China - Places to see

With its long and dramatic history, China offers endless cultural treasures. Famous attractions like the Terracotta Warriors, the Great Wall, colonial Shanghai and the imperial grandeur of Beijing are obvious magnets, but there's also sacred mountains and huge national parks to wander in.

Beijing
If your visions of Beijing are centred around pods of Maoist revolutionaries in buttoned-down tunics...

Hong Kong
Hong Kong has the big city specials like smog, odour, 14 million elbows and an insane love of clatter....

Karakoram Highway
This yak-nibbled highway over the Khunjerab Pass (4800m/15,740ft) is the gateway to Pakistan and...

Macau
Macau may be firmly back in China's orbit, but the Portuguese patina on this Sino-Lusitanian Las...

Nanjing
In a country where provincial capitals are rarely known for their beauty, Nanjing shines. The construction...

Shanghai
Shanghai is a scintillating city swirling with rapid cultural change. Since market restrictions were...

Xi'an
Xi'an was once a major crossroads on the trading routes from eastern China to central Asia, and vied...

Army of Terracotta Warriors (Bingmayong)
Ranking up there with the Great Wall and the Forbidden City as one of China's top historical sights, ...

Cloud Ridge Caves
Northern Shanxi
These caves are the main reason most people make it to Datong. They're cut into the southern cliffs ...

Forbidden City
Dongcheng District
The Forbidden City, so called because it was off limits for 500 years, is the largest and best-preserved ...

Grand Buddha
Carved into a cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Dadu He and Min He rivers, the Grand ...

Great Wall
Also known to the Chinese as the '10,000 Li Wall', the Great Wall (Changcheng) stretches from its ...

Jiuzhaigou
Jiuzhaigou is a gorgeous alpine valley studded with dazzling turquoise lakes as clear and bright ...

Summer Palace
Haidian District
One of Beijing's most visited sights, the immense park of the Summer Palace requires at least half ...

Tai Shan
Southern Chinese claim 'myriad mountains, rivers and geniuses' while Shandong citizens smugly contest ...