Introducing China
Eagerly assuming its place among the world’s top travel destinations, even more so since Beijing took centre stage at the 2008 Olympics, China is an epic adventure. From the wide open and empty panoramas of Tibet to the push and shove of Shànghǎi, from the volcanic dishes of Sìchuān to beer by the bag in seaside Qīngdǎo, a journey through this colossus of a country is a mesmerising encounter with the most populous, perhaps most culturally idiosyncratic nation on earth.
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The sheer diversity of China’s terrain takes you from noisy cities fizzing with energy to isolated mountain-top Ming-Dynasty villages where you can hear a pin drop. Pǔdōng’s ambitious skyline is a triumphant statement, but it couldn’t be further from the worldly renunciation acted out in Tibet’s distant monasteries.
Curator of the world’s oldest continuous civilisation, China will have you bumping into history at every turn. But it’s not just a museum of imperial relics: the frisson of development that has left China’s coastline glittering with some of the world’s most up-to-the-minute cities propels the land on with a forward-thinking dynamism.
And it’s the people – unavoidable in their immense numbers – who provide the ceaseless drama and entertainment. Loud, garrulous and quick thinking, you’ll see the Chinese squeezing onto dangerous-looking buses, walking in pyjamas around Shànghǎi or inviting each other to sit down to some of the most varied cuisine in the world. Animated by a palpable sense of pride, the Chinese are revelling in their country’s ascendency. Everyone is talking about China, so why not find out what all the fuss is about?
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Ready to go? These recommended tours make it easy:
- take a trip from Beijing to Hong Kong
- journey from Beijing to Shanghai
- find things to do in Beijing
- trek the Great Wall
Travel Alert: A strong earthquake struck the remote Qīnghǎi region in April, causing widespread damage around Yùshù (Jyekundo). Check the BBC for news updates. For information on the Lonely Planet guidebook/border crossing issue, see the Getting there & away page.
Last updated: Jun 8, 2010
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China
Our Top Picks For China
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1 Allow yourself into the Forbidden City
It's not forbidden and it's not a city, but it is the best-preserved collection of imperial architecture in China
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2 Join the ranks of the Terracotta Warriors
See Xī’ān's motionless ranks of warriors staring out through the silent millennia of history
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3 Stroll The Bund
Amble along Shanghai's fabulous neoclassical and art deco sweep of architectural grandeur
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4 Size up The Great Wall
Visit this serpentine bastion from Beijing, or aim for original and unrestored sections such as Jiànkòu
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5 Be seduced by the Li River
Succumb to the seductive, other-worldly panoramas of this slow-moving river on the way to Yángshuò, where a profusion of karst peaks draws in legions of travellers
Fast Facts about China
- Population: 1.3 billion
- Chief of state: President Hu Jintao
- Currency: What's the Chinese yuan worth today?
- Largest dinosaur fossil site in the world? Zhoucheng, China, where more than 50 metric tons of bones have thus far been discovered beneath the town.
- Guinness World Records: most people painting each other's faces simultaneously in one location (13,413), largest bottle of cooking oil (containing 3212 litres), most couples hugging (3009 couples)
- Internet users: 135 million
- Milk beer: from Inner Mongolia, an alternative to the traditional mare's-milk wine
- Squirrel fish: whole mandarin fish deep-fried and manipulated to resemble a squirrel
- Number of chinese characters: over 56, 000
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Longhu Shan (Dragon-Tiger Mountain)
Blog: Christopher Pitts - 8 September 2010
With a catchy name like Dragon-Tiger Mountain (龙虎山), you would expect a historical Daoist site like Longhu Shan to be pretty popular. This is, after all, where the nonbeliever Marshal Hong (“you Daoists are always making up stories to make a penny off the common folk”) accidentally set free the 108 demons in the 14th-century [...]
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Beijing’s Famous Foods
Blog: To China... and Beyond! - 7 September 2010
I may not be traveling much these days (the next trip on the calendar is not till October, poor me), so for posting-inspiration today, I’m turning to my Chinese textbook. Our first lesson in “listening class” concerned the famous foods of Beijing.
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favorite world expo pavilions
Blog: The Road Forks - 7 September 2010
surprising beauty World Expo 2010 statue
