4 Best Sights in Beijing to Shanghai, China

Fed by artesian springs and garlanded by vivid banks of willows, Daming Lake has been inspiring Chinese poets and writers for 1,500 years. Surrounded by temples, pavilions, and leafy walkways, it's a pleasant spot for a stroll. There's a teahouse on top of the 50-meter tall pagoda on the island in the east of the lake. Climb up for pleasant views of Thousand Buddha Hill on clear days.

An interesting legacy of the German influence in Shandong is a handful of concession-era churches, this Gothic cathedral being the most impressive. Constructed around 1901 and resembling the Notre Dame in Paris, it can hold 800 worshippers.

This is the most modern building to emerge amid a neighborhood of traditional architecture. The museum is the valedictory work for 90-year-old modernist master I.M. Pei. A controversy erupted over whether to allow Pei to construct the glass-and-steel structure in historical Suzhou. Like his crystal pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre, this building thrives on juxtapositions of old and new. The museum houses historical objects from Suzhou's ancient past and an impressive collection of Ming and Qing Dynasty paintings and calligraphy. English-language docent tours cost Y100.

Housed in an impressive building beside Mingyue Lake in the town's western suburbs, the Yangzhou Museum has seven exhibition halls packed with Chinese jade, earthenware, bronze vessels, porcelain, and paper-cutting.