CHINA
Where & When to go
Inevitably, Beijing is on everyone's itinerary, and the Great
Wall and the splendour of the Imperial City are certainly not
to be missed. It's a city that's easy to be in, and enjoy, but
with skyscrapers aplenty, a large foreign contingent and a wealthy
and chic population, Beijing is hardly representative of the nation
as a whole.
You need to dig under the surface to find the more intimate, private
city that exists in the dwindling number of twisted alleyways,
the hutongs, to get the best out of the place which can otherwise
seem vast, soulless and functional. While you're here, don't forget
that Beijing offers the best food and nightlife in the country.
It's also a good place to base yourself for a host of easy short
trips. Chengde, just north of the capital, has some stunning imperial
buildings, constructed by emperors when this was their favoured
retreat for the summer, while today's city residents escape to
the quiet coastal towns of Shanhaiguan and Beidaihe , which offer
lush countryside, grand old fortresses and a welter of seaside
kitsch.
The territory north of the Great Wall has long had a reputation
for severely cold weather and hot-blooded warriors, but the expanses
of countryside and milltowns of Dongbei (Manchuria) stand out
for their preserves of nature, history and multi-culturalism.
Dongbei's frontier with North Korea results in diverting border
towns like Dandong and ports such as Dalian . Harbin 's onion-domed
cathedrals and local taste for vodka reveal Russia's proximity,
while Shenyang tells the story of Dongbei's tumultuous history:
the Manchus, Russians, Japanese, war lords, Nationalists and Communists
each controlled it in the course of the twentieth century. The
region contains most of China's natural resources, but recent
closings of state-owned factories make tourism the leading growth
industry, as its cities undertake a "Manchurian Makeover".
Short on glitz but deep in snow and long on character, a trip
to Dongbei reveals the closest thing to "real" China
a visitor can find.
Most visitors head for the greater attractions south of the capital,
along the Yellow River Valley , the cradle of Chinese civilization,
where remnants of the dynastic age lie scattered in a unique landscape
of loess terraces. The cave temples at Datong and Luoyang are
magnificent, with huge Buddhist sculptures staring out impassively
across their now industrialized settings. Of the dynastic capitals,
Xi'an is the most obvious destination, where the celebrated Terracotta
Army still stands guard over the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
Other, less visited ancient towns, including sleepy Kaifeng in
Henan, and Qufu , the birthplace of Confucius in Shandong, hold
treasures of dynastic architecture as well as offering an intimate,
human scale that is missing in the large cities. The area is also
well supplied with holy mountains, some of the few places in twentieth-century
China that provide an unbroken continuity with the past: grandmothers
still shuffle their way up Tai Shan , perhaps the grandest and
most imperial of the country's pilgrimage sites, to pay homage
to deities as old as Chinese civilization itself; Song Shan in
Henan sees more contemporary pilgrims, followers of kung fu, making
the trek to the Shaolin Temple, where the art originated; while
Wutai Shan in Shanxi rewards travellers with some of the best-preserved
religious sites in the country, as well as a lush and pretty alpine
setting.
Central China forms a basin around the middle reaches of Asia's
longest river, the Yangzi . Once the interior's single most important
transport artery, several thousand kilometres are still plied
by regular passenger ferries, providing one of the world's great
river journeys past countless images of everyday Chinese life.
Meandering upstream through the provinces of Anhui, Hubei, Hunan
and Jiangxi, the shores of the two massive freshwater lakes Poyang
and Dongting are heavily farmed, while a host of bustling riverside
ports, including Wuhan , modern metropolis and former European
concession, thrive on an increasing industrial and manufacturing
momentum. Relics of the past range from two-thousand-year-old
tombs and third-century battlefields to the Hunanese village of
Shaoshan , Mao Zedong's birthplace. Away from the river lurk some
evocative landscapes: the classically "Chinese" cloud-and-pine
draped peaks of Huang Shan in Anhui; Hubei's Wudang Shan , covered
in aged, esoteric Taoist temples; and the splintered cliffs and
forested wilds of western Hunan's Wulingyuan Scenic Reserve.
Dominating China's east coast is the great port city of Shanghai
, for years the country's main gateway to the outside world and,
apart from Hong Kong, its most Westernized city. After years of
stagnation, Shanghai is again booming, and alongside the Art-Deco
monuments of the old European-built Bund, a thoroughly modern
city, crowned with two of the world's tallest skyscrapers, is
emerging. Around Shanghai are areas offering some of China's most
characteristic scenery - low-lying and wet, criss-crossed with
canals and dotted with historic towns. Jiangsu Province, to the
north, is home to Suzhou with its famous ornate gardens, built
by Ming dynasty scholars and officials, while a short way to the
west lies the city of Nanjing , crowded with relics from its tumultuous
history as Ming and Nationalist capital of China. South from Shanghai,
in Zhejiang Province at the terminus of the historic Grand Canal,
sits Hangzhou , one of China's greenest and most scenic cities.
Hangzhou is located along the historic lake Xi Hu, whose shore
and neighbouring hills abound with walking opportunities. Off
the coast, an overnight journey by boat from Shanghai, the Buddhist
island of Putuo Shan is rarely visited by foreign tourists, but
is superbly attractive, with beaches, rural walks and monasteries.
In China's southeast, comprising the coastal provinces of Fujian
and Guangdong, as well as Hainan Island, you'll find all the paradoxes
of any rapidly industrializing nation: incredible economic success
in go-ahead Special Economic Zone cities such as Guangdong's Zhuhai
and Shenzhen, back to back with chronic poverty throughout the
region's rural population; and a lust for modernity and Westernization,
refuted by staunch conservatism. Only a short hop from Hong Kong,
the chaotic city of Guangzhou (Canton) and the adjacent industrial
sprawl of the Pearl River Delta have it all to the point of absurdity:
skyscrapers and temples, beggars and businessmen, nightclubs and
traditional opera, fast food and the finest in classical Chinese
cuisine. Guangzhou also shares a fair scattering of European architecture
with other cities across the region - the Fujian island port of
Xiamen is the nicest - built by colonial victors after the nineteenth-century
Opium Wars. Elsewhere, towns such as Chaozhou proudly retain their
traditions, seemingly little disturbed by recent history, while
the Guangdong-Fujian border is home to ethnic Hakka, who live
as they have done for centuries in massive fortified stone apartments.
Hainan at first glance seems to have no heritage at all, just
a very nice beach, but there's a little more depth to the place
if you dig hard enough - most rewarding is a visit to the Li villages
in the island's central highlands.
Returned to Beijing in 1997, but enjoying a degree of autonomy
that's unprecedented in modern times , Hong Kong is one of the
most interesting cities in the world and is likely to remain so
for a long time, as its officials choose how to shape the city's
future. There is almost nothing Hong Kong cannot offer in the
way of tourist facilities, from fine beaches, to colonial remains
to stunning cityscapes. It also contains more good eating, drinking
and nightlife than the rest of China put together. Macau , too,
is well worth a visit, if not for its casinos then for its Baroque
churches and fine Portuguese cuisine.
Aside from major tourist attractions, much of southwestern China
is only just beginning to be probed by visitors, though Sichuan's
Chengdu and Yunnan's Kunming remain two of China's most interesting
and easy-going provincial capitals, and the entire region is,
by any standards, exceptionally diverse. Guanxgi and Guizhou provinces
are known for their dramatic limestone scenery, the most famous
of which surrounds the Li River near Guilin in Guangxi, while
over in Sichuan , pilgrims flock to see the colossal Big Buddha
carved into a cliffside at Leshan , and to ascend the holy mountain
of Emei Shan . The new province of Chongqing, formerly part of
eastern Sichuan, marks the start of river trips down the Yangzi
through the Three Gorges , while Yunnan sets the tone for the
whole area, with landscapes encompassing everything from snowbound
summits and alpine lakes to steamy tropical jungles. Sichuan has
a similar variety, while the damp highlands shared by Guizhou
and Guangxi descend south to a hot coastline. As Yunnan and Guangxi
share borders with Vietnam, Laos and Burma, while Sichuan rubs
up against Tibet, it's also not surprising to find that all four
provinces have very independent histories, and are home to near-extinct
wildlife and dozens of ethnic autonomous regions, whose attractions
range from the traditional Naxi town of Lijiang and Dai villages
of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, to the exuberant festivals and textiles
of Guizhou's Miao and wooden architecture of Dong settlements
in Guangxi's north.
The huge area of China referred to as the Northwest is where the
people thin out and real wilderness begins. Inner Mongolia, just
hours from Beijing, is already at the frontiers of Central Asia;
here you can follow in the footsteps of Genghis Khan by horse-riding
on the endless grasslands of the steppe. Otherwise, following
the Yellow River east, the old Silk Road heads west out of Xi'an
and you can follow it right through China and out through its
western borders. Highlights en route start with the fabulous Buddhist
sculptures at Maiji Shan and Bingling Si just outside Lanzhou
, while south from Lanzhou lies the delightful rural retreat and
Buddhist monastery town of Xiahe. Further to the west, in the
northwestern part of Gansu, you'll find the terminus of the Great
Wall of China, the famous last fort of Jiayuguan, and nearby,
one of the major draws of all China, the fabulous Buddhist cave
art in the sandy deserts of Dunhuang .
West of here lie the mountains and deserts of vast Xinjiang, where
China blends into old Turkestan and where simple journeys between
towns are epics of modern bus travel. The oasis cities of Turpan
and remote Kashgar , with their donkey carts and bazaars, are
the main attractions, though the blue waters of Tian Chi, offering
alpine scenery in the midst of searing desert, are deservedly
popular. Beyond Kashgar, travellers face some of the most adventurous
routes of all, over the Karakoram or Torugut passes to Pakistan
and Kirgyzistan respectively. Tibet , now open to independent
travellers, still sounds the most exotic of all travel possibilities
- and so in some ways it is, especially if you come across the
border from Nepal or brave the long road in from Golmud in Qinghai
Province.
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When
to Go
British nationals, Singaporeans and Malaysians don't
need a visa for visits of up China's climate is too varied for
any but the vaguest generalizations: summers in most parts of
the country are extremely hot and humid, which can make travel
even harder work than usual, and winters are generally bitterly
cold.
The south, however, is subtropical, with wet, humid summers (April
to September), when temperatures can approach 40°C, and a
typhoon season on the southeast coast between July and September.
Though it is often still hot enough to swim in the sea in December,
the short winters, from January to March, can be surprisingly
chilly.
Central China, around Shanghai and the Yangzi River, has brief,
cold winters, with temperatures dipping below zero, and long,
hot, humid summers. It is not without reason that China's three
"furnaces" - Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing - are all
in the Yangzi basin. Rainfall here is high all year round. Farther
north, the Yellow River basin marks a rough boundary in Chinese
heating habits, with central heating fitted as standard in buildings
north of here, helping to make northern China's harsh winters
a little more tolerable. Winter temperatures in Beijing rarely
rise above zero from December to March, and freezing winds off
the Mongolian plains add a vicious windchill factor. In summer,
however, temperatures can be well over 30°C. In the far north
, Inner Mongolia and Manchuria, winters are at least clear and
dry, but temperatures remain way below zero, while summers can
be uncomfortably warm. The Northwest gets fiercely hot in summer,
but without the humidity of the rest of the country, and winters
are as bitter as anywhere else in northern China. Tibet is ideal
in mid-summer, when its mountain plateaux are pleasantly warm
and dry. June to September are the wettest months with winter
temperatures in Lhasa frequently falling below freezing.
Overall, the best time to visit China is spring or autumn , when
the weather is at its most temperate. In the spring, it's best
to start in the south and work north or west as summer approaches;
in the autumn, start in the north and work south. If you can brave
the cold, winters are considerably enlivened by the preparations
for Chinese New Year; but during New Year itself, travelling can
be extremely difficult as offices close and much of the population
is on the move.
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