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
Seasonal closures come from recorded opening hours.
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
86 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
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.
香港太空館 Hong Kong Space Museum
The Hong Kong Space Museum is a public astronomy and space science museum located in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. Its distinctive dome-shaped building, resembling a planetarium, stands prominently on the Salisbury Garden phase II site near the waterfront.
香港文化博物館 Hong Kong Heritage Museum
The Hong Kong Heritage Museum is a major cultural institution operated by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
香港歷史博物館 Hong Kong Museum of History
The Hong Kong Museum of History is a major cultural institution dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of Hong Kong and South China. Located in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, the museum occupies a purpose-built facility.
茶具文物館 Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware
Flagstaff House is Hong Kong’s oldest surviving Western-style building and now houses the Museum of Tea Ware. The historic building stands inside Hong Kong Park in Central, placing colonial architectural heritage beside one of the city’s major urban green spaces.
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.
M+ is a museum of visual culture in Hong Kong, located in the West Kowloon Cultural District. It focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, design, architecture, and moving image from Hong Kong, China, Asia, and beyond.
香港海事博物館 Hong Kong Maritime Museum
The Hong Kong Maritime Museum is a museum in Hong Kong dedicated to the maritime history and heritage of the region.
香港鐵路博物館 Hong Kong Railway Museum
The Hong Kong Railway Museum occupies a historic building that was formerly the Tai Po Market Railway Station, constructed in 1913.
香港科學館 Hong Kong Science Museum
Hong Kong Science Museum is a public science museum in Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon. It presents science as something to explore with your hands, eyes, and curiosity rather than only through labels or glass cases.
香港抗戰及海防博物館 Hong Kong Museum of the War of Resistance and Coastal Defence
The Hong Kong Museum of the War of Resistance and Coastal Defence is a museum dedicated to Hong Kong's military history, particularly its coastal defence heritage and role during the War of Resistance against Japanese aggression.
黃大仙祠 Wong Tai Sin Temple
Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple is a working Taoist temple in Kowloon, and the two halves of its name matter.
志蓮淨苑 Chi Lin Nunnery
Chi Lin Nunnery is a Buddhist temple complex in Diamond Hill, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Founded in 1934, it was rebuilt in the 1990s using traditional Tang dynasty architectural techniques with wooden structures assembled without nails.
孫中山紀念館 Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum
The Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum is a museum in Hong Kong dedicated to the life and revolutionary activities of Dr Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the Republic of China.
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.
萬佛寺 Ten Thousand Buddha's Monastery
Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery is a Buddhist temple complex in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. Despite its name, it is not a monastery in the traditional sense as no monks reside there.
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.
三棟屋博物館 Sam Tung Uk Museum
Sam Tung Uk Museum is a restored Hakka walled village in Tsuen Wan, New Territories, Hong Kong.
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.
香港電影資料館 Hong Kong Film Archive
The Hong Kong Film Archive in Sai Wan Ho is a cultural venue devoted to Hong Kong’s moving-image heritage. It brings together public exhibitions, film screenings and archival resources, offering a focused way to understand the territory through cinema.
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.
香港摩天輪 The Hong Kong Observation Wheel
The Hong Kong Observation Wheel is a large Ferris wheel on the Central Harbourfront beside Victoria Harbour. Its appeal is the changing view across the water toward Kowloon and back toward Hong Kong Island's dense skyline.
警隊博物館 Police Museum
Hong Kong Police Museum traces the history of the Hong Kong Police Force from the colonial period to the present.
寶蓮禪寺 Po Lin Monastery
Po Lin Monastery is a working Chan (Zen) monastery on the Ngong Ping plateau, in the middle of Lantau Island, at an altitude of about 400 metres and set between Lantau Peak and Lei Nak Peak.
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.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
