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CHINA
China
From the Terracotta Army and the Forbidden City to Jiangnan gardens and the Tibetan plateau, discover China along six themes: ancient capitals, imperial architecture, water towns, ethnic frontiers, city life and landscapes.
City guides
Start with a city
Every city guide has a timeline, stories of local figures, must-see sights, festivals and local etiquette.
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西安 · 古称长安
Xi'an
4 places
Chang'an, a thousand-year capital: the Terracotta Army, the Wild Goose Pagoda and six-hundred-year-old walls
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北京 Beijing
Beijing
4 places
Eight centuries as an imperial capital: the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace
南京 · 古称金陵
Nanjing
3 places
Splendour of the Six Dynasties and the founding of the Ming: Zhong Mountain, the Qinhuai and the Jiangnan Examination Hall
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苏州 · 古称姑苏
Suzhou
1 places
Cradle of Wu culture: gardens, canals and Kunqu opera
杭州 · 南宋称临安
Hangzhou
3 places
Capital of the Southern Song and West Lake: the lake of Bai Juyi, Su Dongpo and Lady White Snake
ལྷ་ས། · 拉萨
Lhasa
2 places
'Place of the Gods': the Potala Palace, the Jokhang and the Barkhor circuit
Confucius Temple and the Qinhuai River, Nanjing
The Jiangnan Examination Hall bears witness to a thousand years of imperial exams, and the Qinhuai lantern festival carries on Nanjing's eleganc…
Hongcun
A Huizhou merchant village laid out in the shape of an ox, with horse-head walls reflected in South Lake and Moon Pond — a location for Crouchin…
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Wuzhen Xizha
A fully preserved Jiangnan water-town district: an evening in Xizha and Mao Dun's former home explain the modern transformation of Jiangnan mark…
West Lake, Hangzhou
A lake layered with Bai Juyi, Su Dongpo and the legend of Xu Xian and Lady White Snake — an open-air museum of Chinese literati aesthetics.
Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou
Ming official Wang Xianchen's 'government of a humble man': one garden distils the literati philosophy of 'seeing the large in the small'.