What did Chinamaxxing look like? It was:

• 9 cities across 29 days.
• 260 Alipay transactions.
• 5,000km covered via train.
• 500km+ on foot.
• 40 various noodle dishes.
• 28 cross-city Didi rides.
• 11 hotels.
• 9 new acquaintances on WeChat.
• 3 blind foot massages.
• 2 national parks.
• 0 VPN disasters.

If you've ever read one of my articles, you'll know they follow a familiar structure. I spend a month typically working remotely in any given city, find an apartment on Airbnb, sign up to a coworking space and immerse myself in one place for that period.

For China, this playbook was thrown out. For a country so large, choosing any single city felt like it would fail in an effort to give the broadest perspective I was craving.

In it’s place, the plan was to cover as much ground as physically possible. Just under one month to sample as many regional cuisines. To visit cities I'd never heard of, let alone place on a map. To see diverse urban and rural landscapes.

Three nights in a city felt like roughly the ideal cadence. Enough to get a proper feel for a place and warrant unpacking, without it feeling overtly onerous or tiring. You could squeeze more into a one month schedule but this plan was built around the demands and realities of a full-time job. When in Asia, I work from 2PM onwards, which allows a significant chunk of free time in the mornings if you've got the appetite and energy to make something of it. Throw in weekends and a couple of public holidays, and you’ve got ample time to see something outside of your hotel's walls.

If you're looking for a conventional guide to China, this article will fall significantly short. There will be numerous omissions of attractions you'd expect to see on someone's bucket list itinerary. There will be no Great Wall of China. This trip aimed to get a feel for what day-to-day life looks like within the country in 2026 and to challenge the preconceptions and propaganda I'd absorbed over 36 years.

I'll start by reflecting on some of the gaps between expectation and reality on the ground, before going through each city visited and some tips if you fancy making the journey East yourself.

‍

Expectations

There would be some mind-bending technical advancements

You may be surprised to learn that this was an aspect of the trip that I found massively underwhelming. After having read so much, I was expecting to step into something resembling a set from a science fiction film. Technology that one could not begin to comprehend in the West. On the ground, I failed to witness very little of note. I saw several recreational drones, but not a sky dominated by a hive of delivery drones, of which i saw zero. I was in Wuhan during the recent robotaxi malfunction, but did not catch a glimpse of one in action across the entire month anywhere in the country. Whilst a humanoid robot won the recent Beijing half-marathon, I saw only one pathetically comical example in Guangzhou, moving in a thoroughly unimpressive manner. Most hotels feature the R2-D2-inspired robobutlers to ferry food deliveries to rooms, but these are often clunky lumps of machinery that are more of a nuisance and are remarkable only in their ability to clog up the lift system.

This was not a case of being locked in a hotel room for a month. Every conceivable minute I was not working, I was roaming the streets, and I failed to encounter anything worthy of note. Remarkable advancements are coming out of the country. But they are not yet a prevalent part of daily life in the way I anticipated.

Something of note perhaps, is that this is a population with an alarming collective fixation with screens. Nowhere is immune from this today, but the depth of absorption felt on a different level to anything I had witnessed elsewhere. Stepping into a restaurant or shop, I would often encounter the chef or attendant so utterly immersed in something on their phone that I hesitated to order, fearing the interruption would be on a par with disturbing someone mid-film. Meituan drivers appeared so engrossed in content on their screens whilst riding that it was remarkable I only witnessed one crash over the course of the month. Groups sitting together in bars would uniformly appear facing one another, yet unanimously staring into their screens playing games. China is by no means alone in this. But the depth and normalisation of what felt like a screen-first society, across all ages, felt unparalleled.

There would be some evidence of a highly-controlled society

Discussion surrounding a punitive social credit system in China routinely does the rounds on social media, hinting at a society whose every move is being gauged, judged and assessed by some central figure at the CCP. Much of this rhetoric feels as if it came out of the Covid era, when lockdowns were particularly severe, but it has lingered. On the ground, the very notion felt entirely misjudged. Except for Shenzhen, I saw a scant police presence in any city, nor did I see people acting in a way that suggested any intensive overarching security at large. Most people seemed far more concerned with perfectly orchestrating their dance moves for their next Douyin video than bearing the weight of any government surveillance.

The reliance on digital payments is something that often gets mooted. As a tourist, this system actually serves to works in your favour. It removes any ambiguity over whether you need to carry cash, and the integration of Alipay into the public transport system makes everything work considerably more effectively than registering with each state-run system. A government mandate that came into force in February 2026 now requires businesses to accept cash, which runs contrary to this argument that electronic payments are being maliciously enforced.

Another contentious point is the mandated use of government ID for services. The train system is entirely ticketless: you present your ID at the gate, and that gives you entry. The same applies to many public attractions and national parks. Having observed it firsthand, the benefits of a ticketless system for a network doing over four billion journeys annually feel like the more obvious operational need. As a tourist, it again works in your favour. You will have your passport with you for inter-city journeys, and most attractions happily accept a photo of your ID.

It would be naive to ignore the potential. It sets up the perfect infrastructure for a mass-surveillance state. But having witnessed it on the ground, it is difficult to argue that, as things stand today, this amounts to anything more than operational efficiency rather than intrusive observation.

And there are real benefits that stem from this. The notion of jumping the barriers is laughable. It is impossible to board the wrong train. No inspector is waking you up to check your ticket once you are on board. You are treated with courtesy and care throughout. You can leave luggage unattended in stations instead of dragging it to the toilet without a second thought of whether it will be there when you return. And I would be confident that the central government is making effective use of the data collected to determine where the next wave of infrastructure investment is most needed.

There would be a top-class rail system

The quality of the domestic train network exceeded all of my expectations. It is not flashy or glitzy. It exists as a highly effective means of transporting the enormous population across an impossibly large landscape. Every journey was on time. Zero cancellations. The stations are enormous, resembling international airport terminals, generally on the fringes of cities. Travelling through mountainous provinces like Hunan, which appear impenetrable, the quantity of tunnelling is staggering.

The wood-panelled interiors and reclining seats of the carriages make them particularly comfortable for longer journeys. Having travelled on other HSR networks in the region, I would have a preference for the Chinese rolling stock, better equipped for longer cross-country travel than the functional but often sterile-feeling Japanese and Taiwanese units. Every journey saw the twelve-carriage trains operating well below peak capacity, with surplus built into the system to handle significant seasonal demand.

A common criticism levelled at the network is that it continues to haemorrhage money, with only a small handful of lines turning a profit. Having travelled exhaustively on it, such criticisms feel like they miss the point. Isn't this the very purpose of state-run infrastructure? To operate otherwise unviable services for the greater good? It shines a particularly poor light on the inefficiencies found within the privatised joy that is the UK rail network. The millions wasted every year updating the branding on operators' rolling stock, of which the core beneficiary is the commissioned creative agency, not the end passenger. The numerous social media teams each operator employs, primarily to inform you that your train is late or no longer running. The convoluted attempts to provide affordability within the malaise of advance ticketing, railcards and off-peak-day-saver-any-time-return-conditioning.

The scale of the physical expanse and the size of the population make the economics of HSR stack up in China in a way that is difficult to rationalise elsewhere, but the excellence in execution is something to marvel at.

‍

Cities would be mainly grey, drab and functional

On reflection, I am not entirely sure where this assumption stemmed from, but it held no weight. All cities struck a balance mixing their natural features of rivers, mountains and lakes with intentional landscaping to create green, vibrant urban environments. Chengdu felt at times as if it were a settlement nature is trying to reclaim, with enormous green canopies adorning its sprawling network of overpasses. Shenzhen and Guangzhou, two of the most industrious cities in the country, have mountains quite literally within their city perimeters. Even Wuhan, which I can recall being cast as a grey, misty nightmare of a city in February 2020, vastly exceeded expectations, full of rivers, lakes and late spring cherry blossom.

‍

There would be visible state propaganda

I was expecting to see more overt state-orchestrated propaganda across the country. Given my inability to read a single sentence in Chinese, there is an acknowledged blind spot here. But very few Chinese flags were visible, and Xi Jinping, whom I expected to be a visually prominent figure, failed to materialise across the month. I watched Chinese TV in the hotels to get some sense of what messaging was being pumped into the population. There was nothing of note, aside from what felt like particularly rose-tinted soap operas romanticising life in the 1970s, and an English-language documentary on the Xinjiang province that felt like a not-too-subtle attempt at resetting the narrative between the CCP and the Uyghur population.

‍

Where to stay

Airbnb doesn't operate in China, leaving hotels as your only real option. More so than anywhere else i have travelled to, if you are planning a prolonged period of remote working, they couldn't be set up better for this purpose.

Most of the benefits listed below stem from an enormous oversupply across the country. Tier 1 cities are always going to have high demand, and most places will feel the strain during national holiday seasons, where you might find yourself competing with 1.4 billion others for a room. But if you plan correctly, it is truly a buyers market, unlike anywhere else.

✅ Highly competitive pricing

At around the £50 a night rate, you are not going to find 5-star hotels. What you will find at that price is modern, recently built hotels with comfortably sized rooms and quality communal areas in the city centre that would comfortably demand nightly rates five times that in a major European city. I was attempting to roughly keep a nightly budget somewhere pro rata’d to the monthly rent of an Airbnb which is easily achievable. On the higher end of the market you’ve got almost universal representation of all major Western hotel brands you would expect. On the other side you could spend as little as £20 a night if you are not concerned on a central location or having amenities in the hotel. It truly is a buyers market with a glut of options at every conceivable price point.

✅ Dedicated working areas

Most of the modern, business-oriented chains feature dedicated working areas towards the hotel lobby. I worked exclusively in these spaces over the course of the month. WiFi speeds were consistently above average, the interiors were stylish, aside from some heightened ambience during check-in hours, they were sufficiently peaceful. This is a significant time-saver, removing the daily need to head out and laboriously hunt through Mandarin-language map apps for a suitable coffee shop or coworking space. This is not something I would take for granted however and isn’t something necessarily guaranteed with a higher nightly rate. I cuilmatiively spent hours scrolling through photo trying to ascertain which place would be best in each city. If having a solid working area is a priority for you, I would feel confident recommending the places I picked out in each city.

✅ Laundry

Each hotel I stayed in featured dedicated rooms with at least three washers and three dryers, detergent included. Ironing boards and steamers were also available and free to use. I would put a wash on during the evenings whilst working, and it was infinitely easier than having to drag around your clothes to a nearby laundromat and engage with an Alipay application in half-translated Mandarin. For longer stays, its hard to overstate the convenience of this, if you are packing lightly and need to do a wash several times a week. There even seemed to be a member of staff who would transfer your clothes into the dryer and fold them into a bag afterwards.

✅ Flexible bookings

Practically every listing I encountered included free cancellation up to the day of check-in. On Trip.com you can often modify your length of stay after booking if your plans change. Double-check the specifics of your booking, but in general they are far more flexible than what you would typically expect. I checked out of my hotel in Xiamen a day early, assuming it was a sunk cost, only for the reception team to proactively refund me. Grateful as I was, from a commercial perspective, it was difficult to comprehend.

✅ Friendly staff

Without exception, every member of staff I encountered was particularly warm and welcoming. English was spoken sparsely, but there was a genuine willingness and proactivity on their behalf to accommodate via translation apps. You will often receive a small snack as a checkout gift and throughout the day I would be brought tea and water.

✅ Early check-ins

Due to the vast inventory, theres a good chance your room will already be waiting for you well before the allocated check in time. Except for one particularly busy hotel in Chengdu, I was able to check in early to every hotel after arriving on a morning train.

✅ Modern, minimal interiors

All of the Ji Hotel and Atour properties I stayed in had sleek, contemporary interiors which you would attach a hefty price tag in the West. They are genuinely enjoyable places to spend time in, not just somewhere to sleep and leave your bags which is useful if planning on spending the entire working week in them.

✅ Reliable food offerings

You won't find a Full English waiting in the mornings, but the breakfasts are well worth including in your nightly rate, usually for a small fee. Expect fried rice and noodles, steamed dim sum, wilted cabbage, eggs, fruit and often a dedicated noodle counter. It is not uncommon to find a complimentary light evening buffet served in the hotel restaurant as well. Again, something I have not encountered anywhere else globally.

🏅 Recommendation: Atour & Ji

If you are looking for a reliable hotel brand, look no further than Atour. I stayed at six of their properties and they offered the best mix of everything I was looking for, with dedicated working areas in each. The gyms are small but functional, universally offering a treadmill, bike, bench and dumbbells. The laundry rooms work flawlessly. Try to find the newest property they have in a city, usually identifiable by the lower number of reviews. The two older properties I stayed in, in Chongqing and Chaozhou, were still passable but felt significantly more tired than the rest. The brand is reliable enough that a low review count should be read as a sign of a newer, fresher property rather than anything untrustworthy.

Everything above applies equally to Ji Hotel, which loses a couple of marks for the absence of dumbbells in the fitness rooms, but offers well-designed interiors and a slightly less business-oriented atmosphere than Atour.

CitiGo operates on a similar concept to Atour but proved notably less reliable across my two visits. Dedicated working areas are provided but the general design quality and finish is a step down, and the brand has less of a footprint outside the coastal cities. I refunded my stay at the Guangzhou property after checking in, as it fell significantly below expectations.

I would avoid the high-rise apartment listings you may come across on Trip.com if you are planning on making use of any listed amenities. I initially opted for one in Chongqing and, whilst the apartment itself looked exactly like the photos, none of the communal facilities listed materialised, with the hotel management insisting they were either coming soon or out of order. Many of these appear to rent individual units or entire floors within multi-tenanted buildings, rather than operating as dedicated standalone hotels. If working is your priority, stick with the aformentioned brands.

‍

Route

Shanghai

I was already in the region, having spent the last month in Taiwan, so it was a short flight into Hongqiao airport. Minus the car brands on the taxis pulling into the arrivals area, everything felt surprisingly familiar.

Everywhere you go there is strong representation of nearly every Western brand. Starbucks. Costa Coffee. Tim Hortons on a scale which grossly exceeds the reality of its presence anywhere else on the globe. There is even Aldi, should you realise you forgot to pack your tinned bratwursts. This cosmopolitan feeling wasn't confined to isolated pockets. Even venturing deeper into residential areas, I encountered clusters of foreigners that vastly exceeded my expectations.

There is likely no better starting point if you want a soft landing to acclimatise in the country. You could easily spend an entire month in Shanghai, and I may well do that in the future. But you likely don't want your entire impression of based around this particularly cosmopolitan city.

‍

Places to explore

Shanghai Old Street, the Bund and Nanjing Road — Over a three-hour walk you can tick off most of the major landmarks. The ornate Ming-era architecture of the Old Street warrants a visit, even with its army of salesmen attempting to sell you Rolexes at every turn. Walking along the Bund on a Sunday morning you could be forgiven for momentarily thinking you were on the South Bank in London. With a surprisingly prominent number of Caucasian tourists, the grand Edwardian-style concession-era facades lining Nanjing Road and the gentle curvature of the river reminiscent of the Thames, it felt more like an extension of home than something completely alien.

Suzhou Creek — Once a heavily polluted eyesore, it has been redeveloped into kilometres of well-landscaped riverside greenway, passing through the more suburban western districts with a healthy stretch of cherry blossom in late March. An ideal evening run.

Century Park — The city's largest park, blending British, Japanese and Chinese garden styles. Worth a full lap, and connects easily with the Zhangjia River path back towards the Bund. Even though on the Pudong side of the river, easy to reach with the metro.

‍

Where to stay

CitiGO Hotel Jing'an Shanghai — £39/night. Smallish rooms but the ground floor lobby is intentionally set up for coworking, with long desks, plenty of power sockets and a soft-furnished seating area reminiscent of a WeWork. Solid internet, decent breakfast, terrible gym. West Nanjing Road metro station is around 15 minutes on foot. Suzhou Creek is under two minutes away. A reliable option if you need somewhere to work from; if you are visiting on a conventional holiday, better alternatives likely exist.

‍

Wuhan

The drab, grey, pandemic-stricken images coming out of Wuhan in early 2020 make it understandably unlikely to feature on many bucket list itineraries. You're probably not in a rush to stock up on goods from the wet markets. On the ground in April 2026 there isn't a scrap of evidence that the city was ground zero for Covid at the start of the decade.

Stepping out of the train station it felt like some of the refinement and sophistication of Shanghai had been lost en route. Entering the ride-hailing section of Hankou station you're bombarded with aggressive, nonsensical honking, persistent shouting and wafts of cigarette smoke drifting through.

It's the combination of what were three distinct cities, Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, so its footprint is diffused over a huge geographical area. Visiting mainly made sense as a way to break up the cross-country journey from Shanghai to Chengdu, but I also wanted to see somewhere that wasn't a conventional tourist draw.

On reflection, there's little reason to go out of your way to visit Wuhan. But it's worth stopping by for a night.

‍

Places to explore

Wuhan Riverside — Hankou Jiangtan is the largest riverside cultural park in Asia and one of the best places to take in the evening light shows, where the city's skyline gets lit up across the water. During the day it's an ideal route for running; following the park south takes you to the confluence of the Yangtze and Han rivers, and from there across to 龟山 (Guī Shān), Tortoise Hill, where the views over Wuchang are excellent. The whole route is well landscaped, and in late March still had a healthy amount of cherry blossom on the trees.

Dong Lake — Well worth the ten-minute Didi ride if you're based the other side of the river in Hankou. Wuhan is known as the City of a Hundred Lakes, and this is one of the more accessible, a peaceful tree-lined expanse that makes an ideal backdrop for a morning run. A channel connects it to Donghu, the largest urban lake in China, if you have more in the legs.

Jianghan Road — One of China's five most famous commercial streets, Jianghan Road is best visited after dark, when street food vendors trade well into the early hours. The streets surrounding Lanling Road, around ten minutes away on foot, are lined with dimly lit cocktail bars and craft beer spots.

‍

Where to stay

Atour Hotel Wuhan Tiandi Hankou Riverside — Among the best Atour properties I stayed at. Occupying the upper floors of a newly constructed commercial building, all rooms have panoramic river views and spacious, high-spec interiors. The ground floor lobby is well set up for working, and there are enough food options in the surrounding area. The riverside park is immediately outside and Jianghan Road is around a 45-minute walk. If visiting purely for leisure, you may want to be closer to the pedestrian street.

‍

‍

Chengdu

If you are coming from the east of the country, even with high-speed rail it's a significant journey to reach the capital of Sichuan province, but it's somewhere I'm happy I made the effort to see and well worth factoring into your plans.

One of China's designated Park Cities, you're aware of this distinction from the moment you leave the train station. On the journey into the centre there is a perceptible sensation of entering an urban canopy. Kilometres of flyovers are adorned with creeping fig, a vertical greening that gives the intentional illusion of somewhere the natural surroundings are reclaiming. It's remarkably well done. The Fuhe river features continuous kilometres of waterside parks and cycle paths, with older men deeply engaged in evening mahjong and young families in tea houses.

The tingling, novel sensation of the Sichuan pepper is one of the defining characteristics of the region's cuisine and reason enough to visit on its own.

Chengdu is somewhere I'd pay serious consideration to spending a longer stint working from. It has a perceptibly energetic feel, one of the country's largest tech hubs, with the weekend atmosphere around Chunxi feeling nothing short of electric. There's enough specialty coffee shops and bars to work your way through over several weekends, and theres plenty to explore out doors in the easily accessible wider Sichuan region.

‍

Places to explore

Panda Research Base — Home to around 200 giant pandas on the outskirts of the city, it's an incredibly well put together facility, well landscaped with great wayfinding and signage. Whatever you do, avoid a Saturday morning, where it feels as if you are competing with the full weight of the Chinese population to catch a glimpse of them. The intensity of the jostling, pushing and queuing reminded me most closely of the rush at Glastonbury, but with more pushchairs and children crying. There's something of a dichotomy in the heavily sedate, timeless manner of the panda bear gnawing on a bamboo shoot with a thousand onlookers.

Shahe River — Worth factoring in a run along the Shahe River however long you're in the city. Along its banks you'll find tea shops and mahjong tables under leafy canopies, and it connects to a much larger urban greenway network ideal for longer journeys on two wheels.

People's Park and Kuanzhai Alley — Put aside a couple of hours to explore the city's largest park, which on a Friday morning was remarkably busy with local residents singing, performing tai chi and sipping tea. Weave in a visit to the neighbouring Huanhuaxi Park before heading over to Kuanzhai Alley, firmly on the tourist trail but worth walking through for the Qing Dynasty architecture and street food.

‍

Where to stay

Park Inn by Radisson Chengdu Chunxi Road Taikoo Li — £42/night. Appeared recently refurbished, with large, modern rooms. A convenient base, five minutes from the hectic evening crowds on Chunxi Road and equidistant from the city's major draws, with around a 25-minute drive to the Panda Base. Being in the very centre of the city, traffic was woeful at peak times. The ground floor working area is passable for short stints. Skip the breakfast.

‍

‍

Chongqing

Even writing this three weeks after visiting, I am still struggling to process my thoughts on Chongqing. This was unlike anything else I had seen in China, or in the world for that matter. The sheer intensity of the urban development was almost intimidating. I feel confident that in most cities I can get cover enough ground in 72 hours to have sufficient enough understanding to make an accurate judgement on it but Chongqing was somewhere I felt defeated by in this regard. This was the one city I would visit purely as a tourist. I didn’t gain any satisfaction from working there.

I stayed in Jiefangbei which places you right in the heart of the Yuzhong island. What is fascinating about this area, and the city more widely,  is that the glitzy skyscrapers are not reflective of a gentrieifed CBD area like Canary Wharf. Mixed amongst them there are an insane density of regular apartment buildings. Imagine if Canary Wharf had somewhere like Deptford embedded in it.

There’s a lot to marvel at. Deep, rennovated caves lined with hot pot restaurants. The metro line joining into the apartment building. The sky high platform at. The pedestrian streets at X and X. The old buioldings at X. The old area climbing up the stairs.  My suggestion would be to do 48 hours there on pure vacation, soak it up and get out. I had planned for 5 days but massively scoped it back once I arrived on the ground.

‍

Places to explore

Jialing River - You can cover several of the iconic attractions you've likely seen referenced on social media in a single Chongqing run of under five miles. From Jiefangbei, head to Kuixinglou square, which gives the illusion of being at ground level when you are in fact 22 floors up. Grab an elevator down and run along the recently renovated Jialing River waterfront until you hit Liziba Station, famous for the metro line that passes directly through the middle of a residential tower. In all honesty both are worth glancing at for a few minutes before heading off. They make better pit stops on a run than setting aside an entire morning for.

Yangtze River path - If you want an alternative to the Yangtze River Cableway, you can cover the same ground on foot and take in much of the same skyline. It's a reliably flat route, which is no small thing in a city where flat ground is genuinely hard to come by. Finish up at the metro station near Jianyuan Road for a straightforward ride back into Yuzhong.

Run north -

‍

Where to stay

Atour Hotel, Bayi Square, Jiefangbei, Chongqing

‍

‍

Zhangjiajie

A welcome change of aesthetic after the intense urbanity of Chongqing. Even if you don't recognise the name, there's a good chance you've seen its national parks across social media over the last couple of years. Some of the most beautiful scenery in the country is surprisingly convenient to visit, with high-speed rail making it effortless to weave into your itinerary.

This is by no means somewhere to set up a base for an extended period. The city centre feels entirely geared up to serve the constant stream of visitors passing through, like an alpine ski town. It felt like somewhere to get in, marvel at the sights and make a swift departure. If you are working European hours, you can quite easily weave these attractions into your standard working day. You've got two main sites. Tianmen Mountain and the national forest park. They each offer enough to warrant seeing both. I split them over two days, leaving the hotel at 8:00 and back at my desk by 14:00, with neither feeling rushed. You could theoretically combine both into one day but you'll likely have to rush and cut something.

Having the extra day also gives you some much needed flexibility around weather. Due to a diabolical-looking forecast, I was close to cancelling the visit entirely, expecting wall-to-wall rain for 72 hours. Take those forecasts with a generous pinch of salt. The surrounding mountains make the weather unpredictable and it's likely not to be entirely reflective of conditions higher up.

‍

Places to explore

Stairway to heaven & Top of tianamen mountain - Visible from the city centre on a clear day, you'll likely recognise the iconic vast cavity in its cliff face and the path leading up to it, known as the 'stairway to heaven'. The views are as spectacular as any photo you've seen and well deserving of the social media hype. There are several routes up the mountain, with networks of stairlifts and buses ferrying you up and down on your packaged ticket. I opted for Line B, which takes you up by bus and down by cable car. There didn't feel any meaningful difference in the experience, whichever route you take. Once you reach the cave entrance, it's a heart-pumping 999 steps to the top, and from there, a surreal series of elevators carry you through the interior of the mountain to the summit. You then have a couple of hours of wandering at the top, with well-documented paths looping around the perimeter. If you have a phobia of heights, you may want to swerve the glass-bottomed staircases which hug the sharp drops.

If you are on a tight schedule and only have one day in Zhangjiajie, this is arguably the most convenient option, though there is less ground to cover on foot if you want a full day out. Tickets can be bought on Trip.com and cost around £25, which includes the entrance and transport. Go as early in the day as you possibly can. By the time I was descending at midday, the tranquil morning serenity had been eroded by impenetrable crowds of tour groups making liberal use of loudspeakers. No need to pack food or drink either, with plenty of options on site, including what may well be the world's highest Burger King.

Avatar mouyntains - Around a 45-minute taxi from the centre of Zhangjiajie and actually closer to the town of Wulingyuan. If you are looking to clock up more miles on foot and get onto hiking trails with some elevation, this is a superior option to Tianmen Mountain. Get a Didi to the South Gate Entrance where you can either take a cable car up to Yuanjiajie, or follow steep but well-paved paths to reach the top. The views across the quartz-sandstone peak forest are impressive, although not radically different from what you may have already seen if you've already visited Tianmen Mountain. The highlight was the 7km Golden Whip Stream hike along the base of the pillars, which gives you an entirely different perspective on the scale of the formations. Once you reach the Geopark Museum there is a regularly departing shuttle bus to the East Gate, from where you can easily call a Didi back to Zhangjiajie. The ticket gives you access to the park for four days. If you are considering multiple visits, staying in Wulingyuan, which sits immediately outside the park, makes considerably more sense than commuting in daily from Zhangjiajie.

Where to stay

Zhangiiaiie Tianmen Mountain Ropeway Tianmenju Atour Hotel Would issue a strong recommendation for this hotel, particularly if you are considering working from here. Around a 10 minute walk from the cableway station, this was one of the newest Atours I stayed in , hotel feels as if it was opened within the last couple of years. Rooms are spacious and bright and there’s a perfect coworking lobby space on the ground floor. One of the nicest working environments I found on the trip.

Changsa

After feeling somewhat on a heavily trodden tourist trail between Chengdu and Zhangjiajie, I booked Changsha with the explicit intent of being somewhere I'd never heard of.

The three days spent there were unfortunately marred by a depressing mix of persistent rain and threatening clouds, which I'm told is an entirely typical experience of the Hunan capital, a destination renowned for uninspiring weather throughout most of the year.

It's an enormous place. A population of over 10 million would make it one of the five largest cities in Europe. It has a glittering LED-infused skyline, a heaving pedestrian street and a distinct regional cuisine.

I enjoyed it. It satisfied a need. If you're on a tight schedule, there's little reason to prioritise it, but if you catch a glimpse of good weather whilst in the vicinity, a few nights won't disappoint.

‍

Places to explore

Orange Island - A green, well-landscaped park sitting in the middle of the Xiang River, famous for the giant sculpture of Chairman Mao depicting him during his student days at the Hunan First Normal University. A perfect running route where you can easily clock up 10km. A free ticket is required, available through a WeChat mini app at the entrance, and a photo of my passport was sufficient without needing to carry the physical document.

Yuelu Mountain - Sitting on the western bank of the Xiang River opposite Orange Island, the attribution of 'mountain' is a little generous for what is essentially a wooded hillside overlooking the city, but it's a popular spot for locals and worth a couple of hours pottering around. Entrance is again via a WeChat mini app, though no ID was required on this one.

Hunan Martyr's Park -

‍

Where to stay

Atour Hotel Changsha Gukaifu Temple Furong Middle Road - Atour occupy the top three floors of a 60-floor skyscraper, around a kilometre north of the main pedestrian street. What makes it worth considering is the working lounge, a well-designed space with panoramic views north and south, soft furnishings and complimentary coffee throughout the day. Worth booking specifically for this alone.

‍

‍

Xiamen

After a six-hour train journey from Changsha, stepping off in Xiamen felt like entering an entirely different country. The dense overcast clouds that had plagued Hunan were replaced with a lighter, tropical feel. The largest city in Fujian province, built around a small island off the coast, it became one of China's original special economic zones in 1980 and somewhere that didn't transform as radically as its equivalents in Guangdong.

Xiamen provided something completely different to anywhere I'd seen on the trip to date. Staying close to Zhongshan Road, the surrounding area felt as if little had changed in twenty years. Low-rise buildings. Weathered facades. A calmer pace. The late spring weather placed it firmly in shorts and t-shirt territory, or you could confidently dispense with the t-shirt altogether if you were a Chinese man over the age of 50.

There's plenty on offer to warrant passing by. Alongside the attractions below, it had one of the highest densities of specialty coffee shops I'd encountered in the country, a distinct Fujianese cuisine and a pace of life that made it feel one of the more liveable cities on the trip, if not the most exciting.

‍

Places to explore

Gulangyu Island - A perfect route for a pre-work morning run. The ferry takes around five minutes from the mainland and runs several times an hour. Bring a photo of your ID to purchase a ticket, no physical copy of the document is required. The entire island is car-free, with beaches on the western shore offering views across the city skyline and out towards the Taiwan Strait. Food and drink options are plentiful across the island, with the commercial centre concentrated around Longtou Road.

Wanshi Botanical Garden - Comfortably one of the best botanical gardens I can recall visiting. Vast and well landscaped, with numerous installations spread across its grounds. A secluded hiking trail leads up towards the Nanputuo Temple before dropping out of the park at Baizhui Gate. Compact enough to cover in a single morning, but substantial enough to warrant a full day if you combine it with the adjacent Dongpingshanshe.

Yuandang Lake - A tidal lagoon with a running track around its perimeter. Worth a roughly 5km loop at sunset where the skyline starts starting up.

‍

Where to stay

Xiamen Yidu Homestay - Would recommend mainly to to make the most of the working area in the main lobby which is bright, well air-conditioned and has a good ambience throughout the day. It offers a decent breakfast which is included in the price, is well located, around a 5 minute walk from Zhongshan Road. The neighbourhood immediately to the East around Guyong Road had lots of good places to explore.

‍

‍

Chaozhou

I spent approximately 22 hours in Chaozhou, so could hardly proclaim to know it well, but it served a purpose of seeing one last prefecture-level city before heading into the anticipated intensity of the southern tier-1 megacities of Guangdong. This is the sort of place which, when scanning a map with an untrained eye, looks entirely inconsequential. I was anticipating the Chinese equivalent of a small urban settlement, somewhere like Eastbourne in the UK. In reality, it's a significant place, home to around 2.2 million people. It's a surprisingly good spot to spend a day if you want to break up your journey. Paifang Street, which wraps around the fortified walls, is alive with commotion, and the Guangji Bridge is worth passing by, one of the oldest surviving bridges in China and somewhere I vaguely recognised from having seen it referenced before. It's served by Chaosan High Speed Rail station, around a 20-minute taxi from the centre, with services running around two hours south to Guangzhou and roughly 90 minutes north to Xiamen. Not a destination in itself, but no harm in passing by.

‍

Places to explore

Hanjiang river - If you have limited time in the city, this route covers most of the key attractions, passing Guangji Bridge and the well-preserved historic centre just to the west. Well landscaped throughout, with scope for a longer run taking in the river island to the south.

‍

Where to stay

Chaozhou People's Square, Chengxin West Road, Atour X Hotel - A solid but unremarkable option. I opted for it mainly for the working space on the ground floor which was a fine base for a day. Would return.

‍

Guangzhou

I really enjoyed Guangzhou. It had an urgency to it that I hadn't felt anywhere else to date. Your experience of it is likely to be defined by where you choose to stay. To the west, on the banks of the Pearl River, you have the more traditional, unsanitised wholesale and packing hub of Liwan. Its commercial streets were busy, hectic, aggressive mix of motorbikes and articulated lorries shipping textiles.

Six kilometres east sits the more modern, polished CBD of Tianhe, which is likely your better option for a longer stay. I stayed just outside the main commercial area, near Wuyangcun metro station, which had more of a neighbourhood feel. Worth considering if you want some local character and something beyond malls on your doorstep, yet easily walkable to the centre when needed. Whilst not on a par with Shanghai in terms of how international it felt, it was noticeably more so than anywhere else. This was likely compounded by the Canton Fair trade show running simultaneously, which felt as if it had drawn traders in from every conceivable corner of the globe, but there is a notable expat community in the city on a level I hadn't encountered elsewhere.

I spent four nights and could have comfortably stayed a week or longer. You've got Baiyun Mountain on your doorstep, countless riverside running routes, well-landscaped parks and an entire world of Cantonese cuisine to explore. Somewhere I'll return to on a future visit.

‍

Places to explore

Liwan - You can cover most of the key sites in the Liwan district over an afternoon's walk. Worth passing through the wholesale textile street, possibly the most frenetic neighbourhood I encountered in the country, with hundreds of independent traders shipping goods and parcels strewn across every pavement. The much calmer Shamian Island sits just to the south, and appeared to be one of the most popular spots for photographs in the city. From there, follow the Pearl River east before cutting north into Beijing Road Pedestrian Street, one of the busiest commercial strips in Guangzhou.

Liuhua Lake Park - One of the city's best running spaces, although perhaps not on a Sunday morning where it felt as though a good chunk of Guangzhou's 18 million population were already there. You can cut through the adjacent Yuexiu Park if you want some more elevation.

Baiyun Mountain - Would confidently place this at the top of your outdoor sights in the city. A hike running through Moxing Ridge on well-maintained paths, looking down over hazy views across Guangzhou. There's a cable car to the summit but the route isn't particularly taxing, so the walk is likely the better option for most. The full length is easily manageable on foot, with a metro line back into the centre from whichever end you finish at. If passing via the North Gate, stop off at Monkey Pai Coffee. Their single origin Geisha would rank as one of the best cups I had in the country.

Opposite canrtion tower - If you're staying around Tianhe, this is a great route for exploring Ersha Island, with the Guangzhou Opera House and Canton Tower visible en route.

‍

Where to stay

JI Hotel (Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town Wuyangcun Subway Station) - I loved the location, sitting just outside the core of Tianhe with more of a neighbourhood feel and the highest density of good coffee shops I'd encountered on the trip. Would struggle to solidly recommend the hotel on the basis of it having a single lift to accommodate thirteen floors, and communal areas with no air conditioning. You can quite comfortably find yourself sweating on the eighth floor for an excessive amount of time waiting for it to work its way up.

Liangyou Qicheng Hotel (Guangzhou Beijing Road Ximenkou Subway Station) - I spent one night here to see more of the Liwan area before checking into the next hotel. Clean, large rooms and good value for one night considering all of the rates appeared higher due to the trade show.

CitiGO Hotel Guangzhou Tianhe Taikoo Hui - Comfortably the worst hotel experience I had in the country. I had originally booked on the basis of enjoying their branch in Shanghai, but this property felt significantly more dated than the photos suggested, and on arriving the smell of damp was so overwhelming I checked out immediately and got a full refund. Much better options elsewhere.

‍

‍

Shenzen

The last stop, and somewhere with an entirely different feel to its Cantonese neighbour Guangzhou and to anywhere else I'd seen in the country. Sitting adjacent to Hong Kong, just 15 minutes away by rail, Shenzhen has exploded into arguably the country's most technologically advanced city, its development driven by its status as a special economic zone and its emergence as a global centre for tech manufacturing and exports.

From everything I'd read, it felt like somewhere that would be overly sanitised, lacking the character and charm of Guangzhou, and without the cosmopolitan complexity of Shanghai. Like Shanghai, it seemed as though it might not offer the truest feel of the country.

On the ground it certainly felt different. All of the infrastructure felt newer. There was a perceptible security presence around the Futian CBD, with armed guards visibly on patrol. It felt serious, more business-oriented.

Whilst you may not be getting the most culturally immersive Chinese experience, its still well worth factoring into your itinerary. There’s some great spots for hiking and running within the city and has one of the most contemporary feeling ambiences I encountered.

‍

Places to explore

Meilin Mountain Country Park - Perfect for a morning hike before work. Get a Didi to the Meiling Reservoir and take one of several paths up which follow it around the perimiter. Routes are well paved but expect some strenuous climbs as the trail rises and drops between numerous peaks.

Lianhuashan Park - Large park at the edge of the CBD with some challenging elevation to be found towards the eastern perimeter. Drop down into the Civic Center square below around sunset for some great shots of the skyline.

Shenzhen Bay Park - It's around a 7-mile run from the Nanyou district, tracing the bay back into the Futian CBD. Beautifully landscaped parks line the route, with dedicated cycle lanes and running paths, and the Shenzhen Bay Bridge sits just visible in the distance, connecting across to Hong Kong. Aim for a clear day if the weather allows.

‍

Where to stay

JI Hotel (Shenzhen Jingtian Metro Station) - You could quite comfortably stay right in the commercial centre of Futian, but if you are there for a few nights and want something with more of a neighbourhood feel, staying just outside it near Jingtian metro stop is worth considering. This Ji Hotel has all the features you'd expect, with a particularly well-designed open-plan coworking space in the lobby and some of the largest rooms encountered on the trip. Around a ten-minute walk to the leafy Lianhuashan Park, and to Cuiye Street, home to a stretch of around ten back-to-back specialty coffee shops. Undoubtedly the best street for coffee in the entire country.

‍

‍

Before arriving

Set up Alipay

Alipay essentially acts as a wrapper for your home debit card, allowing you to pay via QR code scanners at merchants of all sizes. It's painless to set up. In a store, the merchant scans a barcode you show from the app and your card is debited directly. In restaurants, you scan a code with the Alipay app and order from within the restaurant's mini-app. It works seamlessly. Forget carrying cash or cards. Within Alipay you'll find a gateway to all manner of services you may need in day-to-day life. Ordering taxis via Didi, unlocking city bikes and even leaving luggage at train stations can all be done via mini-apps housed within its ecosystem. It does require some perseverance. The UI degrades heavily when translated into English, the apps-within-apps concept is a UX nightmare, and the performance sapped my iPhone to the extent it felt like you were using a BlackBerry browser in 2010.

‍

Set up WeChat

The WhatsApp equivalent for China, which will inevitably prove useful. It has a similar payments infrastructure to Alipay, with mini-apps worth exploring. A helpful backup on the occasional instance where Alipay wasn't supported.

‍

Download AMAP

Whilst Google Maps technically works in China, you'll find the maps are heavily distorted, with roads appearing to run across water and attractions placed nonsensically in the middle of rivers. The issue stems from China's mandatory use of its own coordinate system, which offsets all map data and renders foreign mapping apps unreliable. AMAP is your best replacement, but I found it a painful experience to use day to day. Apple Maps functions and draws data from AMAP as its source, but is often incomplete and lacks sufficient depth in listings. As someone who opens Google Maps around twenty times a day and attempts to validate any restaurant prior to visiting, this took some time to adjust to but eventually became somewhat liberating.

‍

Get an eSIM

With a foreign eSIM on your phone routed via either Hong Kong or Singapore, you'll forget entirely that internet access in the country sits behind the Great Firewall. All your day-to-day services will work as expected, with it functioning as a de facto VPN, data routed outside the country. This only applies to foreign eSIMs, so get it set up before arriving with your provider of choice. Worth noting that some AI services including Anthropic and OpenAI may not function reliably when routed via Hong Kong, so opting for Singapore routing is preferable if you rely on these tools heavily.

‍

Check your VPN

Unless you plan on tethering from your phone for the duration of the trip, which is certainly feasible, you will need a solid VPN. Test it before you leave, though performance in your home country is no reliable indicator of what you will find on the ground, as the experience inside China can differ significantly. I opted for LetsVPN, which has a reputation for being more effective within China than many of the more popular western alternatives. The Chinese government has made continuous efforts to restrict VPN usage, and a wave of crackdowns in early 2026 caused widespread outages across some of the most used providers, including LetsVPN. Expect this situation to worsen and keep an eye on Reddit or other forums for the latest recommendations before you travel.

‍

Download Trip.com

This was my first time using Trip.com and I wouldn't consider using anything else within the country. It's a rock-solid, reliable option for booking hotels, trains and activity tickets, with a much wider availability of brands than you'll find on other OTAs. They act as an official booking operator with the Chinese government, which makes the ticketing process surprisingly seamless.

There are relatively chunky fees for booking train tickets via the platform, which can add up if travelling frequently (around £5 per £50 ticket), but given it means avoiding the headache of the official 12306 app, it's a fee well worth paying,

It accepts credit card payments in your local currency, which is a bonus if paying for multiple bookings and making use of free cancellation policies to keep flexibility on the ground.

Having all your bookings for both accommodation and trains in one place helps map out your day-to-day logistics, with alerts on any potential overlapping bookings. The in-app support is surprisingly efficient should you need assistance at any point, and it's relatively easy to accumulate rewards over the course of a month and ascend their scheme to where some genuinely valuable benefits are on offer.

‍

Get some form of passport holder

Your passport has the potential to take a daily beating, being used as your ticket for trains, hotels and attractions throughout. It's worth investing in something to keep it protected whilst on the move, as you'll be making heavier use of it than in any other country I've visited.

‍

Tips

Bring your running shoes

I can't think of many better places to explore on foot than China. Every day I looked forward to covering some expanse of a river, lake or city park on a run, with well-marked routes to be found across every city I visited. In somewhere like Wuhan it's hard to make a dent across such a large physical expanse simply by walking for two hours. On a restricted time schedule, a light jog allows you to take in infinitely more than you may anticipate.

‍

Make a rough route plan

I had made an outline which I adjusted as the trip progressed, cutting some cities short and extending others. Having a clear plan helps when scheduling longer train journeys, but this is somewhere you don't need to stick to your itinerary religiously. The exception to this would be travelling during national holiday seasons, when bookings surge dramatically across both trains and hotels. Having the freedom to change plans on the fly was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the trip. Lock in your Tier 1 city dates and enjoy flexibility on the surrounding legs.

‍

Book a return flight

You may not be asked at the Chinese border itself, but your airline will likely ask prior to boarding whether you have a return flight booked. I used a temporary PNR service as I was planning to exit the country by train to Hong Kong, and train tickets were not yet available at the time of booking.

‍

Conclusion

This is probably the best time there will be to visit the country with consdiations to weighing up cost and convenience

‍

Positives

The costs

You can comfortably eat three times a day for under £10. Cross-city taxi rides rarely seem to exceed £3. Nightly rates on quality hotels can quite feasibly match a nightly rate for your rent. Rides on the metro never exceeded 30p. A traditional, back-crackingly thorough chinese massage can cost around £15 a hour. Whatever your budget China will work in your favour.

The food

I was of the understanding that the typically Cantonese-inspired cooking you find in every provincial UK town was some vaguely mangled consturction of the nations cuisine which bore no resembelance to what you find on the ground. In reality it was actually a lot closer to what I felt used to. Each province has a distinct character in it’s food, but you’ll inevitably find plenty of dishes you’re familiar with. Kung Pao chicken, fried rice and noodles, dumplings. Exploring each cities foods was one of the highlights of the trip. After a week of the  perceptible, sometimes unwanted tinger of the Sichuan pepper.

Accomodation

I’ll say no more than what was mentioned before, but this is a highly attractive part of the experience if you value clean, modern and affordable accommodation,

Convenience

Once you’ve acclimatised after the steep learning curve got everything set up, day to day life is a breeze. Payments via Alipay become a breeze. Getting around the country with train, rail and metro services work predicitibly and cheaply. Booking entrance to activties with trip.com is straight forward and reliable. Hotels and travel tickets are generally flexible and permit you a degree of freedom with your plans at zero cost which is rare. Breakfast is usually included in your room rate, your laundry is half handled by hotel staff, if you’re revisiting another chain of the same hotel brand you are likely already connected to their wifi. Your coworking space is waiting for you in the hotel lobby. There’s a load of short, individually minute details which compound and make such an aggressive looking itinerary remarkably painless. Attempt a similar schedule in the UK and you’ll be lumped with extortionate on the day rail prices and hotel prices. In somewhere like Thailand the idea of riding one of their trains daily and attempting to book rail tickets would kill any joy of a flexible trtip. C

Culturally different

The list of truly different places to visit in 2026 is ever steadily diminishing and visiting China today is likely a radically different and more familiar proposition to what it was 10 or even 5 years ago. But it’s still somewhere with an entirely different cultural landscape worth witnessing. That gap is likely to be radically smaller than what you may imagine,

Visa free travel

Recent years have seen huge numbers of countries gain visa-free access to the country, with the UK being one of the most recent additions as of February 2026. Traditionally you had to include a full itinerary with records of accommodation as part of your application. Arriving at Chinese immigration in 2026 couldn't be easier with just an arrival card to be filled out and routine biometrics recorded.

Negatives

You do need to put some extra effort in to get set up

There will always be some friction involved in visiting China. The apps, the language barrier, the firewall. The effort really is minimal but it exists.

Crowds

This was nowhere near as bad as I had heard prior to the trip. But it has the potential to significantly lessen your enjoyment of any attraction. If you see any attraction suggesting to arrive early, heed its advice. The Chengdu Pandabase was perhaps the best example I witnessed of how close it can come to tainting an experience. The depth and intensity of the crowds I could only equate to being at Notting Hill Carnival, thousands of families simultaneously competing  to get the perfect photo with little regard to anyone around them. Arrive early, avoid weekends and holiday seasons and you’ll likely be fine, but if you plan days of back to back excursions and don’t mitigate against the potential for the worst, you’ll likely leave frustrated disappointed.

Difficult to make meaningful connections

With english spoken more sparsley than anywhere else I can recall visiting and if you are in the position of having a complete absence of Mandarin, it can be difficult to make a lot of connections on the ground. With the exception of Shanghai and Guangzhou I didn’t see much of an expat community

VPN has the potential to be problematic

There was never an occasion where bypassing the great firewall was truly problematic. But it can sure be frustrating. Continuously circling around various VPN destinations, (often having to avoid the best option in Hong Kong if trying to connect to AI Services) becomes grating, especially when working later into the evening. For someone who needs 100% reliability and uptime with zero chance for error, its a set up that just wont work for you. If you can deal with a 15 second interruption every two hours to momnetraily adjust your routing from Brazil to India North, it’s nothing more than a mild periodic nuissance than anything debilertating. This was an aspect which contributed to me continuously deprioritisiing the visit. Unless your life depeends on 100% robust uptime, you will be fine.

Crowds and volume

There is an entirely different social etiquette surrounding noise in the public realm within the country. It would not be considered unrude to blast your reels from your smartphone whilst on a train carraige or sitting at a communal table in otherwise sedate space.Similar scenarios in Europe would likjely provoke a meeting of dissatisfied eyes frowning in a collective disdain of a lack of common appreciation of the common decency this do not occur. Hotel lobbies are ideal environments to witness this first hand. I witnessed several large groups of mature families checking in, acting with a degree of commoradarie and brashness that would generally only be reserved for an English stag do who drank 8 pints on the journey over, shouting, jostling and remonstrating with the hotel staff. I’ve concluded that this usually seems

What would I do differently?

Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything in the itinerary. There was a good mix of cities, both Tier 1 powerhouses and those lesser known. Whilst the experience doesnt differ fundamentally between them, it’s worth seeing both. An additional trip to another national park would’ve been welcomed. I may have pushed too hard on some of the train distances. Even though the time was spent solely reclined on a chair listening to podcasts, a six hour train from Changsa to Xiamen isn’t the optimal to start your work day. Ideally three hours is the most you’d want to cover in a morning to be comfortable. If I’d known how miserable the weather would have been in Hunan I’d have likely altered the dates but it wasn’t catastoprhic enough to ruin the week. I’d definitely consider a return trip to explore the countries extremities. In the south Kunming and Haikou both feel like they’d offer something different to anything I’d seen on this journey. Xinjiang appears to bare no meaning ful resemblance to anything. Harbin again looks like somewhere with an erntirely different aesthetic profile. Trying to attach any of those cities into this particular schedule would’ve likely been too.

It feels like a point in time where convenience and cost are meeting on some form of cost-benefit