An independent guide
The whole of China, explained for first-timers.
168 sights across all 34 provinces, fourteen practical guides covering visas, mobile payments and high-speed rail, and seven routes you can steal outright.
Photo: Severin.stalder · CC BY-SA 3.0
01Start here
Three things to sort before you fly
Get these right at home and the rest of the trip takes care of itself. Get them wrong and you will spend your first day in an airport queue.
Visas & Visa-Free Entry
China opened up dramatically in 2024–25. Most Western visitors can now arrive without a visa at all — here is how to work out which route applies to you.
Money & Mobile Payments
China skipped credit cards and went straight to QR codes. Since 2024 foreign Visa and Mastercard can be bound directly inside Alipay and WeChat Pay — set this up before you fly.
SIM Cards, Internet & the Firewall
Google, WhatsApp and Instagram do not work on a Chinese connection. International roaming or a foreign eSIM routes around the problem entirely — and is the answer for almost every visitor.
02Where to go
The sights worth building a trip around
Forty-three destinations covered in depth — what they actually are, how to get there, when to go, and what everyone gets wrong.
The Great Wall
Not one wall but twenty thousand kilometres of them — and the section you choose decides your entire day.
UNESCO
The Terracotta Army 兵马俑
Eight thousand life-size soldiers, every face different, found by farmers digging a well in 1974.
Li River & Yangshuo 漓江与阳朔
The scenery on the back of the ¥20 note: limestone towers, bamboo, water buffalo and a river that bends between them for 83 kilometres.
Shanghai 上海
A 1920s waterfront staring across a river at the tallest skyline in Asia, with the best restaurant scene in China in between.
UNESCO
Jiuzhaigou Valley 九寨沟
A hundred and eight lakes in calcium-carbonate blue, stacked down a Y-shaped valley below the Tibetan plateau.
UNESCO
Mogao Caves & Dunhuang 莫高窟与敦煌
Four hundred and ninety-two painted caves in a desert cliff — a thousand years of Buddhist art, sealed and forgotten for nine centuries.
UNESCO
Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) 黄山
Granite spires, twisted pines and a sea of cloud — the mountain that taught Chinese painting what a mountain looks like.
03By theme
Eight ways to read the country
China is too big to see. It is not too big to have a reason for going.
UNESCO World Heritage
China ties Italy for the most World Heritage sites on earth — 59 and counting.
Ancient Capitals
Four thousand years of dynasties, and the cities they left behind.
Karst & Rivers
The limestone towers and misted water that invented Chinese landscape painting.
Sacred Mountains
Nine peaks that pilgrims have climbed by stone staircase for two thousand years.
The Silk Road
Desert forts, painted caves and oasis bazaars along the Hexi Corridor.
Modern Metropolis
Skylines, bullet trains, night markets and the loudest urbanism on earth.
Ethnic Cultures
Fifty-five recognised minority peoples, most of them in the southwest.
Ice & Snow
Ice cathedrals, rime forests and the ski resorts built for the 2022 Games.
04Ready-made routes
Seven itineraries you can steal
Day by day, with the rail legs, the bookings that need doing early, and honest notes on what to cut if you are short.
14 days
The Classic First Trip
Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai, linked entirely by high-speed rail, with enough slack built in to actually enjoy them.
10 days
Ten Days, No Rush
Two cities done properly rather than four done badly — Beijing and Xi'an, with the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army.
14 days
The Silk Road
Xi'an west through the Hexi Corridor to Dunhuang and on into Xinjiang, following the caravan route on a bullet train.
12 days
The Yunnan Loop
Kunming to Dali to Lijiang to Shangri-La, with the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek in the middle. The best-value classic route in China.
12 days
Karst & Pandas
Chengdu, Chongqing and the Guangxi karst — the softest, greenest, best-eating corner of the country.
12 days
Winter China
Harbin's ice city, a snow-dusted Great Wall, and the flooded rice terraces of Yuanyang — the season nobody plans for and everybody should.
05By region
Eight Chinas, not one
The country spans fifty degrees of latitude and five climate zones. Where you go decides what season you should go in.
The North
Imperial capitals, the Great Wall and the dust of the loess plateau.
The East
Canal towns, classical gardens, tea hills and the skyline of Shanghai.
The South
Karst rivers, Cantonese kitchens, tulou clan fortresses and tropical coast.
The Southwest
Pandas, chilli, rice terraces, gorges and the eastern edge of Tibet.
The Northwest
The Silk Road: desert, oasis, Buddhist caves and Central Asian bazaars.
Central China
The Yangtze's middle reaches, sandstone pillars and Hunan's fire-hot table.
The Northeast
Ice cities, Russian facades, volcanic lakes and the country's ski country.
The Tibetan Plateau
The roof of the world: monasteries, turquoise lakes and thin bright air.
06What to eat
There is no such thing as Chinese food
Eight major regional traditions, forty-seven dishes worth crossing a city for, and what to say when you cannot read the menu.
Sichuan 川菜
Not simply hot — the defining sensation is ma la, a numbing tingle that arrives before the heat does.
Cantonese 粤菜
The cuisine the West thinks of as Chinese food — and almost nothing you have eaten abroad resembles it.
Beijing & the North 京菜
Imperial kitchens, Mongolian lamb, wheat rather than rice, and the most famous roast bird in the world.
Jiangnan 江南菜
The refined, faintly sweet cooking of the Yangtze delta — knife work, clear broths and freshwater everything.
Hunan 湘菜
Hotter than Sichuan and without the numbing to soften it — dry heat, smoke, and pickled everything.
The Northwest 西北菜
Lamb, wheat, cumin and the tandoor — the food of the Silk Road, closer to Central Asia than to Beijing.
07Straight answers
The questions everyone asks
Do I need a visa to visit China?
Often not. China has expanded visa-free entry dramatically since 2024. Ordinary passport holders from a long and growing list of countries — most of the EU, plus Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and others — can currently enter visa-free for tourism for up to 30 days. Separately, a 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit applies to dozens of nationalities, including the United States and Canada, if you arrive at one of 60+ designated ports and hold an onward ticket to a third country. The lists change several times a year, so verify yours with your nearest Chinese embassy before booking. Everyone else applies for an L tourist visa.
Can I use my Visa or Mastercard in China?
Yes, but not everywhere. Since 2024 you can bind a foreign Visa/Mastercard/Amex directly inside Alipay and WeChat Pay, which is what you will actually use for 95% of transactions — QR codes on street stalls, taxis, metro gates, museum tickets. Physical card terminals exist in hotels and international chains but are unreliable elsewhere. Carry a few hundred yuan in cash as a backup.
Will Google, WhatsApp and Instagram work?
Not on a domestic Chinese SIM or hotel Wi-Fi. Google services, Meta apps, X, YouTube and most Western news sites are blocked. The two clean workarounds are international roaming on your home SIM, or an eSIM from a foreign provider — both route your traffic outside the mainland and simply work. Download offline maps and set up your alternatives before you fly.
How do I get around the country?
High-speed rail. China has 48,000 km of it, trains hit 350 km/h, and city-centre-to-city-centre it beats flying on almost every route under five hours. Beijing to Shanghai is 4h30. Book through Trip.com or the official 12306 app with your passport number; the passport itself is your ticket at the gate.
Is China safe for foreign tourists?
Violent crime against visitors is very rare and cities feel safe late at night. The real risks are mundane: traffic (scooters ignore crossings), tea-house and art-gallery scams around tourist plazas in Beijing and Shanghai, and unlicensed taxis at airports. Use Didi, keep your passport on you — it is legally required — and you will be fine.
Does anyone speak English?
Assume no, outside hotel front desks and major museums. This matters much less than it used to: signage in cities and on the rail network is bilingual, and live camera translation in Google Translate or Baidu Translate handles menus and tickets. Download the offline Chinese pack before you arrive.
How long should a first trip be?
Two weeks is the sweet spot: Beijing, Xi'an, and either Shanghai or the Guilin karst, with a slow day built into each city. Ten days works if you cut to two cities. Anything under a week and you should pick a single region — the country is the size of Europe and the distances will eat your holiday.
What does a trip actually cost?
Less than you expect once you are on the ground. Reckon on £45–70 / $55–90 a day for a comfortable mid-range trip: a good 3–4 star hotel at £35–55, street and local restaurant meals at £3–8 each, metro rides at 30p, and second-class high-speed rail at roughly £0.06 per kilometre. Flagship attraction tickets run £6–25.