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China guides

China guides

Country-level guides: when to go, where to go first, visas and transit, and how the high-speed network fits together.

Guide · 12 min read Things to Do in Xi’an The Terracotta Army gets top billing and the rest of Xi'an gets treated as filler. That's backwards — the city wall, the free museum…
Itinerary · 8 min read Xi’an Itinerary: 4 Days, With Huashan Most Xi'an itineraries either skip Huashan or wedge it into a day that was already full. Four days fixes that — as long as…
Itinerary · 9 min read Xi’an Itinerary: 3 Days, Stop by Stop Three days is enough for Xi'an if you sequence it right: the site that rewards an early arrival on day one, the site that…
Route · 4 min read The Southern China Route: Pillars, Karst and Out Through Hong Kong Zhangjiajie to Yangshuo to Hong Kong in fourteen days: two of China's strangest landscapes, one awkward transfer in the middle, and the cleanest exit…
Route · 4 min read The Western China Route: Xi’an, Chengdu, Chongqing in Ten Days Three cities, two train legs, no flights. The route that skips Beijing and Shanghai entirely — and why it is a better second trip…
Guide · 5 min read China Travel Guide: The Six Decisions That Shape the Trip Not a list of highlights. The six things you decide before booking anything — entry, timing, length, how you move, what it costs, and…
Itinerary · 4 min read Three Weeks in China: The Route That Uses the Extra Week Properly Twenty-one days is not fourteen days with more cities. It is the point at which the karst country stops competing with the classics and…
Practical · 5 min read Long-Distance Trains in China: Which Letter, Which Bunk, and When to Fly Instead The letter in front of the train number decides your day. Six classes of bunk, what each costs, and the honest rule for when…
Decision · 4 min read Is Guilin Worth Visiting? The Question Is Slightly Wrong Guilin the city and Guilin the region get the same name and deserve different answers. One is a transport hub with a nice park.…
Food · 5 min read What to Eat in Guangxi: Rice Noodles, Beer Fish, and a Cuisine That Borrows Guangxi cooking takes lightness from Canton, sourness from Hunan and heat from Sichuan, and the result is its own thing. Breakfast noodles, the fish…
Connection · 4 min read Guilin to Guangzhou by Train: The Exit Route, and On to Hong Kong Two and a half hours to Guangzhou on a train every fifteen minutes, then forty-seven minutes to Hong Kong with immigration done in one…
Things to do · 5 min read Things to Do in Yangshuo: Priced, and Ranked by What They Actually Give You A bamboo raft is CNY 320 for two, a hill is CNY 60, and the best thing here costs nothing but a bicycle. Eight…