Still stuns … The Great Wall.Credit: iStock
I first went to China in 1989 to teach English at Sichuan University for three years, and have returned numerous times since. Yet although I’ve visited many places, I have barely seen a fraction of what this immense country has to offer. I feel most other travellers are missing even more, which is a pity.
The Great Wall, Forbidden City and Terracotta Warriors are the big sights in China we can all name. But what other cultural sights come to mind? How many cities? And although China has 23 provinces, most people can name only a few.
China is among the world’s great destinations and yet is largely unknown. Most of us only have the haziest ideas about its dynasties and inventions, major landscapes, outstanding museums and rich variety of cuisines.
For a nation with such historical depth, almost one fifth of the world’s population and such a prominent impact on the world economy and politics, we should be paying more attention.
It’s time to take a new look at China, where many of us haven’t been since before the pandemic, if at all.
The interest is certainly there. In pre-pandemic 2019, more than 600,000 Australians visited China annually. Then COVID-19, trade tensions and the geopolitics of the South China Sea understandably deterred many potential visitors.
China also battles an increasingly unfavourable media image, digital payment systems challenging to foreigners, and competition from nations such as Japan where a weak yen has provoked a tourism boom. It doesn’t help that China’s national, provincial and city tourism websites are woefully inadequate.
However, the Chinese government is keen for foreign tourism to bolster its sluggish economy and consumer spending.
One welcome move forward was the announcement in June 2024 that Australian tourists could visit for 15 days without a visa.
According to Chinese-owned Trip.com, one of the world’s largest travel-service providers, searches related to China tourism jumped 80 per cent after that move, which has since been extended to 30 days.
Shanghai is a raucous trade city noted for its art deco Bund or river promenade.Credit: iStock
Australian Bureau of Statistics data for 2024 showed the number of Australian residents visiting China surged 124 per cent in the 12 months up to October, to 561,000, just 7 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
Simon Bell, managing director for Australia at Wendy Wu Tours, says its visitor numbers to China rose 250 per cent in the past year, with particular demand for unique travel experiences and solo travel; the company has six dedicated solo itineraries in 2025 and 2026.
“China is truly ready for its next chapter,” says Bell. “The offering is broader than ever, the accessibility is unparalleled, and there’s a palpable excitement among Australians eager to explore.”
True, the Australian government’s Smart Traveller (smartraveller.gov.au) recommends a high degree of caution in China, but the same warning level applies to nations such as Germany, Indonesia and the United Kingdom that we wouldn’t hesitate to visit.
Visitors will find the Chinese friendly and helpful, and should have few worries about general safety. Those used to the relentless negativity about China will be surprised to encounter first-class tourism facilities and transport systems, surging progress and well-run cities. The Chinese are optimistic, forward-thinking and rightly proud of their achievements.
You have every reason to visit this magnificent destination. If you’ve been before, return and see how much it has moved on. You’ll be gratified at the rich variety of experiences that China offers.
Who flies there?
Although Qantas pulled its only direct flight to China between Sydney and Shanghai in mid-2024, last year saw a return to pre-pandemic flight frequencies.
Consequently, the cost of flights has dropped 30 per cent compared to 2023, according to Trip.com.You can now bag off-season return flights for as little as $500.
On board Juneyao Air, one of nine Chinese carriers now offering some 130 flights weekly between Australia and China.
New route launches last year delivered more options, such as Melbourne to Hangzhou and Sydney to Beijing Daxing, the capital’s newer airport. Juneyao Air (juneyaoair.com) launched its first Australia routes from Shanghai to Melbourne and Sydney.
Nine Chinese carriers now offer some 130 flights weekly between Australia and China, among them Air China (airchina.com.au), China Eastern (ceair.com), China Southern (csair.com), Sichuan Airlines (sichuanair.com) and Xiamen Airlines (xiamenair.com).
Hesitant travellers or those who like hassle-free holidays would be best visiting China on an escorted journey, since independent travellers face language and digital-technology challenges.
“Package tours remain a perennial favourite for first timers,” says Bell. “They’re fantastic value, the hard work is done for you, and there’s a real peace of mind in having an expert-led experience, especially in a country as vast and diverse as China.”
Among many tour operators are Abercrombie & Kent (abercrombiekent.com), CBT Holidays (cbtholidays.com.au), G Adventures (gadventures.com), Globus (globus.com.au), GW Tours (gwtours.com.au), Inspiring Vacations (inspiringvacations.com), Intrepid Travel (intrepidtravel.com), Luxury Escapes (luxuryescapes.com), MW Tours (mwtours.com.au), On the Go Tours (onthegotours.com), Trafalgar (trafalgar.com) and Wendy Wu Tours (wendywutours.com.au).
Numerous international river-cruise companies operate on the Yangtze River, including Avalon Waterways (avalonwaterways.com.au), Sanctuary Retreats (abercrombiekent.com), Tauck (tauck.com.au), Uniworld (uniworld.com) and Victoria Cruise Lines (victoriacruiselines.com).
Viking Cruises (vikingrivercruises.com.au) also recently dedicated an ocean ship to new China itineraries that visit Beijing, Shanghai and unusual ports such as Pingtan and Zhoushan. Strong demand has seen it add new itineraries in 2025.
The classic sights
If you haven’t visited China before, you’ll want to tick off the top cultural and scenic destinations.
Beijing is the most-visited city thanks to its trio of imperial complexes: the Forbidden City, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven, plus the most easily accessible parts of the Great Wall to the north.
Avoid crowded Badaling and head to the more distant Simatai and Jiankou sections of the Great Wall instead.
Beijing has many other attractions such as the historical Back Lakes district, eye-popping contemporary architecture, the avant-garde 798 Art District, and atmospheric Yonghe Temple, China’s largest lamasery.
Water town near Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China.Credit: Getty Images
While Beijing is China’s buttoned-up political power centre, Shanghai is a raucous trade city noted for its art deco Bund or river promenade. Hip South Bund has a string of fashionable international restaurants, West Bund an arts district.
Hit the French Concession for historic ambience, Xintaindi for nightlife, and Nanjing and more elegant Huaihai roads for shopping.
Two deservedly popular destinations close to Shanghai are Hangzhou, which has a fine setting on pavilion-studded West Lake and is surrounded by tea plantations, and Suzhou, an ancient canal town with World Heritage-listed classical gardens. The Museum of Suzhou has superb art collections.
The final major cultural destination is Xi’an. Its Terracotta Warriors guard the 2000-year-old mausoleum of the first Qin emperor.
Enduring attraction ... the Terracotta Warriors. Credit: iStockphoto
China’s ancient capital also has impressive city walls and towers, an atmospheric old quarter and the distinctive, lip-smacking cuisine – such as lamb dumplings and spare ribs – of its Moslem Hui minority.
Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, is increasingly popular, not so much for its cultural sights but for its laid-back lifestyle, parks, teahouses and famously spicy cuisine. Chengdu Research Base is where most visitors to China encounter giant pandas.
Waterfall at Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan.Credit: Getty Images
Jiuzhaigou National Park, 400 kilometres north of Chengdu, is a China tour staple for its forest valleys embedded with stunningly coloured lakes.
Since a 2017 earthquake it has been greatly enhanced, with many attractions upgraded and a new Jiawuhai Giant Panda Conservation and Research Park. Swanky new hotels include Conrad Jiuzhaigou and a Ritz-Carlton Reserve.
Other major scenic attractions are Huangshan or Yellow Mountain in eastern China, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River in west-central China, and Guilin and the Li River in southwest China.
Cormorant fisherman getting ready for work on the Li River, near Xingping Town, Guangxi province.Credit: Getty Images
The latter has magical landscapes of humped karst mountains and rice fields such as you might see in scroll paintings.
The 80-kilometre river journey from Guilin to Yangshuo is a classic, the scenery getting ever better as you journey onwards.
Statues atop Mount Emei, Sichuan.Credit: Getty Images
What’s new?
Although China’s long cultural history is usually the lure, you might find yourself equally enthralled by contemporary life in the world’s fastest-changing nation.
Everything in China is new, all the time. Even returning expats are regularly baffled by new technologies, the latest vocabulary and new neighbourhoods in once-familiar hometowns.
Covering all that’s new in tourism is impossible. In October 2024 at a single tourism fair in Hubei Province, contracts worth CNY51 billion ($11 billion) were signed for 50 cultural tourism projects as Hubei aims to establish itself as a world-class tourism destination.
The province recently launched five new tourist routes through destinations such as the Shennongjia mountains, a World Heritage site thanks to its forest biodiversity.
Many attractions launched during or after the pandemic will be new to overseas visitors, ranging from theme park Universal Beijing Resort to Shanghai Astronomy Museum, which incorporates the world’s largest planetarium.
Shanghai astronomy museum.Credit: Getty Images
A striking Chapel of Sound open-air concert hall now sits beneath the Great Wall at Chengde.
Outside Nanjing, a former quarry and cement factory has been turned into Jiangsu Garden Expo Park, a 3.5-square-kilometre sprawl of classical-style Chinese gardens and other horticultural attractions.
A major achievement has been the refurbishment and reconnection of the entire Grand Canal, a 2500-year-old construction that runs 1782 kilometres between Beijing and Hangzhou.
The Hangzhou section has the best scenery, while the picturesque section through Jiangsu Province links lakes and historic water towns such as Xuzhou and Yangzhou.
The expansion of China’s high-speed railway network continues apace, with more than 1000 new kilometres put into operation in 2024, including a new route in Anhui Province that connects to several other lines in the Yangtze River Delta, a key tourist area.
With 46,000 kilometres of high-speed rail now crisscrossing China, travelling by train rather than plane is the way to get around. You can do the 1300 kilometres between Beijing and Shanghai in four hours, 48 minutes, which is faster – and more scenic – than air travel, considering check-in and security waits and airport locations.
Bullet trains in Beijing.Credit: Getty Images
You have no shortage of accommodation options, with 998 new hotels opening in 2024 and a further 3853 under construction, particularly at the upscale end. Many are concentrated in tourist cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xi’an and Chengdu.
Hilton opened its 700th hotel in China in August 2024 and is aiming at 100 new hotels a year. Other notable new properties include Mandarin Oriental Qianmen in Beijing, which comprises 42 courtyard houses, and Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou.
Mandarin Oriental Qianmen Beijing.
But it isn’t all about international brands: the Chinese boutique-hotel sector is booming, offering abundant choice, and often at lower prices than their international counterparts. Go local and you’ll save on accommodation costs.
Where to visit next
Second-tier cities, historical towns and even entire mountain ranges and provinces you’ve never heard of will allow you to enjoy a different, more nuanced China.
Improved infrastructure has opened up wilderness areas, and interest in national parks is booming. Maria Parisi, marketing director for Oceania at Trafalgar Tours, says 2024 saw a surge in searches for mountain and lake experiences in China, making them destinations to watch in 2025 – like Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, which now appears regularly on tour itineraries.
Avatar Hallelujah mountain in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.Credit: Getty Images
Its striking landscapes inspired the 2009 film Avatar. Expect spectacular pine-clad rock outcrops, teetering pavilions and gurgling streams.
Its latest addition is the just-opened Tianti (Sky Ladder) linking one cliff to another via cables and suspended footrests, like a treetop rope course on steroids.
Every other week, China launches another hair-raising glass or similar walkway. Terrified visitors have become a feature of YouTube.
Hair-raising… glass sky walk at Tianmenshan Tianmen Mountain.Credit: Getty Images
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which features desert and steppe landscapes, has launched many tourism initiatives over the past few years, from electronic festivals to rally racing.
It’s an up-and-coming wine region noted for Bordeaux-style reds that have bagged international awards.
Ningxia is also positioning itself as a stargazing centre with the likes of the Desert Star Hotel bringing sci-fi architecture and glamping to the Tengger Desert.
Luxury lodges are emerging all over remote China, notably the lovely Songtsam properties in Tibet and Yunnan.
Mountainous Yunnan Province has China’s best climate. Capital Kunming is perpetually sunny and surrounded by a temple-dotted lake, forests and hills.
Head northwest for stays at lovely Dali and Lijiang, both ancient trading towns with ethnic minorities and superb scenery.
The Upper Yangtze crashes through Tiger-Leaping Gorge, whose 2000-metre cliffs make it one of the world’s deepest canyons.
You’d do well to explore more of Sichuan Province to the north, too. Its western half lies in Himalayan foothills and eastern half on lush subtropical plains.
Emei is one of China’s best Buddhist mountains, which takes two or three days to hike; nearby market town Leshan has a colossal, seated Buddha gazing over the Minjiang River.
Culture-wise, Henan Province is hard to beat. It takes you back to early Chinese civilisation, nourished by the Yellow River.
Former capitals such as Luoyang and Kaifeng are history-dense and delightful. Longmen Caves provide a stunning array of Buddhist sculpture, and Shaolin Monastery is famous for kung-fu monks.
Kung-fu monk warrior in Shaolin Temple.Credit: Getty Images
All this is a mere start. You can take in the world’s biggest ice festival in Harbin, spot elusive pandas in the rugged Qinling Mountains, or trace the Silk Road across western China, where Wendy Wu Tours is introducing a luxury train journey in late 2025.
Smaller cities such as Tianjin (charming neighbourhoods), Xiamen (historical port city), Changsha (nightlife and street food) and much-maligned Wuhan (great museums) are trending.
Discover the curious German heritage of concession port and beer producer Qingdao, or China’s best-preserved Qing-Dynasty town Pingyao, encased in six kilometres of defensive walls.
Haihe Jinwan Square in Tianjin, China.Credit: Getty Images
So that’s just the shortlist. Visit China, and you might find it grows ever longer.
The writer has travelled as a guest of provincial tourism boards, hotels and tourism operators in China, and frequently as an independent traveller.
Know before you go: Five essential tips for travelling in China
Payment systems
China has become almost cashless. Digital wallets are used to make ticket bookings and, even at street stalls, payments are via QR codes. Overseas credit cards aren’t widely accepted except in tourist hotels. You’ll get by with cash for sundries on a pre-paid escorted journey, but individual travellers should download and familiarise themselves with WeChat Pay or Alipay, and link them to your bank account, before departure.
Social media
You’ll be on a social-media detox in China, where Western platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube are blocked. The Great Firewall also blocks you from Western media sites. If you really need to message, download WeChat in lieu of WhatsApp; friends and family will need it too, of course. If you want to explore the Chinese social-media world, try Douyin for video-sharing and Weibo (a combination of X and Instagram) for micro-blogs.
Menus
A point-your-camera translation app such as Waygo, Photo Translator or Microsoft Translator is invaluable while navigating Chinese menus (Google Translate is blocked). Waygo very usefully works off-line, so you don’t need an internet connection. Restaurant menus may only be available via a QR code that you can scan from WeChat or Alipay, but that’s a good thing, as most online menus feature helpful photos of the dishes.
Holiday periods
You’ll never avoid crowds, but visiting China during public holidays, when everyone is on the move, is sheer madness. Avoid Spring Festival (January 28 to February 4), China Ming Festival (April 4-6), Labour Day (May 1-5), Dragon Boat Festival (May 31 to June 2) and Mid-Autumn Festival (October 1-8). Dates are for 2025 and change with the lunar cycle; only Labour Day has a fixed date.
Getting around
Google Maps doesn’t work in China. Try Apple Maps or local version Baidu Maps, where you will, however, have to enter your destination in pinyin (Romanised Chinese) rather than English: Gu Gong, for example, rather than the Forbidden City. Hailing taxis in the street (rather than at a taxi stand or hotel) is increasingly difficult and you’ll need your destination written out in Chinese. Best to rely on car-hailing app DiDi. The MetroMan app covers Chinese subway systems with functions that include points of interest near stations.