Not to miss

Xi'an

Xi'an was once a major crossroads on the trading routes from eastern China to central Asia, and vied with Rome and later Constantinople for the title of greatest city in the world. Today Xi'an is one of China's major drawcards, largely because of the Army of Terracotta Warriors on the city's eastern outskirts.

Uncovered in 1974, over 10,000 figures have been sorted to date. Soldiers, archers (armed with real weapons) and chariots stand in battle formation in underground vaults looking as fierce and war-like as pottery can. Xi'an's other attractions include the old city walls, the Muslim quarter and the Banpo Neolithic Village - a tacky recreation of the Stone Age.

Beijing

If your visions of Beijing are centred around pods of Maoist revolutionaries in buttoned-down tunics performing exercise in Tiananmen Square, put them to rest: this city has embarked on a new millennium rollercoaster and it's taking the rest of China with it.

Beijing's youth is more interested in MTV than Mao; rhetorical slogans from the Cultural Revolution have given way to butchered English splashed across designer-copy T-shirts, and expats, tourists, foreign investors and a mobile phone-toting hip-oisie are mixing it up with the bureaucrats.

With preparations for the 2008 Olympics well under way, old hutongs (alleys) and buildings are being demolished, new buildings are going up, small things are giving way to big things and big things are giving way to even bigger things. This fast-paced, two-minute-noodles lifestyle doesn't please everyone - the old comrades are complaining about uppity youths and loss of values - but the capital of the People's Republic of China doesn't look like it's slowing down any time soon.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong has the big city specials like smog, odour, 14 million elbows and an insane love of clatter. But it's also efficient, hushed and peaceful: the transport network is excellent, the shopping centres are sublime, and the temples and quiet corners of parks are contemplative oases.

The best thing about being in Hong Kong is getting flummoxed and fired by the confluences and contradictions of a Chinese city with multi-Asian and Western elements. It's about savouring new tastes, weaving through a human gridlock and humming some dumb Cantopop tune while slurping your noodles.

From the vantage point of Victoria Peak, overlooking the world's busiest deepwater port, you can see a city geared not only to making money but feeling good about it. At night, it's like looking down into a volcano.

Despite its British colonial past, Hong Kong has always stuck to its roots, and the culture beneath the glitz is pure Chinese. That extends to an unquenchable capitalist spirit and Hong Kongers are adept at supplying whatever market might arise to turn a dollar. And the good news is that right now Hong Kong is booming, so it's even more hyper than ever. It's a great time to get there.

Nanjing

In a country where provincial capitals are rarely known for their beauty, Nanjing shines. The construction work that's churning up the face of China seems to have affected this city less than most and it remains a place of broad boulevards and shady trees.

This is just as well considering the oppressive summer heat that grips Nanjing, which is known as one of China's 'three furnaces'. The city enjoyed its golden years under the Ming, and there are numerous reminders of the period to be found. One of the most impressive is the Ming city wall measuring over 33km (20.5mi) - the longest city wall ever built in the world. About two-thirds of it still stands. On the slopes just east of Nanjing is the Sun Yatsen Mausoleum. Sun is recognised by the communists and the Kuomintang alike as the father of China. Nanjing is asscessible by rail, bus and air. It is roughly 1000km (620mi) from Beijing.

Karakoram Highway

This yak-nibbled highway over the Khunjerab Pass (4800m/15,740ft) is the gateway to Pakistan and was used for centuries by caravans plodding down the Silk Road. Khunjerab means 'valley of blood', a reference to local bandits who took advantage of the terrain to plunder caravans and slaughter the merchants.

Nearly 20 years were required to plan, push, blast and level the present road between Islamabad and Kashgar; over 400 road-builders died. Facilities en-route are being steadily improved, but take warm clothing, food and drink on board with you. Even if you don't wish to cross into Pakistan, it's worth doing the trip up to Tashkurgan from Kashgar because the scenery is stunning: high mountain pastures roamed by camels and yaks tended by yurt-dwelling Tajiks.

Shanghai

Shanghai is a scintillating city swirling with rapid cultural change. Since market restrictions were lifted, it has embraced the forces of business and design and rewritten its rule book shaping a fresh, new city that is sophisticated, innovative and living a life it has never lived before.

While it can't match the epic history of Beijing or Xi'an's grander sights, Shanghai is the hotspot of modern China; a cosmopolitan city buzzing with the concept of 'lifestyle revolution', showcased in the architectural temples of art, fine dining and contemporary urban living on the Bund.

In this city of jockeying juxtapositions, the bullet-train speed of recent changes has bewildered and unsettled many. As monumental building projects push skyward and glinting department stores swing open their doors to a stylish elite, those lacking disposable cash try to realign the vision of their new city with memories of a Communist history. The city's prosperous sheen belies the ongoing social concerns for a disintegrating welfare system. Shanghai is shackled to a past it is both suspicious and proud of. Nobody can predict what the city will look like two decades from now, but as the Chinese saying goes, if the old doesn't go, the new won't come.

Macau

Macau is a city with two faces: the fortresses, churches and food of former colonial masters Portugal speak to a uniquely Mediterranean style on the China coast. And yet Macau is also the self-styled Las Vegas of the East. The last few years have seen once-sleepy little Macau booming.

Today's Macau woos commerce and tourism like never before, taking a tradition of gambling to new extremes. While the profileration of mega-casinos means there's plenty of places to try your hand with Lady Luck, many of Macau's pleasures are relaxed and laidback, architectural and atmospheric.

Portuguese influence is everywhere in Macau: narrow cobbled alleys, grand baroque churches, balconied colonial mansions, open plazas and Mediterranean-style cafes filled with palm-readers, caged birds and pipe-smokers. The peninsula and the islands of Coloane and Taipa constitute a colourful palette of pastels and ordered greenery. China's huge population of punters is the main market for the vast array of Las Vegas-style casinos. Already Macau's casinos turn over more money than those in Las Vegas, and with several new gambling meccas due to open in the coming years, along with the usual range of entertainment facilities, you can expect it to keep on growing. So get yourself to Macau now, before its unique Latin-Sino flavour is diluted by a heavy dose of development and the Guangdong throngs.

Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve

Jiuzhaigou (Nine Village Gully) refers to the nine Baima Tibetan villages that can be found in the valley. According to legend, Jiuzhaigou was created when a jealous devil caused the goddess Wunosemo to drop her magic mirror, a present from her lover the warlord God Dage. The mirror dropped to the ground and shattered into 118 shimmering turquoise lakes.

Those pools of eye candy are what lie within your dreams after you leave, along with the snow-crusted mountain peaks, and forests and meadows home to protected takins, golden monkeys and pandas.

The park is pristine, however, resort-style hotels leading up to the park entrance have 20,000 beds; over 1.5 million people per year come here. The original residents have been forced to move in order to 'protect' the park (those here actually work within the park's confines to keep up appearances). And as you're technically not allowed to strike off into the backcountry, it can be a bit disheartening as the efficient shuttle buses whiz by with an alarming regularity. A word of warning: several tour operators in Chengdu have been blacklisted by travellers for lousy service and/or rudeness. Ask around among travellers to pinpoint a reliable agency.

Great Wall

The Great Wall (Changcheng) wriggles fitfully from its scattered remains in Liaoning province to Jiayuguan in the Gobi Desert. The wall was begun over 2000 years ago, required thousands of workers - many of whom were political prisoners - and 10 years of hard labour. Legend has it that one of the building materials used was the bones of deceased workers.

An estimated 180 million cubic metres of rammed earth were used to form the core of the original wall.

The wall never really did perform its function as an impenetrable line of defence. As Genghis Khan supposedly said, 'The strength of a wall depends on the courage of those who defend it'. Sentries could be bribed.

However, it did work very well as a kind of elevated highway, transporting people and equipment across mountainous terrain. Its beacon tower system, using smoke signals generated by burning wolves' dung, transmitted news of enemy movements quickly back to the capital. To the west was Jiayuguan, an important link on the Silk Road, where there was a customs post of sorts and where unwanted Chinese were ejected through the gates to face the terrifying wild west.

The myth that the Great Wall is visible with the naked eye from the moon was finally laid to rest in 2003, when China's first astronaut Yang Liwei observed that he could not see the barrier from space. The myth is to be edited from Chinese textbooks, where it has cast its spell over generations of Chinese.

Summer Palace

One of Beijing's most visited sights, the immense park of the Summer Palace requires at least half a day. Nowadays teeming with tour groups from China and beyond, this dominion of palace temples, gardens, pavilions, and lakes was once a playground for the imperial court. Royalty came here to elude the insufferable summer heat that roasted the Forbidden City.

The Summer Palace with its cool features - water, gardens and hills - was the palace of choice for vacationing emperors and Dowager Empresses. It was badly damaged by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War (1860) and its restoration became a pet project of Empress Dowager Cixi, the last of the Qing dynasty rulers. Money earmarked for a modern navy was used for the project but, in a bit of whimsical irony, the only thing that was completed was the restoration of a marble boat. The boat now sits at the edge of the lake in all its immobile and nonmilitary glory. The Palace's full restoration was hampered by the disintegration of the Qing dynasty and the Boxer Rebellion.

The place is packed to the gunwales in summer, with Beijing residents taking full advantage of Kunming Lake, which takes up three-quarters of the park. The main building is the lyrically named Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, while along the north shore is the Long Corridor, so named because it's, well, long. There's over 700m (2300ft) of corridor, filled with mythical paintings and scenes. If some of the paintings have a newish patina, that's because many of the murals were painted over during the Cultural Revolution.

Tai Shan

Southern Chinese claim 'myriad mountains, rivers and geniuses' while Shandong citizens smugly contest they have 'one mountain, one river and one saint', implying they have the last word on each: Tai Shan (the most revered of China's five sacred Taoist peaks, and the most climbed mountain on earth), Huang He (the Yellow River) and Confucius.

Tai Shan is a unique experience - its supernatural allure attracts the Chinese in droves. Bixia, the Princess of the Azure Clouds, a Taoist deity whose presence permeates the temples dotted along the route, is a powerful cult figure for the rural women of Shandong and beyond. Tribes of wiry grandmothers - it's said that if you climb Tai Shan you'll live to 100 - trot up the steps with surprising ease, their target the cluster of temples at the summit where they burn money and incense, praying for their progeny. Sun worshippers muster wide-eyed on the peak, straining for the first flickers of dawn.In ancient Chinese tradition, it was believed that the sun began its westward journey from Tai Shan.

From its heights Confucius uttered the dictum 'The world is small'; Mao lumbered up and declared 'The east is red'. You too can climb up and say 'I'm knackered'.

Avoid coinciding your climb with the public holiday periods held in the first weeks of May and October, otherwise you will share the mountain with what the Chinese call 're'n shan re'n havi' - literally a 'mountain of people and a sea of persons.'

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City, so called because it was off limits for 500 years, is the largest and best-preserved cluster of China's ancient buildings. It was home to two dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing, who didn't stray from this pleasure dome unless they absolutely had to. Allow yourself a full day, or perhaps several trips if you're an enthusiast.

On the north-south axis of the Forbidden City, from the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the south to Divine Military Genius Gate to the north, lie the palace's ceremonial buildings. Restored in the 17th century, Meridian Gate is a massive portal that in former times was reserved for the use of the emperor. Across the Golden Stream is Supreme Harmony Gate, overlooking a massive courtyard that could hold an imperial audience of up to 100,000 people.

Raised on a marble terrace with balustrades are the Three Great Halls, the heart of the Forbidden City. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the most important and the largest structure in the Forbidden City. Built in the 15th century, and restored in the 17th century, it was used for ceremonial occasions, such as the emperor's birthday, the nomination of military leaders and coronations.

Grand Buddha

The serenely seated Grand Buddha, carved into a cliff face, is the pride and joy of the city, a spiritual uncle. Qualifying as the largest Buddha in the world he's 71m (233ft) high, his ears are 7m (23ft) long, his insteps 8.5m (28ft) broad, and you could picnic on the nail of his big toe - the toe itself is 8.5m (28ft) long. Holy smokes!

A Buddhist monk called Haitong started the whole thing in AD 713, hoping that the Buddha would calm the swift currents and protect boatmen from lethal currents in river hollows. Well, the big guy 'matured' slowly, finally completed 90 years after Haitong's death. Surplus rocks from the sculpting filled the river hollow and did the trick, but locals insist it's really the calming effect of the Buddha.

It's worth looking at the Grand Buddha from several angles. While the easiest way to see him is to walk along the riverfront on Binhe Lu, you need to get closer to him to really appreciate his magnitude. You can go to the top, opposite the head, and then descend a short stairway to the feet for a Lilliputian perspective.

Yungang Caves

These caves, cut into the southern cliffs of Wuzhou Shan, contain over 50,000 Buddhist statues including the earliest Buddhist carvings in China. Images surrounding the main statues include the omnipresent '1000 Buddha' motif, flying apsaras (angels draped in flowing silk), pagodas in bas-relief and Chinese symbols such as dragons and phoenixes.

On top of the mountain ridge are the remains of a huge, mud-brick 17th-century Qing dynasty fortress. As you approach the caves you'll see the truncated pyramids, which were once the watchtowers. Sadly, many of the caves suffer damage from coal and other pollution, largely a result of the neighbouring coal mine. At the time of writing, most of the coal trucks were being diverted to a back road, making the trip more pleasant. East of the caves you can walk to a remnant of the Great Wall.

The incredible artwork shows influences of the many foreign craftsmen, from India and Central Asia, who worked on the grottoes. There are no guides at the caves, but there are decent English descriptions and explanations for many points within.

Army of Terracotta Warriors (Bingmayong)

Ranking alongside the Great Wall and the Forbidden City as one of China's top historical sights, the 2000-year-old Terracotta Army remains a stunningly well preserved, perpetually vigilant force standing guard over an ancient imperial necropolis. Almost as extraordinary is a pair of bronze chariots and horses on display in a museum by the main entrance.

The discovery of the Army was, like many major discoveries, entirely serendipitous. In 1974 peasants digging a well uncovered what turned out to be perhaps the major archaeological discovery of the 20th century: an underground vault of earth and timber that eventually yielded thousands of life-size terracotta soldiers and their horses in battle formation. In 1976 two other smaller vaults were discovered close to the first one.

The 6000 terracotta figures of warriors and horses face east in a rectangular battle array. Every figure differs in facial features and expressions. The horsemen are shown wearing tight-sleeved outer robes, short coats of chain mail and wind-proof caps. The archers have bodies and limbs positioned in strict accordance with an ancient book on the art of war.

Archaeologists believe the warriors discovered so far may be part of an even larger terracotta army still buried around the Tomb of Qin Shihuang. Excavation of the entire complex and the tomb itself could take decades.

Australian Embassy

China Disabled Person's Social Service Advisory Center

Save the Children

Child health, development and rights NGO.

UK Embassy

There are two main embassy compounds in Běijīng - Jianguomenwai and Sanlitun.

Indian Embassy