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Discover Places to Go and Things to Do
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China
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China (中国 Zhōngguó), formally known as the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国 Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó) is a country in Eastern Asia about the same size as the United States of America and with the world's largest population.
With coasts on the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, it borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam to the South; Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to the West; Russia and Mongolia to the North and North Korea to the East.
CitiesChina has many large and famous cities. Below is a list of the nine most important to travelers. Other cities are listed under their specific regional section.
Beijing - capital city, cultural center and host of the 2008 OlympicsGuangzhou - one of China's most prosperous and liberal cities.Guilin - popular destination for both Chinese and foreign tourists, sensational mountain/river sceneryHangzhou - former capital, famously beautiful city, major center for the silk industryKunming - capital of Yunnan, gateway to the villages of the ethnic minoritiesNanjing - a former capital with many historic relicsShanghai - China's largest city, famous for its riverside scenery.
With coasts on the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, it borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam to the South; Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to the West; Russia and Mongolia to the North and North Korea to the East.
CitiesChina has many large and famous cities. Below is a list of the nine most important to travelers. Other cities are listed under their specific regional section.
Beijing - capital city, cultural center and host of the 2008 OlympicsGuangzhou - one of China's most prosperous and liberal cities.Guilin - popular destination for both Chinese and foreign tourists, sensational mountain/river sceneryHangzhou - former capital, famously beautiful city, major center for the silk industryKunming - capital of Yunnan, gateway to the villages of the ethnic minoritiesNanjing - a former capital with many historic relicsShanghai - China's largest city, famous for its riverside scenery. Major commercial center; many shopping opportunities Suzhou - "Venice of the East", old city, famous for canals and gardensXi'an - a former capital, terminus of the ancient Silk Road, home of the terracotta warriors.
An often-quoted poem claims "Heaven has paradise. Earth has Hangzhou and Suzhou".
Many cities have been capitals of China at various times. See Dynasties_and_capitals below for a list.Other destinationsSome of the most famous tourist attractions in China are:
Great Wall of ChinaTibetSilk RoadHainan island, tropical paradise
China has dozens of UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Sacred sitesFor sacred mountains, see the next section.
Several sites in China have famous Buddhist art:
the 1,500-year-old Yungang Grottoes near Datong in sichuan Province. There are more than 51,000 Buddhist carvings in the recesses and caves that cover the mountain-sides in the Yangang Valley.the Mogao Caves, near Dunhuang in Gansu province, with both art and manuscripts, some dating back to the 4th centuryDazu Rock Carvings near Chongqing, date from the 7-13th century the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang, 5th to 10th century
MountainsChina (including Tibet) is home to many sacred mountains.
The Five Great Mountains (五岳 wǔyuè), associated with Taoism:
Mount Tai, Shandong Province (1,545 meters) Mount Hua, Shaanxi Province (1,997 meters) Mount Heng (Hunan), Hunan Province (1,290 meters) Mount Heng (Shanxi), Shanxi Province (2,017 meters) Mount Song, Henan Province (1,494 meters)
The Four Sacred Mountains (四大佛教名山 sìdà fójiào míngshān), associated with Buddhism:
Mount Emei, Sichuan Province (3,099 meters) Mount Jiuhua, Anhui Province (1,342 meters) Mount Putuo, Zhejiang Province (297 meters, an island) Mount Wutai, Shanxi Province (3,058 meters)
The three main sacred mountains of Tibetan Buddhism:
Mount Kailash, known as Gang Rinpoche in Tibetan, Tibet (5,656 meters), also visited by Hindu pilgrims Kawa Karpo Amnye Machen
There are also several other well-known mountains. In China, many mountains have temples, even if they are not especially sacred sites:
Mount Qingcheng, Sichuan Province Mount Longhu, Jiangxi Province Mount Lao, Shandong Province Mount Wuyi, Fujian Province, a major tourist/scenic site Mount Everest, on the Tibet/Nepal border, world's highest mountain Mount Huang (Yellow Mountain), in Anhui province, with scenery and temples Mount Wudang, near Danjiangkou in Hubei, famous for kung fu
ItinerariesSome itineraries cover trips that are entirely within China:
A week near Hong KongAlong the Yangtze riverAlong the Yellow riverAlong the grand canalOverland Kunming to Hong KongYunnan tourist trailOverland to TibetLong MarchOthers are partly in China:
Europe to South Asia over landOverland from Singapore to ShanghaiSilk Road, ancient caravan route from China to EuropeKarakoram Highway, Western China to Pakistan through the HimalayasOn the trail of Marco PoloBackgroundHistoryThe first civilizations in China arose in the Yangtse and Yellow river valleys at about the same time as Mesopotamia, Egypt and India developed their first civilizations.
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences. Paper and gunpowder, for example, are Chinese inventions and Chinese developments in astronomy, medicine and other fields were extensive.
China also explored the world and traded extensively with other nations. By the 5th-6th centuries AD, voyages to India and the Arab countries were routine. In the 15th century the Ming Dynasty fleets under Admiral Zheng He reached as far as Somalia and Kenya and perhaps points further south on Africa's east coast. There is some evidence of Chinese voyages to Australia and the Americas as well. However, China has always been inward-looking. China is the "middle kingdom". The Emperor did not receive ambassadors, only tribute bearers. Around 1425, China turned inward with a vengeance. Records of the great trading voyages were destroyed and the ships allowed to rot.
When Western traders arrived in the 16th century, China was initially hostile to them. The emperor allowed trade only at Canton (Guangzhou) and imposed a range of restrictions through the Cohong monopoly system. The first Western base was Portugal's colony Macau, near Canton.
By the 19th century, various Western powers had taken various pieces of China and trade was well established. Westerners tended to see China as corrupt and decadent, Chinese to see the West as greedy and contemptible. Both were at least partly right.
Several wars were fought in China in that century.
Two Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860) pitted China against Western powers. China quickly lost both wars.After the first one, Britain got Hong Kong island, and five "treaty ports" - Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shanghai and Ningbo - were opened to Western tradeAfter the second, inland cities such as Nanjing and Wuhan were opened to trade and the Qing government ceded the Kowloon Peninsula north of Hong Kong island to Britain. The Tai Ping Rebellion (1851-1864) was led by a madman claiming to be Christ's younger brother. This was one of the bloodiest wars ever fought; only World War II killed more people. In 1895, China lost the Sino-Japanese war and ceded Taiwan to Japan.
The 20th century brought revolution. The empire was overthrown in 1911 and Sun Yat Sen, a doctor, nationalist, socialist and democrat, became president.
After the 1895 war Japan continued its imperial expansion in East Asia, invaded Manchuria in 1931 and conquered much of eastern China by the late 30s. China had other problems as well, such as civil unrest and major famines. In 1937, the Kuomintang and Communists signed a tenuous agreement to form a united front against Japan. However the agreement largely broke down by 1940-41 and the Communists under Mao Zedong and the Kuomintang (the party Sun Yat Sen founded) under Chiang Kai Shek openly fought each other when they might better have been fighting the Japanese. Throughout the period from 1911 to 1949 various warlords and bandits fought whoever they felt like in order to preserve their local power.
After World War II, outright civil war broke out. More Chinese were killed in this than in resisting Japan. By 1949, the Communists had won and the Kuomintang armies, government and many supporters fled to Taiwan which had been returned to Chinese control in 1945.
The Communist government imposed strict controls over everyday life; basically, the Party ran everything. They also indulged in various experiments such as the Great Leap Forward, intended to industrialise China quickly, and the Cultural Revolution, aimed at changing everything by discipline and attention to Mao Zedong Thought. These failed at disastrous cost.
Mao Zedong died in 1976 and was replaced by his appointed successor Hua Guofeng. A series of failed economic policies weakened Hua's position in the Party leadership and enabled Deng Xiaoping's rise. After 1978, Deng gradually introduced market-oriented reforms and decentralized economic decision making; economic output quadrupled by 2000. Political controls remain tight even though economic controls continue to be relaxed. All the same, as China complies with the terms of its entry into the World Trade Organization, more and more reforms bring China closer to the West in terms of public policy. October 2007 saw the official comeback of private property, a clear step away from hardcore communism.
The current president Hu Jintao has promised to rein in China's economic growth and channel investment and prosperity into China's hinterlands which have been largely left behind in the economic boom since 1978. Much of this policy has involved tax relief to the peasantry and infrastructure development to encourage investment in underdeveloped areas.
Dynasties and capitalsMany cites have been capitals of China, or of various smaller states in periods when China was split up. Beijing and Nanjing mean Northern capital and Southern capital respectively; each has been the capital several times.
The earliest dynasties - the semi-legendary Xia and the Shang (1700 BC to 1027 BC) - ruled only the Yellow River valley and had their capital near Anyang in Henan. The Zhou Dynasty, 1027-221 BC, had their first capital at Hao near modern Xi'an. After a military defeat in 771 BC, they continued as the Eastern Zhou with capital Luoyang. The Qin Dynasty, 221-206 BC, were the first to unite an area anything like all of China. Their capital was at Xianyang. Our word "China" probably comes from the Wade-Giles romanisation Ch'in. The Han Dynasty, 206 BC to 220 AD, had its capitals at Xi'an (Western Han) and Luoyang (Eastern Han). This was the period of the first Silk Road trade. Chinese still use Han as the name of their largest ethnic group. Then for a few hundred years, 220-618, China was not united. Capitals of various important states included Luoyang, Nanjing and Suzhou. The Tang Dynasty, 618-907, had its capitals at Xi'an and Luoyang. The Song dynasty, 979-1279, had its capital at Kaifeng, and later, as the Southern Soong, in Hangzhou. Marco Polo, who was in Hangzhou a few years after the Mongols conquered the Song, describes it as one of the richest and most beautiful cities on Earth. The Yuan (Mongol) dynasty, 1279-1368, used the area that is now Beijing as their capital. Polo mentions it under the name Canbulac, the Khan's camp. The Ming dynasty, 1368-1644, initially had Nanjing as their capital then moved the capital to Beijing. They built most of the famous buildings in Beijing - Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and so on.The Qing (Manchu) dynasty, 1644-1911, used Beijing as the capital of China but they had their own Manchu capital at Shenyang.The Republic of China, who ruled China 1911-1949, moved the capital back to Nanjing. Today they control only Taiwan, and Taipei is their "temporary capital". During the Second World War, Chongqing was also a temporary capital. Beijing has been the capital of China since the Communist victory in the civil war, 1949.
PeopleChina is a very diverse place with large variations in culture, language, customs, and economic levels. The economic landscape is particularly diverse. The major cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai are rich and modern. However, more than half the population, some 800 million rural residents, still live as peasants, farming with manual labour or draft animals. Many of these men and women live in severe poverty. A Chinese government estimate as of 2005 had 90 million living on under ¥ 924 ($112 US) a year; 26 million were under the official poverty line, ¥ 668 ($81 US) a year.
China has recently experienced a huge economic explosion, and many rural residents (over 200 million by some estimates) have moved to the cities to become migrant workers, or sometimes businessmen. This has created a two-tier social structure in most cities; the established urban dwellers, and people from rural areas, the latter group often face discrimination and mistreatment from the former.
Some foreigners who are not familiar with Chinese customs and habits may find certain Chinese manners to be unrefined, coarse or inappropriate. However, these behaviors are usually benign in nature. The lesson is this: keep an open mind; if you do this, you'll find that people tend to be warm and friendly.
Behaviors that foreigners may find unrefined, coarse or inappropriate include:
Spitting: in the street, shops, supermarkets, hotel lobbies, hallways, or even in restaurants and hospitals. Traditional Chinese medical thought believes that it is unhealthy to swallow phlegm.Calling out "hello" or "laowai": Numerous calls of "hello" just about anywhere outside of the big cities (and even there, occasionally) or lǎowài (老外) literally means "old (and thus respected) outsider", a colloquial term for "foreigner"; the more formal term is wàiguórén (外国人). Calls of "laowai" are ubiquitous outside of the big cities (and even there, occasionally); these calls will come from just about anyone, of any age, and can occur many times in any given day. Staring: common through most of the country. The staring usually originates out of sheer curiosity, almost never out of hostility. Loud conversations, discussions or public arguments: These are very common and sometimes take place at inappropriate times and/or at inappropriate places. Full-blown fights involving physical violence are less common but do occur with a fair degree of frequency. If you witness such an event, do not get involved.Pushing, shoving and/or jumping queues: this often occurs anywhere where there are queues, particularly at train stations.General disregard of local and/or national laws especially "No Smoking" signs.
These are so ubiquitous that foreigners are better off trying to ignore them, with the possible exception of someone getting in front of you in a queue (unless the person has a very legitimate reason to do so).
Some long-time foreign residents say that over the past few years this have been getting considerably worse in many major cities, Chengdu being a glaring example. This is almost certainly due to an even larger influx of rural people to the larger cities.
ClimateThe climate is also extremely diverse, from tropical in the South to subarctic in the North. Hainan Island is roughly at the latitude of Jamaica while Harbin, one of the largest cites in the North, is at the latitude of Montreal.
There is also a wide range of terrain with mostly mountains, high plateaus, and deserts in west; while plains, deltas, and hills can be found in the east. On the border between Tibet and Nepal lies Mount Everest, at 8,850 m, being the highest point on earth. While the Turpan depression, in northwest China has the lowest point of the country, at 154 m below sea level. This is also the second lowest point on land in the world, after the Dead Sea in Israel.
HolidaysChina is a huge country with endless travel opportunities. However, during holidays, tickets of any kind are hard to come by and the rates for hotel rooms skyrocket. It can be quite difficult to find a seat of any kind, especially for those traveling from remote western China to the east coast or in the opposite direction.
China has three major annual holidays:
National Day, October 1 Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (春节 chūnjié), late January to mid February Labour Day (May Day), May 1
These aren't one-day holidays. Workers get at least a week or two off for Chinese New Year; students get four to six weeks. Both groups get about a week for National Day and Labour Day.
Also, during early July millions of university students go home and in late August they return to school, jamming transportation options, especially between the east coast and the western provinces of Sichuan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
At these times, traveling should be planned well in advance or even reconsidered all together. Tens of millions of migrant workers return home and millions of other Chinese travel. Any mode of transportation is crowded and it may be necessary to book well in advance. Also various travel services such as hotels raise their prices for the high season.
Spring Festival is especially busy. Not only is it the longest holiday, it is also a traditional time to visit family, much as Christmas is in the West. More or less all the university students (20-odd million of them!) go home, and more or less all the migrant workers who have left their farms and villages for better pay in the cities go home. This is often the only chance they have. Everyone wants to go home, and China has a lot of "everyone"!
A complete list of Chinese festivals would be very long, since many areas or ethnic groups have their own local ones. See listings for individual towns for details. Here is a list of some of the nationally important ones not mentioned above:
Lantern Festival, 15th day of the 1st lunar month, just after Chinese New Year, usually in February or March. In some cities, such as Quanzhou, this is a big festival with elaborate lanterns all over town.Qingming Festival, about April 4-6, is called "grave sweeping day" in English. Cemeteries are crowded with people who came to sweep tombs and offer sacrifices. Traffic on the way to the cemeteries becomes extremely jammed. Dragon Boat Festival, falls on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, usually in June. Boat races are a traditional part of it.Double Seventh Festival, the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, usually August, is a festival of romance, sort of a Chinese Valentine's Day. Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Cake Festival, the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually in October. People meet outside, putting food on tables and looking up at the sky while talking about life.Double Ninth Festival or Chongyang Festival, 9th day of the 9th lunar month, usually in October.Winter Solstice Festival, December 22 or 23.
BooksBelow are a few suggested non-guidebooks, either about China, or by Chinese writers.
The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo - the Venetian traveller's stories in the Middle Kingdom. See our article: On the trail of Marco Polo. The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang (ISBN 0140277447) - the forgotten Holocaust in WWII. Winter Stars by Beatrice Lao (ISBN 988979991X) - a collection of poems born between the Alps and the Tyrrhenian. Wild Swans by Jung Chang (ISBN 0007176155) - a biography of three generations, from the warlord days to the end of Mao's era, illustrating life under China's version of nationalism and communism. Note: banned in China. The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence - Chinese history since 1644. The Sextants of Beijing by Joanna Waley-Cohen - a book that summarizes recent thinking on how China was much more open and less xenophobic than often assumed. 1421, The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies (ISBN 0553815229 is a well known, but also well contested account of China's alleged efforts to explore and map the entire world.. 1587, A Year of No Significance by Ray Huang describes a uneventful year in the history of Ming Dynasty China
From Wikitravel, the free encyclopedia
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By PeterNoon90
2 days
This 2-Day trip includes two interesting stops (besides the regular good stuff :>)...the Boston Billiard Club and Chinatown. A variation on the standard "Boston Weekend".
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By AcrossTheWaters
4 days
A 4-Day family vacation to Hong Kong & the Macau region, including the new Disneyland!
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14 people reviewed China
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Top
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at 11:30AM July 10, 2008
i would love to visit china to do a little sight seeing and research
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at 7:02PM May 28, 2008
Pekin, la grande muraille, Xian... Les classiques quoi! Interressant mais je n'ai pas aime l'atmosphere dans les villes... Quelle froideur par rapport au reste de l'Asie
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at 3:00PM September 10, 2008
Can I get a visa for 6-12 months? I think it will take that long for me to see and experience every thing I want to...well...see and experience.
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at 3:30PM July 26, 2008
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at 5:40AM June 17, 2008
mm
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at 7:56AM May 29, 2008
Cheapest trip I have ever taken. I know I'm chinese but didn't like it there at all. Did tour and local attractions. Went to Putho-Sun island. Puked.
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at 5:45AM May 29, 2008
I would love to see the architecture and the famouse wall of china...
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at 2:21AM May 29, 2008
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at 12:47AM May 29, 2008
I wanna go.
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at 12:34AM May 29, 2008
It was fun a lot a lot of people and very hot
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at 1:29AM May 28, 2008
Been there twice and enjoyed it immensely. The Great Wall, Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Guilin, Chengdu, Changsha and the Yangtze were awesome in person. Overwhelmed by the history and people.
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at 8:32PM May 27, 2008
Spend some time visiting out of the way places to experience minority cultures - Hui Muslim, Uyghur, Tibetans. Xiahe and Kashgar are not to be missed.
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at 6:22PM May 27, 2008
10 days on a guided tour is not enough, but it is a good start.
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at 2:42AM May 29, 2008
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