Explorer's Journal: Uncovering China's Mysteries with Destination Expert Mikey

Join Destination Expert Mikey on an unforgettable journey through China, where imperial history, dynamic cities, breathtaking natural landscapes, and centuries-old traditions come together in one extraordinary adventure. From exploring the Great Wall and the Forbidden City in Beijing to coming face-to-face with the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, meeting giant pandas in Chengdu, and marveling at the towering sandstone peaks of Zhangjiajie, this journey showcases the incredible diversity, rich culture, and unforgettable experiences that make China one of the world's most fascinating destinations.

Hi everyone, Destination Expert Mikey here! I'm checking in from Shanghai, the first stop on a 14-day journey through China that will take me from megacities to misty rice terraces, otherworldly sandstone peaks, and ancient capitals.

Touching Down in Shanghai: Where Futuristic Skylines Meet Colonial Charm

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Taking in the must-see Shanghai, China nighttime skyline (Photo: Mikey Blount).

The trip started before I'd even left the airport. To get into the city, I boarded the Shanghai Maglev, the world's first commercial high-speed magnetic levitation train, which reaches speeds over 300 km/h (186 mph) and covers the 30-kilometer journey from Pudong International Airport to the city center in about seven minutes. There's no friction, no wheels on the track, just a smooth hover above the rail and a speed display climbing steadily overhead.

After checking in, I spent the afternoon wandering the French Concession, a leafy neighborhood lined with European-style buildings, independent coffee shops, and boutique stores. It's one of those pockets of the city where you forget which country you're in.

The highlight of my time here, though, was walking along the Bund, the historic riverfront promenade that runs along the Huangpu River, at night. On one side of the river sit the colonial-era buildings of old Shanghai; on the other, the modern skyline of Pudong, Shanghai's newer financial district, including the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower, and Shanghai Tower. Two very different eras of the city, facing each other across the water.

I also went up the Shanghai Tower, the third-tallest building in the world at 632 meters (2,073 feet). The elevator gets you to the top in about 55 seconds, and at roughly 546 meters up, it's the highest observation deck in the world. From up there, you get a full 360-degree view over the Bund, the river, and the rest of the skyline below.

To balance out the modern side of the city, I spent some time around Yuyuan Garden, where traditional teahouses, classical architecture, and busy shopping lanes feel a world apart from the glass towers nearby.

Shanghai is often compared to New York for its pace and ambition, but it has its own distinct character, and it was a great introduction to China. By the time I left, I was ready for the next stop: the rice terraces and rivers of Yangshuo.

Dragon's Backbone and Karst Peaks: Longji and Yangshuo's Painted Landscapes

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Floating down the Yulong River in Yangshuo, China (Photo: Mikey Blount).

From Shanghai's skyline, I traveled into a completely different China: the Longji Rice Terraces and the karst mountains of Yangshuo, some of the most photographed landscapes in the country.

Getting there means flying about two hours from Shanghai to Guilin, the gateway city for this whole region. From there, it’s another two hours by car into the mountains to reach Longji, also known as the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. 

My hotel had a direct view of the terraces, perfect for catching them in different light throughout the day. I visited during the flooding season (May–June), when the paddies fill with water and reflect the sky. A thin layer of mist hangs over the valley, and the whole scene goes quiet. There's something genuinely mystical about it.

Longji is made up of several villages connected by trails. I hiked the roughly four-and-a-half-hour route between Ping'an and Dazhai, through terraced fields and quiet countryside. A cable car and shuttle buses offer a faster way up to the main viewpoints for anyone short on time. The region is spread out enough that crowds thin out fast once you're away from the main towns, even during busier months.

From Longji, the landscape shifts again in Yangshuo, a small town surrounded by karst peaks, the tall, jagged limestone mountains this region is famous for. I spent a morning exploring the area at a slow pace: biking through rice fields and drifting down the river on a bamboo raft, with the peaks rising on either side of the road.

For a different angle on the same scenery, I climbed up to Xianggong Mountain, a popular viewpoint with a bird's-eye view over a sweeping bend in the Li River, the main river running through the region, with karst peaks stacked in every direction below.

Into the Avatar Mountains: Zhangjiajie's Sandstone Pillars and the Stairway to Heaven

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Zhangjiajie, China offers a chance to see both the famous sandstone pillars and Macaques in the wild (Photo: Mikey Blount).

From Yangshuo, it was a long ride to Zhangjiajie, about seven hours by high-speed train through the Hunan countryside.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park sits about 35 kilometers (22 miles) outside the city, roughly an hour by car. It’s enormous, with several entrances spread across the area, and it gets busy during peak hours, so it's worth arriving early. The most spectacular moment of the day was riding the Bailong Elevator, the tallest outdoor elevator in the world at 326 meters (1,070 feet). It starts inside the mountain, completely enclosed, until it suddenly breaks out into open air, and you're looking straight at the towering sandstone pillars that helped inspire the floating mountains in Avatar. Standing among them, it's easy to see why; the whole place feels like it belongs on another planet entirely.

From the top, a network of cable cars and shuttle buses connects multiple viewpoints, so you can move from one spectacular view to the next without much effort. One highlight is the First Bridge Under Heaven, a natural stone arch connecting two pillars hundreds of feet above the ground. Nearby, you'll find sections of the park covered in red ribbons tied by visitors, a tradition representing wishes for good luck. The entire walk is accompanied by Tibetan macaques, cheeky little monkeys (including some babies) who roam freely through the park, though signs warn visitors not to provoke them!

Back in Zhangjiajie city, the other major attraction is Tianmen Mountain, reached by its own cable car ride up over the valley. What makes it unique is a massive natural hole through the mountain, known as Tianmen Cave. Reaching it means climbing 999 stone steps, nicknamed the Stairway to Heaven, though I'll admit I took the escalators built into the mountain partway up to save my legs for the rest of the climb. Once I'd made it through the cave, I followed the cliffside walkway around the summit, including a stretch with a glass floor that gave me a clear view straight down into the valley below, not for the faint of heart. From up there, the views stretch out in every direction, layers of peaks fading into the haze.

Slow Living and Giant Pandas: Discovering Chengdu's Laid-Back Side of China

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Visiting the Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and experiencing a Sichuan opera performance in Chengdu (Photo: Mikey Blount).

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, caught me by surprise. It's not as internationally famous as Beijing or Shanghai, but it's nearly as large, home to around 21 million people. Geographically, the city sits apart from China's other megacities, ringed by mountains, which over time has given it its own distinct culture and a noticeably slower pace of life.

One of the best ways to feel that pace is to wander through People's Park, where locals spend entire afternoons drinking tea, playing mahjong, and getting their ears cleaned by professional ear cleaners using a set of long, thin metal tools. I tried it myself: strange at first, but oddly satisfying. Tea culture runs deep here too. Sipping jasmine tea while people-watching turned out to be one of the most relaxing things I did on the entire trip.

No visit to Chengdu is complete without the city's most famous resident: the giant panda. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding feels less like a zoo and more like a rehabilitation and breeding center, where staff work to help these famously hard-to-breed animals reproduce. Female pandas are only fertile for a couple of days each year, which makes the center's work even more impressive. I spent hours watching pandas climb, tumble, and eat bamboo, and could easily have stayed longer.

The food alone is worth the trip. Sichuan cuisine is known for its bold, numbing spice, courtesy of the famous Sichuan peppercorn, and hot pot, which originates from this region, is an absolute must-try.

I ended my time in Chengdu with a Sichuan opera performance, which turned out to be genuinely entertaining rather than just a tourist activity locals skip. Before the show, you can watch performers apply their elaborate makeup. The main event, though, is Bian Lian, or face-changing, where performers switch between painted silk masks in the blink of an eye. The exact technique is a closely guarded secret passed down for generations, and even sitting a few feet away, I still couldn't figure out how they did it.

Where the Silk Road Began: Xi'an's Ancient Capitals, Terracotta Warriors, and Muslim Quarter

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The Terracotta Army in Xi'an, China. Originally made up of more than 8,000 soldiers, around 2,000 have been excavated so far (Photo: Mikey Blount).

From Chengdu, I traveled to Xi'an, the historical heart of ancient China and the easternmost point of the famous Silk Road, the trade route that connected China with the rest of the world for centuries. That history has made Xi'an a genuine melting pot, and the city still has a sizable Muslim population today, complete with several active mosques.

The Muslim Quarter is the best place to start exploring, and it's easiest to do on foot or by tuk-tuk, weaving through narrow streets packed with food stalls. This is also an excellent introduction to some of the region's most famous dishes. My favorite was biang biang noodles, hand-pulled and prepared fresh in front of you. I learned that the name actually comes from the sound the dough makes when it's slapped against the table during preparation, "biang, biang."

Xi'an has also served as the capital of several of China's most powerful dynasties, including the Qin dynasty, under Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify China. His tomb remains unopened to this day, due to fears over the high levels of mercury believed to be sealed inside. What you can visit, though, is the Terracotta Army, thousands of life-sized clay soldiers built to protect the emperor in the afterlife. 

Standing at the edge of the pits, looking down at row after row of them, it was hard to wrap my head around the scale of it: around 2,000 warriors have been carefully pieced back together so far, after being found shattered, and archaeologists estimate there are still some 6,000 more waiting underground. The army went undiscovered for over 2,000 years until a group of farmers stumbled upon it while digging a well in 1974, making it one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

I also spent an afternoon up on Xi'an's original city walls, which, unlike most ancient Chinese cities, are still standing in full. Walking along the top, with the old town on one side and the modern city stretching out on the other, gave me a real sense of the contrast between China’s traditional past and forward-looking future. The full loop runs about 14 kilometers (8.7 miles), and you can walk or rent a bike to cover it.

Exploring Beijing's Imperial Legacy, Great Wall, and Hidden Hutongs

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Beijing was the final stop on the trip, featuring the Great Wall and other iconic landmarks (Photo: Mikey Blount).

Beijing was the final stop on the trip, and it saved some of China's most iconic experiences for last.

My guide picked me up on arrival and took me straight to the Temple of Heaven, a vast ceremonial complex built in 1420 during the Ming dynasty and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperor, who was considered the Son of Heaven and the intermediary between the human world and the divine, would come here twice a year to perform elaborate rituals and pray for a good harvest. The architecture reflects that relationship in everything: circular structures representing heaven, square bases representing earth, and sightlines designed to inspire humility before the sky.

The afternoon was spent exploring Beijing's hutongs, the narrow alleyways that thread through the older residential quarters of the city. These lanes were historically home to working-class Beijingers and some of them still function as lived-in neighborhoods today. In one of them, local residents gave a demonstration of Chinese paper-cutting, a traditional folk art with roots going back over a thousand years, where intricate patterns are cut freehand from single sheets of red paper.

That evening, I had my first taste of Peking duck, one of Beijing's most classic dishes. What I hadn't expected was how it's served: thin slices of crispy duck rolled into a small pancake with spring onion and hoisin sauce. Simple, but genuinely one of the best things I ate on the trip.

The following two days were reserved for Beijing's two most iconic landmarks. The Forbidden City, the imperial palace complex in the center of Beijing, covers 72 hectares (178 acres), nearly a kilometer from one end to the other, and served as the exclusive residence of China's emperors, their families, and their courts for almost 500 years. Walking through it, the scale is difficult to process. Afterward, climbing up to Jingshan Park, the small hill directly north of the palace, gives you a bird's-eye view over the entire complex and makes the scale suddenly clear.

The final day was a trip out to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, about 73 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of the city, roughly an hour and a half by car. While some stretches were busy, it was easy to find quieter sections further along. A cable car takes you up, and for the descent, I chose the toboggan, a sled track that winds 1.5 kilometers down through the forest, which turned out to be as fun as it sounds!