Characteristic Architecture

Temples, fortresses, earthen castles and carved cliffs — architecture that tells you how China actually lived.

34 places in this guide · Hand-picked and verified

西

Xi'an City Wall

西安城墙

Xi'an

Ride a bike along the full 14-kilometre rampart of a Ming dynasty fortress — the best-preserved city wall in China

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云

Yungang Grottoes

云冈石窟

Datong

51,000 Buddhist statues carved into a kilometre of cliff — the colossal art of a dynasty that moved a whole mountain

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大

Dazu Rock Carvings

大足石刻

Chongqing

A 1,000-year-old open-air gallery of Tantric Buddhism — including a thousand-handed goddess and a 31-metre sleeping Buddha

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宏

Hongcun & Xidi Villages

宏村·西递

Yi County, Huangshan

Ming-and-Qing merchant villages of white walls and horse-head gables — Anhui's postcard, and the set of Crouching Tiger

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武

Wudang Mountains

武当山

Shiyan

Taoism's holiest mountain range — gilded bronze palaces above the clouds and the birthplace tradition of tai chi

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黄

Yellow Crane Tower

黄鹤楼

Wuhan

The tower on Snake Hill that every Chinese schoolchild can recite — rebuilt in reinforced concrete, magnificent all the same

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曲

Confucius Temple, Qufu

曲阜孔庙

Qufu

The temple, mansion and forest of Confucius's home town — 2,000 years of imperial homage in cypress and stone

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豫

Yu Garden

豫园

Shanghai

A Ming dynasty merchant's garden of dragons and rockeries, wrapped in Shanghai's loudest bazaar

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法

Famen Temple

法门寺

Baoji

Where a finger bone of the Buddha slept for a thousand years beneath a crumbling pagoda

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南

Nanchan Temple

南禅寺

Wutai

The oldest wooden building in China — a tiny Tang hall that has survived eleven centuries

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佛

Foguang Temple

佛光寺

Wutai

The great Tang hall that proved Chinese timber architecture had not been lost

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开

Kaiping Diaolou

开平碉楼

Kaiping

Fortified village towers where overseas Chinese brought home European castle dreams

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光

Guangxiao Temple

光孝寺

Guangzhou

Where the sixth patriarch of Zen cut his hair — Guangzhou's oldest Buddhist precinct

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开

Kaiyuan Temple

开元寺

Quanzhou

Quanzhou's great Tang temple flanked by twin stone pagodas — a UNESCO maritime Silk Road landmark

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应

Yingxian Wooden Pagoda

应县木塔

Yingxian

The tallest wooden pagoda in the world — a 67-metre Liao-dynasty tower that has survived nine centuries

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中

The Grand Canal

中国大运河

Beijing

The longest artificial waterway on earth — 1,700 km of engineering, trade and town life

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