Inevitably, Beijing is on everyone's itinerary, and the Great Wall and the splendour of the Imperial City are certainly not to be missed. It's a city that's easy to be in, and enjoy, but with skyscrapers aplenty, a large foreign contingent and a wealthy and chic population, Beijing is hardly representative of the nation as a whole. You need to dig under the surface to find the more intimate, private city that exists in the dwindling number of twisted alleyways, the hutongs, to get the best out of the place which can otherwise seem vast, soulless and functional. While you're here, don't forget that Beijing offers the best food and nightlife in the country. It's also a good place to base yourself for a host of easy short trips. Chengde , just north of the capital, has some stunning imperial buildings, constructed by emperors when this was their favoured retreat for the summer, while today's city residents escape to the quiet coastal towns of Shanhaiguan and Beidaihe , which offer lush countryside, grand old fortresses and a welter of seaside kitsch.

The territory north of the Great Wall has long had a reputation for severely cold weather and hot-blooded warriors, but the expanses of countryside and milltowns of Dongbei (Manchuria) stand out for their preserves of nature, history and multi-culturalism. Dongbei's frontier with North Korea results in diverting border towns like Dandong and ports such as Dalian . Harbin 's onion-domed cathedrals and local taste for vodka reveal Russia's proximity, while Shenyang tells the story of Dongbei's tumultuous history: the Manchus, Russians, Japanese, war lords, Nationalists and Communists each controlled it in the course of the twentieth century. The region contains most of China's natural resources, but recent closings of state-owned factories make tourism the leading growth industry, as its cities undertake a "Manchurian Makeover". Short on glitz but deep in snow and long on character, a trip to Dongbei reveals the closest thing to "real" China a visitor can find.

Most visitors head for the greater attractions south of the capital, along the Yellow River Valley , the cradle of Chinese civilization, where remnants of the dynastic age lie scattered in a unique landscape of loess terraces. The cave temples at Datong and Luoyang are magnificent, with huge Buddhist sculptures staring out impassively across their now industrialized settings. Of the dynastic capitals, Xi'an is the most obvious destination, where the celebrated Terracotta Army still stands guard over the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Other, less visited ancient towns, including sleepy Kaifeng in Henan, and Qufu , the birthplace of Confucius in Shandong, hold treasures of dynastic architecture as well as offering an intimate, human scale that is missing in the large cities. The area is also well supplied with holy mountains, some of the few places in twentieth-century China that provide an unbroken continuity with the past: grandmothers still shuffle their way up Tai Shan , perhaps the grandest and most imperial of the country's pilgrimage sites, to pay homage to deities as old as Chinese civilization itself; Song Shan in Henan sees more contemporary pilgrims, followers of kung fu, making the trek to the Shaolin Temple, where the art originated; while Wutai Shan in Shanxi rewards travellers with some of the best-preserved religious sites in the country, as well as a lush and pretty alpine setting.

Central China forms a basin around the middle reaches of Asia's longest river, the Yangzi . Once the interior's single most important transport artery, several thousand kilometres are still plied by regular passenger ferries, providing one of the world's great river journeys past countless images of everyday Chinese life. Meandering upstream through the provinces of Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi, the shores of the two massive freshwater lakes Poyang and Dongting are heavily farmed, while a host of bustling riverside ports, including Wuhan , modern metropolis and former European concession, thrive on an increasing industrial and manufacturing momentum. Relics of the past range from two-thousand-year-old tombs and third-century battlefields to the Hunanese village of Shaoshan , Mao Zedong's birthplace. Away from the river lurk some evocative landscapes: the classically "Chinese" cloud-and-pine draped peaks of Huang Shan in Anhui; Hubei's Wudang Shan , covered in aged, esoteric Taoist temples; and the splintered cliffs and forested wilds of western Hunan's Wulingyuan Scenic Reserve .

Dominating China's east coast is the great port city of Shanghai , for years the country's main gateway to the outside world and, apart from Hong Kong, its most Westernized city. After years of stagnation, Shanghai is again booming, and alongside the Art-Deco monuments of the old European-built Bund, a thoroughly modern city, crowned with two of the world's tallest skyscrapers, is emerging. Around Shanghai are areas offering some of China's most characteristic scenery - low-lying and wet, criss-crossed with canals and dotted with historic towns. Jiangsu Province, to the north, is home to Suzhou with its famous ornate gardens, built by Ming dynasty scholars and officials, while a short way to the west lies the city of Nanjing , crowded with relics from its tumultuous history as Ming and Nationalist capital of China. South from Shanghai, in Zhejiang Province at the terminus of the historic Grand Canal, sits Hangzhou , one of China's greenest and most scenic cities. Hangzhou is located along the historic lake Xi Hu, whose shore and neighbouring hills abound with walking opportunities. Off the coast, an overnight journey by boat from Shanghai, the Buddhist island of Putuo Shan is rarely visited by foreign tourists, but is superbly attractive, with beaches, rural walks and monasteries.

In China's southeast, comprising the coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, as well as Hainan Island, you'll find all the paradoxes of any rapidly industrializing nation: incredible economic success in go-ahead Special Economic Zone cities such as Guangdong's Zhuhai and Shenzhen, back to back with chronic poverty throughout the region's rural population; and a lust for modernity and Westernization, refuted by staunch conservatism. Only a short hop from Hong Kong, the chaotic city of Guangzhou (Canton) and the adjacent industrial sprawl of the Pearl River Delta have it all to the point of absurdity: skyscrapers and temples, beggars and businessmen, nightclubs and traditional opera, fast food and the finest in classical Chinese cuisine. Guangzhou also shares a fair scattering of European architecture with other cities across the region - the Fujian island port of Xiamen is the nicest - built by colonial victors after the nineteenth-century Opium Wars. Elsewhere, towns such as Chaozhou proudly retain their traditions, seemingly little disturbed by recent history, while the Guangdong-Fujian border is home to ethnic Hakka, who live as they have done for centuries in massive fortified stone apartments. Hainan at first glance seems to have no heritage at all, just a very nice beach, but there's a little more depth to the place if you dig hard enough - most rewarding is a visit to the Li villages in the island's central highlands.

Returned to Beijing in 1997, but enjoying a degree of autonomy that's unprecedented in modern times , Hong Kong is one of the most interesting cities in the world and is likely to remain so for a long time, as its officials choose how to shape the city's future. There is almost nothing Hong Kong cannot offer in the way of tourist facilities, from fine beaches, to colonial remains to stunning cityscapes. It also contains more good eating, drinking and nightlife than the rest of China put together. Macau , too, is well worth a visit, if not for its casinos then for its Baroque churches and fine Portuguese cuisine.

Aside from major tourist attractions, much of southwestern China is only just beginning to be probed by visitors, though Sichuan's Chengdu and Yunnan's Kunming remain two of China's most interesting and easy-going provincial capitals, and the entire region is, by any standards, exceptionally diverse. Guanxgi and Guizhou provinces are known for their dramatic limestone scenery, the most famous of which surrounds the Li River near Guilin in Guangxi, while over in Sichuan , pilgrims flock to see the colossal Big Buddha carved into a cliffside at Leshan , and to ascend the holy mountain of Emei Shan . The new province of Chongqing, formerly part of eastern Sichuan, marks the start of river trips down the Yangzi through the Three Gorges , while Yunnan sets the tone for the whole area, with landscapes encompassing everything from snowbound summits and alpine lakes to steamy tropical jungles. Sichuan has a similar variety, while the damp highlands shared by Guizhou and Guangxi descend south to a hot coastline. As Yunnan and Guangxi share borders with Vietnam, Laos and Burma, while Sichuan rubs up against Tibet, it's also not surprising to find that all four provinces have very independent histories, and are home to near-extinct wildlife and dozens of ethnic autonomous regions, whose attractions range from the traditional Naxi town of Lijiang and Dai villages of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, to the exuberant festivals and textiles of Guizhou's Miao and wooden architecture of Dong settlements in Guangxi's north.

The huge area of China referred to as the Northwest is where the people thin out and real wilderness begins. Inner Mongolia, just hours from Beijing, is already at the frontiers of Central Asia; here you can follow in the footsteps of Genghis Khan by horse-riding on the endless grasslands of the steppe. Otherwise, following the Yellow River east, the old Silk Road heads west out of Xi'an and you can follow it right through China and out through its western borders. Highlights en route start with the fabulous Buddhist sculptures at Maiji Shan and Bingling Si just outside Lanzhou , while south from Lanzhou lies the delightful rural retreat and Buddhist monastery town of Xiahe . Further to the west, in the northwestern part of Gansu, you'll find the terminus of the Great Wall of China, the famous last fort of Jiayuguan , and nearby, one of the major draws of all China, the fabulous Buddhist cave art in the sandy deserts of Dunhuang .

West of here lie the mountains and deserts of vast Xinjiang, where China blends into old Turkestan and where simple journeys between towns are epics of modern bus travel. The oasis cities of Turpan and remote Kashgar , with their donkey carts and bazaars, are the main attractions, though the blue waters of Tian Chi, offering alpine scenery in the midst of searing desert, are deservedly popular. Beyond Kashgar, travellers face some of the most adventurous routes of all, over the Karakoram or Torugut passes to Pakistan and Kirgyzistan respectively. Tibet , now open to independent travellers, still sounds the most exotic of all travel possibilities - and so in some ways it is, especially if you come across the border from Nepal or brave the long road in from Golmud in Qinghai Province.