2 . From December 1st, 2023 to November 30th, 2024, visitors can stay in China for up to 15 days without a visa. Below are several easy steps for planning a first China tour.

Decide How Many Days to Stay

We suggest you take at least a week for your first trip to see the highlights in the top three cities: Beijing (3–4 days), Xi’an (2 days), and Shanghai (1–2 days).

To discover more of China, like charming Guilin and lovely Chengdu pandas, you would need a few more days.

Consider When to Travel to China

Things to do in Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai are seldom affected by the seasons.

Spring (April–May) and autumn (September–October) are generally the most comfortable and recommended times for a China tour. They are neither too hot nor too cold, but fall is generally drier and warmer than spring.

A more ideal travel time for you could be March and early April or September when there are smaller crowds, favorable prices, and still good weather.

China is a good summer holiday destination too.

Consider Your Budget

The biggest cost could be international airfares. The cost of airfares from the US or Europe to China varies a lot depending on when you fly and which airline you use, from around US$1,200 to US$3,000 for an economy round trip.

The biggest price difference between the off and peak seasons is in the price of hotels and airfares. Prices in peak seasons can go up by 50 to 100%.

For a private tour, the average cost per day is about US$220–350 per person, including flights/trains within China, 4- or 5-star hotels, lunches, attractions, guides, and private transport.

We Believe Private and Tailor-Made Tours Are Best

With our private tours, you would have much more personal choice in how your tour goes. You could have more hand-picked and interactive experiences, like visiting a local family with your own local guide.

With private guiding and transport, we would make full use of your time. You could focus on the sightseeing you want to do, skipping what’s not of interest and the long queues in the most crowded attractions.

3 . Administrators of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu province, are striving to harmonize tourists’ exploration of the site with the need to safeguard murals and artifacts, through innovative measures such as digital presentations.

Sandstorms, rainfall and tourist visits constitute the most severe threats to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, said Wang Xiaowei, director of the Dunhuang Grottoes Monitoring Center at the Dunhuang Academy.

Since the Mogao Caves opened to the public in 1979, the number of visitors has been growing at an average annual rate of around 20 percent, reaching 2.15 million in 2019 before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the site is expected to receive a record 3 million visitors.

“If you enter the caves during the peak tourism months of July, August and September, you’ll find it hard to breathe,” Wang said. The carbon dioxide and moisture exhaled by visitors accumulate inside the caves and cause damage to the murals, Wang said.

To preserve the caves, the duration of visits is limited and sometimes stopped during rain or dust storms. To try and ensure visitors aren’t disappointed when restrictions are in place, the center provides a digital exhibition, he said.

Currently, the center is being expanded to cater for an additional 3,000 visitors on top of the existing capacity of 6,000.

The Dunhuang Academy began digitally recording and storing images of murals and painted sculptures over 30 years ago. The digitization project has successfully covered over 200 caves, with a dedicated team of 110 experts currently undertaking the work.

The Mogao Caves are immovable, and transporting them is impossible, according to Su Bomin, head of the Dunhuang Academy. And he added, “However, with digitization, we can perfectly replicate Dunhuang art and showcase it worldwide, introducing Eastern culture to the world.”

In 2016, the Digital Dunhuang repository went live, sharing high-definition images and panoramic tours of the most exquisite 30 caves globally. Currently, visitors from 78 countries have accessed the repository, totaling over 16.8 million visits.

Su said Dunhuang can provide diverse cultural exchanges through its cultural relics. “By digitizing these relics, we enable people worldwide to understand Dunhuang’s culture, thereby gaining a deeper appreciation for China’s historical commitment to diverse cultural exchanges — that is, an ethos of inclusivity, mutual learning and a shared future,” he said.

Between 1405 and 1433, on behalf of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He made a total of seven voyages.     1     (load) with china, silk, tea and other treasures as gifts for foreign rulers, the fleet led by Zheng He paid friendly visits to more than 30 countries and regions. Zheng He’s seven voyages had a far-reaching impact     2     China and its neighbours. Zhen He’s efforts helped develop and strengthen harmonious relations with these countries and regions,     3     (expose) foreign people to Chinese culture, and allowing the Chinese to better understand overseas lands. Zheng He’s accomplishments are now widely acknowledged, and he is remembered as one of China’s most     4     (influence) explorers.

Tourism is the lifeblood of the communities that call popular holiday destinations their homes. It allows service industries     1     (grow) consistently. These industries, in turn, give jobs to the local population,     2     welfare depends on tourism. However, booming business is not always a bed of roses. More nature-centred tourist attractions, where man and nature live in harmony, can be greatly impacted or even destroyed by the flood of tourists. As resources are used     3     (rapidly) than they can be sustained, wildlife habitats are likely to suffer.

Today, the USS Arizona lies     1     it sank: in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Its location is marked with a memorial shaped like a bridge, which crosses the ship’s sunken remains. Each year, more than two million people visit the memorial. They come to see the shadow of the ship at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, to learn about the attack, to show respect for those who had lost their lives in the attack     2     to pray for world peace. Although about eight decades has passed, the attack on Pearl Harbor, one of the darkest episodes in American history, will never     3     (forget).

7 . Climate change is driving increasing wildfires, and those burns make up a large share of planet-heating pollution. Now, a company in Berlin uses AI with sensors (传感器) in forests to find minor (微小的) burns before they spread into big fires.

With nose-like sensors, fires can be discovered in their early stages, making it easier to put out them before they become too large or difficult to control. The company Dryad has set up 50 sensors across various locations, from the Middle East to California. Recently, the sensors discovered a small fire in Lebanon within just 30 minutes.

Another way to stop big fires is to set “controlled burns” outside of fire season to clean some trees and grass that may become fuel for fires. These controlled burns are usually carefully planned and monitored by burn managers to make sure that they are safe and do not get out of control.

But to do the work, burn managers need to know how the fire might behave so it doesn’t lose control. “They need to know things like the weather patterns, road conditions and the amount of moisture (水分) in the plants,” says Yolanda Gil, a researcher at the University of Southern California.

After interviewing fire scientists, Gil and their team used AI to create a smart assistant to help burn managers decide where and when to make controlled burns. “It’s kind of like Apple’s Siri. But for burn managers, the technology can help them understand the situation in an area and provide a way to make a safe controlled burn.” Gil says.