China Destinations & City Guides

Beijing is China's monumental imperial capital, uniting three millennia of dynastic architecture with bustling culinary alleys and quiet forest ridges along the Great Wall. Our UK-curated holidays arrange guaranteed Forbidden City timed entries, tranquil early-morning Mutianyu Great Wall ascents by enclosed cable car, and boutique courtyard stays steps from historic Wangfujing.

Once the eastern starting point of the Silk Road, Xi'an preserves China's most astonishing archaeological wonder: Emperor Qin's Terracotta Army of over 8,000 individualized clay soldiers. Beyond the excavation vaults, travellers love sunset walks along the 14km Ming City Wall, glowing Tang Dynasty water fountains at Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and culinary adventures through the Muslim Quarter.

Relaxed, leafy, and UNESCO-crowned as a City of Gastronomy, Chengdu is the ancestral home of the Giant Panda and China's capital of unhurried tea-house life. UK guests wake early for bamboo breakfast at the Chengdu Research Base before wandering Jinli Ancient Street, seeing Sichuan Opera face-changing performances, and cruising past the 71-metre Leshan Giant Buddha carved from river cliffs.

Cosmopolitan Shanghai bridges 1920s Art-Deco glamour along The Bund with record-shattering futuristic towers across the Huangpu River in Lujiazui. Between visits to serene 16th-century Yu Garden pavilions and Xiaolongbao soup dumplings in plane-tree-lined Former French Concession lanes, an easy morning excursion reveals lantern-hung stone bridges in nearby Zhujiajiao Water Town.