Country guide
China covers 9.6 million km², third largest of any country, and holds more than 1.4 billion people — about 17 per cent of everyone alive. It is divided into 33...
Photograph · Severin.stalder · CC BY-SA 3.0
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
China covers 9.6 million km², third largest of any country, and holds more than 1.4 billion people — about 17 per cent of everyone alive. It is divided into 33 province-level divisions, two of them special administrative regions.
Beijing is the capital; Shanghai is the most populous city by urban area. Between them the land runs from the Central Plain and the Yangtze and Yellow rivers out to desert, plateau, subtropical and temperate forest, and the Himalayas in the southwest. The first decision a visitor makes here is therefore not which sight to see but which climate to travel in.
Checked 2026-08-25
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · King of Hearts · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Mustang Joe · CC0
Photograph · Charlie fong · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · ScareCriterion12 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Charlie fong · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
80 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
議事亭前地
Senado Square, known locally as 議事亭前地, is a public square in the historic centre of Macau. It forms part of the Historic Centre of Macau UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Gao Family Courtyard is a preserved historical residence located within Xian's Muslim Quarter. The compound represents traditional Shaanxi architecture and offers visitors an interior space distinct from the surrounding food streets.
伊利莎白皇后號 RMS Queen Elizabeth
The RMS Queen Elizabeth was a British ocean liner launched in 1938, which served as a troopship during World War II and later as a luxury transatlantic passenger liner.
中環至半山自動扶手電梯系統 Central-Mid-Levels Escalator System
The Central to Mid-Levels Escalator and Walkway System is a piece of public transport infrastructure that happens to have become a sight.
星光大道 Avenue of Stars
The Avenue of Stars is a 440-metre waterfront promenade on the Tsim Sha Tsui shore of Victoria Harbour, built as a tribute to the Hong Kong film industry and laid out as a walk rather than as a building.
蘭桂坊 Lan Kwai Fong
Lan Kwai Fong is a compact nightlife and entertainment district in Central, Hong Kong. The area comprises a cluster of L-shaped streets and alleys that form one of the territory's most concentrated zones of bars, restaurants, and clubs.
故宫
The Forbidden City is the palace complex that housed 24 Ming and Qing emperors and now forms the Palace Museum. Completed in 1420, it covers more than one million square metres and contains around 9,000 architectural bays.
颐和园
The Summer Palace is Beijing's best-preserved imperial garden, organised around Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake.
怡和午砲 Noonday Gun
The Noonday Gun is a historic naval artillery piece located in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island. It is famously fired daily at noon, a tradition maintained by Jardine Matheson, the British trading company established in the territory.
天坛公园
The Temple of Heaven is a renowned imperial religious complex in Beijing, China. Its local name is 天坛.
1881 Heritage
1881 Heritage occupies the Former Marine Police Headquarters, a declared monument in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. The compound comprises the main building constructed in 1884, the stable block, and a signal tower added in 1907.
周口店北京人遗址
Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site is a paleoanthropological locality in southwest Beijing. It yielded fossils of Homo erectus pekinensis, commonly called Peking Man, in excavations during the early twentieth century.
中環街市 Central Market
Central Market is a historic market building located in the Central district of Hong Kong Island. The structure represents one of the city's significant surviving examples of market architecture from the early twentieth century.
PMQ 元創方
PMQ, formerly the Police Married Quarters, is a creative hub in Hong Kong's Sheung Wan district. The heritage site has been revitalized into a center for design, creativity, and entrepreneurship.
大雁塔
The Big Wild Goose Pagoda, known locally as 大雁塔, stands as a prominent Buddhist pagoda in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.
秦始皇帝陵博物院丽山园
The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is the burial complex associated with Qin Shi Huang, the ruler who unified China and established the Qin dynasty.
小雁塔
The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is a historic Buddhist pagoda in Xi'an, also known locally as 小雁塔. It is associated with the Jianfu Temple complex and preserves a major example of Tang Dynasty religious architecture.
大三巴牌坊 Ruínas de São Paulo
The Ruins of St. Paul's are the surviving granite facade of the Church of Mater Dei and the remains of St. Paul's College in Macau.
城門水塘 Shing Mun Reservoir
Shing Mun Reservoir is a water storage facility in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Constructed in the 1930s, it represents an important piece of colonial-era infrastructure.
天安门广场
Tiananmen Square is a vast public plaza in central Beijing, China. The local name is 天安门广场. It holds significant historical and political importance as a ceremonial and gathering space.
国家体育场
The National Stadium, locally known as 国家体育场, is a major sports venue in Beijing. It was constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, serving as the primary stadium for opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics events.
上海环球金融中心
Shanghai World Financial Center is a 492-metre, 101-storey skyscraper in Lujiazui, Pudong, completed in 2008 and designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.
上海中心大厦
Shanghai Tower is a landmark skyscraper in the Lujiazui financial district of Pudong, Shanghai. It is among the tallest buildings in the world by architectural height.
大明宫国家遗址公园
Daming Palace National Heritage Park is a major archaeological site and heritage park in Xi'an, China. It preserves the remains of Daming Palace, which served as the imperial palace complex of the Tang Dynasty.
钟楼
Xi'an Bell Tower stands at the symbolic center of the old city, where the main north-south and east-west axes meet. The Ming-dynasty landmark combines a monumental upper structure with tiered roofs and traditional decorative details.
Twelve to eighteen days can link Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai by high-speed rail, with Shenzhen as a southern extension. Hong Kong and Macao need separate border planning and should not be treated as ordinary domestic stops on the same timetable.
Entry rules differ between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao, even within one journey. Check the official immigration authority for every border segment and match the permission to the passport, purpose, and exact itinerary.
High-speed rail and domestic flights cover mainland distances, while metros handle most urban journeys. Hong Kong uses Octopus and separate border controls, and Macao has its own formalities, so prepare payment and identity requirements for each jurisdiction.
April to May and September to October are only broad mainland planning windows. Beijing, Shanghai, the south, Hong Kong, and Macao have different heat, rain, and holiday pressures; the least flexible regional leg should set the dates.
Mainland China uses renminbi (CNY), while Hong Kong and Macao use HKD and MOP. Payment systems and card acceptance differ across those jurisdictions, so prepare the appropriate local method before crossing each border.
On the mainland, save 110 for police and 120 for medical help; Hong Kong and Macao use separate emergency systems. Mainland electricity is recorded as 220 V with Type A, C, and I sockets, while tap-water guidance is not recorded.
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