Your first stop before China

The imperial capital — Forbidden City, Great Wall, and the country’s best subway.

Art deco riverfront, 1930s plane trees, and the world’s largest metro network.

The eastern end of the Silk Road and the Terracotta Army.

Pandas, teahouses and the food capital of the southwest.

A vertical city of 32 million where the metro runs through apartment blocks.

Karst peaks and the Li River — the landscape on the ¥20 note.

The sandstone pillars that inspired Avatar’s floating mountains.

West Lake, tea terraces and the headquarters of Alipay.

Cantonese food, 2,200 years of trade, and the Canton Fair.

A fishing village in 1980, a 17-million-person tech city today.

Ice city — Russian architecture, minus-25 winters, and an ice festival built from the Songhua River.

China’s tropical south — the only place to swim in January.