Kina

Forever being compared to Běijīng (if anything, it's more like Shànghǎi), the former foreign concession port of Tiānjīn (天津) is a large, booming, yet laid-back city, with a pleasant river promenade and some charming neighbourhoods. It's an easy day trip from the capital, but you may want a long weekend to explore the city properly.

The southern district is not only a showcase of history – Pok Fu Lam has the island's last surviving village alongside vestiges of a Victorian dairy – but Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau are also the homes of Hong Kong's fisherfolk, and as such, offer wonderful seafood and boat rides. In addition, Ap Lei Chau has great shopping, and Wong Chuk Hang, contemporary art. The south is also Hong Kong Island's backyard playground, from beaches and seaside dining, to a waterfront bazaar and an amusement park.

In many ways, Nanning (南宁, Nánníng) is a typical provincial capital with few sights of note, but many of its streets are lined with trees and shaded with a bountiful canopy of leaves, affording welcome shade. It’s also a relaxing and friendly place to recharge your batteries before leaving for, or returning from, Vietnam. It makes for a refreshingly non-touristy destination and one where you'll eat well and get local cultural insights. Nanning's brilliant metro system helps to tame the town's distances.

Despite being a popular destination with domestic travelers, Guizhou (贵州, Guìzhōu) remains largely unknown to travelers outside China – and what a travesty of justice. The province has two of the country's largest and most spectacular natural features – a waterfall and a cave – while outside the capital, Guiyang, it's pretty much green hills and valleys, flowing rivers and limestone formations to the horizon.

Wedged between high, glacial mountain peaks on the northern side of the Chola Mountains is the vast monastery and shedra (Buddhist college) complex of Dzogchen (竹庆寺; Zhú Qìng Sì), one of the most important seats of the Nyingma (Red Hat sect). Exploring this massive and ever-expanding complex of temples, prayer halls, stupas and meditation retreats alone could keep you busy for a day or three, but there's more to Dzogchen than spirituality. With snow capped mountain peaks on one side and rolling grasslands with wandering yaks and nomads on the other there's plenty of scope here for several days of exciting walking.

Mongolia. The name alone stirs up visions of nomadic herders, thundering horses and, of course, the warrior-emperor Genghis Khaan.

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.

Shaanxi (陕西; Shǎnxī) is where it all began for China. As the heartland of the Qin dynasty (秦朝), whose warrior emperor united much of China for the first time, Shaanxi was the cradle of Chinese civilisation and the fountainhead of Han culture. Xi'an marked the beginning and end of the Silk Road and was a buzzing capital long before anyone knew of Beijing and its Forbidden City.

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.

Fantastical mountainscapes and well preserved villages make Anhui (安徽, Ānhuī) the perfect antidote to the brashness of China’s larger cities. The main attraction is unquestionably Huangshan, a jumble of sheer granite cliffs wrapped in cottony clouds that inspired an entire school of ink painting during the 17th and 18th centuries. But the often overlooked peaks of nearby Jiuhua Shan, where Buddhists bless the souls of the recently departed, have a hallowed aura that offers a strong contrast to Huangshan’s stunning natural scenery.