Inevitably, Beijing is on everyone's itinerary, and the
Great Wall and the splendour of the Imperial City are certainly not
to be missed. It's a city that's easy to be in, and enjoy, but with
skyscrapers aplenty, a large foreign contingent and a wealthy and
chic population, Beijing is hardly representative of the nation as
a whole. You need to dig under the surface to find the more
intimate, private city that exists in the dwindling number of
twisted alleyways, the hutongs, to get the best out of the
place which can otherwise seem vast, soulless and functional. While
you're here, don't forget that Beijing offers the best food and
nightlife in the country. It's also a good place to base yourself
for a host of easy short trips. Chengde , just north of the
capital, has some stunning imperial buildings, constructed by
emperors when this was their favoured retreat for the summer, while
today's city residents escape to the quiet coastal towns of
Shanhaiguan and Beidaihe , which offer lush
countryside, grand old fortresses and a welter of seaside
kitsch.
The territory north of the Great Wall has long had a reputation
for severely cold weather and hot-blooded warriors, but the
expanses of countryside and milltowns of Dongbei (Manchuria)
stand out for their preserves of nature, history and
multi-culturalism. Dongbei's frontier with North Korea results in
diverting border towns like Dandong and ports such as
Dalian . Harbin 's onion-domed cathedrals and local
taste for vodka reveal Russia's proximity, while Shenyang
tells the story of Dongbei's tumultuous history: the Manchus,
Russians, Japanese, war lords, Nationalists and Communists each
controlled it in the course of the twentieth century. The region
contains most of China's natural resources, but recent closings of
state-owned factories make tourism the leading growth industry, as
its cities undertake a "Manchurian Makeover". Short on glitz but
deep in snow and long on character, a trip to Dongbei reveals the
closest thing to "real" China a visitor can find.
Most visitors head for the greater attractions south of the
capital, along the Yellow River Valley , the cradle of
Chinese civilization, where remnants of the dynastic age lie
scattered in a unique landscape of loess terraces. The cave temples
at Datong and Luoyang are magnificent, with huge
Buddhist sculptures staring out impassively across their now
industrialized settings. Of the dynastic capitals, Xi'an is
the most obvious destination, where the celebrated Terracotta Army
still stands guard over the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Other,
less visited ancient towns, including sleepy Kaifeng in
Henan, and Qufu , the birthplace of Confucius in Shandong,
hold treasures of dynastic architecture as well as offering an
intimate, human scale that is missing in the large cities. The area
is also well supplied with holy mountains, some of the few places
in twentieth-century China that provide an unbroken continuity with
the past: grandmothers still shuffle their way up Tai Shan ,
perhaps the grandest and most imperial of the country's pilgrimage
sites, to pay homage to deities as old as Chinese civilization
itself; Song Shan in Henan sees more contemporary pilgrims,
followers of kung fu, making the trek to the Shaolin Temple, where
the art originated; while Wutai Shan in Shanxi rewards
travellers with some of the best-preserved religious sites in the
country, as well as a lush and pretty alpine setting.
Central China forms a basin around the middle reaches of Asia's
longest river, the Yangzi . Once the interior's single most
important transport artery, several thousand kilometres are still
plied by regular passenger ferries, providing one of the world's
great river journeys past countless images of everyday Chinese
life. Meandering upstream through the provinces of Anhui, Hubei,
Hunan and Jiangxi, the shores of the two massive freshwater lakes
Poyang and Dongting are heavily farmed, while a host
of bustling riverside ports, including Wuhan , modern
metropolis and former European concession, thrive on an increasing
industrial and manufacturing momentum. Relics of the past range
from two-thousand-year-old tombs and third-century battlefields to
the Hunanese village of Shaoshan , Mao Zedong's birthplace.
Away from the river lurk some evocative landscapes: the classically
"Chinese" cloud-and-pine draped peaks of Huang Shan in
Anhui; Hubei's Wudang Shan , covered in aged, esoteric
Taoist temples; and the splintered cliffs and forested wilds of
western Hunan's Wulingyuan Scenic Reserve .
Dominating China's east coast is the great port city of
Shanghai , for years the country's main gateway to the
outside world and, apart from Hong Kong, its most Westernized city.
After years of stagnation, Shanghai is again booming, and alongside
the Art-Deco monuments of the old European-built Bund, a thoroughly
modern city, crowned with two of the world's tallest skyscrapers,
is emerging. Around Shanghai are areas offering some of China's
most characteristic scenery - low-lying and wet, criss-crossed with
canals and dotted with historic towns. Jiangsu Province, to the
north, is home to Suzhou with its famous ornate gardens,
built by Ming dynasty scholars and officials, while a short way to
the west lies the city of Nanjing , crowded with relics from
its tumultuous history as Ming and Nationalist capital of China.
South from Shanghai, in Zhejiang Province at the terminus of the
historic Grand Canal, sits Hangzhou , one of China's
greenest and most scenic cities. Hangzhou is located along the
historic lake Xi Hu, whose shore and neighbouring hills abound with
walking opportunities. Off the coast, an overnight journey by boat
from Shanghai, the Buddhist island of Putuo Shan is rarely
visited by foreign tourists, but is superbly attractive, with
beaches, rural walks and monasteries.
In China's southeast, comprising the coastal provinces of Fujian
and Guangdong, as well as Hainan Island, you'll find all the
paradoxes of any rapidly industrializing nation: incredible
economic success in go-ahead Special Economic Zone cities such as
Guangdong's Zhuhai and Shenzhen, back to back with chronic poverty
throughout the region's rural population; and a lust for modernity
and Westernization, refuted by staunch conservatism. Only a short
hop from Hong Kong, the chaotic city of Guangzhou (Canton)
and the adjacent industrial sprawl of the Pearl River Delta
have it all to the point of absurdity: skyscrapers and temples,
beggars and businessmen, nightclubs and traditional opera, fast
food and the finest in classical Chinese cuisine. Guangzhou also
shares a fair scattering of European architecture with other cities
across the region - the Fujian island port of Xiamen is the
nicest - built by colonial victors after the nineteenth-century
Opium Wars. Elsewhere, towns such as Chaozhou proudly retain
their traditions, seemingly little disturbed by recent history,
while the Guangdong-Fujian border is home to ethnic Hakka, who live
as they have done for centuries in massive fortified stone
apartments. Hainan at first glance seems to have no heritage at
all, just a very nice beach, but there's a little more depth to the
place if you dig hard enough - most rewarding is a visit to the Li
villages in the island's central highlands.
Returned to Beijing in 1997, but enjoying a degree of autonomy
that's unprecedented in modern times , Hong Kong is one of
the most interesting cities in the world and is likely to remain so
for a long time, as its officials choose how to shape the city's
future. There is almost nothing Hong Kong cannot offer in the way
of tourist facilities, from fine beaches, to colonial remains to
stunning cityscapes. It also contains more good eating, drinking
and nightlife than the rest of China put together. Macau ,
too, is well worth a visit, if not for its casinos then for its
Baroque churches and fine Portuguese cuisine.
Aside from major tourist attractions, much of southwestern China
is only just beginning to be probed by visitors, though Sichuan's
Chengdu and Yunnan's Kunming remain two of China's
most interesting and easy-going provincial capitals, and the entire
region is, by any standards, exceptionally diverse. Guanxgi and
Guizhou provinces are known for their dramatic limestone scenery,
the most famous of which surrounds the Li River near Guilin
in Guangxi, while over in Sichuan , pilgrims flock to see
the colossal Big Buddha carved into a cliffside at Leshan ,
and to ascend the holy mountain of Emei Shan . The new
province of Chongqing, formerly part of eastern Sichuan, marks the
start of river trips down the Yangzi through the Three
Gorges , while Yunnan sets the tone for the whole area, with
landscapes encompassing everything from snowbound summits and
alpine lakes to steamy tropical jungles. Sichuan has a similar
variety, while the damp highlands shared by Guizhou and Guangxi
descend south to a hot coastline. As Yunnan and Guangxi share
borders with Vietnam, Laos and Burma, while Sichuan rubs up against
Tibet, it's also not surprising to find that all four provinces
have very independent histories, and are home to near-extinct
wildlife and dozens of ethnic autonomous regions, whose attractions
range from the traditional Naxi town of Lijiang and Dai
villages of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, to the exuberant
festivals and textiles of Guizhou's Miao and wooden architecture of
Dong settlements in Guangxi's north.
The huge area of China referred to as the Northwest is where the
people thin out and real wilderness begins. Inner Mongolia, just
hours from Beijing, is already at the frontiers of Central Asia;
here you can follow in the footsteps of Genghis Khan by
horse-riding on the endless grasslands of the steppe. Otherwise,
following the Yellow River east, the old Silk Road heads
west out of Xi'an and you can follow it right through China and out
through its western borders. Highlights en route start with the
fabulous Buddhist sculptures at Maiji Shan and Bingling
Si just outside Lanzhou , while south from Lanzhou lies
the delightful rural retreat and Buddhist monastery town of
Xiahe . Further to the west, in the northwestern part of
Gansu, you'll find the terminus of the Great Wall of China, the
famous last fort of Jiayuguan , and nearby, one of the major
draws of all China, the fabulous Buddhist cave art in the sandy
deserts of Dunhuang .
West of here lie the mountains and deserts of vast Xinjiang,
where China blends into old Turkestan and where simple journeys
between towns are epics of modern bus travel. The oasis cities of
Turpan and remote Kashgar , with their donkey carts
and bazaars, are the main attractions, though the blue waters of
Tian Chi, offering alpine scenery in the midst of searing desert,
are deservedly popular. Beyond Kashgar, travellers face some of the
most adventurous routes of all, over the Karakoram or Torugut
passes to Pakistan and Kirgyzistan respectively. Tibet , now
open to independent travellers, still sounds the most exotic of all
travel possibilities - and so in some ways it is, especially if you
come across the border from Nepal or brave the long road in from
Golmud in Qinghai Province.