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National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)
Critics have compared it to an egg (although it looks more like a massive mercury bead), while modernists love it to bits. The NCPA, also known as the National Grand Theatre, is a surreal location in which to catch a show. Examine the bulbous interior, including the titanic steel r
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Wūyóu Temple
Wūyóu Temple, like the Buddha, dates from the Tang dynasty, and has Ming and Qing renovations. This monastery contains calligraphy and artefacts, with the highlights in the Luóhàn Hall — 1000 terracotta arhat (Buddhist celestial beings, similar to angels) displaying an incredible v
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Liáng Garden
This tranquil residence of a family that produced painters and calligraphers was built during the Qing dynasty. Designed in a Lǐngnán style, it delights with ponds, willow-lined pathways and, in summer, trees heavy with wax apple and jackfruit. Like Yúyìn Mountain Villa near Guăngz
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Soviet Martyrs Cemetery
The largest cemetery in China for foreign-born nationals honours Soviet soldiers who died in the liberation of northeast China at the end of WWII, as well as pilots killed during the Korean War. Designed by Soviet advisers, the cemetery is heavy with communist-era iconography. A gi
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Èrdàoqiáo Market
The Èrdàoqiáo Market and nearby International Bazaar (Guójì Dàbāzhá) have undergone extensive ‘redevelopment’ in recent years and are now aimed more at Chinese tour groups than Uighur traders. Planted in the bazaar is a replica of the Kalon Minaret from Bukhara in Uzbekistan (thoug
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Fúxī Temple
This Ming-dynasty temple was founded in 1483, and more recently cracked during the Sìchuān earthquake of 2008. The main hall is a grand post and beam structure with intricate wooden lattice door panels: look for traditional symbols such as bats, dragons, peonies, cranes and swastik
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Drongtse Monastery
On a peak (tse) said to resemble a wild yak (drong), this monastery was founded in 1442 and later adopted as a branch of Tashilhunpo. In the gönkhang look for the creepy mummified human skull, as well as an old embroidery of Namtose. The main statute is of the sixth Drongtse Rinpoc
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Chéngzhì Hall
Built by a salt merchant, the Chéngzhì Hall dates from 1855 and has 28 rooms, adorned with fabulous woodcarvings, 2nd-floor balconies and light wells. Peepholes on top-floor railings are for girls to peek at boy visitors and the little alcove in the mah-jong room was used to hide t
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Cultural Revolution Museum
The only museum in China that honours the victims of the Cultural Revolution sits atop Tǎshān Park (塔山风景区; Tǎshānfēngjǐngqū), 25km north of Shàntóus city centre. Names and inscriptions are engraved on the walls.Take eastbound bus 102 from the long-distance bus station to Tǎshān Lùk
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Courtyard Homes
The main attraction is the courtyard homes and the steps and alleyways that link them up. Great fun can be had just wandering the cobbled lanes and poking your head into whichever ancient doorways take your fancy. Many of the homes are Qing Dynasty, some remain from Ming times, and
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Meru Nyingba Monastery
This small but active monastery is a real delight and is invariably crowded with Tibetans thumbing prayer beads or lazily swinging prayer wheels and chanting under their breath. The chapel itself is administered by Nechung Monastery, which accounts for the many images of the Nechun
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Hakka Museum
This museum inside Hakka Park (客家公园; Kèjiā Gōngyuán) on the north bank of the Méijiāng River is a good warm-up to the culture of Hakkaland. If youre interested, theres a part two outside the park. From the back entrance/exit near the stream, go straight ahead for 50m, turn right an
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Madame Tussauds
Most people go to the Peak for the views or the thrill of ascending Hong Kongs highest point at a preposterous incline on the Peak Tram. But there are some other lures, including this attraction in the Peak Tower, with eerie (and scary) wax likenesses of international stars as well
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Shedruling Monastery
Around 13km west of Gongkar airport, 3km west of Gongkar Chöde Monastery, the impressive Shedruling Monastery rises from the main road like a miniature Potala. The recently renovated monastery is less impressive close up but the views over the valley are fine in afternoon light. A
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Repulse Bay
The long beach with tawny sand at Repulse Bay is visited by Chinese tourist groups year-round and, needless to say, packed on weekends in summer. It’s a good place if you like people-watching. The beach has showers and changing rooms and shade trees at the roadside, but the water i
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Ancestral Home of Bruce Lee
The last unit along a small lane off Yongqing Erxiang (永庆二巷), which runs off Ēnning Lù, was the ancestral home of Bruce Lee, the kungfu icon, whose father Li Haiquan (李海泉) was a Cantonese opera actor. There’s now a wall in its place, but if you retrace your steps out of the two all
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Bó’áo Temple
This modern Buddhist temple complex is not being maintained well, but it’s still worth a visit to see the enormous statue of the many-armed and many-headed Guanyin, the stunning pagoda, and the views over the delta which show just how pretty and rural Bó’áo can still be.A motorcycl
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Beaugeste
One of Shànghǎis top galleries, this small space is concealed high above the street-level crowds. Curator Jean Loh captures humanistic themes in contemporary Chinese photography, and his wide range of contacts and excellent eye ensure exhibits that are always both moving and though
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Yán Temple
This tranquil temple northeast of Confucius Mansion is dedicated to Confucius’ beloved disciple Yan Hui, whose death at age 32 caused the understated Confucius ‘excessive grief’. The main structure, Fùshèng Hall (复圣殿; Fùshèng Diàn), has a magnificent ceiling decorated with a dragon
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Peninsula Hong Kong
The Peninsula (c 1928), in a throne-like building, is one of the world’s great hotels. Though it was once called ‘the finest hotel east of Suez’, the Pen was in fact one of several prestigious hotels across Asia, lining up with (but not behind) the likes of the Raffles in Singapore
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