Great Wall
Strung along the peaceful, semi-ruined section of wall at Simatai are Ming dynasty watchtowers with lovely views of the surrounding hills.

Kashgar Market
An oasis on the Silk Road in medieval Turkestan, the ancient Muslim city of Kashgar is a thousand kilometres of desert away from the regional capital and boasts the mother of all bazaars every Sunday.

Potala Palace
Set against the high Himalayan plateau, Potala Palace attracts Buddhist pilgrims from all over China. It is also Tibet's most spectacular architectural site, including the jewelled tombs of the Dalai Lamas.

Aberdeen Harbour
The tightly packed junks and sampans in Aberdeen Harbour off Hong Kong island are home to a permanent floating city of boat people complete with restaurants, houseboats and water-taxis.

Terracotta Army
The eight thousand individually sculpted figures of the Terracotta Army, many of them life-size, have guarded the pyramid tomb of Qin Shi Huang for twenty centuries. The First Emperor's legacy has become one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Li River Cruise
A cruise on the Li River takes in a picture-perfect landscape of limestone pinnacles and iridescent green paddy fields as well as bamboo thickets, water buffalo and Guangxi's famous cormorant fishermen.

Xishuangbanna
Deep in the tropical south, the steamy forests of the tribal minority region of Xishuangbanna harbour picturesque villages of wooden huts, fields of sugar cane and a variety of exotic wildlife.

Dali
Tucked away in the Yunnanese mountains, Dali is an obligatory stop on the backpacker's grapevine. Swarming with foreigners, it has become a tourist haven and can be a welcome break from the harder realities of other parts of China.

Old City Shanghai
The twisting alleyways of the nineteenth-century ghetto of Old Shanghai are a world away from the nearby imperial waterfront. As overwhelming a blur of woks, vegetable stalls and bicycles as you'll ever find.

Lijiang
Looking like a page taken out of storybook China, Lijiang - the old capital of the Naxi kingdom - is a collection of wooden houses, stone bridges and cobbled streets in the foothills of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.