The vast country of China offers enough choice for several visits, as Anna Hyman points out.


Chengdu Pandas

A fluffy bundle of black and white fur hugged its keeper’s knees, before being scooped up and popped on to a small blue plastic rocking horse. Above it, slightly larger bundles of black and white fur reclined in trees, whilst in another enclosure six or seven furry adults sat around having their own version of a teddy bears’ picnic. Pandas! The pandas of the Chengdu Panda Research Base – arguably the cutest sight that China, the fourth largest country in the world, can offer the visitor.

Less cute, but even more astonishing, are the thousands of warriors that once guarded the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and now make up Xi’an’s Terracotta Army; the splendour of Beijing’s Forbidden City, the huge palace with its maze of passages, courts, halls and reputedly 9,999 rooms; the sheer size of Tiananmen Square; the sight of the Great Wall snaking its way across the horizon; and the beauty of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River.


Xi’an’s Terracotta Army

Until comparatively recently, virtually the only foreigners who saw China were visiting merchants, but today the country has opened its doors to tourism – indeed, it is forecast that by 2020 it will have become the world’s most popular tourist destination. Sadly, much of old China has been destroyed in the interests of high-rise commercialism, but not all that far from the bustle of major towns and cities are paddy fields and water buffalo, arid mountain plateaus, deserts and forests.

In such a vast country it is hardly surprising that there are some 55 different ethnic minorities each with its own way of life, colourful costumes, skills and indeed languages. For example, the Kazakh in the north, close to the border with Kazakhstan, are famous for their horsemanship; the matriarchal Naxi people of Sichuan and Yunnan use pictographic script; and the Li, who live on Hainan Island, produce colourful woven goods.

Apart from woven goods, China offers a vast array of shopping opportunities, from market stalls to factory gift shops. Look out for tea, carpets (which can be shipped back home), exquisite ceramics, silk, scrolls, fans, snuff bottles, jade and lacquerware. Mao memorabilia is popular but much of it has been manufactured for the tourist market. Be wary if buying from market stalls or if the item is very cheap – the jade might be inferior, the silk only rayon and the porcelain stencil decorated rather than by hand.

One visit to China will almost certainly not be enough. So having seen the Terracotta Army, the Great Wall and cruised the Yangtzi, travel further afield and watch the sun rise over the jagged peaks of the Yellow Mountains; visit the pandas at Chengdu or Wolong; marvel at the 233-feet (71-metre) Grand Buddha at Leshan; explore old Ming towns or the gardens of Suzhou; explore the foothills of Tibet; watch tamed cormorants fishing on the Li River; travel the Silk Road; wonder at statues in the Yungang Caves; see the coastal towns and cities of Fujian Province; and spend at least three nights in the vibrant city of Shanghai with its dramatic and futuristic Pudong district skyscrapers, the Bund, the bustling Huangpu River, fascinating old quarter and stunning Shanghai Museum – for a thrill, travel at speeds reaching 431 kmph on the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) train linking Shanghai with Pudong Airport, a journey taking just eight minutes.


Maglev Train

From water buffalo and donkey carts to a magnetic levitating train, the pace of life in China is changing.

Fact Box
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