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Best History Destinations in Asia

100 city guides ยท 3-day history itineraries

3-day city guides centred on historical sites, monuments, old quarters and untold stories.

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Agra

Beyond the Taj: tombs, forts, abandoned capitals and the Mughal court's rise and collapse, walked inโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ฒ Turkmenistan

Ashgabat

From the Parthian citadels of Nisa and the buried Seljuk capital of Merv-in-miniature to the 1948 eaโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Kazakhstan

Astana

From Bronze Age Begazy-Dandybai burials and the Silk Road town of Bozok to the ALZHIR women's camp, โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ณ Brunei

Bandar Seri Begawan

From the 15th-century royal tombs of Kota Batu to the 1962 rebellion and the oil-money transformatioโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia

Bandung

From 9,500-year-old cave burials on the shore of prehistoric Lake Bandung to the cell where Sukarno โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Bangalore

From Kempegowda's 1537 mud fort and Tipu Sultan's teak palace to the British Cantonment's churches, โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ Thailand

Bangkok

Rattanakosin palaces, the Siamese revolution of 1932, WWII railway relics and the trading quarters tโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Beijing

From Yuan-dynasty lanes and Ming ritual altars to burned garden palaces, Boxer-siege legation streetโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Uzbekistan

Bukhara

Pre-Mongol mausoleums, the last emir's palaces and prisons, and the necropolises and shrines beyond โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea

Busan

From Silla-era mountain fortresses and a 15th-century Japanese trading enclave to the wartime capitaโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ญ Philippines

Cebu City

Pre-colonial gold, Parian ancestral houses, Spanish coral churches and American-era civic monuments โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Chengdu

From 3,000-year-old Jinsha gold masks to Zhuge Liang's shrine, Tang poet cottages and the Qing-era sโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Chennai

Seventh-century Pallava temples, the East India Company's first fortress, and the Dravidian movementโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ Thailand

Chiang Mai

Seven centuries of the Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields โ€” from Mangrai's 1296 foundation stone to thโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Chiba

From the world's largest Stone Age shell mound to samurai streets in Sakura and the Edo canal warehoโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ Bangladesh

Chittagong

Mughal fort mosques, the Portuguese river quarter, Commonwealth war graves and the hills where teenaโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Chongqing

Ming porcelain lanes, Qing guild halls and the 1938โ€“46 capital of China, walked in three days acrossโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Sri Lanka

Colombo

Royal ruins, VOC townhouses, granite kovils and the ground where Ceylon became independentโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ณ Vietnam

Da Nang

Cham sandstone, the 1858 citadel that stopped the French, war-era relics and 500-year-old villages bโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea

Daegu

From Palgongsan's 1,000-year-old stone Buddha to the Japanese-era streets where Korea's independenceโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea

Daejeon

Mountain fortresses of the Baekje kingdom, Joseon Confucian academies, Japanese-era warehouse quarteโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Dalian

From Bronze Age shell mounds and the Ming-era Jinzhou walls to Lรผshun's Russo-Japanese battlefields,โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Delhi

From the 12th-century Qutb Minar to the Partition archives โ€” walking the seven (or eight) successiveโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia

Denpasar

From a 914 AD Sanskrit pillar to the beach where Dutch marines landed in 1906 โ€” the layered past behโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ Bangladesh

Dhaka

Beyond the fort and the pink palace: caravanserais, imambaras, Armenian tombstones and the exact spoโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Pakistan

Faisalabad

Shah Jahan-era sandstone, 1906 college quadrangles and the Partition muhallas that built a city planโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Fukuoka

From the Yayoi-era gold seal of Han and the Dazaifu government seat to the stone wall that stopped Kโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Fuzhou

A thousand-year walk from a 964 AD timber hall through China's first naval dockyard to the consulateโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Sri Lanka

Galle

Rock temples older than the fort, VOC wrecks raised from the harbour, and the Moor, Burgher and Britโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea

Gwangju

From Baekje-era mountain fortresses and Joseon garden pavilions to the bullet-scarred buildings of tโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Hangzhou

From 4th-century cliff carvings and an excavated Southern Song palace to Qing banker mansions and thโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ณ Vietnam

Hanoi

From the Lรฝ dynasty's imperial citadel to French prison cells and a downed B-52, Hanoi's eleven centโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Harbin

From the 1115 Jin dynasty ramparts at Acheng to the Chinese Eastern Railway bridge and the Pingfang โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Hiroshima

From Mลri clan castle walls and Edo-period military academies to the hypocenter's surviving stones, โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ณ Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City

From 1790 Chinese guild temples in Chแปฃ Lแป›n to the Cแปง Chi tunnels and the bunker where the Republic oโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Hong Kong

From a 2,000-year-old brick tomb in Sham Shui Po to Tang clan villages, harbour forts and the tenemeโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Hyderabad

From the diamond-trading citadel of Golconda to the Asaf Jah palaces and the Indo-Saracenic riverfroโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea

Incheon

From Baekje-era mountain fortresses and Ganghwa dolmens to the treaty-port concessions, the Jemulpo โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Pakistan

Islamabad

Buddhist monasteries at Taxila, British-era railway halls in Rawalpindi and the Mughal-era villages โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Jaipur

From the 16th-century Amber capital to Indo-Saracenic museums and the planned walled city Jai Singh โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia

Jakarta

From the 1522 pepper port and VOC spice godowns to the villa where independence was typed at dawnโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea

Jeju City

From the Bronze Age Samseonghyeol founding myth to the Joseon governor's compound and the memorials โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ซ Afghanistan

Kabul

Bala Hissar's ramparts, the Sher Darwaza wall, a Kushan-era monastery and the shelled palaces of Darโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ผ Taiwan

Kaohsiung

From Taiwan's first stone-walled city through Japanese colonial harbour works to the naval villages โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Pakistan

Karachi

From 2,000-year-old Banbhore ruins to Victorian Saddar and the Parsi, Hindu and Goan quarters that bโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ต Nepal

Kathmandu

Royal palace squares, 5th-century stone inscriptions, Rana-era neoclassical palaces and the Newari tโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Kobe

From Empress Jingลซ's 3rd-century shrine to Kiyomori's lost capital, the 1868 foreign settlement and โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Kolkata

From Chandraketugarh terracotta and the Asiatic Society's first Indologists to the Alipore cells thaโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡พ Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur

From a 400-million-year-old limestone shrine to the padang where the Union Jack came down in 1957 โ€” โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Kyoto

From the Heian court and Zen abbots to shogunal power plays, Meiji upheaval and the temples that burโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Pakistan

Lahore

From Shah Jahan's terraced gardens and Jahangir's minarets to the Lahore Resolution, the 1947 refugeโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡พ Malaysia

Langkawi

From the burnt granaries of the 1821 Siamese invasion to Mahsuri's curse, Bronze Age tools and the Bโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Lhasa

From the 7th-century tombs of Songtsen Gampo's dynasty to the Simla-era mansions, monastic colleges โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Lucknow

Awadhi courts, labyrinthine imambaras, the shell-scarred Residency and the last stand of 1857, walkeโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Macau

Jesuit ramparts, a 1758 seminary reliquary, mandarin courtyard houses, Sun Yat-sen's clinic and the โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Madurai

From the 6th-century-BCE brick city at Keeladi to Jain rock beds, a Sultanate tomb and the fort wallโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ป Maldives

Male

Sultans' tombs, hand-carved coral mosques and the archipelago's contested pre-Islamic past, all withโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฒ Myanmar

Mandalay

Four vanished royal capitals, teak monasteries that survived the firestorm, and the pagoda where Burโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ญ Philippines

Manila

From Spanish stone fortresses and Rizal's execution ground to the ruins of the 1945 Battle of Manilaโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia

Medan

Deli sultanate palaces, Dutch tobacco-boom architecture and the Chinese, Tamil and Batak quarters thโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Mumbai

From 6th-century Buddhist caves and Portuguese forts to the Raj's Gothic skyline, the mills that buiโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Nagoya

From a 113 CE shrine and Tokugawa power politics to the firebombs, aircraft factories and merchant lโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Naha

Five centuries of an independent island kingdom, the 82 days of 1945 that erased it, and the quarterโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Nanning

Bronze drums, Ming dynasty city gates, wartime aviation bases and the Zhuang bloodlines that made Guโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฒ Myanmar

Naypyidaw

From the Bagan-era relic chambers of Shwe Kyar Pin to Pyinmana's WWII resistance streets and the graโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ผ Taiwan

New Taipei City

Spanish and Dutch forts at the rivermouth, an 1,800-year-old iron-smelting site, the Lin clan's wallโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Okayama

From fifth-century keyhole tombs and the National Treasure shrines of the Kibi plain to Ikeda-clan cโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Osaka

From Japan's first Buddhist temple and a 486m emperor's tomb to Hideyoshi's siege lines and the fireโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡น Bhutan

Paro

Bhutan's oldest temple, a fire-gutted invasion-route dzong and Thangtong Gyalpo's forged river crossโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ Thailand

Pattaya

From Chinese sea-goddess shrines and King Taksin's 1767 march to the Vietnam War base that built theโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ญ Cambodia

Phnom Penh

From Ponhea Yat's 1442 royal monasteries to S-21, Choeung Ek and the Art Deco shophouses of the old โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ Thailand

Phuket

Tin-mining fortunes, Hokkien migrant architecture, the 1785 Burmese siege and the island's Chinese-Tโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ญ Philippines

Puerto Princesa

Trace Palawan's past from the 1904 Iwahig penal colony and Spanish-era Plaza Cuartel to the site of โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡พ Malaysia

Putrajaya

From Malay Sultanate architecture reborn in pink granite to the Ottoman-inspired mosques, national mโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ต North Korea

Pyongyang

From 1,600-year-old Koguryo royal tombs and Korea's oldest surviving school to the tunnels, treaty hโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ญ Philippines

Quezon City

From Manuel Quezon's Art Deco mausoleum to the EDSA Shrine, the Diliman Republic and the mass gravesโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Uzbekistan

Samarkand

Ash layers of Afrasiab, forty shrine tombs on a stepped lane, colonial Turkestan's grid and a paper โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Sapporo

From Ainu Mosir and Jomon-era artefacts to Kaitakushi pioneer offices, war-scarred monuments and preโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Sendai

Trace 400 years from Date Masamune's mountaintop fortress and Momoyama-style tombs through the Boshiโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea

Seoul

Six centuries of Joseon kingship, colonial occupation, war and democratic uprising, walked in order โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Shanghai

From the walled Ming county town to the Communist Party's founding house, the Jewish ghetto of Hongkโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Shenyang

Walk the palace where the Qing empire was founded, the tombs of its conquering emperors, and the raiโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Shenzhen

Ming-dynasty garrison walls, Opium War coastal forts, Hakka fortress-villages and the 1980 Special Eโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ญ Cambodia

Siem Reap

Pre-Angkorian brick towers, a Brahmin's pink sandstone masterpiece, war museums told by survivors, aโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Singapore

Singapore

From the 14th-century Temasek riverbank to the Ford Factory where Britain lost Singapore in 70 minutโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India

Surat

Fifteenth-century mosques, a 1516 stepped tank, colonial reading rooms and the Hadrami, Parsi and Voโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ผ Taiwan

Taichung

From the Qing dynasty's aborted walled city through 50 years of Japanese administration to martial-lโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ผ Taiwan

Taipei

From the 1738 immigrant temples of Bangka to the Martial Law prison island of Jing-Mei, tracing fourโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Uzbekistan

Tashkent

From Sogdian ossuaries and 15th-century mausoleums to earthquake memorials and the archives of Staliโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡น Bhutan

Thimphu

Fortress-monasteries, the Wangchuck dynasty's rise, and the vanished village that became Asia's younโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Tianjin

From the 1436 Confucius Temple and the Yuan-dynasty Mazu shrine to Puyi's Japanese-concession exile,โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Tokyo

Tracing 1,300 years from a 730 AD shrine to Edo Castle's burnt keep and the monuments of the Meiji aโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ณ Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar

From Bogd Khan's winter palace and Manchu-era temple courtyards to the Soviet purge cellars, Zaisan'โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Laos

Vientiane

Lan Xang royal temples, French colonial streets, Siamese sacking sites and the unexploded-ordnance lโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Wuhan

From 2,400-year-old Chu bronzes and Ming city walls to the barracks where the last dynasty fell and โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Xiamen

From Koxinga's Ming resistance base and a thousand-year Buddhist monastery to the consular quarter oโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China

Xian

Tang palace ruins, Ming ramparts, a forest of engraved tablets, and the rooms where Chiang Kai-shek โ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฒ Myanmar

Yangon

From the 2,500-year-old Shwedagon relic chamber to the bullet-marked room where Aung San was assassiโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia

Yogyakarta

From 9th-century Hindu candi and a hilltop Buddhist gateway to the Dutch fort, the 1949 general offeโ€ฆ

Asia
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan

Yokohama

From the 1859 opening of the treaty port to Bluff mansions, Meiji silk wealth, the Great Kantล Earthโ€ฆ