Kina

Xiamen (厦门, Xiàmén), the island city formerly known in Western circles as Amoy, is emerging as southern China’s most sophisticated city. Chinese travelers have long understood the lure of its lengthy seaside promenade and European city architecture, but international ‘jetizens’ are now descending on the fun.

The gleaming manifestation of China's economic miracle, Shēnzhèn (深圳) has risen from the marshy Pearl River Delta into one of the world's most mega megacities in less time than it took London's St Paul's Cathedral to be built. Millions of migrants have been drawn to its golden gates from the Chinese countryside since the 1980s; now, Shēnzhèn attracts high-flying tech graduates and global corporations.

How popular is this time-locked place? Lijiang’s (丽江, Lìjiāng) maze of cobbled streets, rickety (or rickety-looking, given gentrification) wooden buildings and gushing canals suck in over eight million people a year. So thick are the crowds in the narrow alleys that it can feel like they've all arrived at the same time.

Fujian (福建, Fújiàn) is an attractive coastal province with a long seafaring history. As a significant stop on the maritime Silk Road, its cities developed an easy cosmopolitan outlook and visitors are surprised by the traces of elsewhere in its architecture, food, language and people.

From the winding streets and isolated beaches of Cheung Chau and Peng Chau, to the monasteries and hiking trails of Lantau, and the seafood restaurants of Lamma, Hong Kong’s Outlying Islands offer a host of sights and activities.

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 fitting that an ancient form of opera and magic called biànliǎn (face-changing) originated here, for Sichuan (四川, Sìchuān) is a land of many guises. Capital Chengdu shows a modern face, but just beyond its ring roads you'll find a more traditional landscape of mist-shrouded, sacred mountains, and a countryside scattered with ancient villages and cliffs of carved Buddhas.

Mohan (磨憨, Móhān) is the first (or last) taste of China for travellers headed from/to Laos via the border crossing at Botan. It's a laid-back place set around two long main streets, with little in the way of sights.

Det är dags att åka till Hongkong innan staden helt och hållet uppslukas av fastlands-Kina. Men var finns metropolens själ? Vi söker bland häxor, hästar, spansk gin och pirater.

Many visitors only pass through handsome Nanjing (南京, Nánjīng; literally 'Southern Capital') when traveling from Shanghai to Beijing (or vice versa), but the capital of Jiangsu, lying on the lower stretches of the Yangzi River, boasts a rich and impressive historical heritage. It's also one of the best-looking cities in China.