City guide · Taiwan, China
A 24-hour bookstore, a night market that never stops sizzling, and a city that apologises when you bump into it.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
We got lost in Ximending and a teenage boy came up to us — I assumed he wanted to drag us into a hair salon, like everywhere else. He just smiled, asked where we were from, whether we were travelling independently, and told us to enjoy Taiwan. A single stop, a single kind sentence, and it stuck with me longer than any of the food.
Panda Ai Travels, 'A Nostalgic Old-Town Trip with My Best Friend'
China Airlines NX609 carried us out of Taipei but it couldn't carry away the warmth this city left on us in a week. Taipei is the kind of place where even the winter rain is gentle enough to make you a little drunk on it.
CS Xiaodaren, 'My 2011 Wedding Photography Trip'
Taipei is a city you accidentally fall for. You come for the 508-metre tower and the dumplings, and you leave remembering the stranger who walked you four blocks to your hotel because your map was upside down. It is dense, humid and loud in the way all Asian capitals are loud — scooters pouring off the bridges, temple incense drifting over a seven-lane road — and yet somewhere in the middle of it there is always a wooden bench, a cup of oolong and someone telling you to sit down and rest.
The city runs on the MRT, and the MRT runs like a Swiss watch. Ten lines fan out from Taipei Main Station and reach almost everything a visitor wants: Longshan Temple in the old riverside quarter of Wanhua, the museums at Shilin, the hot springs at Beitou, the tea hills and cable car at Maokong, and the harbour town of Tamsui at the end of the red line. Fares run NT$20–50, trains come every three to five minutes from 06:00 to midnight, and eating or drinking on the platform will earn you a fine and a very polite telling-off.
What surprises people most is the scale of the small stuff. A bowl of oyster vermicelli costs NT$55 and you eat it standing in the street. A night in a hostel bunk costs NT$400–550. A 20-minute soak in a volcanic spring costs NT$70. Meanwhile the National Palace Museum quietly holds the finest collection of Chinese imperial art on earth, and Eslite's Dunnan store stays open around the clock so you can browse art books at 3am. Taipei is not an expensive city pretending to be cheap — it is genuinely, stubbornly good value.
Taipei
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
At 509 metres it was the world's tallest building from 2004 to 2010, and the elevator still rockets you to the 89th-floor observatory in 37 seconds. Tickets are NT$400 full fare, NT$370 concession, plus NT$100 if you want the outdoor deck. Open daily 10:00–22:00, last tickets sold at 21:15 — go 30 minutes before sunset and you get daylight, dusk and the neon grid in one visit.
Shilin is the biggest and the most touristed, Raohe the best-value, Ningxia the local favourite. Come hungry with three or four friends, buy one portion at a time and share — NT$50–200 per dish means you can eat eight things for under NT$500. Rule of thumb: join whichever stall has the longest queue.
Pedestrian-only streets packed with Japanese and Korean labels, indie boutiques, cinemas and street performers. The 1908 red-brick Ximending Red House has been reborn as a design and craft incubator. Take MRT to Ximen, Exit 6, and eat your way through Ah Zong Mian Xian, Chengdu Star Fruit Ice and Lao Tian Lu braised snacks.
The Dunnan branch on Dunhua South Road trades 24 hours a day; the Xinyi store runs 10:00–24:00 Sunday to Thursday and to 02:00 on Friday and Saturday. Wooden floors you're welcome to sit on, a coffee smell the moment you push the door, and English-language shelves that will cost you an extra suitcase.
Longshan Temple was founded in 1738 and still fills with incense and chanting from early morning. Walk five minutes to Bopiliao Historic Block for the Qing-era brick lanes, then squeeze into Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market for snake soup and squid thick soup. One MRT stop, three centuries.
Itinerary
The first-timer's loop. You never travel more than 40 minutes between stops, and every night ends at a night market. Buy an EasyCard at any station — NT$200 including NT$100 deposit, and you get 20% off every MRT ride.
Start at Longshan Temple before 9am while the incense is still thick, walk to Bopiliao Historic Block, then ride two stops to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall for the 10:00 guard-changing ceremony in Liberty Square. Afternoon in Ximending — the Red House, the tattoo lane, the cinemas — then finish at Huaxi Street or Ningxia Night Market.
Stops: Longshan TempleBopiliao Historic BlockChiang Kai-shek Memorial HallLiberty SquareXimendingNingxia Night Market
Be at the National Palace Museum for opening at 09:00 — 650,000 objects, about 8,000 on show at any time, and a full walk-through is said to take 30 years. Ride the Red 30 bus back to Shilin, then MRT to Xinbeitou for the Hot Spring Museum, Geothermal Valley and a NT$70 public soak at Longnai Tang. Be at Taipei 101 by 17:00 for the sunset slot.
Stops: National Palace MuseumShilinXinbeitou Hot Spring MuseumGeothermal ValleyTaipei 101 Observatory
Take the MRT to the end of the line and spend the whole day in Tamsui: the old street, Fort San Domingo, Aletheia University, Tamkang High School and the Lovers' Bridge at Fisherman's Wharf. If you have energy left, take the ferry across to Bali for the riverside bike path, or swing back through Shilin Night Market on the way home.
Stops: Tamsui Old StreetFort San DomingoAletheia UniversityFisherman's WharfLovers' BridgeShilin Night Market
For the second visit, or anyone who wants fewer queues and more sitting down. Half the days are spent above the city on tea terraces or in former factory buildings, and you'll ride the gondola twice.
Bus 260 or the Red 5 from Jiantan MRT up to Yangmingshan. Walk the Xiaoyoukeng fumaroles — steam pours out of the vents year-round — then take a taxi to a hot-spring restaurant for lunch. Come down through Beitou in the afternoon, and finish at the hillside Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch, the wooden building everyone calls the library in the woods.
Stops: YangmingshanXiaoyoukengBeitouTaipei Public Library Beitou Branch
MRT to Taipei Zoo, then the Maokong Gondola up — NT$30 for one stop, NT$40 for two, NT$50 for three, half price with a concession card, closed Mondays. Spend the afternoon in a teahouse: Yaoyue and Hanshe are the famous ones, and the system is a per-person tea-water fee (NT$120 in the daytime, NT$140 after 6pm, NT$180 after midnight) plus the leaf itself, from NT$200 for jasmine to NT$600 for top oolong. Unlimited refills.
Stops: Taipei ZooMaokong GondolaYaoyue TeahouseMaokong tea terraces
Morning at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, a 1937 tobacco factory turned into Taipei's answer to 798 — Baroque garden, warehouses, boiler room, all now galleries and design shops. Afternoon at Treasure Hill Artist Village near Gongguan, a squatter settlement that escaped demolition and became an artist colony. Walk over to National Taiwan University for the palm-lined Royal Palm Boulevard and a carton of the campus dairy's milk.
Stops: Songshan Cultural and Creative ParkTreasure Hill Artist VillageNational Taiwan UniversityGongguan Night Market
Sights
Museum · Shilin
The world's largest collection of Chinese imperial art — more than 650,000 pieces, with roughly 8,000 on display at a time and the rest rotated every three to six months. The bronzes, jades, ceramics and calligraphy are the reason many people come to Taipei at all.
Tip Go on a Saturday evening — it stays open until 20:30 and the tour groups have gone. Under-30s can apply for a Youth Travel Card on the spot at the airport or Taipei Main Station tourist service centre and get discounted admission here and at Taipei 101.
Landmark · Xinyi
509.2 metres of glass and steel, with a lift that covers the climb to the 89th floor in 37 seconds — it was the fastest passenger elevator in the world when the tower opened. The facade is lit in a different colour of the rainbow each night. Below the observation deck, floors B1 to 5 are a fashion mall.
Tip Buy online to skip the ticket queue, and time your slot for about an hour before sunset. The free shuttle from City Hall MRT saves you a sweaty 15-minute walk in summer.
Temple · Wanhua
Founded in 1738 and dedicated to Guanyin, Longshan is the spiritual heart of the old city — the neighbourhood that gave Taipei its first commercial life. Incense smoke, chanting and fortune-tellers spill into the surrounding lanes, and the Bopiliao brick-lined historic block is a five-minute walk away.
Tip Pair it with Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market and the Qing-era lanes at Bopiliao — one MRT stop covers a whole afternoon of old Taipei. Watch the lantern festival here if you're in town for Lunar New Year.
Monument · Zhongzheng
The white hall with the blue octagonal roof is the image most people carry of Taipei before they arrive: pigeons, flagstones, and the great open sweep of Liberty Square with the National Theater and Concert Hall facing each other across it. The guard-changing ceremony is the reason most visitors time their arrival.
Tip Come at 09:50 for the 10:00 ceremony and you'll get the front rank before the coach groups arrive. The Presidential Office Building is a 15-minute walk away — weekdays 09:00–12:00 you can register and join a free volunteer-guided tour of the ground floor, though you must be inside by 11:30.
Hot springs · North Taipei
Beitou's sulphur springs have been famous since the Japanese colonial era, when the bathhouses were named Longnai Tang, Xingnai Tang and Tienai Tang for their particular waters and cures. Above it, Yangmingshan is Taipei's back garden — fumaroles at Xiaoyoukeng, cherry blossoms and calla lilies from mid-February to early April, and hot-spring restaurants tucked into the hillsides.
Tip Winter is the best season here — soaking in a steaming pool while rain drifts through the mist is the classic Taipei experience. Bring your own swimsuit and towel, and note that public pools expect men to wear trunks rather than short shorts.
Food
Taipei's unofficial civic dish. Braised beef shank, soy-and-star-anise broth, thick chewy noodles, a spoon of pickled mustard greens. Lin Dong Fang off Bade Road is the one locals argue about; a bowl runs NT$200–260 and the queue moves fast.
The soup dumpling that made Taiwan famous abroad — NT$180 a steamer at the Xinyi Road original near Yongkang Street, open 10:00–21:00 weekdays and from 09:00 weekends. Order the pork dumplings, the shrimp-and-pork shao mai and the hot-and-sour soup; skip anything fried.
Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle on Emei Street in Ximending has been slinging this since 1975, NT$40–55 a bowl, 11:00–22:30 (23:00 weekends). No tables — you stand on the pavement and eat, which is half the experience. Thick starchy broth, braised pork intestine, plump oysters.
Shilin is the biggest and most tourist-heavy; Raohe, Ningxia and Huaxi are where locals actually eat. Budget NT$300–400 and graze: pepper buns at Raohe's Fuzhou Shizu stall, oyster omelette, deep-fried chicken bigger than your hand at Shilin, and mango shaved ice to finish.
Wax apple (lian wu), sugar apple (shi jia), guava dusted with plum powder and Taiwan pineapple. Fruit can't cross most borders, so eat it here — buy from a fruit shop or a traditional market rather than a night-market stall, where the price per jin can triple for tourists.
Where to eat
Soup dumplings
The founding branch, still on the ground floor of a plain building on Xinyi Road Section 2. Go before 11:30 or after 14:00 to avoid the ticket-and-wait system. The kitchen window where the dumplings get pleated is worth two minutes of your time.
Beef noodles
A bare-bones noodle shop near Zhongxiao Fuxing that opens at 11:00 and runs until 06:30 the next morning, so it doubles as a late-night fix. The broth is rich and the noodles have real bite; the room is cramped and nobody minds.
Street food
A Ximending institution since 1975 and the best NT$50 you'll spend in Taipei. You eat standing up on Emei Street, bowl in one hand. The queues look terrifying and clear in five minutes because the turnover is relentless.
Neighbourhood eating
The lanes around Din Tai Fung are the densest restaurant zone in the city: Kao Chi for Shanghai-style dishes, Yongkang Beef Noodle, Smoothie House for mango shaved ice, and a dozen small coffee shops in between. Come hungry and walk it.
Where to stay
Splurge · Xinyi
Directly above the Xinyi shopping complex and connected to the metro without going outside — you can eat, shop and reach the platform in slippers. The 10th-floor bar is the reason people book it. Rooms are stylish but the hardware is ordinary for the price.
Budget · Zhongshan
The only government-registered hostel in central Taipei, which is why it books out two months ahead. Forty-odd bus routes pass nearby, the airport bus stops at the door and MRT Xingtian Temple is across the street. Dorms are NT$550 a bed, doubles NT$1,380, family rooms NT$2,200.
Mid-range · Taipei Main Station
Wedged between Taipei Main Station and Ximending, which makes it the most practical base for a short trip: you can walk to the Presidential Office, 228 Peace Park and the botanic garden. European-style rooms around a pretty little courtyard, NT$2,280–3,480.
Getting around
Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) sits about 40 km southwest of the city; Songshan Airport (TSA) is right in the city and handles the Shanghai–Taipei Hello Kitty flights. From Taoyuan, seven coach companies run fixed daily services to Taipei from the arrivals hall on the ground floor — NT$110–140 one way, roughly one hour. A metered taxi to Taipei adds 15% to the clock and lands around NT$1,300.
The MRT is clean, cheap and covers nearly every sight you came for. Fares start at NT$20 and top out around NT$50 for the longest rides. Trains run 06:00–24:00. A one-day pass costs NT$200 for unlimited rides that day (Kong Kong cable car not included) and is refundable minus a NT$50 deposit within three days. Direction-finding is easy — every station is signed in English.
Buy one the moment you land. The EasyCard works on Taipei MRT and buses, in convenience stores and at many shops, and gives you a 20% discount on MRT rides. Pick one up at any station information desk, the EasyCard machines, or any convenience store with the logo. Refunds are deposit plus remaining balance minus a NT$20 handling fee.
Yellow taxis meter from NT$70 for the first 1.5 km, then NT$5 every 300 m; after 11pm add 20%, plus NT$10 each for phone booking and boot service. City buses cost NT$15 (NT$12 for students and police) and don't give change, so have coins ready. For hills and river paths, rent a bike — the Bali side of the Tamsui river has one of the best riverside cycling lanes in the city.
Shopping
Taipei's number-one souvenir. Good ones skip preservatives and keep 30–40 days, around NT$30 a piece — Chia Te, Vigor Kobo and SunnyHills are the names locals argue over. Cheaper tourist-box versions run NT$100 a box with a 12-month shelf life, and they taste like it.
Sweet, chewy and packed with peanut and milk flavour, keeps 30–40 days — ideal for handing out at the office. Sugar & Spice, Chia Te and Sakura Grandpa are reliable picks. Tucheng in New Taipei even has a dedicated nougat museum if you want the full story.
Japanese and Korean lines that never reach the mainland sit on these shelves, typically 20–30% cheaper, and gift sets can knock nearly half off. 'My Beauty Diary' sheet masks are the cult buy, alongside Kuan Yuan Lian's loofah water. Watsons and Cosmed are the two chains to raid, especially on weekends.
Eslite is a Taipei institution — the Dunnan branch trades 24 hours and the Xinyi store stays open until 02:00 on weekends. Taiwan books are pricey (from about CNY 60–70 each), so hunt the Zhongshan underground book street for permanent discounts, or the second-hand shops near NTU. For tea, Maokong's roasters sell everything from NT$200 jasmine to NT$600 top-grade oolong.
Practicalities
Vegetables, fruit, salted fish and meat cannot be brought into Taiwan. Duty-free allowances are one bottle of spirits, one carton of cigarettes and a little perfume. You may carry in up to NT$60,000 in cash, and must declare foreign currency over US$10,000 or yuan over CNY 20,000 on arrival or the excess is confiscated.
| Currency | New Taiwan dollar (NT$), roughly 1 CNY = 4.6–4.7 NT$. Notes come in 2000, 1000, 500, 200 and 100; coins in 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1. Bring a UnionPay card — about 80% of ATMs take it, and over 6,000 shops accept it. Change money at the airport, not in Hong Kong. |
|---|---|
| Power | 110V with flat two-pin sockets. Most phone and laptop chargers handle 110–220V and work fine; high-draw appliances like hairdryers don't, so borrow one at your hotel. If your laptop charger has a third pin you'll need an adapter. |
| Language | Mandarin is spoken almost everywhere, in traditional characters that most visitors can read. In the south, ask younger people for directions. Note that 1 is read 'yi', not 'yao'. Handy local terms: mrt = metro, ji che = scooter, fan dian = hotel, hua zhuang shi = toilet, hao kang = discount. |
| Connectivity | TPE-Free is the city government's free wifi and covers every MRT station, city buildings, libraries and some buses; one account also works on New Taipei and iTaiwan networks. Hotels and hostels almost always have wifi. 7-Eleven has its own network but you must buy a card. Local SIMs are sold at Taoyuan, Songshan and Kaohsiung airports, carrier shops and 7-Eleven — bring two IDs. |
| Tipping and etiquette | No tipping. Priority seats on the MRT stay empty even when the carriage is packed — leave them for those who need them. No eating, drinking or chewing gum on MRT platforms or trains. Stand on the right of escalators and let the left side pass. Phones are banned in the first and last carriages. |
| Opening hours and closures | Many sights and almost all museums close on Mondays — check before you go. The National Palace Museum opens Sunday–Friday 09:00–17:00 and Saturday 09:00–20:30, closed Mondays and public holidays. Taipei 101's observatory runs 10:00–22:00 daily with last tickets at 21:15. Expect crowds on New Year, Lunar New Year and 28 February. |
| Safety and emergencies | Taipei is very safe, including late at night. Ambulance 119, police 110. If you lose your entry permit, the National Immigration Agency hotline is (+886) 2-2375-7372, 24 hours. Carry your passport — hotels and some sights ask for it. |
Background
Taipei's story starts on the river, not on the boulevards. In the Qing dynasty the port of Mengjia — today's Wanhua, built around Longshan Temple — was the trading heart of northern Taiwan, and the old saying went "first Tainan, second Lukang, third Mengjia." When the Tamsui River silted up in the late 1800s, the merchants moved downriver to Dadaocheng, whose Dihua Street still runs with old pharmacies, pawnshops and cloth shops, and whose New Year market is the busiest week of its year. Walk from Longshan Temple MRT to Dadaocheng Pier and you walk the whole 19th century in about an hour.
Japan ruled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945 and rebuilt Taipei as an administrative capital: the Presidential Office (finished 1919) is a Baroque-revival former Governor-General's Office, the red-brick Taipei Contemporary Art Museum was a Japanese-era elementary school, and Beitou's hot springs were developed by Japanese bathers who named the baths Takinoyu and Hoshinoyu. The 228 Peace Memorial Park remembers what came after — the 1947 uprising and the long martial-law era that followed — and the 228 Museum inside it (NT$20, free on Wednesdays) is the most honest hour you will spend in the city.
Reading & watching
Dir. Doze Niu
The gangster film that made Wanhua famous again and sent a generation of Taiwanese teenagers into Longshan Temple and Bopiliao Old Street. Watch it, then walk the same lanes — the temple is a two-minute stroll from Longshan Temple MRT.
Pai Hsien-yung
Fourteen short stories about mainlanders who arrived in Taipei in 1949 and never quite arrived. Read it on the MRT and the city's older neighbourhoods — Ximending, Dadaocheng, the lanes behind Taipei Main Station — will look different.
Lo Ta-yu, Deserts Chang, sodagreen
Lo Ta-yu's "Taipei is not my home" is the city's most quoted lyric; Deserts Chang and sodagreen both started in the 100-seat back room of Witch House, the NT$300-a-head cafe opposite NTU where Thursday to Saturday gigs still start at 21:30. It is the cheapest live music in the city.
The questions visitors ask us most about Taipei, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Four to five full days is right. Three days covers Taipei 101, the National Palace Museum, Longshan Temple, Ximending and one night market. Add a fourth for a Beitou hot-spring afternoon and a Tamsui sunset, and a fifth for Maokong, Yangmingshan or a day trip to Jiufen and Yehliu on the northeast coast.
October to December. The autumn months are clear, dry and cool, and typhoons have usually finished by late September. Spring (March–May) is pleasant but showery. Summer is brutally humid at 33–35°C with afternoon thunderstorms, and winter is mild but grey — Taipei's famous drizzle arrives and stays. Cherry-blossom season on Yangmingshan runs mid-February to early April.
No — Taipei is one of the better-value big cities in Asia. An MRT ride is NT$20–50, a bowl of beef noodles NT$150–200, a night-market meal NT$50–100, a hostel bunk NT$400–550 and a mid-range hotel NT$2,500–4,000. A comfortable day including transport, two meals and one paid attraction comes to roughly NT$1,200–1,800 per person.
Carry cash. Convenience stores, department stores and hotels take cards, but night markets, small noodle shops, temples and taxis are cash-only. Use an EasyCard for the MRT, buses and even convenience-store purchases, and withdraw from ATMs at 7-Eleven or FamilyMart — most accept international cards.
Two good options. The Airport MRT runs to Taipei Main Station in about 35–50 minutes for NT$150–160, roughly every 7–15 minutes from 06:00 to 23:00. Alternatively, the Kuokuang and other coach services take 55–70 minutes to Taipei Main Station for NT$110–140. A taxi costs around NT$1,300 and takes 45–60 minutes depending on traffic.
Yes, if you pack for rain. December to February sits around 15–20°C with frequent drizzle — locals call it the season for hot springs, and Beitou and Yangmingshan are at their best. It is also the cheapest time for hotels, the museums are quiet on weekday mornings, and the year-end New Year's Eve fireworks at Taipei 101 are the biggest show of the year.
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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.
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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