The second tier cities in China worth changing a trip for

Which second tier cities in China are worth visiting?

Here they are, and what each one is for.

Quanzhou, on the Fujian coast in the southeast. The end point of the sea route of the Silk Road, and UNESCO lists it for what it was between the tenth and fourteenth centuries: the emporium of the world. A thousand years of foreign merchants left working mosques, Hindu figures carved into the columns of a Buddhist temple hall, and remains of Manichaean worship, a religion that has since died out almost everywhere. None of it was assembled for visitors. High-speed rail runs to the city. If you add one place to a first trip, add this one.

Pingyao, in Shanxi province. A merchant city still complete inside its original walls, and the banking capital of China before the treaty ports took the business south. The buildings are the ones the bankers used. Two days.

Datong, also in Shanxi. The Yungang Grottoes, 252 caves of Buddhist figures cut into a cliff face in the fifth century, and the Hanging Monastery, a wooden temple built onto the side of a cliff and held up on poles. Two to two and a half hours from Beijing by high-speed rail, then 25km out to the caves.

Dunhuang, in Gansu in the northwest. The Mogao Caves, a thousand years of Buddhist painting in a desert oasis on the old overland Silk Road. The best cave tickets are limited to 6,000 a day in the high season and they are booked through an agent about a month ahead, which is worth knowing before you plan around them.

Guizhou: Kaili, Xijiang and Zhaoxing. Villages of the Miao and the Dong, two of China's minority peoples, and the reason to go is the silverwork, the indigo dyeing, the timber drum towers and the covered bridges. Xijiang is 30km and about an hour from Kaili, and Kaili is thirty to forty-five minutes from Guiyang by rail. The food is sour rather than hot, which surprises people arriving from Sichuan.

Yuanyang, in Yunnan in the southwest. Rice terraces cut into the hillsides by the Hani people, and the version worth travelling for is the winter one, when the terraces are flooded and mirror the sky between January and March. About five and a half hours by road from Kunming. Duoyishu for sunrise, Laohuzui for sunset, and the point is a cold platform at half past six in the morning.

What are tier 2 cities in China?

The tier system is an economic ranking. It sorts Chinese cities by size, income and commercial weight, first tier through to fifth, and it is used by companies deciding where to open a store.

It has never once been asked what a visitor would enjoy, which is why the list above and the official ranking barely overlap. Quanzhou is a second-tier city by that measure. So is Kunming, which is a fine place and is not on the list. Pingyao and Xijiang do not appear on the ranking at all, being far too small, and they are two of the best things in the country.

Treat the tiers as useful for understanding an airport and useless for choosing a destination.

What are the top 3 cities to visit in China?

Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an, and that answer is correct, which is exactly the problem with it.

Beijing is imperial-scale planning you can walk, with Great Wall sections graded from paved to genuinely dangerous. Shanghai puts Bund banking architecture, French Concession lane housing and a current Michelin selection inside twenty minutes of each other. Xi'an has the Terracotta Army, which has no substitute anywhere.

Take all three on a two-week trip and you will have a very good time. Take all three on a one-week trip and you will spend three of the seven days moving. The second tier is not an alternative to those cities. It is what you do with the days you save by not doing all three.

What is a tier 3 Chinese city?

A smaller provincial city, one rung further down the same commercial ranking. Datong and Dunhuang sit around there.

The travel consequence of the third tier is not scenery, it is logistics. Fewer international hotel rooms, fewer English-speaking guides, fewer trains. Datong to Pingyao runs about three services a day, and that timetable decides an itinerary long before anyone's taste gets involved. This is the tier where having somebody build the order for you stops being a convenience and starts being the difference between going and not going.

What I would do

Put one of these into the first trip rather than saving them all for a second.

The argument for waiting is that a first visit should cover the famous things, and there is something to it. The argument against is stronger. A first trip is the one with the most energy in it, the one people have cleared the most time for, and the one they remember hardest. Spending every day of it on the four sites everyone photographs is a waste of the best two weeks you will ever give China.

Book a call and we will build a week around whichever of these interests you.

What is the best second tier city in China for a first-time visitor?

Quanzhou, on the Fujian coast. It was the end point of the sea route of the Silk Road and UNESCO lists it for that, and the mosques, the Hindu carving and the Manichaean remains left by a thousand years of foreign trade are all still standing. High-speed rail runs to the city, so it costs you a few hours rather than a flight.

Is it worth leaving Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai on a first trip to China?

Worth leaving one of them out, yes. Those three in a single week means three days of moving between them. Drop one, keep the days, and spend them somewhere the first tier cannot compete with. On a two-week trip you can have all three and a second-tier stop as well.

How do you get to second tier Chinese cities?

Mostly by high-speed rail, and it is the better journey. Beijing to Datong is two to two and a half hours, Datong to Pingyao three to three and a half, and Guiyang to Kaili thirty to forty-five minutes. Yuanyang is the exception, at about five and a half hours by road from Kunming.

Are second tier cities in China harder to travel in?

Different rather than harder. There are fewer international hotel rooms, fewer English-speaking guides and fewer trains a day, so the plan has to be built around a timetable instead of around preference. Some of the best sites also book through an agent rather than online, which needs a month's notice.