Beijing, China

The Great Wall's Mutianyu section, about ninety minutes to two hours outside central Beijing, is steeper and less crowded than the more famous Badaling section closer to the city, and includes a cable car and a toboggan run down that consistently ranks as a trip highlight for kids. The Forbidden City, in the heart of Beijing, is large enough to need a genuine half-day rather than a quick walkthrough.

United and Air China both fly nonstop from several US cities, with flight times ranging from about 13 hours from the West Coast to closer to 17 from the East Coast. One planning note that catches first-time visitors off guard: US citizens generally need a visa arranged in advance for China, which is not the case for most of the other destinations on this list.

Beijing's spring (April to May) and fall (September to October) bring the most comfortable temperatures. Summers run hot and humid, and winters turn genuinely cold and dry — the Great Wall in particular is exposed and considerably harsher to visit in January than in October.

The Great Wall sections closest to Beijing (Mutianyu and Badaling) are manageable half- or full-day trips, while the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square sit in the heart of the city itself, within walking distance of each other. Beijing's hutong neighborhoods — narrow historic alleyways, increasingly rare as the city modernizes — are worth a guided walk or bike tour for a version of the city that predates its current skyline.

Four days covers the city's major sites including a full day at the Great Wall. It suits history-focused travelers, and China's visa requirements are worth checking well ahead of a trip given they can take longer to process than many other destinations.

Getting there: About 13 to 17h nonstop, depending on gateway — United and Air China both fly direct from several US cities. Voldeluxe compares routing and cabin options for Beijing, China rather than booking the first itinerary a search engine surfaces, and times the trip against September to October, or April to May rather than whatever dates happen to be cheapest.

The Forbidden City, the imperial palace complex at Beijing's center, housed 24 emperors across the Ming and Qing dynasties from 1420 until the fall of imperial China in 1912, and its nearly 1,000 surviving buildings make it the largest palace complex in the world — a scale that reflects both the isolation and the absolute authority built into Chinese imperial rule for five centuries. The Great Wall sections nearest Beijing, particularly Mutianyu and the steeper, less-restored Jiankou, date mostly from Ming dynasty reconstruction in the 14th-17th centuries rather than the wall's earlier Qin-era origins over 2,000 years ago; the wall was built and rebuilt in phases by different dynasties over roughly two millennia rather than constructed once. Beijing's cuisine carries its own imperial pedigree: Peking duck, roasted since imperial kitchens perfected the technique, is traditionally served in three courses — the crisp skin, the meat, and a broth made from the bones — and the full ritual at a proper Beijing duck restaurant is a genuinely different experience from the dish served abroad. The 2008 Beijing Olympics left a lasting architectural mark too, most visibly the Bird's Nest stadium, still standing and open to visit as a monument to the city's rapid modern transformation alongside its imperial past.