City guide · Jiangsu
A working Jiangsu port with a myth in the middle of it — the Flower-Fruit Mountain of Journey to the West, a sea causeway to a big island beach, and some of the cheapest seafood on the coast.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
I went to Lianyungang in the May holiday, a place I had longed for, because that is where I belong. Only there do I feel my heart shake. In front of the sea I show every part of who I am, with nothing hidden. I know it understands me — only the sea truly understands how I feel inside.
Traveller note — 'A Meeting of Hearts, a Conversation Between People and Scenery'
Three of us took the overnight train from Hefei and reached Lianyungang East at half past eight. The first thing that struck everyone was how easy it felt — straight out of the station onto bus 33, one stop to the Liandao bathing beach. What I remember most is the causeway to the island: the bus took half an hour to cross it, with open sea on one side and great hills and a modern port on the other.
Traveller note — 'From Hefei to Lianyungang, Two Days at the Liandao Beach'
Lianyungang grew up around two things: the mountain that became the setting of China's best-loved novel, and the port that became the eastern end of the New Eurasian Land Bridge — the rail line running from this Yellow Sea coast all the way to Rotterdam. It is a working city that happens to have a fairy-tale mountain in the middle of it, and the contrast is half the charm.
That mountain is Flower-Fruit (Huaguo) Mountain, the traditional home of the Monkey King, and the district around it still carries the old name of Haizhou, a walled town that has stood here for more than two thousand years. The author of Journey to the West is said to have taken the setting from this coast, and the hills above the city are still dotted with the formations his story named — Water-Curtain Cave, the Seventy-Two Caves, the Pagoda of King Ashoka.
At the coast, the city does what Chinese seaside cities do: broad beaches, a fishing fleet and a menu of very fresh seafood. Jiangsu's largest island, Liandao, sits just offshore behind a long sea wall you can drive across, and its two beaches — the open Dashawan and the prettier, steeper Sumawan — are the reason people come in summer.
Lianyungang is honest about what it is: not as polished as Qingdao, not as famous as Xiamen, but cheap, calm and friendly, with a real mountain, a real island and genuinely good cheap seafood. Come in summer or autumn, bring an appetite, and give it more than a stopover.
Lianyungang
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
The Flower-Fruit Mountain of Journey to the West, 7 km from the city: Water-Curtain Cave, the Seventy-Two Caves, the stone the Monkey King is said to have been born from, and a carved character 39 metres long — the largest in the world.
China's longest sea wall carries the road 6.7 km out to Jiangsu's biggest island. Two beaches, Dashawan and Sumawan, a clifftop walkway between them, and a working fishing fleet at the edge of town.
The island's twin shores: Dashawan broad, flat and made for children; Sumawan quieter, prettier and steeper. Together they give Jiangsu its summer beach, with around 90 swimmable days a year.
Donghai county makes roughly half of China's crystal, and its glittering trading hall is a spectacle in itself. Pair it with a soak in the East China Sea hot springs — 'crystal, peanuts, a hot-spring bath', the three treasures of Donghai.
The treaty-era waterfront and its old street, with the lanes behind still full of the trading-town character that shaped Lianyungang long before the beach crowds arrived. A calm half-day inland from the sand.
Portunus crab heavy with roe, phoenix-tail prawns, fish slices in milk soup and steamed crab in egg white. It is cheap, plentiful and best eaten on the island, looking at the water it came from.
Suggested itineraries
The two-day plan is the classic one — Huaguoshan, then Liandao. The three-day route adds Yuwan and the crystal country out at Donghai.
The essential Lianyungang — the Monkey King's mountain and a day of sand and seafood.
Take bus 10 from the centre to Huaguoshan and walk the classic route: the mountain gate, the Eighteen Bends, South Heaven Gate, Sanyuan Palace, Water-Curtain Cave, the Seventy-Two Caves and One-Line Sky.
Ride the shuttle and cable car where they help — the mountain is bigger than it looks. Eat at the foot of the mountain in the evening and stay downtown.
Stops: Huaguoshan gateEighteen BendsSouth Heaven GateSanyuan PalaceWater-Curtain Cave
Take bus 33 across the Shenzhou causeway to Liandao. Start at Dashawan for the swimming, then walk or shuttle the clifftop path to the quieter Sumawan.
Eat a long seafood lunch on the island — this is where the good, cheap seafood is — and spend the afternoon on the sand before heading back.
Stops: Shenzhou causewayDashawanSumawanLiandao seafood houses
Adds the gorge-and-cascade valley of Yuwan and a half-day among Donghai's crystals.
Use the two-day plan first — Huaguoshan, the causeway, Liandao and its beaches.
Stops: HuaguoshanLiandaoDashawan
Morning at Yuwan, the cascade-and-gorge valley 20 km out that locals call 'Jiangsu's Zhangjiajie' — water and waterfalls all year, and a cool escape from the summer heat.
Afternoon at Donghai's crystal trading hall, 40 km out, to browse the stonework; finish with a soak in the East China Sea hot springs before the drive back.
Stops: YuwanDonghai Crystal CityEast China Sea hot springs
Sights
Ticket prices in China change without much notice. Treat these as a guide and confirm on arrival.
Mountain · ¥100
The mountain of Journey to the West, 7 km from the centre: wooded slopes, sea of cloud, temples and a scatter of rock formations named after the novel. Sanyuan Palace is the main temple; Water-Curtain Cave is the one everyone comes for; One-Line Sky, the Seventy-Two Caves and the 39-metre carved character are the other set pieces.
Tip The mountain is far larger than the map suggests. Take the shuttle up to the high ground (¥20) and the cable car down (¥25) rather than trying to walk every step — you will see more for less effort.
Island · ¥50
Jiangsu's largest island, offshore to the north and reached by the Shenzhou causeway. Its bathing beach is the biggest natural one in the province, split into the broad Dashawan and the prettier, steeper Sumawan, with a working fishing fleet and shellfish homes along the shore. The special geography keeps it warm in winter and cool in summer, with about 90 swimmable days a year.
Tip Choose your beach by mood: Dashawan is flat and full of children; Sumawan is quieter and steeper, with better water. Walk the clifftop path between them — about an hour — instead of shuttling.
Gorge · ¥40
A gorge-and-cascade valley 20 km from the city that locals market as 'Jiangsu's Zhangjiajie'. Spring water runs through it all year, and the falls come one after another down a deep, shaded valley of sheer walls and odd stones. Cool, green and a genuine change from the beach — the place to head on a hot day.
Tip Wear shoes with grip — the valley path is wet from the falls even when it has not rained. Pair it with Huaguoshan if you are short of time, as they are on the same side of the city.
Valley · ¥20
A quiet valley 40 km south-east, named for a Tang emperor who is said to have camped here — 'a peach-blossom spring away from the world'. Baojia Hill is a miniature rock garden; Maple Bay is the province's largest maple wood, blazing in autumn; and the Shipan waterfall drops 50 m in three tiers over caves big enough to shelter dozens.
Tip Go in autumn for the maple colour, or after rain for the waterfall. It is the least crowded of the city's green escapes, and the easiest to have almost to yourself.
Hill · ¥50
A historic hill at Yishan town in Guanyun, named for Yi Yin, the ancient founder of Chinese cooking and medicine, who is said to have retired to live here. Dense with flowers and rare trees, with deep, quiet valleys, it carries the 'secluded, ancient, sacred and strange' character locals like to describe. A green, low-key half-day.
Tip It is a fair way out, so it suits travellers who have already done the mountain and the island and want something quieter and greener. The plant collection is the reason to linger.
Market · Free
The trading hall of China's 'crystal capital', in Donghai county 40 km from the city. The county produces about half the country's crystal, and the 6,000-square-metre hall is a glittering palace of ornaments, jewellery, glasses and raw specimen stones — white mostly, but also smoky, amber and pink. A spectacle even if you buy nothing.
Tip Compare across stalls before buying — prices vary a lot for similar pieces, and a little bargaining is expected. Pair the trip with the East China Sea hot springs, which are nearby.
Old town · Free
The historic waterfront quarter that gave Lianyungang its trading character, with the Minzhu Road old street and the leafy lanes behind it full of small restaurants and shops. It is the calmest place in the city to eat, and the best for understanding that this was a port long before it was a beach resort.
Tip Combine it with a look at the New Eurasian Land Bridge marker — the eastern end of the rail line to Rotterdam — which gives the old port its modern meaning.
Eating
The local kitchen is Huaiyang cooking plus the sea: fresh, light and full of crab and prawns. Order widely and share.
The coast's signature crab, caught locally and served full of orange roe, steamed or flash-fried. Sweet, heavy, and the measure of a good seafood house — best eaten with ginger vinegar.
A Jinling classic with a Lianyungang accent: prawns peeled but for the tail, cooked so the meat stays white and the tail turns red, brightened with green peas and finished in duck fat. Delicate and pretty on the plate.
Crab meat and roe folded into beaten egg white, chicken stock and rice wine, then steamed three times in the crab shell until it sets like a blossom. Eat it hot — 'one heat, three freshs' is the local saying.
Fish maw, a prized dried ingredient, braised twice and then tossed with local crab roe and stock. The result is soft, rich and deeply savoury — a restaurant showpiece rather than a home dish.
Cooled noodle-like jelly made from mung, pea or broad-bean starch, dressed with sesame oil, soy, vinegar, garlic and chilli. Sharp, slippery and refreshing in summer; pan-fried in winter, it is a northern-Jiangsu comfort food.
Two mountain products from the Yuntai hills: gefen, a translucent starch made from wild kudzu root and taken for heat and thirst, and Yunwu tea, brewed with spring water for the region's classic cup.
Where to eat
Phone numbers are local landlines; add +86 and drop the leading 0 if calling from abroad. Eat seafood on Liandao, not at the ferry-side Xugou street.
Crayfish · about ¥57
The city's best-known crayfish house, and famous for it — numbing, spicy, fresh and fragrant, the kind of food that keeps people coming back. An award-winner at the Xuyi crayfish competitions. Casual, popular, and the right place for a summer beer-and-crayfish night.
Seafood · about ¥45
A well-regarded mid-range seafood restaurant with a good room and fast service, waiters in folk dress, and generous outdoor seating that feels like a night market. The many ways with octopus — cold-tossed, blanched, hot-and-sour — are the highlight.
Seafood · about ¥158
A higher-end seafood restaurant with good surroundings and service, and a large alfresco section that feels like a smart night market. The kitchen does generous seafood platters and whole fish well — a good place for a celebratory coast dinner.
Street snack · about ¥6
The most famous cheap bite in town: a bowl of cool liangpi, a grilled sausage and a bottle of apple soda, eaten on the pedestrian street where the queue never seems to end. Mala or sweet-and-sour; add your own toppings. Best in summer.
Food street · varies
A street of seafood restaurants near Liandao, easy to reach and deservedly popular — Junmin Seafood and Baxian Fishing Harbour among the better-rated. Come here for island-side seafood rather than the ferry-side Xugou street, which is dearer and known for over-charging.
Sleeping
Stay in the centre (Xinpu) for transport and shops, in the Xugou/Liandao area for the sea, or out at Donghai for the hot springs. Prices rise in summer.
Sea-view resort · ¥100–240
A garden-style, all-sea-view resort inside the Jinhaian holiday village on Liandao, in seven low buildings with balconies facing the water. It has a well-regarded seafood restaurant and floor-to-ceiling windows in every room, and it is a genuinely quiet base right on the island.
Guesthouse · from ¥200
A friendly guesthouse with its own waterside terrace at Xiliandao, facing both Dashawan beach and the Sumawan gardens. Its back hill is full of fishermen's cottages, and the roof platform is a superb spot for sunrise over the boats. Warm, local and close to the water.
Hotel · from ¥188
A long-established hotel in the heart of the city's political and commercial centre, with a restaurant, rooms, a business centre and parking. Convenient and well-connected — the practical choice if your days are split between the mountain and the coast.
Business hotel · from ¥350
A modern international-standard hotel in the busy Xugou district, close to the shopping centres and well set up for business travellers, with free broadband, IPTV and international channels in every room. The smartest central option, and a short hop from Liandao.
Getting around
There is no metro; buses reach every sight, and the BRT rapid-bus lines are fast and cheap.
Lianyungang Baitabu Airport (LYG) is about 30 km west of the centre in Donghai county, with domestic flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and more. An airport bus runs into town in about an hour; a taxi is quicker but dearer.
Lianyungang sits on the coastal high-speed line, so Nanjing, Shanghai and Qingdao are all a few hours away. There are two main stations, Lianyungang and Lianyungang East; the East station is the newer, larger one and the regional hub. Rail is the best way in from most of the east.
The main long-distance station sends coaches across Jiangsu and to neighbouring provinces, with especially frequent services to Linyi, Rizhao and Qingdao in Shandong — roughly one an hour — plus a steady stream to Donghai county. Cheap, and useful for the crystal country.
Buses cover the whole city and reach every sight: 33 to Liandao (¥2), 5 and 10 to Huaguoshan, 31 to Gaogong island, 34 and 35 to Sucheng, 35 on to Baojia Hill. Fares are ¥1, ¥1.50, or ¥2 on air-conditioned and longer routes.
Taxis are metered and cheap: ¥5 for the first 2 km, then about ¥1.8 per km, plus a ¥1 fuel fee. Plenty of them, and easy to hail outside rush hour. Ride-hailing apps work well and often beat the queue.
Lianyungang's BRT system is a fast, cheap way to cross the city, with a main line, two loops and several branches. It is a flat ¥2 for the whole ride, with free same-direction transfers at shared stops — handy for the long run between the centre and the coast.
Shopping
The centre's shops cluster around Jiefang Middle Road in Xinpu; for specialities, the crystal halls and seafood markets are the places to go.
The region's signature buy: crystal ornaments, jewellery, glasses and spheres, plus specimen stones with hair-like inclusions or trapped water bubbles. Donghai makes about half of China's output, and the trading hall has the best selection.
The coast sells prawns, shrimp skin, dried squid, sea cucumber, jellyfish, laver and kelp, fresh or dried and in season all year. The seafood markets do the best prices — buy vacuum-packed if you are flying home.
A local spirit with a long pedigree — 'southern Tanggou wine, uncork it and the fragrance carries ten li', as the old praise goes. Clear, aromatic and warming, and a good gift for a drinker.
Lianyungang's wheat-straw woven fans and baskets are an old local craft sold far beyond the province, and the Yuntai hills supply Yunwu tea, chestnuts and kudzu-root starch. The everyday specialities of a genuine working town.
Practical
Staffed English help is not guaranteed. Save these before you need them.
| Emergency (police / ambulance / fire) | 110 · 120 · 119 |
|---|---|
| Lianyungang First People's Hospital | 182 Tongguan North Road, Xinpu district · 0518-85605289 |
| Lianyungang TCM Hospital | 160 Chaoyang Middle Road, Xinpu district · 0518-85574777 |
| Tourist office | Lianyungang Tourism Bureau · 0518-85820381 |
| Postcode | 222000 |
| Cash & cards | Mobile pay works nearly everywhere; carry coins for buses |
| Tipping | Not expected and sometimes politely refused — do not add one to the bill |
| Sea safety | Swim at Dashawan and Sumawan only; watch the tide on the causeway and the flats |
Tips
The Xugou seafood street by the ferry is the famous one, but it is dearer and known for over-charging visitors. Go on to Liandao and eat at a seafood house inside the island — fresher, cheaper and looking at the water it came from.
Huaguoshan is far bigger than it looks. Ride the shuttle to the high ground and the cable car back down, and save your legs for the walking that matters — the caves, the viewpoints and the big carved character.
Dashawan is broad, flat and made for children, with sand sculpture; Sumawan is quieter, steeper and has better water. Walk the clifftop path between them rather than shuttling — it is the best hour on the island.
Huaguoshan is free for visitors born in a Year of the Monkey — a genuinely useful oddity if it applies to you. Bring ID, and check the qualifying year ranges at the ticket office.
The crystal hall and the East China Sea hot springs are close together, 40 km out. Do the market first, then soak — a cheap and civilised way to end a trip out of town.
The 6.7 km Shenzhou causeway is a sight in itself: open sea on one side, big hills and a modern port on the other. Sit on the left of bus 33 going out for the best of it.
Background
Lianyungang lies on the north-east corner of Jiangsu, where the coastal hills meet the Huaibei plain, with Shandong to the north and the Yellow Sea to the east. The land tilts from north-west to south-east, a shape locals compare to a butterfly flying out to sea — mostly plain, but with hills, mountains, lakes and tidal flats mixed in. The Yuntai range, rising straight out of the coastal plain, gives the city both its mountain and its drama.
The climate is warm-temperate and humid, at the southern edge of the temperate zone: mild, with no severe winter cold and no extreme summer heat. Rain concentrates in summer, and the main risks are drought, waterlogging, hail, cold snaps and gales rather than anything dramatic. The sea keeps the coast temperate, with about 90 swimmable days a year at Liandao.
Lianyungang is far older than its port suggests. People lived around Jinping Mountain more than ten thousand years ago, and the area holds the only well-stratified Palaeolithic sites on China's south-east coast; the 1979 'General's Cliff' rock art, 20 m by 10 m, was called by the national heritage authority a rare and major find — 'China's earliest book of heaven'.
The city's later identity was shaped by the sea. As the eastern terminus of the Longhai railway, it became the eastern bridgehead of the New Eurasian Land Bridge and the starting point of the modern Silk Road's eastern arm. In 1984 it was one of the first fourteen Chinese coastal cities opened to foreign investment, and that mix — an ancient settlement, a treaty-era port and a modern logistics gateway — is still what the city is.
What most visitors come for, though, is the mountain. Huaguoshan's association with Journey to the West gave the city a myth it has never had to invent, and the Monkey King is the reason a port town in northern Jiangsu ends up on so many family itineraries. On a clear day the two halves of the city — the freight cranes at the port and the stone monkeys on the mountain — sit within a bus ride of each other.
Travel with them
Not guides — a novel, a TV serial and a song, each of which made this coast mean something larger than its beaches.
Wu Cheng'en, 16th century
China's most-loved novel, and the reason anyone outside Jiangsu knows Lianyungang at all. Its opening — the stone egg on Flower-Fruit Mountain out of which the Monkey King hatches — is set on the very hill above the city, and the caves and rocks the story names are still pointed out on the mountain today.
TV serial, dir. Kan Weiping
A popular serial built around the novelist and his creation, cutting between the man and his characters. It leans into the local claim that Huaguoshan is the true setting — and it is why a generation of Chinese visitors arrives at the mountain already knowing its every rock by name.
Su Xiaoming
A soft, hugely popular song of the 1980s about sailors standing watch on a warship through the night. Its harbour-in-the-moonlight mood has become inseparable from images of this working navy-and-freight coast, and it is still the tune people hum when they look out at the lights of Lianyungang port.
The questions visitors ask us most about Lianyungang, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Yes, especially if you like the idea of a real Chinese port city with a genuine myth — Flower-Fruit Mountain — at its centre. The beaches are broad and the seafood is excellent and cheap, and it is a much calmer alternative to Qingdao. Allow 2 to 3 days; it is a relaxed stop rather than a showpiece.
Huaguoshan is Flower-Fruit Mountain, the mountain of the Monkey King in Journey to the West, rising about 7 km from the city. Its sights include Water-Curtain Cave, the Seventy-Two Caves, the spot where the Monkey King is said to have been born from a stone, and a 39-metre carved character — the largest single Chinese character in the world. Tickets are ¥100 in high season, ¥60 off-peak.
Cross the Shenzhou sea causeway, China's longest — about 6.7 km of road over the water, also covered by bus 33 (¥2). The island has two beaches, Dashawan and Sumawan, joined by a clifftop walkway; an hour on foot, or a few minutes by shuttle. High-season entry is ¥50, low-season ¥30.
Fresh Jiangsu-coast seafood, plainly cooked: braised prawns, Portunus crab full of roe, fish slices in milk soup, phoenix-tail shrimp and the regional duck. Eat on Liandao inside the island rather than at the Xugou seafood street near the ferry, which is dearer and has a reputation for over-charging out-of-towners.
Donghai county, about 40 km from the city, is China's 'crystal capital', producing roughly half the national output, and its big trading hall is a glittering palace of crystal ornaments, jewellery and specimen stones. It is open year-round and makes a good half-day paired with the nearby East China Sea hot springs.
April to October, with summer best for the beach — the sea is swimmable for about 90 days a year here — and autumn best for seafood and the mountain colours. The East China Sea hot springs make winter visits worthwhile too. Avoid the National Day holiday, when Liandao fills up.
Seldom outside the larger hotels. Bring a translation app and have place names written in Chinese, especially for buses and taxi drivers. Mobile payments are universal, but keep some cash for small stalls and buses.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
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The town where the Great Wall stops being a rumour of mountains and walks into the Bohai Sea.
Baiyangdian
City guide · 12 tours
The biggest freshwater lake on the North China Plain — and almost none of it can be reached except by boat.
Qinhuangdao
City guide · 12 tours
126 km of Bohai coast in one municipality — a working port, two famous resorts, and the only desert dunes that meet this sea.
Yesanpo
City guide · 12 tours
Gorge country where the Taihang and Yan ranges collide — 52.5 km of canyon walls, a cave that spits fish, and a river to fall off.
Zhuhai
City guide · 12 tours
The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.
Wuyi Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.
Jiuzhaigou
City guide · 12 tours
108 mineral-blue lakes in one 55 km valley — the place that ruins water everywhere else for you.
Mount Siguniang
City guide · 12 tours
Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.
Hailuogou
City guide · 12 tours
A glacier that comes down to 2,850 m, hot springs in the forest, and Gongga Shan filling the sky above both.
Daocheng Yading
City guide · 12 tours
Three 6,000 m sacred peaks, glacial lakes at 4,600 m and twenty hours of road — the hardest, highest payoff in Sichuan.
Shunan Bamboo Sea
City guide · 12 tours
Seventy thousand mu of bamboo over twenty-eight hills, a red sandstone corridor under a closed green roof, and a banquet made entirely of bamboo.
Dujiangyan
City guide · 12 tours
Not a monument but a machine: three pieces of engineering with no dam, still doing their job after 2,270 years.
Qingcheng Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
The mountain where Daoism was organised, and the one Chengdu escapes to when the basin turns into an oven.
Qingdao
City guide · 12 tours
Red-tiled roofs, cold beer and a granite mountain that walks straight into the sea — the easiest good time on the Yellow Sea.
Mount Tai
City guide · 12 tours
1,545 metres, 6,290 stone steps and three thousand years of emperors — the one mountain in China that is also a document.
Jinan
City guide · 12 tours
A provincial capital with 700 springs under the pavement — people still queue at the spouts to fill their kettles.
Weihai
City guide · 12 tours
1,000 km of clean coast, a free bathing beach, the island where the Beiyang Fleet died — and thousands of wild swans every winter.
Qufu
City guide · 12 tours
One family, two thousand years of steles, and a ¥150 pass that covers the lot — the easiest serious day trip in Shandong.
Penglai
City guide · 12 tours
China's immortals' coast — a Song-dynasty naval harbour you can walk for free, a mythology nobody ever found, and the ferry to 32 islands.
Changdao
City guide · 12 tours
32 islands, one causeway, a ¥150 land pass, tens of thousands of gulls and nowhere you can drive — the place where everything happens by boat.
Nanjing
City guide · 12 tours
Capital of six dynasties, capital of the Republic, and the city that eats more duck than anywhere else on earth.
Suzhou
City guide · 12 tours
Two thousand five hundred years of canals, sixty surviving gardens, and a city that shuts its gates at half past five.
Zhouzhuang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine hundred years, fourteen bridges, one ticket — and a town that only makes sense before eight in the morning.
Tongli
City guide · 12 tours
Fifteen canals, seven islets, forty-nine bridges — and a town that still gets up at dawn because it lives here.
Wuxi
City guide · 12 tours
Taihu on one side, a Grand Buddha on the next hill, and ribs sweet enough to argue about — the most underrated city on the Yangtze delta.
Yangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A city built by salt merchants who had more money than restraint — gardens, a narrow lake, and the best breakfast in China.
Zhenjiang
City guide · 12 tours
Three hills, one ferry landing, and an unreasonable share of Chinese literature — the Yangtze city people drive past.
Changzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,500-year-old canal city that built a dinosaur park and refuses to apologise for it.
Wuzhen
City guide · 12 tours
A town that is two towns: the older, quieter East Zone and the lit-up West Zone you sleep inside.
Xitang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine canals, 122 lanes, one long roofed corridor — and a town that still works for a living.
Hangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A lake in the middle of a city, a tea village in the hills, and two thousand years of getting the mood right.
Xixi Wetland
City guide · 12 tours
Ten square kilometres of marsh inside Hangzhou, and the only way into half of it is a boat.
Ningbo
City guide · 12 tours
A 7,000-year-old port with Asia's oldest private library, a free waterfront 20 years older than Shanghai's, and the best seafood before the islands.
Mount Putuo
City guide · 12 tours
A Buddhist island with no cars, three great temples and a ¥10 lunch that is the point of the place.
Qiandao Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A thousand islands that did not exist sixty years ago, and the cleanest big-lake water in China.
Shaoxing
City guide · 12 tours
Two and a half thousand years of water-town China, and Lu Xun's house is free.
Zhoushan
City guide · 12 tours
1,390 islands, one road bridge in, and a harbour that lands more fish than almost anywhere on earth.
Hengdian
City guide · 12 tours
A backlot the size of a town, where the palaces are copies and the film crews are real.
Yandang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano that weathering turned into scenery — 500-odd sights of peak, cave and waterfall across eight scenic areas.
Zhejiang
City guide · 12 tours
One small, mountainous, absurdly rich province that holds a lake, two canal towns, a Buddhist island and a dead volcano.
Hong Kong Outlying Islands
City guide · 12 tours
Two hundred-odd islands, half an hour of ferry from the financial district, and not a car on three of them.
Hong Kong Shopping
City guide · 12 tours
A duty-free port where the tag starts lower, two citywide sale seasons knock a third off, and every mall sits on an MTR exit.
Macao
City guide · 12 tours
Four hundred years of Portuguese streets, a fake Venice under a painted sky, and the best egg tart in Asia.
Urumqi
City guide · 12 tours
The city furthest from the sea, with a snow range on its doorstep and dinner starting at nine.
Hong Kong SAR, China
City guide · 11 tours
A harbour skyline you already know by heart, dim sum trolleys at dawn, and 260 islands an hour from the neon.
Taiwan, China
City guide · 11 tours
Night-market alleys, high-mountain railways, and a coastline that changes character every hundred kilometres.
Qinghai Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A 4,400 sq km inland sea at 3,200 m, ringed by rapeseed gold, prayer flags and the best cycling road in China.
Mount Emei
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,099-metre Buddhist summit you can reach by cable car before lunch — and a mountain full of monkeys that will absolutely rob you.
Beijing
City guide · 11 tours
Six centuries of imperial red walls, a Great Wall you can climb before lunch, and the best roast duck on earth.
Taipei
City guide · 11 tours
A 24-hour bookstore, a night market that never stops sizzling, and a city that apologises when you bump into it.
North Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Alpine lakes the colour of poured enamel, a village of log cabins under birch trees, and the last tear the Atlantic ever sheds.
Lanzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A city split in half by the Yellow River, where beef noodles are a breakfast ritual and the Silk Road still runs through the streets.
Mount Hua
City guide · 11 tours
Five granite peaks, one plank road bolted to a cliff face, and a sunrise that justifies the 2am start.
Dunhuang
City guide · 11 tours
A desert oasis where Buddhist cave art survived a thousand years and a crescent lake refused to dry up.
Gannan
City guide · 11 tours
433 kilometres of the Yellow River's first bend, a 3.5 km prayer-wheel circuit, and Tibetan grasslands almost nobody has commercialised yet.
Sichuan–Tibet Highway
City guide · 11 tours
2,142 kilometres of cliff-edge switchbacks, four of China's most beautiful mountains, and a road the Tibetans walk on their knees.
Kangding
City guide · 11 tours
The town that gave Asia its most famous love song, a 7,556m sacred peak on its doorstep, and the last real Tibetan town before the road climbs to Lhasa.
Lhasa
City guide · 12 tours
A city of prayer wheels and butter lamps at 3,700 metres, where the sun shines 3,000 hours a year and the world's highest palace watches over it all.
Nyingchi
City guide · 11 tours
Tibet's greenest corner — peach blossom valleys, a 7,782 m peak that hides from almost everyone, and the world's deepest canyon.
Namtso
City guide · 11 tours
A 1,920-square-kilometre sheet of impossible blue at 4,718 metres, ringed by snow peaks and prayer flags.
Chongqing
City guide · 12 tours
A vertical city of fog, cable cars and cliff-side stilt houses, where the火锅 never stops boiling and the night skyline outshines Hong Kong.
Qiandongnan
City guide · 11 tours
A thousand Miao households stacked up a mountainside, drum towers and wind-rain bridges in Dong villages, and a 600-year-old Ming garrison town on the road to Guiyang.
Libo
City guide · 11 tours
Emerald rivers threading through karst peaks, a 600-metre forest growing out of a riverbed, and China's largest wild plum grove.
Guiyang
City guide · 11 tours
China's summer capital at 1,100 metres, where the nights run on sour fish soup, street-side barbecue and mahjong that never quite stops.
Zhenyuan
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,000-year-old river town where the Wuyang River carves an S through the mountains and every lane hides a story.
Huangguoshu
City guide · 11 tours
Asia's biggest waterfall, and the only one on earth you can walk behind, above and around — plus 600-year-old Ming dynasty villages a short drive away.
Harbin
City guide · 11 tours
Minus 30 degrees, a frozen river you can walk across, and a cathedral built by Russians who never went home.
Yunnan
City guide · 11 tours
Snow mountains, tropical rainforest, twenty-five minorities and a plate of rice noodles — all in one province.
Shanghai
City guide · 11 tours
A 1920s waterfront of colonial banks facing a science-fiction skyline, soup dumplings you eat with a straw, and 20 million people moving like clockwork.
Zhangjiajie
City guide · 11 tours
Three thousand sandstone pillars straight out of Avatar, a glass skywalk bolted to a cliff, and a cable car that leaves from downtown.
Guangzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,200-year-old trading port where dim sum is a religion, colonial islands sit beside 600-metre towers, and the food never stops.
Guilin
City guide · 11 tours
Karst peaks rising straight out of a green river, rice terraces carved into mountainsides, and the best bowl of noodles you'll eat in China.
Shenzhen
City guide · 11 tours
A fishing village that became a megacity in forty years — and it still has 500-year-old banyans, empty beaches and dim sum worth the border crossing.
Chengdu
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,000-year-old city where the schedule is tea, mahjong and hotpot — and the pandas are just the opening act.
Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Snow peaks, grassland, desert and oasis — one-sixth of China, and the longest road you will ever ride.
Xi'an
City guide · 14 tours
Thirteen dynasties of emperors, a terracotta army buried for 2,200 years, and a walled city you can cycle in 100 minutes.
Qinghai
City guide · 11 tours
China's high-altitude blue heart: a salt lake you can walk on, a 3,200-metre sea, and yak butter tea at the roof of the world.
Tibet
City guide · 11 tours
A plateau the size of Western Europe where the sky starts at your feet, prayer flags carry the wind, and the roads run past 8,000-metre peaks.
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