Top Chinese Cities to Visit
With limited time and budget for a short tour of China, which cities must you visit?
We can think of four: Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, and Guilin.
These cities, each wonderful in its own way, together provide you with a comprehensive view of China¡¯s landscape, culture, and past.
Beijing, the Chinese capital, is known for its imperial grandeur and rich cultural heritage. Starting with the Yuan Dynasty founded in the 13th century, Beijing served as the seat of China¡¯s national government for about 700 years. Here you¡¯ll find the imposing Purple Forbidden City, which was where Chinese emperors lived and reigned. It was here too that Chinese emperors made their annual offerings to gods of heaven and earth, wishing for bountiful harvests and good fortune for the country. The imperial rulers are all gone now, but some of the temples remain today, one of the being the Temple of Heaven. So do some of the tombs for the emperors, most of them lying north of Beijing. Farther north there lies the Great Wall, which extends from the Chinese coast westward all the way to the edges of vast deserts of Central Asia.
Back in the early 19th century, Shanghai, the largest Chinese city today, was but a tiny muddy town. It was after the middle of the 19th century when the town was opened as a port for foreign trade ¨C after the isolationist Chinese Empire was defeated by Great Britain ¨C that the importance of the place started to grow. Early foreign merchants who arrived on the Chinese coast chose to locate their businesses outside of the old walled-city of Shanghai, on the bank of Huangpu River, which flows into Yangzi River, which in turn empties into East China Sea. Back then the land on the river was considered of little value by the local Chinese, but with the rapid expansion of trade, its value increased dramatically and soon became the heart of all Shanghai, known as the Bund. Given its past, there is no surprise in the fact that in the coming decades Shanghai emerged as the most cosmopolitan city of all China, with highly motivated and competitive residents eager to embrace new ideas. Even after the Communist victory in 1949, during the Mao era, Shanghai remained a major economic power-house. More recently, after China entered the Age of Reform, Shanghai once again led the way in China¡¯s new economic revolution. A whole new district, east of Huangpu River, has been developed, featuring dramatic, shining skyscrapers. Old districts of the city have been rejuvenated too, with their busy streets now lined with endless great restaurants, stores and coffee-shops. Life in Shanghai is comfortable for those who are accustomed to what the West has to offer and yet at the same enjoy the exoticness and relative inexpensiveness of the Orient.
If Shanghai exemplifies the changes that China underwent in modern times, Xian reminds us of China¡¯s ancient past. Located in the valley of Yellow River - ¡°the cradle of the Chinese civilization¡± - Xian became the capital of China over 2,200 years ago when the country was truly unified for the first time. It was in the honor of the mighty dynasty founder, the First Emperor of Qin, that the now famous underground army of terra cotta warriors was assembled. Even though the Qin itself did not last long, it was followed by two enduring dynasties, the Han and the Tang, which reigned China from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D. and from 618 to 907 respectively. This was the golden age of imperial China, and for the most part during these 700 hundred years Xian was the national capital. In the Tang period especially, Xian played an active role in the then vibrant East-West exchanges along what came to be known as the Silk Road, and the Chinese capital city in effect became the eastern end of the famed trade route. The pagodas, city-wall, mausoleums, drum and bell towers that still stand in the region serve as great reminders of those glorious bygone eras.
The forth Chinese city on our list, Guilin, is a different kind of place again. It is not historical heritage or lively urban life that distinguishes it; it is nature, the landscape. According to an old saying in China, ¡°The mountains and rivers of Guilin are the most beautiful under Heaven.¡± Whereas it is difficult to say what scenery is the best of the world, there is no argument that what Guilin does have to show is impressive. Peculiarly shaped slender peaks rise above the clear water of Li River, posing against a rich green background, all immersed in thick mist ¨C it is much like what one sometimes finds in a marvelous piece of traditional Chinese ink-painting. The poeticalness of Guilin makes interesting contrasts with the grandeur of Beijing, the vitality of Shanghai, and the antiquity of Xian.
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