敦煌Dunhuang, Caves and Desert Frontiers
Mogao cave art, singing dunes and the Han frontier — a practical three-day plan built around official reservations, long desert roads and weather buffers.
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129 handbooks
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Travel Handbooks
Field-tested English handbooks for first-time visitors, one per destination. Each one is fact-checked against official sources and dated with its review.
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西
10Northwest China handbooks
敦煌
甘南Gannan
Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is a highland journey through monasteries, grasslands, river valleys and stone-walled villages in southern Gansu.
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兰州Lanzhou
Lanzhou is China's great Yellow River city and the practical gateway between the central plains, Hexi Corridor, Qinghai and Gannan.
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华山Mount Hua
Mount Hua is one of the five sacred peaks of China — and by common consent the most dangerous.
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北疆Northern Xinjiang
Northern Xinjiang is a long-distance landscape journey through the Altay mountains, Kanas lake country, steppe, desert and the western Tianshan.
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青海Qinghai
Qinghai is a high-altitude province of salt lakes, grasslands, Tibetan and Hui communities, desert basins and the headwaters of major rivers.
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青海湖Qinghai Lake
Qinghai Lake is a vast high-altitude salt lake, not one fenced attraction.
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乌鲁木齐Urumqi
Urumqi is Xinjiang's main transport and service hub, set between the northern edge of the Tianshan and the Junggar Basin.
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西安Xian
Xi'an — Chang'an in the age of the Silk Road — served as capital for more than a dozen dynasties across some eleven centuries, and the scale of that past is the first thing you feel: a complete Ming-era city wall you can
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新疆Xinjiang
Xinjiang is larger than many countries and must be planned as several journeys: northern forests and lakes, Ili grasslands, the Tianshan crossing, Turpan's desert oases, Kashgar and the Pamirs, or the long southern basin
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东
4Northeast China handbooks
长白山Changbaishan
Changbaishan — the Ever-White Mountain — is a dormant volcano straddling the border of Jilin province and North Korea, and the most mythical landscape in China's northeast.
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大连Dalian
Dalian sits at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, wrapped on three sides by the Yellow and Bohai seas — the one big northeast city that thinks like a seaside resort.
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哈尔滨Harbin
Harbin is China's winter capital.
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沈阳Shenyang
Shenyang — Mukden, or Shengjing ("radiant capital") in its imperial name — is where the Qing dynasty began.
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川
10Sichuan handbooks
成都Chengdu
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan and the soft landing most first-time visitors give southwest China: a city of teahouses, mahjong tiles and hotpot steam that has spent roughly 2,300 years on the same spot under the same
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稻城亚丁Daocheng Yading
Daocheng Yading, in western Sichuan's Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is the high-altitude pilgrimage of Chinese travel: three sacred snow peaks — Chenrezig, Jampelyang and Chanadorje, the bodhisattva mountains of T
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都江堰Dujiangyan
Dujiangyan is the reason Sichuan is called the Land of Abundance.
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海螺沟Hailuogou
Hailuogou is the easiest place on earth to stand under a real glacier.
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九寨沟Jiuzhaigou
Jiuzhaigou is the most famous valley of water in China: a Y-shaped canyon in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture where more than a hundred alpine lakes — haizi , "sons of the sea" — stack terraced colors of t
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康定Kangding
Kangding is the gateway where Sichuan's lowlands end and the Tibetan plateau begins — a narrow town wedged in a gorge at about 2,560 meters, famous across China as the home of the "Kangding Love Song" and, before that, a
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峨眉山Mount Emei
Mount Emei is one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains — the bodhimanda of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra — and a UNESCO natural and cultural site shared with the Leshan Giant Buddha at its foot.
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四姑娘山Mount Siguniang
Mount Siguniang — "Four Sisters Mountain" — is Sichuan's alpine answer to the Alps: four snow peaks rising over 5,000 meters from the Qionglai range on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, with three glacier-carved valleys a
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青城山Qingchengshan
Mount Qingcheng — "the most secluded mountain under heaven" — is where religious Taoism was born: in AD 142 the first Celestial Master, Zhang Daoling, founded his school in these green folds west of Chengdu, and the moun
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蜀南竹海Shunan Bamboo Sea
Shunan Bamboo Sea is a broad bamboo-forest landscape south of Yibin, spread across ridges, valleys, waterfalls, villages and scenic roads rather than one garden.
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西
7Southwest China handbooks
重庆Chongqing
Chongqing is a city built vertically — towers rising off cliffs between the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, roads that pass over rooftops, a monorail that glides through the middle of an apartment block.
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拉萨Lhasa
Lhasa, the "place of the gods," sits at 3,650 meters in a river valley ringed by bare mountains — the "Sunlight City" of relentless blue skies.
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纳木错Namtso Lake
Namtso is a sacred high-altitude lake north of Lhasa, with the principal visitor area around Tashi Island at roughly 4,718 metres.
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林芝Nyingchi
Nyingchi — "the sun's throne" in Tibetan, Linzhi in Chinese — is Tibet's soft green corner: forested valleys along the Yarlung Tsangpo and its tributary the Niyang, villages under snow peaks, and a famous March–April pea
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黔东南Qiandongnan, Villages by Rail
This Qiandongnan edition is a village-and-rail route across southeast Guizhou, distinct from the broader regional handbook.
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川藏线Sichuan–Tibet Route
The Sichuan–Tibet southern line — National Highway 318 from Chengdu to Lhasa, roughly 2,100 kilometers of it — is the road journey Chinese travelers romanticize above all others.
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西藏Tibet
Tibet Autonomous Region is a high-altitude journey where legal travel arrangements, gradual acclimatisation and respect for living religious culture matter more than the number of places covered.
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海
7Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan handbooks
香港Hong Kong
Hong Kong is a vertical city poured between a mountain and a harbour — Cantonese at heart, international in its skin, and dense enough that a first visit can feel like three cities in one: the financial canyons of Centra
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香港离岛Hong Kong Outlying Islands
Hong Kong counts more than two hundred outlying islands, and some lie barely half an hour from Central by ferry.
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高雄Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung is a warm southern port city where harbour warehouses, contemporary arts, ferries, light rail and old neighbourhood food fit naturally into a two- or three-day stay.
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澳门Macau
Macau is the smallest surprise in East Asia: a former Portuguese trading post where baroque church facades stand at the end of lanes of Chinese herbal shops, and where egg tarts, pork chop buns and Portuguese wine share
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香港购物Shopping in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is a free port: no sales tax, no VAT and no customs duty on most goods, which is why "shopping" sits in the same breath as the skyline.
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台北Taipei
Taipei sits in a basin ringed by mountains, a capital of contradictions that somehow all work: a skyline tower next to a century-old temple, night markets an MRT stop from world-class museums, hot-spring steam rising at
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台湾12日Taiwan: A 12-Day Route
Twelve days is enough for a rewarding Taiwan rail journey if the route is selective: Taipei and the north, one central stop, the southern cities and a measured return.
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北
13North China handbooks
白洋淀Baiyangdian
Baiyangdian is a broad wetland of reed beds, lotus ponds and working waterside villages inside Xiong'an New Area.
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北戴河Beidaihe
Beidaihe is Qinhuangdao's classic seaside district: wooded lanes, long beaches, headlands for sunrise and a summer culture shaped by more than a century of coastal holidays.
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北京Beijing, the Imperial Capital
The Forbidden City and the Great Wall, hutong lanes and lake evenings — three thousand years of capital history inside a modern megacity.
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大同Datong, Grottoes of the Northern Wei
The Yungang Buddhas cut into a sandstone cliff, a Hanging Temple clinging to a gorge, a tenth-century wooden pagoda — and a reborn walled city lit at night.
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呼伦贝尔Hulunbuir, the Great Grassland
A border-region sweep of steppe, Russian timber villages on the Argun and the forests of the Greater Khingan — based in Hailar, moved by hired car, best in a short green summer.
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平遥Pingyao, the Walled Bankers’ Town
A complete Ming-dynasty county town under UNESCO protection: six kilometers of ramparts, the courtyard offices of China’s first draft banks, and two great temples outside the walls.
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秦皇岛Qinhuangdao
Qinhuangdao is not one seaside centre but a long urban coast joining three useful travel zones: the working city in Haigang District, the resort shore of Beidaihe and the Great Wall landscape of Shanhaiguan.
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山海关Shanhaiguan
Shanhaiguan is the rare place where a fortified Ming city, mountain wall and Bohai shoreline can be read as one defensive landscape.
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太原Taiyuan, Gateway to Shanxi
Shanxi’s capital and staging hub: the Song masterpiece at Jinci, bronzes that stop you mid-stride at the provincial museum, twin pagodas and a riverfront rebuilt from the poems.
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故宫The Forbidden City, Palace of 24 Emperors
The largest timber palace complex on earth: the central axis, the courts where the court really lived, the treasure galleries and the roofscape from Jingshan hill.
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天津Tianjin, Concessions and Crosstalk
Half an hour from Beijing by fast train: villa-lined avenues of nine former concessions, a riverfront of bridges and lights, and the comedy capital of China.
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五台山Wutaishan, the Clear Cool Mountain
First of China’s four sacred Buddhist mountains: forty-odd working monasteries in a high valley, five flat summit terraces, and the only mountain where Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism share the incense.
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野三坡Yesanpo
Yesanpo is a mountain-and-gorge destination in Laishui County where the Taihang and Yan ranges meet southwest of Beijing.
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东
11East China handbooks
厦门Eight Slow Days in Xiamen
The full unhurried loop: the city and its beaches, the UNESCO earthen towers of the Hakka mountains, and a night or two on Gulangyu — a route built for lingering.
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福州Fuzhou, the Banyan City
Ming-dynasty lanes at the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys, a temple mountain over the Min River, the shipyard that founded the modern navy — and jasmine tea everywhere.
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鼓浪屿Gulangyu, the Piano Island
A car-free heritage island of consulates, churches, courtyards and pianos facing Xiamen — best walked at dawn and dusk, best slept in overnight.
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合肥Hefei, Lord Bao's City of Science
The incorruptible Judge Bao's hometown, a Three Kingdoms battlefield turned park, the residence of Li Hongzhang — and a scrappy capital that grew into China's science city.
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宏村Hongcun, the Village in a Chinese Painting
Mirror lakes, moon-shaped ponds and a water channel past every door in this UNESCO Hui merchant village — carved mansions by day, lantern reflections by night.
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连云港Lianyungang, Huaguoshan and the Coast
This Lianyungang edition focuses on a mountain-and-coast itinerary: Huaguoshan's Journey to the West landscape, the Yuntai mountain forest and one controlled coastal day.
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南昌Nanchang, Hero City on the Gan
The tower of Wang Bo's famous preface, the square where the People's Liberation Army was founded, and winter cranes over Poyang Lake — Jiangxi at full volume.
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日照Rizhao, A Two-Day Coastal Route
This Rizhao edition is a focused two-day coastal itinerary rather than a duplicate city catalogue.
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上海Shanghai, Bund and Skyline
Treaty-port grandeur on the Bund, tower country in Pudong, plane-tree lanes in the old French Concession — and the rail gateway to Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing.
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厦门Xiamen, the City That Strolls
A relaxed island city of temple incense, a seaside cycle lane and the university by the beach — with the piano island of Gulangyu waiting across the harbor.
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烟台Yantai, A Three-Day Peninsula Route
This Yantai edition is a three-day peninsula route focused on the central waterfront, one wine-country or mountain sector and one optional island-facing day.
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南
10South China handbooks
北海Beihai, Silver Beach and a Volcano Isle
A drowsy gulf port on the old Maritime Silk Road: kilometers of cool quartz sand, colonial arcades, and a ferry out to a coral-ringed volcanic island.
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广西Guangxi Beyond the Postcard
Border waterfalls, longevity villages, Zhuang terraces, Dong bridges and the Beibu Gulf — an eight-day loop through China’s far south (Guilin has its own handbook).
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广州Guangzhou, the City That Eats All Day
Dim sum mornings, treaty-port arcades, Ming walls and a tower over the Pearl River — China's great food city, two thousand years deep in trade.
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海口Haikou, Arcades and Coconut Shade
Hainan’s unhurried capital: century-old qilou streets, daddy-tea mornings, a walk-in volcano park — the island’s real daily life, not its resort strip.
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惠州Huizhou, Half City, Half Lake
Su Dongpo's exile town on the Dongjiang: a West Lake of its own, Taoist peaks, bamboo seas, Hakka kitchens and clean sand on Daya Bay.
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南宁Nanning, the Green City
Guangxi’s laid-back capital, gate to Southeast Asia — banyan boulevards, night-market noodles, and the road to a waterfall on the Vietnamese border.
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三亚Sanya, China’s Tropic Shore
Palm-lined bays on the South China Sea, an island dive mecca, rainforest cliffs and a duty-free playground — the resort city, taken with open eyes.
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深圳Shenzhen, Forty Years Young
A fishing county turned megacity in one generation: theme parks, mangrove bays, mountain beaches and the skyline of the future — with Hong Kong next door.
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武夷山Wuyishan, Tea Country on a Bamboo Raft
Cliff-walled gorges in northern Fujian, a river that bends nine times, hanging coffins and the birthplace of da hong pao — a UNESCO heritage of rock and philosophy.
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珠海Zhuhai, Slow Days on Lovers’ Road
A promenade that never quite ends, a hundred islands offshore, Macau across the water — the softest pace on the Chinese coast, with oysters to match.
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中
11Central China handbooks
长沙Changsha, Spice and Starlight
A Han lady in glass at Mawangdui, a thousand-year academy under Yuelu Mountain, Mao's river island — and the loudest, spiciest, most fun-loving night economy in central China.
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凤凰Fenghuang, the River Town of Border Town
Stilt houses over the green Tuojiang, Shen Congwen's literary myth, Miao villages in the hills — and an honest look at China's most touristed water town.
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衡山Hengshan, the South's Sacred Peak
Pilgrim trails from temple to summit, sunrise over Zhurong Peak, and a rare southern rime-ice winter — the most Taoist-and-Buddhist of the Five Great Mountains.
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黄山Huangshan, the Mountain of Painted Pines
Granite towers, gravity-defying pines and seas of cloud — China's most celebrated mountain, with the Huizhou villages of Hongcun and Xidi in the foothills.
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洛阳Luoyang, Thirteen Dynasties and a Flower
The Longmen Grottoes carved into river cliffs, China's first Buddhist temple, a rebuilt Tang imperial axis — and every April, the peonies of the old capital.
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庐山Lushan, Mist above the Yangtze
A summer capital floating above the Yangtze and Poyang Lake: waterfalls of Tang poetry, a town of stone villas, and mist that rewrites the mountain hourly.
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三清山Sanqingshan, Granite Pillars of the Taoists
Walkways bolted to cliffs at 1,600 meters, mushroom pillars rising from subtropical forest, and azalea slopes in late spring — Huangshan drama with half the crowds.
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武当山Wudang, the Taoist Mountain of Kung Fu
A gilded hall on the highest summit, Ming palaces balanced on cliffs, tai chi schools in the lanes — the holiest mountain of Taoism and of internal martial arts.
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武汉Wuhan, Three Cities on Two Rivers
The Yellow Crane Tower, the first bridge over the Yangtze, a museum with a bronze orchestra 2,400 years old, lake greenways and the great breakfast culture of "guozao."
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婺源Wuyuan, China's Golden Spring
Rapeseed terraces around white-walled Hui villages, covered bridges and ancestor halls in the tea hills — and an autumn reprise of chilis drying over every balcony.
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云台山Yuntaishan, Gorges of the Taihang
A red-sandstone gorge you wade through on boardwalks, a 300-meter waterfall, macaques in the woods — the Global Geopark where the North China plain meets the Taihang.
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鲁
9Shandong handbooks
长岛Changdao, Islands at the End of the Light
Thirty-two islands across the Yellow–Bohai seam: sea cliffs, a pebble beach that sings underfoot, gull cities on the outer rocks, seals in spring — and every road in ends at a ferry.
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济南Jinan, the City of Springs
Baotu Spring's jets, the willowed lanes where houses lean over flowing water, Daming Lake at dusk — Shandong's relaxed capital, built around water that rises out of the ground.
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泰山Mount Tai, the Sacred Climb
Six thousand steps up China's most storied mountain — emperors' temples, inscribed cliffs, a lantern-lit night climb and the most famous sunrise in the country.
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蓬莱Penglai, Where the Immortals Crossed
A cliff-top tower of the Eight Immortals legend, a Ming-dynasty naval harbor, real mirages over the strait, wine country inland — and the only ferry port for the islands of Changdao.
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青岛Qingdao, Red Roofs and Cold Beer
German-colonial streets under red tiles, the beer that carries the city's name, lifeguarded beaches and the Taoist sea-cliffs of Laoshan — China's most complete seaside city-break.
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曲阜Qufu, the Hometown of Confucius
The temple, the ducal mansion and the forest cemetery of the Kong family — two and a half millennia of ceremony in one low, quiet town, and rites that still run daily.
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日照Rizhao, Where the Sun Rises First
Sixty kilometers of unbroken golden sand, a championship sailing harbor, clam flats you can rake at low tide and a bracing local green tea — the Shandong coast at its most unhurried.
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威海Weihai, Harbors, Capes and Winter Swans
The island museum of China's 1894 naval catastrophe, the mainland's easternmost sunrise, seaweed-roofed fishing villages and whooper swans on the winter lagoons — Shandong's cleanest coastal air.
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烟台Yantai, Wine, Apples and the North Coast
The harbor hill that named the city, China’s oldest winery in century-old cellars, cherry-and-apple orchards inland and broad northern beaches — with Penglai an hour away.
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浙
12Zhejiang handbooks
杭州Hangzhou, the Lake and the Tea Hills
West Lake's willowed causeways, the temple hills of Lingyin, Dragon Well tea villages and a skyline rising across the river — the classical heart of Jiangnan.
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横店Hengdian, the Town That Films Empires
The world’s largest film-studio cluster: a replica Forbidden City, Qin dynasty palaces, treaty-port streets — and costumed stunt shows between working shoots.
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宁波Ningbo, the Port Behind the Romance
China's oldest private library, a Bund older than Shanghai's, drum towers and tangyuan — and the gateway to the sacred islands of Putuoshan.
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普陀山Putuoshan, the Island of Guanyin
One of Buddhism’s four sacred mountains rises straight from the East China Sea: temples in pine forest, pilgrims on the stairways, surf on golden sand.
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千岛湖Qiandaohu, the Lake of a Thousand Islands
A 1959 reservoir that drowned two county towns and left a thousand forested peaks as islands — bottle-clean water, slow boats, and the famous fish-head banquet.
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绍兴Shaoxing, Wine, Boats and Lu Xun
Black-awning punts through 2,500-year-old canals, the lanes of Lu Xun's childhood, calligraphy at the Orchid Pavilion — and yellow rice wine warmed like tea.
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乌镇Wuzhen, the Water Town in Two Acts
Canals, black-awning boats and a whole glowing west zone by night — plus the theatre festival that turned a millennial town into a stage.
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西塘Xitang, the Town Under One Roof
A kilometre of covered corridors along nine rivers, bridges with love-luck legends, a lane barely shoulder-wide — the lived-in water town an easy hop from Shanghai.
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西溪湿地Xixi, the Wetland Inside the City
Ten square kilometres of channels, reed banks and old fishing hamlets on Hangzhou’s western edge — explored by punt, glorious in plum blossom and autumn reeds.
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雁荡山Yandangshan, Peaks by Day and Night
A Cretaceous volcano carved into pinnacles and slot gorges above the East China Sea — a great waterfall, cliff-walking acrobats, and floodlit silhouettes after dark.
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浙江Zhejiang, the Loop Through Jiangnan
A province-size circuit from Hangzhou: tea hills and West Lake, lantern-lit water towns, the wine city of Shaoxing, a Buddhist island, volcano pinnacles and a lake of a thousand islands.
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舟山Zhoushan, the Island Prefecture
Thirteen hundred islands: dawn quays at a great fishing port, night seafood stalls, surf beaches and sand sculptures, islands out of wuxia novels.
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云
9Yunnan handbooks
大理Dali at an Unhurried Pace
A first-trip guide to the Old Town, Cangshan, Erhai and the Bai villages between them.
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昆明Kunming, More Than a Stopover
A first-trip guide to lakeside walks, city culture, local food and a full day among the Stone Forest.
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丽江Lijiang Beyond the Postcard
A practical first-trip guide to the Old Town, Naxi heritage, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the surrounding valleys.
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滇西北Lijiang to Shangri-La, nine days on the roof of Yunnan
The classic northwest-Yunnan corridor: two old towns, one great lake, a gorge of the Yangtze, and a Tibetan plateau finish — assembled so the altitude rises gently and every leg earns its drive.
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泸沽湖Lugu Lake, On Its Own Time
A slow-travel guide to the lakeshore, local communities, boat routes and practical planning between Yunnan and Sichuan.
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香格里拉Shangri-La, above the clouds
A Tibetan plateau town at 3,300 meters in northwest Yunnan: butter tea and monastery courts, a seasonal lake that becomes grassland, and some of the most dramatic mountain driving in China.
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束河Shuhe, A Quieter Day in Lijiang
A short guide to the old market town, its water lanes, Naxi heritage and an easy route from the city.
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西双版纳Xishuangbanna, where the tropics begin
Rainforest, Dai river towns and lantern-lit night markets in China's far southwest, where the Lancang River rolls on toward the Mekong and the border with Myanmar and Laos.
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云南Yunnan, region by region
South of the clouds is a whole calendar of trips: glacier mountains in the northwest, rice terraces in the southeast, rainforest on the Lao border, and a spring-valley capital to thread them together.
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黔
5Guizhou handbooks
贵阳Guiyang, the Cool-Weather Capital
Leafy streets, night markets and a 600-year-old stone town in China's summer-refuge capital — and the high-speed rail hub that unlocks Guizhou.
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黄果树Huangguoshu, China's Biggest Waterfall
A six-direction giant fall with a walk-in cave behind it, a stone-forest river park, and Ming garrison villages with masked opera — west of Guiyang.
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荔波Libo, Emerald Water in a Karst Bowl
The Xiaoqikong valley of 68 waterfalls, waded water forest and impossible blues — plus the Maolan karst forest — now on the high-speed rail map.
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黔东南Southeast Guizhou, Where the Terraces Begin
Miao towers over terraced hills, Dong drum towers and grand song, festival calendars older than the counties — a slow loop through village China.
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镇远Zhenyuan, the River Town in the S-Bend
The Wuyang River loops an S through lantern-lit old lanes and cliff-hung temples — Guizhou's easiest rail town and its prettiest evening walk.
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苏
9Jiangsu handbooks
常州Changzhou, Dinosaurs and a 2,500-Year-Old Moat
A theme-park city with serious roots: China's tallest pagoda, the Spring-and-Autumn earthworks of Yancheng, and bamboo seas out in Liyang.
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连云港Lianyungang, Where Jiangsu Meets the Sea
Beaches on Lian Island, the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit from Journey to the West, and the port where the Eurasian rail bridge begins.
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南京Nanjing, Six Dynasties Under the Plane Trees
City walls, the Sun Yat-sen terraces on Purple Mountain, lantern-lit Qinhuai nights and some of China's most sobering history — Jiangsu's old capital.
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苏州Suzhou, Gardens and Canal Alleys
Classical gardens, pingtan strings down Pingjiang Road, and a sweet-lipped kitchen — the canvas on which every other Jiangnan town is judged.
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同里Tongli, Five Gardens and Three Bridges
A quieter water town with a UNESCO-listed garden, auspicious bridges and a lane so narrow two people pass sideways — reachable by Suzhou metro.
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无锡Wuxi on Lake Tai
Cherry blossoms over Lake Tai at Yuantouzhu, a giant Buddha in the hills, an old canal quarter — and the sweetest pork ribs in Jiangsu.
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扬州Yangzhou, Mornings of Tea and Willows
The Slender West Lake by boat, salt-merchant gardens, and a breakfast culture worth planning the day around — the poet's stop on the Grand Canal.
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镇江Zhenjiang, Three Hills and a Bowl of Vinegar
The temple that swallows its hill, Three-Kingdoms ramparts, a thousand-year-old ferry street — and China's most famous vinegar.
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周庄Zhouzhuang, the Water Town on the Postcard
Twin bridges over a millpond canal, merchant mansions, Kunqu opera by lamplight — the most famous water town in Jiangnan, best at dawn and dusk.
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桂
1Guangxi handbooks
湘
1