Things to Do in China (2026)

China · CN

Fobaota Temple

Fobaota (佛宝塔, the "Buddha Pagoda Temple") is a striking golden pagoda nestled in the Phoenix Mountain Scenic Area east of Chaoyang city, Liaoning. Completed in 2009 and modeled after a sacred golden relic tower unearthed from Chaoyang's historic North Pagoda, it enshrines relics of two Buddhas — Śākyamuni and Dipankara — making this one of the very few places in China where two sets of Buddhist relics rest side by side. Situated just steps from the Qing-dynasty Yanji Temple (延寿寺) in the mountain's "Lower Temple" zone, the pagoda is the modern centerpiece of a Buddhist landscape whose history stretches back more than 1,600 years to the time when Phoenix Mountain hosted the first Buddhist monastery recorded anywhere in Northeast Asia.

Historical place

China · CN

Yuanmingyuan Park

The Old Summer Palace — Yuanmingyuan in Chinese — is one of Beijing's most emotionally powerful sites. Once the grandest imperial garden ever created, it was looted and burned by Anglo-French forces in October 1860 during the Second Opium War. The ruins have been deliberately left unrestored, making this 350-hectare park an open-air monument to both extraordinary artistic achievement and catastrophic loss. What survives is haunting: shattered Baroque marble columns standing where they fell, vast placid lakes where pavilions once glimmered, and seasonal gardens that bloom over buried foundations. The park offers a fundamentally different experience from the fully restored Summer Palace just two kilometers away — here you are not looking at imperial magnificence intact, but at the exact point where it was destroyed.

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Mountain peak

China · CN

Suolawoma Peak

Suolawoma Peak sits on the high Changtang Plateau in Nyainrong County, a remote and almost entirely undocumented mountain in Tibet's Nagqu prefecture. The name is a Tibetan transliteration that also appears as a village name in the adjacent Zadoi County across the Qinghai provincial border, suggesting it marks a familiar local landmark in an otherwise roadless pastoral landscape. This is not a tourist destination. There is no recorded elevation, no trail, no facility, and no visitor infrastructure associated with the peak. Its listing on Google Maps is a coordinate gazetteer entry. What little can be said with confidence concerns the vast, sacred-mountain-studded plateau country in which it stands.

China · CN

Kaili Ethnic Culture Palace Theatre (Silver Show)

On the western edge of Kaili, the capital of Guizhou's Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, the Ethnic Culture Palace Theatre is the home stage of 《银·秀》 (the "Silver Show"), the region's flagship indoor musical spectacle. Part concert, part folk ritual, part laser-and-machinery stagecraft, it packs a roughly 1,200-seat auditorium with a panoramic retelling of Miao and Dong culture threaded through the silversmith's craft. For travellers it works as an easy evening anchor in Kaili: the town is the natural base for exploring Miao mountain villages and Dong drum towers, and this is the most concentrated way to meet that whole culture in a single, high-energy show—complete with singers and dancers in genuine hand-made silver costume.

Lake

China · CN

Poyang Lake

Poyang Lake (鄱阳湖), China's largest freshwater lake, is a landscape of extraordinary seasonal transformation. In summer it swells to over 3,000 square kilometres; in winter the water recedes to reveal vast mudflats and shallow pools that host up to a million migratory birds from across East Asia. Every year between November and March, critically endangered Siberian cranes and dozens of other species gather on its exposed wetlands, creating one of the world's great wildlife spectacles. Beyond its ecological importance, the lake carries over a thousand years of human history—from a famous naval battle that helped found the Ming Dynasty to the idiom born from its ancient flooding. Today, small lakeside towns like Wucheng have reinvented themselves as "Migratory Bird Towns," and boat tours along the waterway let visitors witness cranes, storks and spoonbills in a setting of reed beds and open winter sky.

Park

China · CN

Tianjin Binhai Aircraft Carrier Theme Park

On the shores of Binhai New Area, a retired Soviet aircraft carrier now serves as China's most unusual military theme park. The Tianjin Binhai Aircraft Carrier Theme Park is built around the Kiev, a 275-metre behemoth that once carried 33 jets and a crew of 1,400 during the Cold War. Today its flight deck, command centre, and ammunition chambers are open to the public, making it a National 4A scenic area that draws families, military-history buffs, and curious travellers alike.

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Museum

China · CN

Xidian University Museum

The Xidian University Museum is a comprehensive electronic science and technology museum on the south campus of Xidian University in Chang'an District, Xi'an. Opened in October 2017, it traces the development of electronics from military radio communications to modern computing and radar, showcasing nearly 5,000 collected artifacts with over 1,300 on display. Free to visit and easily reached by metro, the museum offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at China's electronic-technology heritage, with standout pieces ranging from a replica of the legendary "Half Radio" that sparked the PLA's communications history to a scale model of the 500-meter FAST radio telescope.

Finding your next place…

A little more
of China.

Fobaota Temple

Yuanmingyuan Park

Suolawoma Peak

Kaili Ethnic Culture Palace Theatre (Silver Show)

Poyang Lake

Tianjin Binhai Aircraft Carrier Theme Park

Xidian University Museum

Finding your next place…

A little more
of China.

Fobaota Temple

Yuanmingyuan Park

Suolawoma Peak

Kaili Ethnic Culture Palace Theatre (Silver Show)

Poyang Lake

Tianjin Binhai Aircraft Carrier Theme Park

Xidian University Museum