi.

The westernmost city in China and a Silk Road crossroads for two thousand years — a warren of an old town, the country's largest mosque, and a Sunday bazaar where Central Asia and China meet. Closer to Kabul than Beijing, and it feels it.

China's ancient capital for 13 dynasties, home to the UNESCO-listed Longmen Grottoes and the country's first Buddhist temple.

Hunan's capital: Han-dynasty mummies by day, chili heat and night markets after dark.

Central China's river giant: cherry blossoms in spring, a legendary tower, and the country's most serious breakfast culture.

China's only tropical city — white-sand bays, fringe-coral water and misted rainforest, with a seafood table that runs from dawn markets to beachfront grills.

A Portuguese-Chinese port where a UNESCO old town, egg-tart bakeries and the world's biggest casino strip sit minutes apart, an hour from Hong Kong.

The pillar forest behind Avatar's floating mountains, the world's longest cableway, and a glass bridge across a 300 m gorge.

The Manchu dynasty's first capital: a smaller, older Forbidden City, its founder's tomb in a pine forest, and the northeast's best street food.

Thirty minutes from Beijing by bullet train: a treaty-port city of European mansions, a Ferris wheel on a bridge, and the country's most serious breakfast.

The northeast's seaside city: cliff-coast drives, a free promenade the size of a town, Lüshun's heavy history — and Liaoning's freshest seafood.

Hainan's real capital: Nanyang arcades and old-teahouse mornings, a volcano at the city's edge — and a 30-day visa-free policy all its own.

The crossroads of Chinese civilization: Shaolin kung fu an hour south, 5,000 years in one free museum, and the wheat-field theater city everyone talks about.

The Song-Yuan emporium where the world's religions shared one street

The Northern Wei capital of cave temples, hanging monasteries and Liao-dynasty halls

The Silk Road city at the foot of the Tianshan, gateway to Xinjiang

The mountain that taught China what mountains should look like, and the Huizhou villages below it