City guide · Guizhou
Emerald rivers threading through karst peaks, a 600-metre forest growing out of a riverbed, and China's largest wild plum grove.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
Wolong Waterfall is beautiful, but not the spectacular kind of beautiful — a gentle, quiet kind. The pool above the falls is blue, a little like Jiuzhaigou. Taking in a whole bay of blue water like that is completely different from looking at photos on a screen. The Water Forest was the most fun: trees growing in the river, a path winding all the way down, and you can step into the water and walk.
From 'Nature's Masterwork — Guizhou Mountains and Rivers'
Xiaoqikong and Maolan Forest are perfect for anyone with a wuxia streak. So many places look exactly like the valley where Zhang Wuji found his martial arts manual, or the hidden retreat of Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü.
From 'Libo Travel Notes'
You step off the shuttle bus at the top of Xiaoqikong and the river below you is not a colour you have seen in a river before. It runs from milky jade to a deep electric turquoise depending on the light, and on an overcast day the surface goes flat and mirror-still so the drowned trees and green bamboo show through it. A Chinese travel slogan describes the region as Zhangjiajie when you look up, Jiuzhaigou when you look down; Libo is where the looking down happens.
The county itself is small and unglamorous — a few streets along the Zhang River, a night food market selling grilled fish, cheap guesthouses above shops. That is fine, because everything worth seeing is outside it. Xiaoqikong and Daqikong (Big Seven Arches) sit about 3 km apart in the south, Maolan's karst forest spreads across the southeast, and the Shuichun River cuts through the middle. Locals will tell you Libo is a lung-cleaning trip, and after a day breathing forest air you will know what they mean.
What makes Libo different from a standard Chinese scenic park is that so much of it is intimate rather than spectacular. You walk through the water instead of photographing it from a railing. You squeeze between limestone walls in a green canyon, eat lunch in a Buyi village where grandmothers still spin thread and brew rice wine, and end the day with a plate of grilled Zhang River fish. Come in spring for rapeseed flowers in Maolan, in summer for the water, in winter for the wild plum blossom — Libo does not really have an off season.
Libo
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
Xiaoqikong's Wolong Pond runs pale blue to deep navy depending on the light, and the colour shifts as clouds pass. Nobody photographs it accurately — the only way to know what it looks like is to stand at the railing and watch. Winter and autumn give the most saturated colour; summer floods turn it milky.
For about 600 metres a river runs through a stand of trees rooted straight into the rock riverbed, and you walk beside it or through it on stone paths. Take your shoes off, wade the shallow sections, and you are standing in the middle of a working karst river. Slippery when wet — bring sandals.
The seven-arch Xiaoqikong Bridge was built in 1836 from cut granite, 40 metres long and 4 metres wide, and it was the main road from Libo into Guangxi's Nandan county. Guizhou is on one bank, Guangxi on the other. Locals call it the Aji Bridge after the legend of a boy whose magic finger softened stone so seven girls could mould the arches.
Six kilometres of river through 29 named gorges with a total drop of over 100 metres — calm mirror-flat stretches upstream, then the Nine Rapids and Eighteen Waves downstream. Independent rafting is CNY 200, a boatman takes you for CNY 220, and anyone over 12 can join. Open 07:30–17:30, ticket sales stop at 15:30.
Maolan's 20,000 hectares are China's largest subtropical primary forest growing directly on limestone — roots split the rock open and wrap around boulders, giving you 'stone-wrapped trees' and 'tree-wrapped stone'. This is the same landscape that produces Libo's famous springs, caves and waterfalls, and almost nobody is there.
Itineraries
The two things you actually came for: the blue water and the karst forest. Day 1 is the big-ticket scenery, Days 2–3 head into the reserve with a car.
Buy the CNY 40 shuttle bus ticket at the gate; the area is far too big to walk. Start at the entrance, work down to the bridge, then upstream through the waterfalls to the coloured lake, and budget a solid six hours.
Stops: Tonggu BridgeXiaoqikong Bridge68-tier WaterfallLaya WaterfallWater ForestWolong PondYuanyang Lake
Hire a car or drive: there is no other practical way into Maolan. Fill the tank before you enter — there is no petrol station anywhere inside the reserve.
Stops: Chuandong WWII Resistance SiteYaogu Buyi VillageStone-top ForestBaizhai Red Seventh Army Meeting SiteWater Forest at ShuilinLatan WaterfallHuangyang ValleyYaosuo Ancient BridgeQinglong Pool
Give yourself a half-day buffer for rain — Libo's summer downpours can close the water routes. If you have time left, the Wanmu Plum Grove is spectacular in winter, and the lavender field about 1 km from Xiaoqikong's west gate is a cheap 20-minute detour.
Stops: Wanmu Plum Grove (winter)Lavender Field near Xiaoqikong west gate
If you want to be in the river rather than looking at it, start with the rafting and the quieter gorge, then do the highlights with fresh legs.
Rafting is not terrifying — it is family-friendly enough to bring kids over 12. After lunch, Daqikong takes about three hours, and you can eat outside the gate afterwards.
Stops: Shuichun River RaftingKongbu GorgeTiansheng BridgeYaofeng Cave
Same Maolan circuit as the classic route. Skip the Red Seventh Army site if revolutionary history is not your thing — everything else on the line earns its place.
Stops: Chuandong WWII Resistance SiteYaogu Buyi VillageStone-top ForestLatan WaterfallHuangyang ValleyQinglong Pool
Do the same route as Day 1 of the classic itinerary but start later and stop more. Rent a steel boat on Yuanyang Lake if you have an hour spare — it is nothing like paddling a city park lake.
Stops: Tonggu BridgeXiaoqikong Bridge68-tier WaterfallLaya WaterfallWater ForestWolong PondYuanyang Lake
Sights
The headline act
A narrow river valley packed with waterfalls, blue-green pools and a Qing-dynasty stone bridge, all connected by walkways and shuttle stops. The water is the point: turquoise in autumn and winter when flows are low, muddy brown after summer rain.
Tip Add a polarising filter to your lens. The water is so clear it throws glare and you will lose the colour without one.
The photograph everyone comes for
A small, mirror-still pool inside Xiaoqikong where the water grades from pale blue through bright blue to dark navy depending on the light. A curved retaining dam holds the surface flat while dead trees lie in the water, their stumps furred with moss. Dense forest and bamboo crowd the banks.
Tip Come late afternoon when tour buses have left. The pond is small, and 20 people on the railing kills the shot.
Get wet, deliberately
About 600 metres of river running through dense trees whose roots are locked into a bare rock bed — no sediment left at all after centuries of flow. You walk on stone paths alongside, and in the shallow stretches you can step into the water. Also called Yaochi.
Tip Do this in the middle of the day in summer. The water is cold, the shade is deep, and it is the single best cure for Guizhou humidity.
The quieter sibling
Three kilometres from Xiaoqikong and far less crowded, built around a gorge, underground streams and a 90-metre-high natural karst bridge that gets called the 'Oriental Triumphal Arch'. The walk in goes through Kongbu Gorge, where the cliffs have three black cave mouths and locals say shouting brings falling rocks.
Tip Skip the boat. It only runs as far as the front of Tiansheng Bridge, which you can walk to in minutes. The boardwalk from Yaofeng Cave to Di'e Forest was washed out and is still closed — view it from a distance.
The reason to rent a car
Two hundred square kilometres of primary subtropical forest growing on limestone, plus Buyi and Shui villages, waterfalls and a WWII resistance site. The whole reserve runs on one CNY 50 ticket (students half price, plus CNY 5 insurance) covering Yaogu Buyi Village, the Stone-top Forest, Huangyang Valley, Latan Waterfall, Shuilin, Qinglong Gorge and Qinglong Pool.
Tip Huangyang Valley is best in the rainy season, when water runs over the tops of the boxwood trees. Qinglong Pool holds a steady 17°C and mists over at dawn and dusk.
Food
The dish Libo is known for. A whole wild fish from the Zhangjiang river, grilled over charcoal and buried under chili, garlic and aromatics, then finished with a scatter of toasted soybeans across the top — that soybean crust is what separates it from the Chongqing version. Eat it at one of the night-market stalls along the snack street in the county town; a fish big enough for two runs roughly CNY 60–90.
Pork and beef cured in a sour brine rather than smoked, so the fat turns milky white and the lean meat a deep red. It is served cold straight from the jar, sliced thin, with a dusting of dried chili powder. The texture is firm and slightly chewy, the flavor clean and tangy rather than funky. Ask for it as a cold starter.
Libo's most divisive plate: a fermented sour mash used as a base for stewed vegetables and meat. It smells aggressively sour when it hits the table and looks frankly unappetizing, but the taste is bright and appetite-waking. Order one small portion to share before you commit to a whole bowl.
Grows along the Wangmeng, Chaoyang and Yuping river flats. Unlike ordinary bracken, where only the curled tip is edible and the rest tastes bitter and coarse, the whole shoot of the water fern is tender and faintly sweet. It comes stir-fried with garlic or tossed in chili oil, and it is the single best vegetable dish in the region.
A do-it-yourself wrap: a paper-thin pancake the size of your palm, into which you pile shredded radish, cucumber, kelp, glass noodles, pickled vegetables, fried soybeans and houttuynia, then pour over a spoonful of sour-chili dressing and roll it up. Every stall guards its own dressing recipe. The snack street in Libo county town has a long row of them; expect CNY 10–20 for a plate of eight.
Where to eat
County town, local home cooking
A tiny roadside place next to the big banyan tree — in Libo you just say "the big banyan" and every driver knows. The owner cooks two woks at once and the portions are enormous. This is the easiest place to eat your way through the local repertoire in one sitting: sour pork, fern shoots, smoked bacon with peppers. Come hungry and order fewer dishes than you think you need.
Farmhouse kitchen, 200 m from Xiaoqikong East Gate
A farmhouse restaurant close enough to the Xiaoqikong east gate that you can walk back after a full day in the gorge. The cooking is plain and good — free-range chicken stewed with mountain herbs, river fish, whatever vegetables came in that morning. They also run farm activities if you are traveling with kids and want to slow the pace down.
Street food, evenings only
The stretch of stalls near the county bus station is where Libo actually eats after dark. Grilled Zhangjiang fish, deep-fried river fish eaten bones and all, yangmei (bayberry) soup chilled in buckets, and row after row of silk-doll wrap stands. Prices are low and the atmosphere is loud. Go at 19:30 when everything is running and the fish is freshest.
Inside the reserve, book ahead
If you are driving or chartering a car through Maolan, the farmhouse kitchens inside the reserve are effectively your only option — and a good one. Buildings are often traditional stilted wooden structures, and the signature dish is free-range chicken cooked in a clay pot. The reserve's official booking line handles farmhouse reservations so you are not left knocking on doors at dusk.
Where to stay
Three-star, next to the bus station
The most convenient base if you are moving around by public bus: it sits a short walk from the Libo county bus station, which is where the Xiaoqikong and Daqikong shuttle leaves from every 15 minutes. Rooms are plain but clean and the price is fair for what you get. Book ahead for weekends and public holidays, when the whole town fills up.
Budget hostel, county town
Every room is decorated differently and the whole place feels more like a friend's flat than a hotel — which is exactly why people keep coming back. Full wi-fi, a common room with a projector and computers, and an owner who will sit down with you over a map. He can also get you discounted scenic-area tickets, which on the Xiaoqikong entry fee alone more than pays for the difference in room rate.
Between the two gorges, budget
Sits roughly midway between Xiaoqikong and Daqikong, so you can walk out after dinner and see the gorge area empty of day-trippers. The owner is welcoming, the position is genuinely useful if you are doing both gorges on consecutive days, and singles start at CNY 68. Be aware the wi-fi is slow and the kitchen is mediocre — eat before you come back.
Getting there & around
Libo Airport (Libo, LBX) sits about 12 km from the county town, and an airport shuttle covers that run in roughly 30 minutes. Direct services are thin and seasonal, so most travellers fly into Guiyang Longdongbao (KWE) and connect by coach instead.
Libo has no railway station, so long-distance buses do the heavy lifting. Guiyang East Bus Station runs six direct round trips a day at CNY 100 per person; Duyun and Dushan depart every 30–50 minutes, and there are also direct services from Kaili, Nanning, Liuzhou and Mawei.
There is no train line into Libo itself. Get off at Dushan or Mawei station and switch to a bus — the transfer takes about two hours. Dushan is handier for Libo county town; Mawei is closer to the Xiaoqikong and Daqikong scenic areas.
The county town is small enough to cross on foot, and taxis start at just CNY 4. For the scenic areas you want the shuttle bus or a chartered vehicle — especially Maolan, where public transport effectively stops at the reserve boundary.
Shopping
Sold all over the county town, and every stall tastes slightly different. The good ones use big, plump berries and hit a proper sweet-sour balance — a genuine lifesaver in summer heat. Slightly pricier than the mediocre versions, and worth it. Try the樟江北街 shop on 0854-3619965; drink in or take away.
Wild green plum trees grow in vast stands through the Maolan karst forest, and Libo turns them into a pale-gold fruit wine with a strong plum nose and a clean sweet-sour finish. Low enough in alcohol to drink with dinner, and it travels well.
Made with a resin tapped from the 'nongge diao' tree, boiled with buffalo fat and mixed with wood ash to form a dark wax paste. The artisan draws patterns on white cloth with a copper wax knife, dips it in indigo, and where the wax sat the dye never takes — leaving white patterns on blue. Every piece is slightly different.
A Buyi craft said to be a thousand years old, and still made the long way: the family grows the cotton, spins it, starches it, dyes it, weaves it and uses it. You will see it as clothing, bedding, headscarves, shoes, school bags and girls' purses — buying a length of it supports the whole chain.
Practical
| Best seasons | Summer for wading the water forest, the 68-tier falls and the rafting; autumn and winter for the deep blue of Wolong Pond; spring for rapeseed flowers and wild plum blossom around Maolan |
|---|---|
| Ticket prices | Xiaoqikong CNY 110 in summer / 90 in winter, electric cart CNY 40, insurance CNY 5; Daqikong CNY 55, boat CNY 20; Shuichun River rafting CNY 200 self-paddled or 220 with a boatman |
| Money | China Construction Bank, Libo branch, 6 Zhangjiang East Road (opposite the tax office), 0854-3612167; ICBC Libo branch, 3 Zhangjiang East Road, 0854-3611283; ABC Maolan branch, Maolan town centre, 0854-3712251 |
| Hospital | Libo County People's Hospital, 121 Shichang Road, Libo county, 0854-3612120 |
| Useful numbers | Libo bus station 0854-3611077; Libo Tourism Bureau 0854-3610516; Maolan tourism reception centre 0854-3618881 |
| Photography | The water here is so clear it throws reflections straight back at your lens. Bring a polarising filter and rotate it to cut the glare off the surface — it makes a visible difference on Xiaoqikong's pools |
| Weather and terrain | Subtropical monsoon climate, low latitude, deep valleys and complex terrain: rainy summers, mild winters, and a lot of rain overall. Water levels change fast after storms, which affects both the colour of the pools and whether the water forest is safe to wade |
Background
Libo sits in the far south of Guizhou, pressed against the Guangxi border, in a low-latitude monsoon basin where rivers cut deep between limestone ridges. That geology is the whole reason you came: the same soluble rock that makes Guizhou's famous cones and gorges also makes Libo's water turn impossible shades of blue, and makes forests grow straight out of bare stone at Shishang Senlin. The county has been inhabited since the Qin and Han dynasties, when it was part of the Wulian county seat — home of Yin Zhen, the first man from the southwestern frontier to study under the great Han lexicographer Xu Shen and bring Han learning back south. Libo has been a place where cultures meet and mix ever since.
What makes Libo different from a plain scenery stop is who lives here. Minority peoples make up 93 percent of the county's population, and 22 ethnic groups are recorded today, with Buyi, Sui, Yao and Miao as the four main ones. The Buyi live along the rivers and flatlands in wooden-tile houses and speak a Zhuang-Dai language written in Latin script; the Sui cluster in the upper Zhangjiang and Jialiao river valleys in stilted wooden houses and keep their own shui script and the 'borrow mao' festivals; the Miao live at the foot of Moon Mountain with embroidery, batik and silverwork; and the Yao — split into White-Trouser, Long-Robe and Blue-Trouser branches — are among the earliest settlers, with the most distinctive granaries and the cliff burial and wall-courtship customs that still puzzle archaeologists.
The twentieth century added a layer of red history. Deng Enming, born in the Sui township of Shuiyao about five kilometres from Libo Airport, went out to study, took up Marxism early, and became the only minority delegate to the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party; his memorial hall in the county town is free to visit. During the War of Resistance, in December 1944, Libo's soldiers and civilians fought the Japanese at Chuandong cave near Yongkang, killing more than 100 of the invaders — the site is now a free roadside stop on the Maolan loop. Qing-dynasty Libo also produced the great southwestern Confucian scholar Zheng Zhen, who served as instructor here from 1855 and left a body of poetry still recited by locals.
Libo has no bad season, only different ones. If you want to walk the water forest barefoot, wade the 68-tier cascades and stand under the spray of Laya Waterfall, come in summer — that is when the water volume is highest and the cool is a genuine relief. But if the thing you came for is the colour of Wolong Pond, come in autumn or winter: summer floods turn the water muddy, while the dry season strips it back to that layered pale-blue-to-navy range that made the pond famous. Spring belongs to Maolan, when the rapeseed fields around the Buyi villages turn the whole valley yellow and the wild plum forest along the Dongtang–Banzhai road — the largest wild plum community in China, with trees over a century old — comes into bloom.
Winter is also the season for the ten-li wild plum grove, a two-square-kilometre belt of wild plum trees with at least five natural varieties, and for the Guizhou opera-style water show 'Rhyme of the Zhangjiang' staged on the river south of the county town (tickets 150–168 yuan). Note that the water forest and the 68-tier cascades are at their most dangerous after heavy rain — the park closes sections when the current is too strong, and you should never ignore a rope barrier. Bring a polarising filter if you shoot: Libo's water is so clear it throws reflections that will ruin your photos otherwise.
Further reading
Dir. Jiang Ping & Li Zuonan, 2013, 90 min
A biographical drama tracing the childhood and revolutionary years of Deng Enming, the Sui-minority native of Libo who became the only minority delegate to the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Shot largely on location in Libo county, so the landscape and the minority dress you see on screen are the real thing. Useful context if you plan to visit the free Deng Enming Memorial Hall in the county town.
Yang Zhengwu
A locally researched survey of Guizhou's natural and cultural oddities, written by someone who clearly thinks even Guizhou people underestimate their own province. The karst chapter explains why Libo's water looks the way it does, and the minority chapters cover the Buyi, Sui, Yao and Miao customs you will actually see in the villages. Read it on the bus down from Guiyang and the landscape outside the window starts making sense.
Sung by Zeng Xiaoyan — a Buyi mountain song from Guizhou
Also known as the 'Gulu Mountain Song', this is a Buyi folk tune with a fast, tight rhythm and a playful, teasing lyric. It is the kind of song you will hear at Buyi festivals and occasionally from the speakers of a Yao or Buyi homestay in Libo. Learn the chorus and you will make friends at any village table.
The questions visitors ask us most about Libo, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Summer (June to August) if you want to wade the Water Forest and see the waterfalls at full volume — the water is high, cool and the 68-tier cascade is at its best. Autumn and winter are better for the colour of Wolong Pool, which turns muddy after heavy summer rain but goes brilliantly clear and blue once the flow drops. Spring is for rapeseed flowers around Maolan and the wild plum blossom in December and January.
Take a direct bus from Guiyang East Bus Station — six departures daily at 9:20, 11:00, 12:30, 14:00, 15:40 and 17:30, 100 yuan, roughly four hours. Libo has no railway station. If you are coming by train, get off at Dushan (closer to Libo town) or Mawei (closer to Xiaoqikong) and transfer by bus; Dushan–Libo buses run every 30 minutes.
Yes, but budget for the extras. Entry is 110 yuan in summer and 90 yuan in winter, students pay half, and the 40-yuan shuttle bus is effectively compulsory because the park stretches over several kilometres of valley. The 5-yuan insurance is optional in practice. Allow six hours to do it properly, and note that the separate 120-yuan iron boat on Yuanyang Lake seats six, or 30 yuan per person.
It helps enormously. Maolan is 20,000 hectares of karst forest with scattered sights and no public transport between them; most travellers hire a seven-seat van with driver for about 300 yuan a day. There is a public bus from Libo bus station into the reserve, but it will not get you between Shishang Forest, Latan Waterfall and Qinglong Pool in one day. Fill your tank before you enter — there is no petrol station inside the reserve.
Start with Zhang River grilled fish, the local signature — whole wild river fish, charcoal-grilled, scattered with soybeans, and noticeably different from the Chongqing version. Then try shui jue cai (water fern shoots), sweet and tender and edible stem to tip, unlike ordinary bitter fern. Adventurous eaters should order chou suan, a fermented sour dish that smells terrible and tastes excellent, and yan suan rou, cured sour pork eaten with chilli powder.
Two days minimum, three if you want it relaxed. Day one for Xiaoqikong (six hours) plus Wolong Pool and Yuanyang Lake; day two for Maolan's karst forest, Buyi villages and waterfalls; day three for Shuichun River rafting and Daqikong. A single day is possible but you would see only Xiaoqikong and spend much of it on the shuttle bus.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
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Northern China's classic beach escape — one sunrise headland, 10 km of calm swimming water, and a bird flyway overhead twice a year.
Shanhaiguan
City guide · 12 tours
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.
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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