China Travelers Recommend

Yuexiu Park sits at the heart of Guangzhou where you can start your visit with a stroll through the gardens, past locals practicing tai chi and old men fishing the lakes. Pay a visit to the Guangzhou City Museum, located within the red Xhenhai Tower, for a look at the history of the city dating back more than 2,000 years. Swing by the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall at the base of Yuexiu Hill for a more in-depth look at Guangzhou’s role in China’s major revolutions. Many of China’s religious traditions have roots in Guangzhou. In the morning, head to the trio of temples located just south of the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King. The towering pagoda at the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees (Liurong Temple) is one of Guangzhou’s most recognizable landmarks. Nearby sits the Bright Filial Piety Temple (Guangxiao Si), Guangzhou’s oldest Buddhist temple and the place where Huineng, one of the most important figures in Zen Buddhism, studied as a novice monk.

Guilin is home to a 1,000-year-old Buddha cave carving – you really should visit Returned Pearl Cave on Wave-Subduing Hill to see it and other Song and Tang dynasty carvings. Take a trip to Reed Flute Cave to see the spectacular natural rock formations, illumined by coloured lights. Seven Star Cave and Dark Dragon Cave are similarly breathtaking. Don’t just gaze at those misty, Chinese-etching prints – get out there and engage with them! Elephant Hill will give you a sweeping view of Guilin, as will Solitary Beauty Peak. If your leg muscles are up to it, try Folded Brocade Hill with its Ming pagodas, or Pagoda Hill with its view of a chasm said to resemble the moon’s surface. After all that roaming of caves and peaks, it’s time to take a little more laid-back approach to the scenery. A river cruise will not only give you a magical perspective on the landscape, but will give you a glimpse of local riverside life an instant snapshot of a period of rapid change.

Beijing is a wonderful mixture of the ancient and the modern, the past and the present. If you only have one day, do the essentials. Tiananmen Square dates from 1417 and has witnessed some of the most pivotal moments in China’s history, including the 1989 protests. It’s also the site of Mao’s Mausoleum, a place of pilgrimage for Chinese tourists. The queue for entry looks lengthy, but moves fast and entry is free. Nearby the Forbidden City has over 1,800,000 sq km of gardens, palaces and halls of relics dating back to 1407. Home to 24 emperors over five centuries, the Forbidden City opened to the public in 1924. Then see the other side of Beijing, the hutong, narrow, winding residential streets full of real life and communal-style living. Getting lost in the labyrinth is half the fun. No visit to Beijing is complete without seeing The Great Wall of China. An impressive 6,300 km of engineering miracle, it was built to protect China from the rampaging Mongols.

West Street (Xi Jie) is the heart of Yangshuo, teeming with shops and cafes where you can start your visit with a cup of tea and a fresh banana crepe: the local breakfast specialty. Take a stroll down West Street toward Yangshuo Park, where locals come to play cards, practice tai chi and play traditional Chinese instruments in impromptu jam sessions for all to see. Exploring the rice paddies, bamboo forests and small villages set along the rivers of Guilin County is one of the highlights of any trip to Yangshuo. Armed with a map and a bike, head out of town and upriver to catch a bamboo raft down the Yulong River (you can take your bike on the boat or have the boatmen transport it downriver for you). Alternately, take a motorized boat down the Li River for a glimpse of the view immortalized on China’s 20 yuan note. The rocky formations surrounding Yangshuo are an outdoorsman’s playground and many of the karsts can be explored inside and out.