Best Places in China for Travel; Nothing Else?

Hi Everyone,

I just want to revisit my lists.

I would like to find great places to travel in China. This post does not worry about where to work or quality of life.

GPT tells me:

Top 10 Prettiest Places in China
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park
Known for its stunning sandstone pillars and misty, surreal landscape.

Li River and Guilin
Famous for its picturesque karst mountains and serene river cruises.

Huangshan (Yellow Mountains)
Celebrated for breathtaking peaks, "cloud seas," and sunrises.

Jiuzhaigou Valley
Renowned for its colorful lakes, multi-tiered waterfalls, and vibrant foliage.

West Lake in Hangzhou
A tranquil, historic lake surrounded by temples, gardens, and pagodas.

Rainbow Mountains in Zhangye
Notable for their vibrant, multi-colored rock formations.

The Great Wall at Jinshanling
Offers less crowded and more scenic hiking experiences.

Yunnan Province (Tiger Leaping Gorge, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Stone Forest)
A diverse region with dramatic gorges and snow-capped peaks.

Hongcun Village
A quaint, UNESCO-protected village with classic Anhui-style architecture.

The Forbidden City, Beijing
A cultural gem showcasing ancient Chinese architecture and history.

Criteria for Ranking
Natural Beauty: The uniqueness of landscapes (e.g., Zhangjiajie’s pillars, Rainbow Mountains).
Cultural Significance: Importance in Chinese heritage (e.g., Forbidden City, Hongcun).
Tourist Experience: Accessibility, facilities, and activities available.
Uniqueness: Features that make the location one-of-a-kind globally.

Any other opinions about where people should visit?

The drawback to pulling from a bot generated top 10 list is that it's based more on popularity/publicity than anything else.  All of the named locates are great, but there are tons of less well-known locations.

Another drawback is some of the locations are vague.  Yunnan as a single item mentions 2 mountain areas and the stone forest.  Others mention a river or mountain range.  In many cases, these will have multiple towns or cities to chose from.

First, I suggest you narrow down what sort of things are most important to you for your next trip.  If you want to take a river ride through mountains, there are many options.  Personally, I enjoyed a couple of raft rides in Yangshou, Guangxi.  One even went to the place shown on the back of the 20 yuan note.  Yangshou also has caves and many other attractions.

If you want to hike around in some mountains, I did this once in Yunnan.  It was a bit of a confusing trip, so I don't even remember the name of the place.

Also in Yunnan, I went to Xishuangbanna.  Great tea, lots of beautiful places to visit.

When I want to relax by a beautiful river in an ancient town, Fenghuang in Hunnan is my #1 destination.  They have plenty of other things for tourists to do.


Separately from seasonal waves of tourists, public holidays have a lot more.  If you like crowds and get all your reservations done in advance, maybe you will enjoy visiting around a big holiday.  If you prefer a quieter, less crowded time, keep your tourism plans separart from holiday travel rushes.

For a boilerplate list Dongfeng, and Luoyang should go on your list. Both next to each other, DongFeng has some amazing mountains and buddhist stuff carved into the rock, nice town as well with a well done tourist district.
Luoyang is the ancient capital and has loads of restored historical buildings, museums and so on, also you can get a day trip to the Shaolin temple one of the homes of Chinese Buddhism, but more importantly the 1980s kung fu films and of course the birthplace of hiphop.

If you were doing a 'must see' list those two are worth it. Agree with EL though, although China is developed now, you really need a decent amount of information except the location because it's not geared towards tourists in the same way as those parts of Thailand are where you have a huge choice of English speaking agents to sort you out, you need specifics