China

Not one continuous wall but sections raised in different eras, so which section you pick decides the day. Badaling near Beijing is fully restored and busy; Mutianyu has a cable car and less climbing; Jinshanling is unrestored, quiet and rough underfoot. Set aside a full day whichever you choose.

It runs one way from Tiananmen in the south to the northern gate, so you cannot double back to where you came in. Seeing it properly takes three or four hours with little shade, so carry water in summer. Entry requires a named booking with your passport — fix the date in advance.

Thousands of clay soldiers in ranks, no two faces alike. Pit 1 is the largest and the famous one, but the scale only lands once you have seen pits 2 and 3 and the bronze chariots. About an hour by bus from central Xi’an, usually combined with the city wall and the Muslim Quarter.

Thousands of sandstone columns rising through cloud — the landscape behind the floating mountains people know from film. Glass bridges, ridge-top viewpoints and several cable cars mean your route depends entirely on which entrance you use. Rain helps here: the mist is the point.

Early twentieth-century European facades line the west bank; the skyscrapers stand directly opposite on the east. Sunset, when the lights come on, is the busiest hour, and a river cruise shows both banks at once. The metro drops you at the doorstep.

Limestone peaks crowding a river — the view printed on Chinese banknotes. The cruise from Guilin down to Yangshuo runs three to four hours, and most people then stay in Yangshuo and cycle the rice fields and villages for a few days. It looks best when mist rises after rain.

Hundreds of grottoes cut into a desert cliff, holding a thousand years of murals and statues. To protect them, daily visitor numbers and the caves you may enter are limited, and photography inside is forbidden. Dunhuang is a long way from anywhere — allow at least two days, with the singing sand dunes nearby.

A lake, a hill and a very long covered walkway — an entirely different mood from the Forbidden City. There is a lot of walking, so allow half a day; when the lake freezes in winter you will see people out on it. Reachable by metro, so it fits easily into a Beijing itinerary.

Cloud pooling between granite peaks — close to the original of Chinese landscape painting. Even with the cable car the ridge walking is real work, and seeing sunrise means sleeping in a lodge on the mountain. The old villages of Hongcun and Xidi nearby are World Heritage too.

Limestone gives each lake its own blue or green. The altitude is high enough to make you feel it, so take the first day gently, and autumn colour is what it is famous for. It reopened after earthquake repairs and admission numbers are capped.

The idea is not openness but composition — doors and windows cut the view into pictures. The Humble Administrator’s Garden is the largest and best known, but the small gardens are quieter and make the point just as well. Thirty minutes from Shanghai by high-speed rail.

It stands above 3,600 m, and the stairs alone will leave you short of breath. Foreign visitors need a separate permit and must travel with an approved operator, so independent travel is not possible — start arranging it a month ahead. Give yourself a day to acclimatise on arrival.

The Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the Summer Palace are all within reach, which makes it the easiest first visit. Old hutong lanes survive in the centre, so there is real walking to do, and winter is dry and very cold. Most major sites now require a named advance booking.

The old concession streets and the skyline face each other across the river, and there are enough cafes and galleries to fill days of walking. The metro is dense and signage in English is relatively good. Suzhou and Hangzhou are thirty to sixty minutes away by fast train.

The Terracotta Army and Tang-era sites, plus a city wall you can cycle right around. The night food of the Muslim Quarter gives the evenings somewhere to go. Five or six hours from Beijing or Shanghai by high-speed rail.

Go to the panda base early if you want to see them moving. Sichuan heat is not the heat most visitors expect — the numbing Sichuan pepper is a different sensation, so order mild the first time. It is also the jumping-off point for Jiuzhaigou and the Leshan Buddha.

This is a place to stay in the landscape rather than tour a city. The usual shape is the boat down to Yangshuo, then a few days on a bicycle, with accommodation chosen to match. Summers are hot, humid and often wet.

Both have their own immigration, currency and mobile networks, separate from the mainland. Hong Kong is harbour views and the peak; Macau is Portuguese streets and churches. The two are about an hour apart by ferry or across the bridge.

The best travelling months almost everywhere: neither hot nor cold, and comparatively dry for walking the Wall or the mountains. Avoid the two holiday windows noted below.

Shanghai and Guangzhou are humid and sit on the typhoon track. The northwest — Xinjiang and Gansu — along with the northeast and the high plateau are at their best in summer, and some of those places are only open then. Summer is either the worst or the only option, depending on where you are going.

Beijing drops below freezing and stays dry; Harbin is far colder and builds an ice festival out of it. The south stays above freezing but some regions have no central heating, which makes it feel colder indoors than out. Air quality in the north can suffer during the heating season.

Much of the population travels at once: train tickets and rooms disappear and sites become impassable. Spring Festival follows the lunar calendar, so check the dates for your year. Steering around these two weeks alone transforms the trip.

Ordinary tourism often requires a visa, and visa-free transit or short-stay schemes change in both conditions and duration. Check the current notice from the Chinese embassy or visa centre in your country before you travel. People really are turned back at the airport over this.

Restaurants, shops and taxis overwhelmingly expect a QR payment from a phone. The major payment apps now accept foreign cards, so register one before you leave and make a test payment. Arriving with cash alone leads to a lot of awkward conversations about change.

A large share of the search, map, messaging and social services you use daily will not load on the local network. International roaming or a foreign eSIM often routes around this, which is what most visitors rely on. Installing a local map app as well is worth doing.

The network is vast and punctual, and beats flying on many routes. Tickets are sold against your passport and checked against it at the station, and popular routes sell out days ahead. Stations are large and have security screening, so arrive forty minutes early.

Ambulance is 120 here, split from the fire service on 119. Communication may be hard, so keep your accommodation’s address written in Chinese on your phone. Save your embassy’s consular line as well.

Outside big-city hotels and airports, English is rarely spoken. Showing a photograph and pointing works better than anything else, and downloading the camera mode of a translation app in advance will get you through a menu. Save your hotel name in Chinese characters.