Explore China
Cities for every pace.
Compare practical essentials first, then open a city for neighbourhoods, arrival notes and local context.
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South China桂林Guilin
· 3–4 days
The landscape on the twenty-yuan note. Use Guilin city as the gateway, drift down the river, and stay in the countryside around Yangshuo.
South China广州Guangzhou
· 2–3 days
Guangzhou is Canton: the old trading port at the head of the Pearl River delta, with a food culture that starts at dawn. Skip the skyline, stay in the old west of the city, and eat.
South China阳朔Yangshuo
· 3–4 days
Yangshuo is the countryside south of Guilin where the karst peaks stand in rice fields and every road is worth cycling. The town is noisy; the villages along the Yulong River, ten minutes away, are the slowest days in China.
South China深圳Shenzhen
· 2–2 days
Shenzhen was a county of villages and oyster beds until the zone was drawn in 1980; it now holds eighteen million people, almost none of them born here. Give it two days: one for the coast and the old walled towns the city grew around, one for markets, art and the crossing to Hong Kong.