Kina

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.

Yuen Long is an important transport hub and a gateway to the Mai Po Marshes and the nearby walled villages.

Visst kan man längta ut i världen för att se nya saker – men Kinas nya turistattraktion är kanske inget för den som är rädd för höjder eller tvivlar på karusellers säkerhet. Då njuter man nog inte!

Turpan (吐鲁番; Tǔlǔfān) is China’s Death Valley. At 505 ft below sea level, it’s the second-lowest depression in the world and the hottest spot in China. In July and August, temperatures soar above 40°C and even 50°C, forcing the local population to sleep on their roofs and visiting tourists into a state of semi-torpor.

Hong Kong welcomes visitors with an iconic skyline, a legendary kitchen, and lush, protected nature where rare birds and colorful traditions thrive.

På söndagen den 26 januari gick Utrikesdepartementet ut med en avrådan från icke-nödvändiga resor till Hubei-provinsen på grund av utbrottet av coronavisuset. Dessutom avråder man besök till marknader i Kina där djur förekommer.

Like many of the other famous water towns, Wūzhèn (乌镇) was part of the Grand Canal and prospered from trade and silk production. It's a major tourist attraction, and with its crowds and rows of souvenir shops its easy to write off Wūzhèn as inauthentic. But then you turn a corner and get a view of, say, an ancient stone bridge curving over a canal or a row of weathered Qing dynasty wooden homes, and realise: this place really is beautiful. It's also easily explored, with good transit links.

Affluent Chinese may roll their eyes at the mention of slow-moving and impoverished Henan (河南, Hénán), but the province’s heritage takes us back to the earliest days of Chinese antiquity. Ancient capitals rose and fell in Henan’s north, where the capricious Yellow River (Huáng Hé) nourished the flowering of a great civilisation.

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.

Coiling its way through 23 degrees of longitude, the Great Wall (长城, Chángchéng) stands as an awe-inspiring monument to the grandeur of China’s ancient history. With sections dating back 2000 years, the wall (or, more accurately, walls, because they belong to several different eras) wriggle haphazardly from their scattered Manchurian remains in Liaoning province to wind-scoured rubble in the Gobi desert and faint traces in the unforgiving sands of Xinjiang. Interspersed with natural defences (such as precipitous mountains), the Great Wall can be visited in 15 Chinese provinces, principalities and autonomous regions, but nowhere is better than Beijing for mounting your assault on this most iconic of bastions.