World Heritage Site

As Solivagant has written, China is a new country every 10 years. I hadn’t been there since early 2019 - and even since then it has changed again. It has started to look more and more like Japan, especially in the most prosperous part of the country. If you look closely you may still notice an elderly person spitting into a garbage can, and I even spotted a group of pensioners playing cards (or gambling?) under a bridge in Hangzhou. But the younger generations in the cities seem like a different breed.

To stimulate the return of international tourism after COVID, the Chinese government has allowed a 15-day visa-free entrance into the country for a select group of nationalities (the group seems a bit random but a major factor appears to be the country's appeal to visiting Chinese tourists). So fortunately the Chinese love the Dutch flower fields and I was let into the country without questions. 

Please find below my Tips for visiting WHS in China on the 15-day visa-free scheme.

1.      You can pack in a lot in 15 days

China is so huge that it doesn’t matter whether you have ‘only’ 15 days or 3 months. You need multiple return visits anyway to see most of its provinces and cover all its 59 WHS. There are plenty of clusters of about 10 WHS that are suitable for this kind of short trip. The hotspot connections of Beijing, Fujian, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Luoyang, Nanjing, and Sichuan can inspire you to decide where to focus. Although I had visited China already 5 times before and had spent some 5 months in total covering 41 out of the 59 WHS, I easily found a cluster of 8 ‘new’ WHS for me to do. My itinerary can be found here.

2.      Plan, plan, plan

Draw up a detailed itinerary beforehand to get the most out of the 15 days. Check the Chinese (school) holidays (+ and – a few days) and avoid weekend trips to the busiest sites (usually those with cable cars). Research the train routes and schedules, and avoid overly long transfers – you can get quite far in 2 or 3 hours already on a high-speed train. Write it all down into a day-to-day schedule and stick to the plan.

3.      Be sure the itinerary is varied enough

To keep the journey enjoyable instead of just ticking the boxes on high speed, the itinerary should have a mix of sights. Try to avoid too many (sacred) mountains, as although their sceneries vary a lot, the visitor experiences often are similar. Also, keep an eye on the site ratings – be sure to have some of the very good (4+) ones in there. An excursion into the countryside adds another perspective (this time I did Tusi’s Laosicheng which fits the bill, but Fujian Tulou also is a fine choice in this category).

I would also suggest including two or three days in one of the major cities (such as Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, or Hangzhou, Xiamen for example) – this will give you access to city attractions which can be explored on foot or a bike and allow you to enjoy more non-Chinese restaurants than the average provincial city offers. After 10 days or so, you will start craving some non-sweet bread and cheese, or that craft beer.

4.      Download a select group of apps

China operates in a different digital universe from the rest of the world, and you’ll have to join it at least partly as otherwise you’d not be able to do much. For a short trip such as this, one method of digital payment (Alipay is the easiest) and a foreign sim should be enough: no VPN, no special maps, no WeChat. Train reservations aren’t needed long ahead either. More on this can be found in the Forum post.

5.      Expect an excellent ROI

A short trip to China delivers both quantity and quality at a low cost. You can all DIY as virtually all Chinese WHS are very accessible. Sites are usually open every day of the year, with reasonable hours and no pre-booking required. And there are few WHS among China’s 59 that aren’t worth visiting: there are only 5 sites with an average rating of less than 2.5 stars. Travel costs are low: public transport (including taxis), food and hotels are all inexpensive. Entrance fees usually are a bit pricier (especially when you want to use all of the site’s additional ‘attractions’) but there’s no foreigner pricing. I managed to average 275 EUR per WHS (all-inclusive, even international flights), which is way below my usual budget of 650 EUR and in the range of Turkey (only Tunisia and Morocco so far have been cheaper).