Best of China

China's hot springs range from imperial bathhouses that have warmed emperors for a millennium to design-forward urban resorts. Every venue here is a working resort with real mineral water, verified facilities, and staff used to international guests.

The Chinese bathhouse is a one-price day out: hot pools, saunas, loungers, cinemas, and dinner without leaving the building. These are the best-run, most foreigner-friendly versions in the country.

Acupuncture, tuina, cupping, and herbal medicine - practiced properly, in clinics and pharmacies that treat international patients with English-speaking staff. High trust threshold, high payoff.

A Chinese tea house is a social institution, not a performance. These are the best rooms in the country to learn the ritual, from lake-view pavilions to working halls where locals spend whole afternoons.

China's ancient-dress revival is the most photogenic trend in travel: full hanfu styling, Tang-dynasty city blocks, and restaurants where the waiters wear imperial robes. These are the best-run experiences.

Michelin has mapped China's serious dining rooms, and these are the starred tables that also work for international guests - English menus, booking staff, and cooking worth a special trip.

For the once-in-a-trip dinner: courtyard tasting menus, river-view dining rooms, and mansion restaurants where the evening is the event. Expect serious cooking, serious service, and serious prices.

Hotpot is China's communal ritual and Chongqing's civic religion. These are the best-run pots in the country, with staff who can guide a first-timer through the burning broth.

A made-to-measure qipao is the ultimate China souvenir - cut to your body in days by ateliers that have dressed brides and diplomats for generations. These are the reliable names.

The best way to take China home is a skill: these are the country's best-run classes and workshops, all taught in English by teachers who genuinely teach.

For a thousand years, China's ceramics meant Jingdezhen. This is the complete porcelain experience: master kilns, international artist villages, Saturday markets, and classes at the source.

The souvenir that outlives the trip: this is China's heritage economy at its best - workshops, ateliers, and family studios where centuries-old crafts are still made by hand and sold at the source.

The Long March fascinates travelers worldwide - and its defining sites are in and around Zunyi, Guizhou: the conference that turned the revolution, the pass in Mao's poetry, and the river crossings that saved the army.

China's stage is spectacular and language-free: thousand-performer river shows, martial-arts epics, Peking opera in full costume, and comedy clubs that translate with laughter.