58 Best Places To Visit In China - The Ultimate Guide

China has well over 600 cities, so no list covers everything. These are the 58 best places to visit in China that travelers are actually glad they saw, spread across seven cities, plus a handful of quieter ones worth the detour. Every entry carries an honest estimate of how long it takes, because the most common mistake on a first China trip is scheduling four sites into a day that holds two.

Best places to visit in Beijing

Beijing is the capital and the political and cultural center, and for most overseas travelers it is the first Chinese city they set foot in, arriving through either Beijing Capital International Airport or Daxing, which opened in September 2019 with the largest single-structure terminal in the world. It is China’s second most populous city after Shanghai, and it has been settled for roughly 3,000 years. A working capital sitting on three millennia of imperial history is why the sightseeing here is denser than anywhere else in the country.

Top attractions in Beijing: Great Wall of China, Forbidden City (The Palace Museum), Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Great Wall of Badaling, Ming Dynasty Tombs, Beihai Park, Lama Temple, and Confucius Temple.

#1 - Great Wall of China

Visiting the Great Wall is non-negotiable for anyone traveling in China. It is one of the New7Wonders of the World, and the 2012 national survey put its total length across all dynasties at 21,196 kilometers (13,171 miles). Walking it end to end would take roughly 18 months. The views are worth the early start, and this is the one photograph everyone goes home with. Best length for visiting: 3 hours

#2 - Forbidden City: The Palace Museum

The imperial palace of the Ming and Qing emperors, from the 15th century to 1912. The name comes from the fact that ordinary people were forbidden to approach it, on pain of execution. The Palace Museum’s own 2012 survey counted 1,200 buildings and 9,371 rooms across an area the size of about 100 football fields, so you could spend a whole day here and still miss most of it. One warning that catches out more visitors than anything else on this page: there are no same-day tickets. Book online in advance under your own name, bring the physical passport you booked with, and expect the daily allocation to sell out. Best length for visiting: 2-4 hours

#3 - Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square is the largest urban square in the world, covering 440,000 square meters and able to hold more than a million people. This is where Mao Zedong announced the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, and his portrait on the Tiananmen gate is the shot most people come for. The gate tower itself dates to 1417 and was where officials read out imperial proclamations. Security screening is required to enter. Best length for visiting: 1 hour

#4 - Summer Palace

Often regarded as the finest royal garden in China. Under the Qing it was a private retreat for the imperial family; now it is a public park, and one of the best places in Beijing to see traditional landscape architecture done at scale rather than in miniature. Best length for visiting: 3 hours

#5 - Temple of Heaven

This park covers over 270 acres and holds the largest religious complex in China, built in 1420 in the southeastern part of central Beijing and used by Ming and Qing emperors for the harvest prayers. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. Step inside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and the structure does the talking. The surrounding park is where locals exercise, play cards and practice music in the morning, which is half the reason to come. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#6 - Great Wall of Badaling

The most visited section of the entire Great Wall, and the most heavily restored, which is exactly why it is the one to see if you want a sense of how the wall looked in working condition. Located in Yanqing District about 70 kilometers north of Beijing. It is also the most crowded section by a distance, so go early or go on a weekday. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#7 - Ming Dynasty Tombs

The burial ground of 13 Ming emperors, out in Changping District northwest of the city and usually combined with a Badaling day trip since the two sit on the same road. The Dingling Tomb, the only one excavated, is the section most visitors see. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#8 - Beihai Park

A public park and one of China’s best preserved imperial gardens, in the northwestern part of the old Imperial City. It has more than 1,000 years of history behind it. Mornings are the time to come. In winter the lake freezes and the whole park turns into a skating rink; in spring and summer it is flowers and boats on Beihai Lake. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#9 - Lama Temple

A temple of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, with artwork drawing on both Han Chinese and Tibetan traditions. The centerpiece is a Maitreya Buddha standing 18 meters (59 feet) above ground, carved from a single sandalwood trunk and listed by Guinness as the tallest wooden Buddha of its kind. A further 8 meters of the trunk sits buried beneath the floor to hold it upright. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#10 - Confucius Temple

Built in 1302 and used by officials paying respects to Confucius, this museum covers his life, his philosophy and his legacy. It is one of the more relaxing stops in Beijing, mostly because it stays far quieter than the imperial sites a few streets away. Best length for visiting: 1 hour

Best places to visit in Shanghai

Shanghai is China’s largest city by population, with around 24.8 million residents, and the center of its financial and commercial life. It is also one of the most modern cities anywhere in the world, which is the point: you do not come to Shanghai for antiquity, you come for the skyline, the museums, the food and the sense of a place operating at full speed. Spring and autumn are the best months. Winters are cold and windy, and August is punishing.

Top attractions in Shanghai: The Bund, Yu Garden, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Nanjing Road, Shanghai World Financial Center, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Museum, Jade Buddha Temple, Shanghai Disney Resort, and Shanghai Tower.

#1 - The Bund

The Bund is the city’s signature view and the first thing to do here. Walk the waterfront along the Huangpu River with the colonial-era banking houses at your back and the Pudong skyline in front of you. Stay until dark. The towers light up, and the night view is the one worth the camera. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#2 - Yu Garden

Yuyuan Garden is a classical Chinese garden of rockeries, ponds and pavilions, built as a private garden for the Pan family during the Ming dynasty. The bazaar wrapped around it is touristy and crowded; the garden itself, once you are through the gate, is not. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#3 - Oriental Pearl TV Tower

The most recognizable structure on the Shanghai skyline, standing 468 meters tall. The observation deck has a glass floor, which is either the highlight or the reason you skip it. Located in Pudong between the Yangpu and Nanpu bridges, and lit with LEDs after dark. Best length for visiting: 1 hour

#4 - Nanjing Road

One of the busiest shopping streets in the world, running from The Bund west to People’s Square. It dates back to 1845, when it was known in English as Park Lane. Whether you buy anything or not, the crush of people on a Saturday evening tells you more about modern Shanghai than any museum will. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#5 - Shanghai World Financial Center

The 492-meter tower in Pudong with the trapezoid opening at the top, which is why locals call it the bottle opener. Its observation decks run through that opening, including a glass-floored walkway at 474 meters. It sits directly alongside Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai Tower, so all three can be done from one spot. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#6 - Jin Mao Tower

Jin Mao Tower, in the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone in Pudong, stands 88 stories and 420 meters. The observation deck gives you the city, and the Grand Hyatt occupies the upper floors, where the atrium looking straight down the core of the building is worth a drink on its own. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#7 - Shanghai Museum

One of the great collections of ancient Chinese art anywhere, covering bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy, painting, seals, jade and coinage. The original building sits on People’s Square in Huangpu district. A far larger second site, Shanghai Museum East in Pudong, opened in stages through 2024 and now holds most of the permanent galleries, so check which building your target exhibit is in before you set out. Admission is free but requires advance booking. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#8 - Jade Buddha Temple

A working Buddhist temple founded in 1882, drawing on the Pure Land and Chan traditions, and a genuinely unusual thing to find sitting in the middle of a city this size. The two jade Buddha statues it is named for were carried here from Burma and are each carved from a single block of white jade. There is a well-regarded vegetarian restaurant on site. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#9 - Shanghai Disney Resort

Opened in June 2016, this remains the only Disney resort in mainland China and it has been busy ever since. If you know the California parks, the admission price will come as a pleasant surprise, and several attractions here exist nowhere else. Worth a day if you have children with you, and honestly worth one if you do not. Best length for visiting: 3-4 hours

#10 - Shanghai Tower

At 632 meters, Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in China and the third tallest in the world, behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur. It was structurally complete in 2015 and opened to the public the following year. Its observation deck sits at 561 meters, reached by lifts that run at around 20 meters per second, and the twisting glass facade makes it the most distinctive of the three Pudong supertalls up close. Best length for visiting: 1 hour

Best places to visit in Shenzhen

Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, was designated China’s first Special Economic Zone in 1980, when it was a county of fishing and farming villages up against the Hong Kong border. It is now a city of 18.25 million people and the densest concentration of hardware manufacturing and electronics engineering on earth. In 2025 it added more residents than any other major Chinese city. Because the city is barely older than the people running it, there is very little historic sightseeing here, which does not make it a bad stop. The metro is excellent and the city is easy to move around.

Top attractions in Shenzhen: Window of the World, Shenzhen Museum, Splendid China Folk Village, Dameisha Beach, Ping An Finance Centre, Wutong Mountain, and Lianhuashan Park.

#1 - Window of the World

A theme park in the west of the city built around miniature replicas of famous landmarks: a one-third scale Eiffel Tower, a small Taj Mahal, the Borobudur Temple, the Manhattan skyline, and over 130 others. It is exactly as strange as it sounds, and it is the single most popular tourist stop in Shenzhen. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#2 - Shenzhen Museum

Over 20,000 historic relics across exhibitions covering Ancient Shenzhen, Modern Shenzhen, Shenzhen folk culture and wild animal specimens. Reach it by metro from Civic Center Station exit B. Admission is free. Most mainland museums now run on advance real-name reservation, so check the booking page before you set out rather than turning up at the door. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#3 - Splendid China Folk Village

A second miniature park, this one dedicated to China itself: nearly 100 structures scaled to 1:15, covering ancient buildings, natural landmarks and folk culture, including a small Great Wall. Located near Shenzhen Bay. Expect roughly 220 RMB for an adult ticket, with concessions for children and over-70s. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#4 - Dameisha Beach

The largest beach in Shenzhen, long and sandy with mountains behind it. You can swim, walk the shoreline or grill. Depending on the weather it gets extremely crowded with locals, so come on a weekday if the point is to relax rather than people-watch. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#5 - Ping An Finance Centre

The tallest building in Shenzhen at 599 meters and 115 stories, on Yitian Road in Futian district. The Free Sky observation deck on floor 116 is one of the highest in the world and gets you the whole Pearl River Delta on a clear day. Best length for visiting: 1 hour

#6 - Wutong Mountain

At 943 meters, the highest point in Shenzhen and the local hiking route of choice. It sits close enough to downtown to be easy to reach, and on a clear day you can see across to Hong Kong from the top. Several trails of varying difficulty run up it. Best length for visiting: 3-4 hours

#7 - Lianhuashan Park

A park at the northern end of the Futian Central Business District, full of flowers and well-kept gardens, where people come to relax, fly kites and dance. Climb the hill for a straight-down-the-axis view of the CBD, with the large statue of Deng Xiaoping at the top looking out over the city he authorized. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

Best places to visit in Guangzhou

Guangzhou is best known internationally for the twice-yearly Canton Fair, which brings buyers from every continent into the city for weeks at a time. It is a manufacturing and trade hub of roughly 18.5 million people in Guangdong province, a short high-speed hop from Shenzhen, and the two cities together are why so many foreign business travelers end up in this part of China. That has made Guangzhou unusually easy to visit: the metro is comprehensive, the food is arguably the best in the country, and there are museums, temples, a zoo and a serious amusement park. Note that the everyday language here is Cantonese, not Mandarin.

Top attractions in Guangzhou: Canton Tower, Chimelong Paradise, Baiyun Mountain, Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, Chimelong Safari Park, Shamian Island, Yue Xiu Park, and Guangdong Museum.

#1 - Canton Tower

You cannot miss the Canton Tower and you should not try. It stands 604 meters (1,982 feet) and changes color after dark. It is a working observation tower with restaurants, exhibition space and, at the very top, a bubble tram and a drop ride for anyone who wants to make the experience worse. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#2 - Chimelong Paradise

The largest amusement park in China by area, covering 60 hectares with more than 60 attractions, including a set of roller coasters that hold several world records. It opened in 2006 and handles up to 50,000 visitors a day. Expect roughly 250 RMB for an all-day pass, and check the current rate before you go, since peak-season and weekend pricing move. Best length for visiting: 3-4 hours

#3 - Baiyun Mountain

Also called White Cloud Mountain. In a city this heavily built up, a real piece of landscape sitting inside the metro network is rarer than it sounds. Walk to the top or take the cable car. Reachable on public transport. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#4 - Temple of the Six Banyan Trees

Founded in 537 AD under Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty, which makes it close to 1,500 years old and one of the birthplaces of Chan Buddhism. Its Flower Pagoda dates to 1097 and was rebuilt in 1373 after a fire. The temple is well maintained and the monks keep the grounds beautifully. On Liurong Road, which means Six Banyan Trees Road, and reachable by metro. Entry is cheap. Best length for visiting: 1 hour

#5 - Chimelong Safari Park

A wild animal park in Panyu with giant pandas, koalas, Asian elephants, giraffes and a long list of others. You can feed the elephants and giraffes, and there is a sky-lift and a safari train if you would rather not walk it. Come on a weekday; weekends are heavy. Best length for visiting: 3 hours

#6 - Shamian Island

An island of colonial-era buildings in Liwan district, divided historically into French and British concessions and now given over to exhibition rooms, cafes and shops. The name means sandy surface. It is the one part of Guangzhou where the pace drops, and an afternoon walking it with a tea stop is time well spent. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#7 - Yue Xiu Park

The largest park in central Guangzhou, covering 212 acres across seven hills and three artificial lakes. Inside it you will find the Five Rams statue, Zhenhai Tower, the Square Cannon battery, a surviving stretch of Ming dynasty city wall, and a museum of calligraphy and painting. If you are here around Spring Festival, the lantern display is the reason to come. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#8 - Guangdong Museum

Cantonese art, natural history and regional history, with rotating special exhibitions. Bring your passport, and check the reservation position before you go: entry has long been free, but the queue on a weekend wraps the building. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

Best places to visit in Xiamen

Xiamen, historically known as Amoy, sits on an island off the Fujian coast and is as popular with Chinese travelers as with foreign ones. Warm year-round, clean air, and a population of 5.35 million. Gulangyu, Zhongshan Road and the food are the reasons to come. Getting around is easy: taxis, the bus rapid transit system, and a metro that has been running since Line 1 opened at the end of 2017 and now covers close to 100 kilometers across three lines, with more under construction.

Top attractions in Xiamen: Gulangyu Island, South Putuo Temple, Hulishan Cannon Fort, Yongding Earth Buildings, Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street, Wuyi Mountains, and Jimei University.

#1 - Gulangyu Island

Gulangyu was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017 as a historic international settlement, and the citation is deserved: colonial villas, museums, old consulates and a piano collection, on an island with no cars where everything is walkable. Couples come here for wedding photographs in quantity. Reach it by a short ferry, and note that you need the physical passport you booked the ticket with, not a photo of it. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#2 - South Putuo Temple

A Buddhist temple next to Xiamen University, founded in the Tang dynasty. Climb the hill behind it for the temple and the view over the city, and the path connects onward to the Botanical Gardens if you want to make a longer morning of it. There is a good vegetarian restaurant inside the temple grounds. Best length for visiting: 1 hour

#3 - Hulishan Cannon Fort

A coastal fortress on the southern shore of the island that has been guarding this stretch of water for over a century. It is government-preserved and holds the world’s largest surviving rear-loading cannon. There are firing demonstrations in the morning and afternoon. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#4 - Yongding Earth Buildings

The tulou of Longyan, inland from Xiamen, are the fortress homes of the Hakka and Minnan people, built after the Hakka were pushed south during the late Tang and early Song. They come in rectangular and circular forms, and Yongding alone has more than 4,000 of the round ones. The best-known clusters are Chuxi, Hongkeng, Gaobei, Tianluokeng and Hekeng, along with the individual buildings Yangxing Lou, Zhenfu Lou, Huaiyuan Lou and Dadi. This is a full-day trip from Xiamen, not an afternoon. Best length for visiting: 2 hours on site

#5 - Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street

Xiamen’s walking street, lined with shops, Fujian snacks and seafood. The buildings date from the 1920s and the arcaded frontages are worth looking up at while you eat. The metro puts you within a few minutes of it. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#6 - Wuyi Mountains

Be clear about the distance before you plan this one. The Wuyi Mountains, formerly known in English as the Bohea hills, are in northern Fujian near the Jiangxi border, roughly 500 kilometers from Xiamen and between two and a half and four hours away by high-speed rail. This is an overnight trip, not a day out. What you get for the effort is a UNESCO mixed natural and cultural site: river gorges, bamboo raft trips and the terraced slopes that produce some of China’s most famous oolong tea. Best length for visiting: a full day minimum

#7 - Jimei University

Off the northwest side of the island, the Jimei district is a sightseeing stop in its own right rather than just a campus, with the Turtle Garden, the Returnees Garden, several museums and the former home of Tan Kah Kee, the Singaporean businessman who founded it. The architecture is the draw, a deliberate blend of southern Fujian roofs on Western structures. Easily reached on the BRT. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

Best places to visit in Chengdu

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, is known for two things: giant pandas and food that will recalibrate your tolerance for chili. It has 21.47 million permanent residents, making it one of the largest cities in the country and the financial, cultural and transport center of western China. Its history runs back to the 4th century BC, and it has held the same name through the imperial, republican and communist eras, which almost nowhere else in China can claim. The pace here is famously slower than on the coast.

Top attractions in Chengdu: Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Dujiangyan Irrigation System, Mount Qingcheng, Du Fu Thatched Cottage, Kuanzhai Alley, Sanxingdui Museum, Wenshu Yuan Monastery, and Chengdu Wuhou Shrine.

#1 - Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

You do not go to Chengdu and skip the pandas. The base focuses on breeding and raising cubs, and also keeps red pandas, black swans and peacocks. It sits about 10 kilometers from downtown. Go first thing in the morning, when the animals are active and being fed; by midday they are asleep and you have queued for nothing. Cooler months are better. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#2 - Dujiangyan Irrigation System

An irrigation scheme built over 2,000 years ago that still supplies water to the Chengdu plain today, without a dam. Chengdu exists in its current form because of it. It is a pleasant place to walk as well as an extraordinary piece of engineering, with food and rides around the site. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#3 - Mount Qingcheng

A mountain in Dujiangyan and one of the most important centers of Taoism in China. It is a large site with good scenery, and a guide is worth the money here because the significance of what you are looking at is not self-evident. You can take a ferry across the lake or the cable car to shortcut the climb, and there are tea houses along the way. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#4 - Du Fu Thatched Cottage

The former residence of Du Fu, one of the greatest poets in Chinese history, preserved as a traditional garden with temple buildings, ponds and old trees. His poems are set into the walls in calligraphy. Quiet, green, and a useful counterweight to a day of crowds. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#5 - Kuanzhai Alley

Three parallel Qing dynasty lanes, restored, full of old courtyard buildings, snack stalls, shops and tea houses. It is heavily commercialized and it gets very crowded, especially during Chinese public holidays. Early on a weekday morning it is a different place entirely. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#6 - Sanxingdui Museum

The strangest and most rewarding museum in Sichuan, holding the bronze masks, giant heads and bronze trees excavated from a Bronze Age culture that appears in no historical record. The new 55,000 square meter museum building opened in July 2023 and is around five times the size of the old one, with far more of the collection on display. It is 38 kilometers north of Chengdu in Guanghan. Nothing else in China looks like this. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#7 - Wenshu Yuan Monastery

A working monastery in downtown Chengdu with good gardens and a tea house where locals sit for hours. Entry has traditionally been free or close to it, but check before you go. This is one of the few central sights in any large Chinese city that still feels unhurried. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours

#8 - Chengdu Wuhou Shrine

A temple complex dedicated to Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms period, mixing shrine halls, artifacts and gardens, with waterfalls, ponds and bonsai in the warmer months. It sits next to Jinli street, so the two are usually done together. There is a small entry fee, which keeps it quieter than the free sites. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

Best places to visit in Chongqing

Two things to get straight about Chongqing. First, it is not in Sichuan province: it was separated from Sichuan in March 1997 and made a direct-administered municipality, one of only four in China alongside Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. Second, the population figure of over 30 million that gets it called the largest city in the world is a technicality. The municipality covers about 82,000 square kilometers and most of that is rural. The actual urban core is large, dense and built vertically into the hills where the Jialing and Yangtze rivers meet, and it is one of the more visually startling cities in China. It is the gateway to the Three Gorges, it has awesome landmarks, grottoes and serious museums, and it has grown from heavy industry into electronics and automotive manufacturing.

Top attractions in Chongqing: Fengdu Ghost City, Dazu Rock Carvings, Three Natural Bridges, Three Gorges Museum, Eling Park, Chongqing Zoo, Wulong Karst Geological Park, and Hongya Cave.

#1 - Fengdu Ghost City

Temples, shrines and monasteries dedicated to the dead, built on Ming Mountain above the Yangtze. The structures are modeled on Youdu, capital of Diyu, the Chinese underworld. It is a long climb with a lot of steps, though there is a chairlift if you would rather not. Most visitors arrive on a Yangtze cruise. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#2 - Dazu Rock Carvings

A UNESCO World Heritage Site of more than 50,000 statues carved into the cliffs from the 7th century onward, drawing on Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist belief. The Baodingshan cluster is the main event, and each section has its own style. Dazu is about 120 kilometers from Chongqing; hiring a driver is the practical way to get there. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#3 - Three Natural Bridges

Three enormous natural stone arches, the Tianlong, Qinglong and Heilong bridges, at Xiannushan in Wulong District, three to four hours by bus from the city. The scenery is the reason to make the trip, and there is a lot of walking through the caverns below, so bring proper shoes. Come in summer and you walk through a waterfall. Best length for visiting: 3 hours

#4 - Three Gorges Museum

One of the largest museums in western China, holding over 170,000 artifacts across four themes, including the history and spirit of the Three Gorges and the ancient Bashu region. Go here before you get on a Yangtze boat, not after; it makes sense of what you are about to see. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#5 - Eling Park

Also called Goose Neck Park, built in the Qing dynasty on the ridge between the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. It is a climb, and the view of the city from the top is the payoff, particularly after dark when the whole valley lights up. The park itself has long been free to enter, though the observation deck at the top is ticketed separately. Best length for visiting: 2 hours

#6 - Chongqing Zoo

Giant pandas are the headline, but the zoo also keeps South China tigers and a long list of other species, more than 6,000 animals in total. It is about 8 kilometers southwest of the city center. Best length for visiting: 2-3 hours

#7 - Wulong Karst Geological Park

A UNESCO-listed karst landscape in the same district as the Three Natural Bridges, alongside Furong Cave and Fairy Mountain National Forest Park. It gets far fewer foreign visitors than it deserves. Come for the hiking and the rock formations. Best length for visiting: 3-4 hours

#8 - Hongya Cave

A stilted complex of shops, restaurants and bars stacked eleven stories up a cliff face in Jiefangbei, built in the Bayu style. At night, lit up, it is the photograph that made Chongqing famous online, which means it is packed. Go, take the shot, and do not plan to linger. Best length for visiting: 1-2 hours