China Destinations
Where to land, what to pair, how long to stay, and when to skip a city.
Where to go
Every gold pin has a city guide, drawn from our own China Guide articles. Open pins are places we have written about once so far.
Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia? We plan well beyond this list. Ask a specialist
33 city guides
North China
Imperial scale, hutong mornings, the Great Wall.
4 guides
Pingyao is a walkable historic city whose walls, streets and associated temples make a focused heritage day.
2 guides
Datong is a base for visiting Yungang, a Buddhist cave heritage site west of the city.
2 guides
Qingdao is a base for independent Mount Lao landscape photography.
2 guides
Taiyuan is a Shanxi capital for knife-cut noodles and a high-speed-rail base for temple and heritage routes.
2 guides
Tianjin gives you a focused sit for Goubuli steamed buns.
Yangtze Delta
The forgiving first landing: rail, river, lane houses.
Jiangnan
Gardens and canals, under half an hour from Shanghai by train.
18 guides
West Lake, tea hills, an easy pair with Shanghai.
8 guides
Huangshan is a UNESCO-listed granite range for stone-step or cableway hikes, with advance entry booking.
6 guides
Nanjing suits wall, avenue, imperial, and Republican heritage days.
Sichuan
Pandas, teahouses, and Sichuan food at its source.
13 guides
Night skyline, river geography, hotpot.
3 guides
Jiuzhaigou gives you alpine lakes, multi-step waterfalls, and autumn colour for an independent landscape-photography day or two.
3 guides
Leshan gives you a full day with an 8th-century, 71 m cliff Buddha beside the confluence of three rivers.
3 guides
A temple mountain for walking among more than 30 temples on one Sichuan massif.
8 guides
Yunnan old town, Naxi culture, mountain access.
6 guides
Kunming is a gentle, temperate Yunnan gateway with leafy parks, tea markets, museums, and access to the Shilin Stone Forest.
2 guides
Dali offers Erhai lakeside living, historic lanes, traditional courtyards, and Bai craft at a slower pace.
14 guides
Karst peaks and slower river days.
7 guides
Yangshuo is a county town on a karst river, suited to river banks, rural paths and a slower base.
18 guides
Terracotta Army, city wall, Muslim Quarter food.
2 guides
Dunhuang is the shoot city for a Mingsha and Crescent Lake day.
5 guides
Zhangjiajie is for independent photography shaped by stone, cloud and one park.
3 guides
Luoyang gives you a day at Longmen Grottoes, caves and niches cut into limestone cliffs on both sides of the Yi River.
2 guides
Changsha is a Hunan city for sitting down to eat a named plate of dark-fried stinky tofu.
10 guides
Sit for Cantonese morning tea in a traditional tea-house setting.
7 guides
Hong Kong SAR sits in the Greater Bay Area with Macau SAR, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Foshan.
5 guides
Macau SAR is a separate immigration jurisdiction within China.
4 guides
Shenzhen suits a day of contemporary museums and urban-planning context, plus a coastal or bay promenade.
2 guides
Fuzhou gives you access to Pingtan’s wind-shaped granite coasts and changing sea conditions for landscape photography.
2 guides
Wuyishan combines Nine-Bend River cliffs, heritage sites, subtropical forest and independent hiking or photography.
2 guides
Xiamen offers a compact, walkable island landscape for photography, combining ferry approaches, coastal rocks, gardens, roofs, and changing light.
Also on our map
Browse by trip type
The classic arc, paced so rail days and big sites do not stack up.
Short transfers, familiar food nearby, and one clear highlight per day.
Cities chosen for light, elevation, and scenes worth waiting for.
Fewer bases, longer stays, mornings with nothing booked.
How to pair cities
LocalKey uses cities as building blocks. The practical question is how many moves the trip can absorb without turning into logistics management.
5 days
Shanghai + Suzhou works because the transfer is short and the two cities change the mood without eating the trip.
7-10 days
Beijing + Xi'an + Shanghai is the upper limit for a classic first arc unless you are comfortable moving fast.
12+ days
This is where Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, or the Yangtze Delta can become real regional depth rather than decorative add-ons.
Plan the route
Tell us which cities caught your eye. We design the route, then you choose how much support you want on the ground.
Start a conversation
Tell us how much time you have, who you are travelling with, and what first caught your curiosity.
