🇨🇳China

The Great Wall of China

This defensive wall stretches thousands of kilometers across northern China, built and rebuilt over centuries by successive dynasties. The Mutianyu and Jinshanling sections near Beijing offer dramatic mountain scenery with far fewer crowds than the more famous Badaling stretch. Walking even a short restored section gives a real sense of its scale.

The Forbidden City

The imperial palace complex at the heart of Beijing housed Chinese emperors for nearly 500 years and remains the best-preserved cluster of ancient wooden architecture in the world. Nearly a thousand buildings and courtyards sit inside its walls, arranged with strict symbolic symmetry. A full visit easily takes half a day.

Terracotta Army, Xi'an

Thousands of life-sized clay soldiers, each with individually sculpted faces, were buried to guard the tomb of China's first emperor over 2,200 years ago. Discovered by farmers in 1974, the excavation site is now covered by museum hangars that let visitors look down on the ranks as archaeologists still work. It's one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century.

The Bund, Shanghai

A riverside promenade lined with colonial-era European buildings on one side and Shanghai's futuristic skyline, including the Oriental Pearl Tower, directly across the water. The contrast between old and new is most striking at night, when both banks light up. It's the natural starting point for exploring the city.

Li River & Guilin's karst hills

Limestone karst peaks rise dramatically along the Li River between Guilin and Yangshuo, a landscape that has appeared on Chinese ink paintings for centuries. A slow river cruise or bamboo raft trip is the classic way to see it, with cycling around Yangshuo's countryside as a popular add-on. It's considered one of the most scenic river journeys in the country.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

Thousands of narrow sandstone pillars rise out of dense forest, an otherworldly landscape that inspired the floating mountains in the film Avatar. A glass-bottomed skywalk and a spectacular glass bridge span some of the deepest gorges. It's more remote than China's other major sites, requiring a flight to reach comfortably.