Jiangling's rapeseed terraces
The best place in Wuyuan to see the bloom — golden terraces spilling from the ridge into the valley, with white-walled villages folded in among the yellow. Viewing platforms 1 and 2 are joined by a stone path.
City guide · Jiangxi
China's 'most beautiful countryside' — dozens of white-walled Huizhou villages strung along streams and terraced into the hills, and two weeks a year of gold.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
Walking into Wuyuan, everywhere I looked were golden rapeseed flowers set against Ming and Qing villages — a scroll of countryside after countryside. Deeper in, standing in the sea of flowers, it felt like a fairyland, and I had become a figure inside the painting.
Traveller note — 'Walking into Wuyuan'
The whole of Wuyuan is covered in camphor trees, and many of them have stood beside their old villages for centuries. The smell of camphor is the first thing that hits you — there are little blocks of camphor wood for sale on every stall.
Traveller note — 'Spring's Wuyuan, a Yellow Waltz'
Wuyuan is a county, not a town, and its beauty is spread across dozens of villages within it. They are Huizhou villages — whitewashed walls, black tiled roofs, horse-head gables curving up at the corners — set along streams, folded into hills and terraced with rice and, for a fortnight a year, rapeseed. This corner of northeast Jiangxi was once rich on Huizhou merchants' money, and the villages still carry the carved halls, ancestral temples and stone-flagged lanes that money bought.
For most of the year Wuyuan is a slow, quiet place of tea and rice, and honestly a lovely one. Then, for two weeks in late March and early April, the rapeseed flowers open and the whole county turns to gold — terraces of it at Jiangling, whole villages ringed by it, the most photographed landscape in southern China. A second, quieter season comes in November, when the maples at Shicheng turn red and the villagers at Huangling lay chillies, corn and persimmons out to dry on round bamboo trays.
The villages are far apart and each is paid for separately or with a five-day pass, so Wuyuan is not a place you wander into; it is a place you plan. The East and North lines fan out from the county town of Ziyang, and the best of the county is often the road between the sights rather than the sights themselves — a lane of rapeseed, a stream with women washing clothes on the stones at eight in the morning.
It is genuinely rural: the food is Huizhou and spicy, the guesthouses are converted farmhouses, and the evenings are silent. If you want nightlife or polish, this is not your place. If you want to walk into a Chinese ink painting, it is.
Wuyuan
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
The best place in Wuyuan to see the bloom — golden terraces spilling from the ridge into the valley, with white-walled villages folded in among the yellow. Viewing platforms 1 and 2 are joined by a stone path.
A mountainside village where, each autumn, every window and rooftop carries bamboo trays of drying chillies, corn and persimmons — the image on half of China's tourism posters. Reached by cable car, and ticketed separately.
A Li-surnamed water village 12 km out, threaded by a stream and crossed by little bridges — the classic 'small bridge, flowing water, family home' scene. Long popular, so busier than some.
Two villages at the end of the East line: Lower Xiaoqi with its ancient camphor trees and busy lanes, and quieter Upper Xiaoqi up a 1-km country path lined with rapeseed in spring.
An 800-year-old covered bridge, 140 m long with four piers, five spans and eleven pavilions, standing in the green water at Qinghua — one of China's oldest and longest gallery bridges.
A tiny walled hamlet in the north, famous for its red maples and dawn mist, and the second of Wuyuan's two great photographs. It is the reason photographers come in November.
Suggested itineraries
The two-day plan splits neatly by line — East one day, North the next. The three-day plan adds the West line and a race-day for the rapeseed at Jiangling.
The workable minimum — one line a day, with the drive in between as good as the sights.
Start at Moon Bay (Yueliang Wan) for the curve of the island and its reflections, then on to Likeng for the stream and the bridges.
Push on to Wangkou and its old merchant wharves and the Yu ancestral hall, then Jiangwan, then the two Xiaoqi villages, and finish at Jiangling for the rapeseed terraces at dusk.
Stops: Moon BayLikengWangkouJiangwanXiaoqiJiangling
Head out from Ziyang to Sixi and Yancun, the twin villages used as a location for the film Liaozhai, with their fine Ming and Qing carving.
Then Rainbow Bridge at Qinghua, lunch in the town, and on to Shicheng or a walk through Longevity Village (Hongcun). Return to the county town in the evening.
Stops: Sixi and YancunRainbow BridgeQinghuaShichengHong Village
For photographers and anyone here in the rapeseed fortnight — slower, with a dawn at the terraces.
Look in on the Wuyuan County Museum in the morning, then Moon Bay, Likeng and Wangkou. Afternoon at Jiangwan and Xiaoqi.
Sleep near Jiangling or Xiaoqi so you are on the terraces at dawn.
Stops: County MuseumMoon BayLikengWangkouXiaoqi
Be at Jiangling's viewing platform for first light on the rapeseed. Then swing north to Sixi and Yancun, Rainbow Bridge and Hong Village.
If it is autumn, run out to Shicheng for the maples; if not, finish at Huangling's drying racks and the cable car down.
Stops: JianglingSixi and YancunRainbow BridgeShichengHuangling
Take the thin West line to the Mandarin-duck lake at Fuchun, where 2,000-odd pairs of mandarin ducks winter, and on to Wengong Mountain.
Or run east to Sanqingshan if you are continuing, or west to Jingdezhen and its kilns. Otherwise, slow morning in a village and out.
Stops: Mandarin-duck lakeWengong MountainQingfeng CaveHong Village
Sights
Ticket prices in China change without much notice. Most of these are covered by the ¥210 five-day pass; confirm on arrival.
Rapeseed · In the pass
The single best place in Wuyuan for the rapeseed bloom: a village at the far northeast of the county, terraced with flowers that spill from the ridge down into the valley, with white-walled hamlets folded in among the gold. Platform 1 is where the buses stop; Platform 2, a stone path further down, gives the classic view.
Tip This is the most traffic-choked spot in Wuyuan in late March and April — go early or mid-week, and park well back. In the cold dawn, bring a jacket; the temperature swings hard at altitude.
Drying racks · Separate ticket
A 500-year-old village hung on a mountainside, famous for its 'drying autumn': every autumn, every window and rooftop is stacked with round bamboo trays of drying chillies, corn and persimmons, a blaze of colour against the white walls. It is the most photographed village in China, and the cable car ride up gives a fine view of the terraces.
Tip The drying trays go up in autumn but the village is worth seeing year-round. Eat in one of the small restaurants on its old 'Heaven Street' — the food is plain and good, and the view over the terraces is the point.
Water village · In the pass
A Li-surnamed village 12 km from the county town, threaded end to end by a stream that the lanes cross on little stone bridges — the 'small bridge, flowing water, family home' scene that defines Wuyuan. It has produced officials, scholars and one Southern Song martial-arts champion, and it has been developed for tourism longer than most, so it is busier and more commercial.
Tip Go in the first hour of the morning, before the groups arrive. The 500 m from the road to the ticket gate is a pleasant walk; the tea houses up on the bridges are a good place to sit it out if it gets busy.
Villages · In the pass
The two villages at the end of the East line, widely called the prettiest pair in Wuyuan. Lower Xiaoqi has the ancient camphor trees and the busier lanes; Upper Xiaoqi, quieter, sits up a 1-km country path lined with rapeseed and framed by hills. Xiaoqi holds three of Wuyuan's four 'ancient' honours — culture, architecture and old trees.
Tip The 1-km path between Lower and Upper Xiaoqi, with rapeseed on both sides in spring and the hills closing in, is the prettiest walk in the county. Buy a jar of the plum or osmanthus wine sold on the old street.
Covered bridge · In the pass
A covered wooden bridge of some 800 years, 140 m long and 3 m wide, with four piers, five spans and eleven pavilions, standing in the green water just west of Qinghua. Named for Li Bai's line about twin bridges and falling rainbows, it is the oldest and longest gallery bridge in old Huizhou, and it has survived every flood and war since the Song.
Tip The beauty is in the piers — heavy, silent, immovable — with fast water on one side and a mirror-flat pool on the other. Walk down to the water on both banks for the full view.
Villages · In the pass
A pair of villages by the Si river, founded in the Southern Song and used as a location for the TV adaptation of Liaozhai (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio). The stone-flagged lanes, the merchant houses and the fine carved beams, brackets and window lattice make this the best place in Wuyuan to read Huizhou architecture up close.
Tip Look up: the carving is in the beams and roof brackets, not at eye level. It is quieter than the East-line villages and better for a slow wander.
Autumn colour · In the pass
A tiny walled hamlet in the far northwest, ringed by gnarled trees that turn a deep red in November. At dawn, mist settles between the old walls and the white cottages, and the village all but vanishes — the second of Wuyuan's two great photographs, and the reason serious photographers visit in autumn rather than spring.
Tip The single daily minibus leaves the county town in the morning and returns about 11:00–12:00, so it does not work for a dawn visit. Charter a car from Qinghua the night before if you want the mist.
Eating
Wuyuan cooking inherits the Huizhou tradition but leans on steaming and 'paste' dishes, and runs spicy. If you want it mild, tell the kitchen before you order.
Wuyuan's signature dish, and the 'red' of its four-colour trademark: a carp raised in the terraced paddies, the colour of a silk purse, steamed whole. Few bones, firm sweet flesh and a clear broth — quite unlike ordinary carp.
A Huizhou classic done in the Wuyuan way: pork rolled in toasted ground rice and steamed over lotus root, so it comes out soft, rich and faintly sweet, the fat turned to something tender rather than greasy.
The first dish to a Wuyuan banquet: soft tofu cooked down with minced meat, dried shrimp and stock into a thick, savoury paste, finished with coriander or spring onion. Fresh and very moreish — a spoon over rice and it is a meal.
Breakfast, and the one Wuyuan locals eat most mornings: a thin sheet of rice batter steamed with mushroom, dried shrimp and bean sprouts, then scattered with spring onion and chilli oil. The best ones come from homely roadside stalls.
Not actually goose neck: minced pork mixed with bean flour, rolled in a tofu skin into a neck-thick cylinder, fried and glazed sweet-and-sour. A Wuyuan banquet dish, sharp and moreish and unlike anything on a standard menu.
Home-brewed in the villages and sold everywhere; lighter and sweeter than the factory kind. Try the osmanthus and plum versions, but mind the alcohol — the aftertaste is deceptive.
Where to eat
Phone numbers are local landlines; add +86 and drop the leading 0 if calling from abroad.
Local · Very popular
One of the most popular restaurants in the county town, the kind Wuyuan people go to themselves. The local dishes are done properly and the service is attentive — but it gets crowded and loud, and you may have to wait for a table.
Tea house · In the village
Inside Likeng, sitting over the little bridges and water. Upstairs there is a viewing platform looking over the whole white-walled town, and the tea-house menu does good local food with a rare view. A perfect place to stop halfway through the village.
Farmhouse · Xiaoqi
A busy farmhouse restaurant inside the Xiaoqi scenic area, cooking over a wood stove — the rice in particular tastes of it. Order the braised carp, the greens-and-mushroom soup and the paste tofu, and sit down to a proper country meal.
Wine shop · Rainbow Bridge
A branch of the well-known local wine house by Rainbow Bridge, where you can taste before you buy and the owner will talk you through the range. The osmanthus and plum wines suit a low tolerance; some varieties are stronger than they taste.
Restaurant · By the North Bus Station
A larger, more polished restaurant directly opposite the North Bus Station, designated by the county tourism office and popular for banquets. The kitchen covers Wuyuan specialities plus Hangzhou and Sichuan dishes. Prices are on the higher side for the county, but the setting is clean and smart.
Sleeping
Farmhouse guesthouses are the way to do Wuyuan — around ¥50–100 a room, more in the bloom fortnight, Lantern Festival and National Day. Book ahead in those weeks.
Heritage guesthouse · from ¥110
The best-known guesthouse inside the Xiaoqi scenic area, at the entrance arch of the village, and the subject of features in Chinese and foreign media. Richly Huizhou in feel, with restored rooms, a small gallery of antiques and a courtyard for collectors to gather.
Hotel · from ¥411
The county town's flagship five-star, on the busy folk-custom street next to the old folk museum, about 30 km from Jiangwan. Big, modern and comfortable, with wifi, breakfast and fine views from the upper floors — the pick if you want a proper hotel rather than a farmhouse.
Budget hotel · from ¥208
A clean, modern economy hotel with rooms, restaurant, business and meeting facilities, near the bus station, supermarkets and the food street. Seven floors, 24-hour hot water and free toiletries — a safe, simple base in the county town.
Inn · from ¥97
A century-old house inside Likeng, between the little bridges and the water. Two floors: the ground floor for tea and lounging, the upper floor for meals, with rooms in the side wing. Modern bathrooms and 24-hour hot water — quiet after the day-trippers leave.
Farmhouse · from ¥60
A 1970s timber Huizhou house in Hong Village (a North-line stop) with six guest rooms and a host who cooks the local dishes properly. Travellers gather for a home-cooked meal — the cheapest and most sociable way to stay in Wuyuan.
Getting around
Wuyuan is spread out and the villages are gated. Plan your transport before the sightseeing.
The easiest way in now: Wuyuan Station sits on the Hefei–Fuzhou high-speed line, a few minutes from the county town. It has transformed access to what was once a place you had to reach by bus.
Wuyuan has no airport of its own. The nearest is Shangrao Sanqingshan (SQD); Jingdezhen and Tunxi (Huangshan) airports are also close, all within about two hours by road.
Wuyuan is bounded by four directions of highway: east from Quzhou (150 km), south from Shangrao and Yingtan, west from Jingdezhen and Jiujiang, and north from Huangshan (120 km, about 2 hours). Much of the loveliest scenery is on the lanes between the villages, so the drive is part of the point.
Village-to-village transport is by minibus from the Wuyuan bus station. They mostly leave the villages early and return by early afternoon, so the useful window is roughly 09:00–14:00.
Almost every visitor ends up chartering a car, because the villages are scattered and the buses are thin. A sedan with a driver runs about ¥300 a day; a minibus for a group about ¥500 — worth it the moment you are three or more people.
Do not accept unsolicited offers from drivers at the station. Use your guesthouse or a reputable company, agree the full-day route and price in advance, and start early.
Hiring a bike is the most relaxed way to see the countryside, at ¥20–30 a day. Be warned that the terrain rolls and climbs, the lanes can carry fast traffic, and one of the East-line stretches runs along a cliff edge — ride it only if you are confident.
Shopping
Buy tea and inkstones in the villages, where they are cheaper and you can see what you are getting. The county-town shops mark things up.
The 'green' of the four colours, grown on the hills since the Tang and recorded in Lu Yu's Classic of Tea — bright, faintly sweet and quite different from the roasted teas of Fujian or Guangdong. Taste before you buy.
One of China's four great inkstones, cut from Longwei Mountain and, because Wuyuan was once part of Shezhou, also called a She inkstone. Look for the fine grain and the sound; a good one is a lifetime object, a cheap one is a paperweight.
Handsome, light, old-fashioned umbrellas that have travelled with Huizhou merchants since the Ming and Qing — pretty, practical and a fine gift, especially for anyone who lives somewhere rainy.
Dried mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tea oil and wood ear from the hills, plus the home-brewed rice wines. Light, local and easy to carry — check what will clear customs before you load up.
Practical
Staffed English help is thin in Wuyuan. Save these before you need them.
| Emergency (police / ambulance / fire) | 110 · 120 · 119 |
|---|---|
| Wuyuan People's Hospital | 47 Beimen Street · 0793-7348258 |
| Wuyuan Chinese Medicine Hospital | 54 Nanmen Street · 0793-7351413 |
| Post office | 30 Tianyou East Road, Ziyang town · 0793-7357626 |
| Tourism bureau | 0793-7343605 |
| Money | ICBC, CCB, ABC and Bank of China all have branches in the county town; banks open about 13:30–18:00 |
| Ticket rule | The pass must be activated within three hours of purchase — it voids if unused |
| Safety | The county is safe and the people genuine; in the off-season avoid walking remote trails alone |
Tips
Wuyuan's beauty is in the morning mist, and it is gone within an hour of the first tour bus. Sleep in a village the night before rather than driving out in the dark.
The ¥210 pass covers 14 villages and is checked on entry at each, so do not throw it away, and activate it within three hours of buying it.
Huangling is not on the pass and needs its own ticket and cable car, and some budget-minded visitors skip it. Do not — the drying racks are the single most photographed image in China, and the cable car view is worth the ride.
If you charter a driver, fix the full-day route and the total price before you set off, and start early enough to be at Jiangling or another sight by dawn if that is the plan.
Wuyuan food is Huizhou and often hot. Locals are happy to tone it down, but they will not unless you ask, and by then the wok has already gone in.
The county is hilly and the temperature swings hard between dawn and midday; spring and the June–July plum rains bring sudden wet. Bring a waterproof and something warm for the dawn start.
Background
Wuyuan lies in the far northeast of Jiangxi, where the province meets Anhui and Zhejiang, and it is a county of hills and river valleys — the reason its villages are scattered among the slopes and streams rather than gathered on a plain. The upper reaches of the Le'an and other rivers cut through it, and the terraces that carry the rapeseed are cut into exactly this hilly ground.
The climate is mid-subtropical: warm and wet, four distinct seasons, an average around 17°C. Spring brings the rapeseed in late March and early April, summer the heat and, in June and July, the plum rains, autumn the red maples, and winter the New Year customs — lantern-lighting, dragon dances — under a cold sky. The county's worth visiting in more than one season, which is rare in a place this famous for a single two-week flower.
For most of its recorded history Wuyuan was part of old Huizhou, the prefecture that also covered the villages of southern Anhui, and it shares their culture: Huizhou architecture, Huizhou food, and, most of all, Huizhou learning. The prefecture was famous for producing scholars and officials — it was nicknamed 'Zou-Lu of the Southeast', after the birthplaces of Mencius and Confucius, no small boast — and the county's ancestral halls and stone-flagged merchant lanes are the physical record of that.
Among the names it produced are the Song scholar Zhu Xi and the modern engineer Zhan Tianyou, the 'father of China's railways'. Wuyuan was shuffled between Anhui and Jiangxi in the twentieth century before settling in Jiangxi in 1949. Today its four seasons of village life, and its self-conscious title of 'China's most beautiful countryside', have made it one of the country's most-visited rural destinations — which is both its fortune and, in the rapeseed fortnight, its chief problem.
Travel with them
Not guides — a TV drama, two books and a song, made here or about living here.
Dir. Meng Fan, 2012
A 34-part war drama set in 1942 among the New Fourth Army in the south, and shot entirely on location on Wuyuan's hills — the crew spent months up there for the sake of the light and the landscape. Watching it is a good way to see the county's hills and water before you go.
Gao Laoye and Gao Laoye's Wife
A hit Chinese forum thread turned book: a Shanghai office-worker couple describing their rural life in a Wuyuan village, a kind of Chinese 'A Year in Provence'. Plain, warm and funny, and the best cure for anyone who thinks they would rather be here than at work.
Qin Jian
Part of the 'Chinese Rural Image' series, a photographic record of the county's villages, houses, bridges and memorial arches, with notes on transport, lodging and photography. If you want to know which village to see first, it is a good place to start.
Tong Li
A sweet, gentle song that takes the name of the little crescent island near the county town and drifts through the dream-like Jiangnan of 'Spring in Dream'. Play it on the drive to Moon Bay at dawn and it is exactly the mood the place is selling.
The questions visitors ask us most about Wuyuan, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Late March to early April, with the peak shifting a week either way by year — Jiangling has the biggest and most photographed terraces. The mild downside is that it is also the busiest place in the county, so go at dawn and early in the week. Outside this fortnight, Wuyuan is green, quiet and far cheaper.
Yes — autumn is the second peak. In November the maples at Shicheng turn red and the villagers at Huangling dry chillies, corn and persimmons on bamboo trays, giving you the other great Wuyuan image. Summer is lush and wet, and winter is bare but atmospheric, with the New Year and Lantern Festival customs.
The villages are scattered across the county and linked by local minibuses costing ¥6–10 that mostly run mid-morning. Because they are slow and infrequent, most visitors hire a car and driver for about ¥300 a day, which lets you chain villages on your own schedule. Cycling works but the roads roll and climb.
If you plan to see several villages, yes — the five-day pass is ¥210 and covers 14 villages, versus ¥60 for a single village. Huangling is not included and needs its own ticket and cable car, and Jiangwan sells separately at ¥120. Activate the pass within three hours of buying it.
Huizhou cooking with a Wuyuan twist: heavy on steaming and 'paste' dishes, and generally spicy. Order the bag-tied red carp, steamed pork with rice flour, 'paste tofu', the steamed rice cake for breakfast, and sweet-and-sour goose neck, washed down with local rice wine. Tell the cook if you want it mild.
The 'four colours of Wuyuan' — red (the pouched red carp), green (Wuyuan green tea), black (Longwei inkstones from the She inkstone family) and white (Jiangwan snow pears). Add oil-paper umbrellas from Jialu and dried mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Buy tea and inkstones in the villages, not the county-town shops.
Easily. Huangshan is about two hours north by road, and Sanqingshan is a bus ride away to the east. Many travellers thread Wuyuan between the two as a village-and-countryside break between the granite peaks. Jingdezhen, the porcelain city, is 1.5 hours west.
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One autonomous region, a dozen landscapes — limestone peaks and rice terraces in the north, a Vietnam border and a warm gulf coast in the south.
Huizhou
City guide · 12 tours
A free West Lake, a Taoist mountain and 200 km of white-sand coast — the Pearl River Delta's most underrated weekend.
Beidaihe
City guide · 12 tours
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.
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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