Seeking ideas for trip covering provinces I've not yet visited

I'm planning a trip to China for about six weeks in May/June this year and want to travel to the eight remaining Chinese provinces that I haven't yet visited. I lived in China for more than ten years, but left in 2010, so am a bit out of the loop with Chinese travel stuff.

I'm planning to visit (in no particular order) Chongqing, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Shandong, Jiangxi and Fujian, as well as some other places along the way. Apart from Xinjiang where there are lots of towns that I'm keen to visit, I don't have strong preferences as to where I visit in the remaining seven provinces. Would love to hear people's ideas of what is interesting/worthwhile to visit in these not-so-touristy areas!

A bit about me: I'm female, will be travelling alone, speak Mandarin, love train journeys, interested in architecture (pagodas more so than modern Chinese skyscrapers), nature and tasting all types of local cuisine.

And why do I want to visit all 31 Chinese provinces/autonomous regions/province-level-cities? Well, why not? Sometimes its fun to have these kind of travel goals!

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, Xiaoyan :-)

If you're going to go to Shandong, you HAVE to spend at least one whole day in Qufu! It's the birthplace and home town of Confucius, known there as Kong Fu Zi.

It was a little out of the way for me, but it was such a cool place. There's a tourist office near the South Gate of the Old City. Every hotel and hostel can tell you where this office is. In this office, if you can recite (in Chinese) five Confucius quotes, then they take your picture and put it on a pass that gives you free admission to the town's three sites, the Cemetery where he's buried, the Kong family mansion, and the Temple. I don't remember what they charged individually for admission, but I think it was the equivalent of like ten or fifteen USD each, so it was pretty significant. I don't speak Chinese, so it was kinda weird reciting the quotes to the lady, but fun in a weird way! The place where I stayed had five specific ones at the front desk, with directions on how to get to the office. If you already speak Mandarin, it should be piece of cake!

The high speed rail station (Qufu East), was a little far outside of town, but the K01 bus went from the station and got me close enough to the Old City that I could hop out and walk to where I was staying. You should definitely check it out!

I'm planning a trip to China for about six weeks in May/June this year and want to travel to the eight remaining Chinese provinces that I haven't yet visited. I lived in China for more than ten years, but left in 2010, so am a bit out of the loop with Chinese travel stuff.

China is a bit different now than in 2010. Street food has declined in quality massively. Sleeper trains are even harder to book. HSR makes whole new avenues open for travel. Train tickets can be booked online. Cheap chain 2 star hotels are now available in even minor cities. But if you lived there for 10 years, you should find your bearings soon enough.

I'm planning to visit (in no particular order) Chongqing, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Shandong, Jiangxi and Fujian, as well as some other places along the way. Apart from Xinjiang where there are lots of towns that I'm keen to visit, I don't have strong preferences as to where I visit in the remaining seven provinces. Would love to hear people's ideas of what is interesting/worthwhile to visit in these not-so-touristy areas!

So while you are in Xinjiang you can swing into Ningxia. Not too much to see unless the government's idea of an arab disneyland interests you.

Shandong's top attractions are Taishan, Qingdao, and Qufu. What else you make of it depends on your interests.

Chongqing is also easy. The main city and the buddhist caves at Dazu. Anything else to taste.

Jilin has some interesting areas along the North Korean border, with some of it historica(the ancient capital and pyramids of Ji'an), some of it current (ethnic autonomous region of Yanji) or mythical (Changbaishan)

Inner Mongolia is HUGE. Large parts of it are dystonian. I am not sure what to recommend, most of the best things are better in mongolia.

Most people rank Xiamen as more pleasant than Fuzhou, but I would say Quanzhou is even nicer. For me the highlight though is the Fujian Tulou roundhouses around Yongding.

Jiangxi has Wuyuan and Jingdezhen. Nanchang could be worse, I enjoyed it.

In Shandong, Qingdao is a good stop, particularly the old area and the German part of town. There's a beach there too. I also plan to go to Ninxia this year and my. Research suggests Tongxin for the mosque and just general way of life and Yinchuan for Helan Shan and the Western Xia tombs. In Inner Mongolia I found Hohhot quite different from other Chinese cities with plenty to see and a pretty good bus service. You can do trips out to very touristy grassland sites, which I didn't do. Ii is a very big province and you might want something more rural, like the far north east. In Fujian I found Xiamen has lost most of its old part to poor overdevelopment but I really liked Quanzhou, the traffics terrible and buses slow, but you can just walk to most places.

Why not do all the provinces. My own trip this year I'm mostly cherrypicking the provinces I haven't been to.

Hi,

I've been to most of China's provinces, including all those on your list. Here are some tips:

Chongqing - I don't know that much about Chongqing, I visited several years ago. I believe there's some interesting older stuff in the surrounding "province", outside of Chongqing itself. I enjoyed the Stilwell Museum in Chongqing, one of the only places in China which employs Communist-style rhetoric to produce pro-American propaganda.

Jilin - Other people on here know more about the province than me, but I would highly recommend Ji'an (which has interesting remains of an ancient Korean kingdom), and would also recommend the Korean region of the province, around Yanbian.

Inner Mongolia - Inner Mongolia is enormous. You need to narrow down a little where you want to go. The region around Hulunbu'ir is the best place I'm aware of for actual Mongolian culture.

Xinjiang - Too big, and too diverse, to even try and generalize. Note that there's now a high-speed link between Urumqi and Lanzhou.

Ningxia - Interesting little place. Yinchuan and Tongxin are the two towns I would recommend. Yinchuan has a few remnants of the little-known Xi Xia dynasty, including a nice museum, and some tombs on the outskirts of town. Tongxin has the only mosque in the province which survived the Cultural Revolution (it's Ming, and Mao Zedong stayed there once, which is why it was spared destruction).

Shandong - As someone said above, definitely go to Qufu. I put up some information on here about Qufu after I visited; do a search if you're interesting. Qingdao has some of the nicer colonial-era buildings in China, but it's a bit out of the way.

Jiangxi - I've been to a few random parts of Jiangxi. The south is best visited for Hakka houses and Communist history; the plains in the north have some nice natural attractions - glorious wetlands and Lushan (which I've never been to); the north-east is part of historic Huizhou, and is meant to have pretty, but touristy, old villages.

Fujian - Whatever you do, don't miss Quanzhou. The well-known Hakka houses of Longyan would be another obvious draw.

... want to visit all 31 Chinese provinces/autonomous regions/province-level-cities?

How many provinces?

I added up the 23 provinces, 4 districts and 5 autonomy regions ended up with 32. I could not figure out what’s the discrepancy between your 31 and my number.

Taiwan isn't actually a province of the People's Republic...

I've been to every province in China (Including Taiwan) and lived in Jilin for many years so here are my thoughts (For what they're worth).

Jilin: As others have said; eastern Jilin is the most interesting part of the province. Changchun is OK for a day or two (If you like architecture). But the east, along the North Korean border, is where the history and culture are. The HSR has made Yanji a lot more accessible (And, from it, the rest of Yanbian Korean "Autonomous" Zone) but Tonghua, the hub for visiting Ji'an and other Koguryo archeological sites, still hasn't been connected (Although the station was built 2+ years ago) so still takes time to get to.

Shandong: Has Qufu, which is really nice in the early summer, Tai'an for Taishan, Ji'nan for....errrr...hot pools? And, of course, Qingdao; for a little touch of Germany. It also has Weihai that has some lovely beaches and a little touch of England on Liugong Dao. It also has dozens of wrecks lying nearby from previous useless Chinese navies. I'm not sure if you can dive them but would be interested to find out..

Fujian: Many people like Quanzhou (I'm less enamoured). But the Fujian interior is beautiful. The Tolou are interesting, Fujian natives are friendly and Xiamen is, certainly, worth a look.

Xinjiang: You could spend all of your time in Xinjiang. Amazing place. But skip Urumchi. It's rubbish (Although many people say it has a great museum). Kasgar is a must (Before it gets totally ruined... If it hasn't already). Turpan and Hotan should also be on everyone's list.

Inner Mongolia: Is patchy. There is only so much grassland I can view before I start to get bored, There are some interesting towns (Chifeng, for example) and there are some little gems that nobody has ever heard of. But the entire province isn't really set up to cater for foreign tourists and many of the sites that a foreigner may want to visit (Xanadu, for example) aren't worth the considerable effort.

Chongqing: Good for hot food. There are 1 or 2 things to see around the town and Dazu is worth a day-trip. The place is a swine to walk around though; built, as it is, in a very steep valley.

Ningxia: Is boring. Granted! I've only ever been to Yinchuan (And Yinchuan is boring) but I don't know of anything else that may attract a visitor to Ningxia. I have tentative plans to visit Zhongwei at some stage in the not-too-distant future. But I'm just planning that visit as I've never been there and there is a convenient night-train out of Beijing. There's nothing that particularly draws me there.

Jiangxi: Is my least favourite Chinese province. Some of the little villages near Huangshan are worth a look. But Nanchang is rubbish and Jiangxi people tend to be seriously unfriendly to boot.

Your biggest problem will be linking everything in. I think, if I were you, I would start in Xinjiang, move across through Inner Mongolia and Ningxia to Jilin, then head down to Shandong, hop over to Jiangxi, Fujian and, finally, on to Chongqing.

P.S. There are 34 provinces, 'autonomous" regions and Special Administrative regions if you include Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

I spent the day in Zhongwei once, and found nothing of interest whatsoever there. The only thing in town I enjoyed was walking down to the Yellow River because, hey, there was nothing else to do in the town. There are some giant fields of solar panels in the desert outside of Zhongwei, if that's your thing. Tongxin was far, far more interesting.

P.S.OP... If you lived here for 10 years, you know not to arrive in or around the first week of May: right? And you also know not to put Xinjiang on your visa application, don't you?

Re counting fingers and toes, then nose and ..., the number seems to be 34 (including Taiwan).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_China

I've been to all 34 but it took me years and multiple visits. Guidebooks provide the highlights of each, many mentioned here. You'll need to do your own research to narrow down the choices you like and figure out an itinerary that is efficient yet flexible. IMO, six weeks may not be enough time to enjoy each area's flavor and that you'll be constantly on the move. Can you save something for another time?

I don't think six weeks is enough to pick up all these provinces which are all over the Chinese map. IMO, you'll need to be more selective. I'm also a female, travel solo, and an architect so it seems we share some of the same profile. If it was my six weeks in May/June, I would go for high contrast and do Fujian/Jiangxi (2 weeks) + Xinjiang (3 weeks) and possibly Ningxia at the end if you're heading back east. Might be able to squeeze in Chongqing as a pivot point between east and west, but I'm well-known for my hatred of that city so I wouldn't park for too long there.

That would leave Shandong, Jilin, Inner Mongolia for your next trip, and those three sort of hang together geographically and logistically. I think adding them to this trip means you need to add another 4 weeks to the six you already have.

Dear All - thank you / xiexie so much for all your fabulous suggestions! It looks like I'm working in Africa for a little longer than expected this year, so this trip might need to be postponed, which means I should be able to take on a lo of the advice received above and spend longer in China to cover all the places I'm "missing".

Thanks again, all -- Xiaoyan

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