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  China's Top 30

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  Eat & Drink Like a Local

  Cruising the Yangzi

  Regions at a Glance

  On The Road

  Beijing

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  Sleeping

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  Entertainment

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  The Great Wall

  Ming Tombs

  Chuandxia

  Wnping Town

  The Great Wall

  Visiting the Wall

  Mutianyu

  Gbeiku

  Jiankou

  Zhuangdaoku

  Jinshanlng

  Huanghua Cheng

  Badalng

  Tianjin & Hebei

  Tianjin & Hebei Highlights

  Tianjin

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  Chengde

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  Jimingyi

  Liaoning

  Dalian

  Around Dalian

  Dandong

  Shenyang

  Xingcheng

  Jilin

  Changbai Shan Nature Reserve

  Yanji

  Ji'an

  Beidahu Ski Resort

  Changchun

  Heilongjiang

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  Jingpo Lake

  Wdalian Chi

  Mohe

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  Qingdo

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  Sights

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  Zhujiajio

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  Quanzhou

  Around Quanzhou

  Fuzhou

  Wyi Shan

  Shanxi

  Datong

  Around Datong

  Wtai Shan

  Taiyuan

  Around Taiyuan

  Pingyao

  Around Pingyao

  Qikou

  Jincheng

  Guoyu

  Prime Minister Chens Castle

  Shaanxi

  Xi'an

  Around Xi'an

  Hua Shan

  Hancheng

  Yulin

  Anhui

  Tunxi

  Xidi

  Hongcun

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  Shexian

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  Hefei

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  Luoyang

  Around Luoyang

  Guoliangcun

  Kaifeng

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  Hubei

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  Jingzhou

  Around Jingzhou

  Wdang Shan

  Shennongjia

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  Jiangxi

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  Around Nanchang

  Lushan

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  Wuyuan

  Around Wuyuan

  Sanqing Shan

  Longhu Shan

  Longnan

  Hunan

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  Fenghuang

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  Furong Zhen

  Hong Kong

  Sights

  Activities

  Tours

  Festivals & Events

  Sleeping

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  Drinking & Nightlife

  Entertainment

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  Macau

  Sights

  Activities

  Tours

  Festivals & Events

  Sleeping

  Eating

  Drinking & Nightlife

  Entertainment

  Shopping

  Gungdong

  Gungzhou

  Around Gungzhou

  Foshan

  Kaiping

  Yangjiang

  Zhaoqing

  Around Zhaoqing

  Qingyun

  Nanlng National Forest Park

  Shenzhen

  Zhuhi

  Chaozhou

  Around Chaozhou

  Meizhou

  Dabu

  Chayang Old Town

  Baihou Old Town

  Shantou

  Hinan

  Hinan Highlights

  Hiku

  Around Hiku

  Central Highlands

  Boting

  The East Coast

  Bo'ao

  Shimei Bay & Ri Yue Bay

  Sanya

  Xinglong

  Gungxi

  Guilin

  Around Guilin

  Ziyuan

  Longj Rice Terraces

  Sanjiang

  Yangshuo

  Around Yangshuo

  Liugong

  Xingping

  Huangyao

  Nanning

  Yangmei

  Beihi

  Weizhou Island

  Huashan Cliff Murals

  Pingxiang

  Detian Waterfall

  Tongling Grand Canyon

  Leye

  Guizhou

  Guiyang

  Qingyan

  Kil

  Basha

  Leishan

  Longl

  Xijiang

  Zhaoxing

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  Around Zhenyun

  Anshun

  Around Anshun

  Weining

  Chishu

  Yunnan

  Kunming

  Around Kunming

  Shilin

  Heijng

  Jianshu

  Yuanyang Rice Terraces

  Xiaguan

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  Dal

  Erhi Lake

  Cang Shan

  Xzhou

  Nuodeng

  Shaxi

  Lijiang

  Baisha

  Shuhe Old Town

  Tiger Leaping Gorge

  Tiger Leaping Gorge to Baishutai

  Lugu Lake

  Shangri-la

  Around Shangri-la

  Deqin & Kawa Karpo

  Liuku

  Fugong

  Bngzhongluo

  Dulong Valley

  Tengchong County

  Ruili

  Around Ruili

  Jnghong

  Around Jnghong

  Sichuan

  Chengdu
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  Dujiangyan

  Four Sisters Mountain

  Emei Shan

  Le Shan

  Lijiang

  Y'an

  Zigong

  Yibin

  Bamboo Sea

  Kangding

  Northern Garze Prefecture

  Southern Garze Prefecture

  The Road to Gansu

  Songpan

  Jizhaigou National Park

  Langzhong

  Chongqing

  Chongqing City

  Dazu Buddhist Caves

  Laitan

  Zhongshan

  Wlong

  Anju Ancient Town

  Xinjiang

  Urumqi

  Tian Chi

  Turpan

  Around Turpan

  Hami

  Kuqa

  Kashgar

  Karakoram Highway

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  Hotan

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  Yarkand

  Bu'erjin

  Kanas Lake Nature Reserve

  Yining

  Sayram Lake

  Gansu

  Gansu Highlights

  Lanzhou

  Southern Gansu

  Xiahe

  Around Xiahe

  Hezuo

  Langmusi

  Hexi Corridor

  Wuwei

  Around Wuwei

  Zhangye

  Zhangye Danxia National Geopark

  Jiayuguan

  Dunhuang

  Around Dunhuang

  Eastern Gansu

  Tianshu

  Around Tianshu

  Pingliang

  Ningxia

  Yinchuan

  Helan Shan

  Zhongwei

  Guyuan

  Tongxin

  Inner Mongolia

  Hohhot

  Around Hohhot

  Shangdu

  Baotou

  Genghis Khan Mausoleum

  Hila'er

  Enhe

  Mnzhoul

  Shi Wei

  Bayanhot

  Far West Inner Mongolia

  Qinghi

  Xining

  Around Xining

  Huzhu Beishan Forest National Park

  Tongren

  Guide

  Yushu

  Princess Wencheng Temple

  Nangchen

  Golmud

  Mduo

  Tibet

  Tibet Highlights

  Lhasa

  Around Lhasa

  Drepung Monastery

  Ganden Monastery

  Sera Monastery

  U

  Yarlung Tsangpo Valley

  Southern Ngari

  Saga

  Tsang

  Gyantse

  Shigatse

  Lhatse Lazi

  Sakya

  Everest Region

  Tingri

  Far West Ngari

  Darchen & Mt Kailash

  Lake Manasarovar

  Understand

  Understand China

  China Today

  History

  People of China

  Religion & Philosophy

  Chinese Cuisine

  Arts & Architecture

  China's Landscapes

  Martial Arts of China

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  China By Train

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  Before You Go

  In China

  Language

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  Our Writers

  Special Features

  Essential China

  Welcome to China

  China. The name alone makes you want to get packing. It's going places, so jump aboard, go along for the ride and see where it's headed.

  Breathtaking Antiquity

  Its modern face is dazzling, but China is no one-trick pony. The world's oldest continuous civilisation isn't all smoked glass and brushed aluminium and while you won't be tripping over artefacts – three decades of round-the-clock development and rash town planning have taken their toll – rich seams of antiquity await. Serve it all up according to taste: collapsing sections of the Great Wall, temple-topped mountains, villages that time forgot, languorous water towns, sublime Buddhist grottoes and ancient desert forts. Pack a well-made pair of travelling shoes and remember the words of Laotzu: 'a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'.

  Stupendous Scenery

  Few countries do the Big Outdoors like the Middle Kingdom. China's landscapes span the range from alpha to omega: take your pick from the sublime sapphire lakes of Tibet or the impassive deserts of Inner Mongolia, island-hop in Hong Kong or bike between fairy-tale karst pinnacles around Yángshuò; swoon before the rice terraces of the south, take a selfie among the gorgeous yellow rapeseed of Wùyuán or hike the Great Wall as it meanders across mountain peaks; get lost in green forests of bamboo or, when your energy fails you, flake out on a distant beach and listen to the thud of falling coconuts.

  Cuisine

  The Chinese live to eat and with 1.4 billion food-loving people to feed, coupled with vast geographic and cultural variations in a huge land, expect your tastebuds to be tantalised, tested and treated. Wolf down Peking duck in Běijīng, melt over a Chóngqìng hotpot or grab a seasoned ròujiāmó (shredded pork in a bun) before climbing Huá Shān. Gobble down a steaming bowl of Lánzhōu noodles in a Silk Road street market, raise the temperature with some searing Húnán fare or flag down the dim sum trolley down south. Follow your nose in China and you won't want to stop travelling.

  Diversity

  China is vast. Off-the-scale massive. A riveting jumble of wildly differing dialects and climatic and topographical extremes, it's like several different countries rolled into one. Take your pick from the tossed-salad ethnic mix of the southwest, the yak-butter-illuminated temples of Xiàhé, a journey along the dusty Silk Road, spending the night at Everest Base Camp or getting into your glad rags for a night on the Shànghǎi tiles. You're spoilt for choice: whether you’re an urban traveller, hiker, cyclist, explorer, backpacker, irrepressible museum-goer or faddish foodie, China’s diversity is second to none.

  Traditional dancers leaving the stage at the Summer Palace, Běijīng | MATT MUNRO/LONELY PLANET ©

  Why I Love China

  By Damian Harper, Writer

  A passion for Chinese martial arts saw me enrolling for a four-year degree in Chinese at university in London back in the 1990s. They were fun days, when travelling China was testing but exciting in equal measure. Hot spots like Píngyáo were unheard of and Shànghǎi’s Pǔdōng was a cocktail-free flatland. I could say it's the fantastic food, the awesome landscapes, the thrill of train travel, the delightful people or pitching up in a small town I’ve never been to before, and I wouldn’t be lying. But it’s the Chinese language I still love most of all.

  China's Top 30

  Forbidden City

  Not a city and no longer forbidden, Běijīng’s enormous palace is the be-all-and-end-all of dynastic grandeur with its vast halls and splendid gates. No other place in China teems with so much history, legend and good old-fashi
oned imperial intrigue. You may get totally lost here but you’ll always find something to write about on the first postcard you can lay your hands on. The complex also heads the list with one of China’s most attractive admission prices and almost endless value-for-money sightseeing.