An insider's guide to China, including when to go, where to stay, the best tour operators, what to pack and recommended reading. With its high-octane energy, can-do drive, teeming population and challenging language barrier, China can be an exhausting destination…

Exploring China can rattle even veteran travelers. And understandably so. It's a huge country with enough languages and dialects to leave even many native Chinese flummoxed at the thought of communicating away from home. But when you travel away from the big cities, it…

1. Fast: The present operational speed of China trains high speed type is 200-350 km/h (124-217 mph), greatly shortening the travel time. The duration from Beijing to Shanghai has been shortened from 15 hours to about 4.5 hours. 2. Punctual:…