Kina

I sommar får Sverige för första gången en direktlinje till Shanghai i Kina. Det är flygbolaget China Eastern som kommer att flyga till staden från Arlanda fyra gånger i veckan.

Unfurling up to Russia in the north, Heilongjiang (黑龙江, Hēilóngjiāng), meaning 'Black Dragon River', is one of China's most beautifully rugged provinces. Forests, lakes and mountains, and the dormant volcanoes of Wudalian Chi beckon well beyond the capital Harbin (Hā’ěrbīn), an architecturally diverse city with a distinctly cosmopolitan feel.

Fotografierna av den kinesiska landsbygden lockar fotofantaster från hela världen. Staden Xiapu har blivit en av landets mest virala destinationer. Men allt är iscensatt!

The underrated province of Jiāngxī (江西) offers a bucolic entrée into semirural Chinese life. It's a succulent, green place, connected by waterways of natural and human design, rice paddies teeming with bird life and fields draped in wildflowers. Tea seemingly grows out of every patch of land until dramatic mountain ranges, swirling with mist, rise up at its edges.

In Xīnjiāng's capital, Ürümqi (乌鲁木齐; Wūlǔmùqí), high-rise apartments form a modern skyline that will soon dash any thoughts of spotting wandering camels and ancient caravanserais. The vast majority of its inhabitants are Han Chinese, and the city is one of the least typical of Xīnjiāng, though glimpses of the distant Tiān Shān mountains provide a taste of the extraordinary landscapes awaiting you elsewhere.

The road between Jishou and Zhangjiajie runs through hills, terraced fields and minority villages, and past rivers and lush, verdant scenery via the Tujia settlement of Furong (芙蓉镇; Fúróng Zhèn), an old town elevated to fame in the 1986 film Hibiscus Town. Until around 10 years ago, the town was simply called Wang Village (王村; Wáng Cūn), before being renamed in honour of the movie. Wandering down the steps of the old riverside town is charming, but the main draw is the gushing waterfall alongside the hamlet, splendidly illuminated come nightfall.

Datong (大同, Dàtóng) today is fascinating, and charming to boot. Come nighttime, the old-town sensations – with red lanterns swinging in the breeze and wind chimes tinkling on the illuminated city walls – evoke Datong's past glories as an ancient capital. No matter that most of this has been recreated from scratch: an estimated ¥50 billion has been ploughed into a colossal renovation of the old quarter. The city wall has been rebuilt in its entirety, enclosing a retinue of renovated (or newly built) sights. But it's beyond the wall where Datong really comes into its own. The town is the gateway to the awe-inspiring Yungang Caves, one of China’s most outstanding Buddhist treasures, as well as a launchpad to the photogenic Hanging Monastery, the world’s oldest wooden pagoda, crumbling earthen sections of the Great Wall and onward trips to sacred Wutai Shan.

It's Hángzhōu, the handsome capital city, that lands Zhèjiāng (浙江) on many a traveller's itinerary. Home to picture-perfect landscapes of classical Chinese beauty (and just a short train ride from Shànghǎi), Hángzhōu is the obvious highlight. Yet the province offers so much more. There are water towns with spiderweb networks of canals and restored Ming and Qing dynasty merchants' homes (Wūzhèn and Nánxún), also in easy striking distance. Among the thousands of islands dotting a ragged and fragmented shoreline is the island of Pǔtuóshān, one of China's four most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites. More intrepid travellers can head west, where ancient villages retain their traditional architecture and bucolic charms. Meanwhile travellers looking for the opposite of intrepid can hole up in one of the stylish resorts nestled among the hillside bamboo groves and tea fields of naturally cool Mògànshān.

In the southwestern corner of Guizhou, on the borders with Yunnan and Guanxi, lies the beautiful region of Xingyi (兴义, Xīngyì). The city itself is unremarkable – most people come to spend time among the magical karst mountain landscape of the Wanfenglin Scenic Area.

Known as the 'Vegas of China', Macau is indeed an epicentre of gambling and glitz. While luxury entertainment here is world-class, the city has much more to offer than that. Macau was a Portuguese colony for 300 years, a history marked by a cultural hybridity that manifests itself in all aspects of life: Chinese temples stand on maritime-themed Portuguese tiles; the sound of Cantonese permeates streets with Portuguese names; and when you're hungry, it could be Chinese dim sum, pastéis de nata (Portuguese egg tarts) or Macanese minchi (ground meat stir-fried with potatoes) that come to the rescue.