Former Residence of Sun Yat-sen

5d · Two days in Shanghai, a day and a half in Suzhou's classical gardens, then West Lake and Hangzhou.

UNESCO · The walled city of Pingyao, inscribed by UNESCO in 1997, preserves the most complete example of Ming-Qing urban planning in China — its banking heritage, city wall, temples and courtyard residences forming a cohesive historical ensemble.

UNESCO · UNESCO-listed pair of Ming-Qing Huizhou merchant villages in southern Anhui, renowned for whitewashed walls, inky horsehead gables and moon-shaped ponds.

A seven-storey Ming Dynasty pagoda standing on the bank of the Yangtze River in Anqing, considered one of the finest riverside pagodas in southern China and long used as a navigation landmark by Yangtze river pilots.

UNESCO · UNESCO-listed archaeological site in Hangzhou preserving the remains of a 5,000-year-old city with a sophisticated water-management system, jade ritual culture and social hierarchy — regarded as one of the earliest state-level societies in East Asia.

UNESCO · UNESCO-listed capital cities and royal tombs of the Koguryo Kingdom in Jian, Jilin — the Chinese portion of a transnational heritage property shared with North Korea, representing one of the most powerful states of ancient East Asia.

UNESCO · UNESCO-listed collection of private gardens in Suzhou — four inscribed in 1997 and five more added in 2000 — representing the pinnacle of Chinese garden design through the refined integration of architecture, water, rock and plant.

Clusters of ancient stone watchtowers rising above Tibetan village complexes in the Dadu River valley, said to be among the oldest surviving examples of Tibetan defensive architecture.

Yuan-dynasty drum and bell towers that kept official time for imperial Beijing. Climbable; daily drum performances.