Where to go on a first trip

1. 1

   Shanghai

   The easiest international landing, a full metro, and more English in the center than you will meet inland. The right first base when the trip is short.

2. 2

   Beijing

   The densest set of sites people mean when they say they want to see China. Give it enough days. Winter air and distance are the costs.

3. 3

   Chengdu

   The food city that still works as a first inland stop: a real center, a train network, and a pace that is not a capital's.

4. 4

   Xi'an

   The history trip you can actually finish. The Terracotta Army and the wall do not require a week of ring roads.

5. 5

   Hangzhou

   Best as two days beside Shanghai, or a base if the lake is the plan. Weak as the only city of a first trip to the whole country.

6. 6

   Guangzhou

   The Cantonese food city and a southern transport hub. Choose it when eating and the south are the trip, not when you wanted palaces.

7. 7

   Chongqing

   Hills, river nights, and a kitchen that is not Chengdu's even though both are spicy. Go when you want the city itself, not a checklist.

8. 8

   Shenzhen

   Useful, modern, and close to Hong Kong. Low on a first-trip list because little of it is what a first-timer came to China to see.

How to read the order

A city ranks higher here when a first-timer can land, pay, and move, when there is a reason to spend the days, and when a train can take them onward. Ease is allowed to beat romance. That is why Shanghai is above Beijing.

Harbin in winter, Yunnan, Guilin, and the Silk Road are real trips. They are off this list because they are their own journey, not the default first eight days.

• MethodWhat this order is not