The South
华南
Karst rivers, Cantonese kitchens, tulou clan fortresses and tropical coast.
Photo: xiquinhosilva · CC BY 2.0 · resized
South of the Nanling mountains the climate turns subtropical and the culture turns Cantonese: dim sum at dawn, ancestral halls, Hakka roundhouses, and the surreal limestone towers along the Li River that have been the shorthand for Chinese landscape painting for centuries. Hainan adds palm beaches; Hong Kong and Macau sit at the delta's mouth.
Provinces & regions: Guangdong · Guangxi · Hainan · Hong Kong · Macau · Fujian (south)
Best time to go: October to December. Typhoon season runs July to September.
05Covered in depth
5 destinations in this region
UNESCO
Fujian Tulou 福建土楼
Rammed-earth clan fortresses up to five storeys high and 70 metres across, housing 800 people behind a single door.
Guangzhou 广州
Canton: two thousand years of foreign trade, the birthplace of dim sum, and the best eating city in China.
Hong Kong 香港
The densest skyline on earth pressed against jungle mountains, with 40% of the territory protected as country park.
Li River & Yangshuo 漓江与阳朔
The scenery on the back of the ¥20 note: limestone towers, bamboo, water buffalo and a river that bends between them for 83 kilometres.
Longji Rice Terraces 龙脊梯田
Seven hundred years of hand-cut terracing wrapped around whole mountains, from riverbank at 300 m to ridge at 1,100 m.
+Also worth knowing
14 more from the full index
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Kaiping Diaolou开平碉楼 UNESCO Guangdong
1,800 fortified watchtowers built by returning overseas Chinese, mixing Greek, Roman, Islamic and Chinese styles in paddy fields.
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Chaozhou潮州 Guangdong
Ming walls, a pontoon bridge that opens each afternoon, and the Teochew cooking that Hong Kong's best restaurants are built on.
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Danxia Mountain丹霞山 UNESCO Guangdong
The mountain that gave its name to the Danxia landform — red sandstone cliffs and towers above a green river.
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Shenzhen深圳 Guangdong
Fishing villages in 1980, 17.5 million people now. Huaqiangbei electronics market, Dafen oil-painting village, and OCT-LOFT.
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Macau澳门 UNESCO Macau SAR
Four centuries of Portuguese rule left baroque churches, pastel de nata and the Ruins of St Paul's — plus the world's largest casino economy.
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Detian Falls德天瀑布 Guangxi
Asia's largest transnational waterfall, straddling the Vietnamese border, with bamboo rafts poling up to the boundary marker.
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Weizhou Island涠洲岛 Guangxi
China's youngest volcanic island, with black lava cliffs, coral beaches and a 19th-century French Gothic church.
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Huangyao Ancient Town黄姚古镇 Guangxi
A 900-year-old town of stone lanes and banyan roots among karst peaks, still barely touched by tourism.
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Sanya & Hainan三亚 Hainan
China's tropical resort coast at 18°N — palm beaches, duty-free malls, and rainforest and Li minority villages inland.
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Haikou & Volcano Cluster海口火山群 UNESCO Hainan
Arcaded colonial shophouse streets and, half an hour inland, a geopark of 40 dormant volcanic craters.
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Lantau & the Outlying Islands大屿山 Hong Kong SAR
The Big Buddha, Tai O's stilt village, and car-free Cheung Chau and Lamma, all under an hour from Central.
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Hong Kong Geopark香港地質公園 UNESCO Hong Kong SAR
Hexagonal volcanic rock columns along the Sai Kung coast, reached by boat from one of Asia's densest cities.
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Guilin's Longsheng Hot Springs龙胜温泉 Guangxi
Forest hot springs above the Longji terraces, a good soft landing after two days of walking the ridges.
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Beihai Silver Beach北海银滩 Guangxi
24 km of fine white sand on the Gulf of Tonkin, with the arcaded Beihai Old Street behind it.