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Guides

Every destination we cover, with the practical pages that go with it.

China

Cities

City · 936k people Baoshan Baoshan unlocks Yunnan's wild western edge: the Gaoligong mountains, Tengchong's volcanic hot springs, and the ghosts of the Burma Road. A frontier for second-time visitors.
City · 4.7M people Changchun Changbaishan's three slopes offer radically different access to Heaven Lake, from the North Slope's hot springs to the West Slope's 1,400-step ascent.
City · 235k people Dali Dali hooks travellers with Erhai Lake, Cangshan Mountain, and Bai culture, then keeps them for a week. Plan a slow stay around cycling, guesthouses, and lakeside villages.
City · 4.9M people Dalian Dalian is the seaside city the Russians and Japanese both built, leaving Zhongshan Square mansions, Lushun's Port Arthur history, and the Binhai coastal drive.
City · 136k people Gejiu The Yuanyang rice terraces only become the mirror-like spectacle of photographs from November to March—here is how to time the water season and hit the right viewpoints at sunrise and sunset.
City · 5.2M people Harbin Harbin in winter means the world's largest ice festival, Russian-era architecture along Zhongyang Dajie, and temperatures that drop to minus thirty—here is how to embrace the cold.
City · 490k people Jianshui Jianshui has a Ming dynasty seventeen-arch bridge, one of China's largest Confucian temples, and tofu grilled on street corners—and almost every Yunnan itinerary skips it.
City · 3.9M people Kunming Kunming is Yunnan's spring-city gateway. Navigate KMG airport, ride Metro Line 6 into town, see the Green Lake gulls, and launch day trips to the Stone Forest.
City · 211k people Lijiang Lijiang's UNESCO-listed old town is a maze of cobblestone charm and relentless tourist commerce. Here's what remains worth your time and how to find the quieter corners.
City · 186k people Shangri-La Shangri-La sits at 3,200 metres on the Tibetan plateau, and the altitude is the first thing you'll feel. Plan around acclimatisation, monasteries, and alpine walks.
City · 7M people Shenyang Shenyang was the Manchu capital before Beijing, and its Mukden Palace and Zhaoling tomb tell the Qing dynasty origin story the Forbidden City skips.
City · 206k people Yunjinghong Xishuangbanna is Yunnan's tropical flipside—Dai Buddhist temples, lemongrass-grilled fish, sticky heat, and a road south that leads straight into Laos.