Travel China with confidence — pay, connect, and move like a local

The Silk Road began here, and 8,000 clay soldiers never left.

Xi'an was Chang'an, the eastern end of the Silk Road and once the largest city on earth. Today its Ming city wall is still intact enough to cycle, the Muslim Quarter turns out roujiamo and biang-biang noodles late into the night, and the Terracotta Army waits a short drive away. This seven-day guide helps first-time foreign visitors turn a China trip into a history trip without the textbooks.

A city built for foodies and night owls

Capital of Hunan and home base of Hunan cuisine. Walk Orange Isle in the Xiang River, read at a 1,000-year-old academy under Yuelu Mountain, peel crayfish and skewers along Jiefangxi after dark, and work through one cup of Chayan Yuese tea after another. Summers are brutally hot, but the nightlife never sleeps.

An island above a harbour, the Peak's breeze, Victoria Harbour's lights, and a wonton-noodle queue that never thins.

Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China, made up of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories and more than 260 outlying islands. Once one of the world's busiest natural harbours, it still layers the old dream and the new face of the 'Pearl of the Orient' — skyscrapers on both shores of Victoria Harbour, the Peak Tram, the ding-ding tram and the Star Ferry. It is shorthand for shopping and food, but also the front line of island hiking, seafood runs and cha chaan teng culture — in a single day you can move from Central's glass towers to the sea breeze of Lamma Island. This seven-day guide helps first-time foreign visitors cross the harbour by Star Ferry, ride the tram through old streets, climb the Peak for the night view, then dive into the grit of Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok and the city's tea restaurants.

Red roofs, green trees, and a bag of fresh Tsingtao with the whole Yellow Sea in front of it.

Qingdao is China's beer city with a German-built old town: 1892 Zhanqiao Pier reaching into the bay, the Badaguan villas in twenty-plus national styles under plane trees, and Laoshan rising to 1,132.7 m — the highest peak on China's coastline. Tsingtao Beer has been brewed here since 1903, and the city drinks it the local way: fresh draft in a plastic bag, with stir-fried clams. Eight metro lines cover the city, Beijing is about three hours away by high-speed rail, and summer brings the International Beer Festival. This seven-day guide helps first-time foreign visitors walk the old town, hike Laoshan, eat seafood without getting overcharged, and drink correctly.