2026 China 5A Scenic Areas Tier List
Snapshot 2026-09-08. CTA 2025 Golden Week high-level scenic ranking: Qinhuai No. 1. Ten sites on the table; 86 in the pool.
Snapshot 2026-09-08. The main table follows China Tourism Academy’s 2025 National Day + Mid-Autumn ranking of high-level scenic areas (1–8 Oct). The MCT bulletin is a national A-level total. The board pre-fills these 10; another 86 5A sites sit unranked in the pool. Related: China cities, global attractions, theme parks.
Golden Week top 10
Confucius Temple–Qinhuai is No. 1. West Lake is No. 2 and Hengdian No. 3. Zhongshan is No. 10. The same CTA ranking also put Qinhuai first at Spring Festival and May Day 2025.
| Rank | Scenic area | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Confucius Temple–Qinhuai | Nanjing |
| 2 | West Lake | Hangzhou |
| 3 | Hengdian Studios | Dongyang |
| 4 | Dali Ancient Town | Dali |
| 5 | Tang Paradise | Xi'an |
| 6 | Qingcheng–Dujiangyan | Dujiangyan |
| 7 | Qingxiu Mountain | Nanning |
| 8 | Tiantai Mountain | Tiantai |
| 9 | Baiyun Mountain | Guangzhou |
| 10 | Zhongshan Scenic Area | Nanjing |
How we ranked this
Snapshot 2026-09-08. The main table follows the order of high-level scenic areas in China Tourism Academy president Dai Bin’s holiday note Tourism China, Blooming Moon (National Day + Mid-Autumn 2025), ranks 1–10. Window: 1–8 Oct 2025. Nanjing.gov.cn states Confucius Temple–Qinhuai is No. 1 and Zhongshan is No. 10; the eight names listed between them keep that order. The MCT 2025 bulletin publishes A-level totals only, not a full-year 5A league table. The tech-centre Golden Week top-50 chart is an index image, so those scores stay off the main table. Meadian media-index lists stay off it too. Names: docs/glossaries/travel-5a-cn-glossary.md. Cities: China travel cities. Global sites: global attractions.
| Source | Snapshot | Basis | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nanjing.gov.cn on CTA holiday ranks | 10 Oct 2025 | CTA note; Qinhuai No. 1, Zhongshan No. 10; named top 10 | Primary |
| Xinhua Daily on Qinhuai three-peat | Oct 2025 | Same CTA ranking; district gate count 2.931 million | Primary |
| MCT 2025 statistical bulletin | 2 Jun 2026 | 16,994 A-level sites; 7.51 billion visits; 554.49 billion yuan | Support |
| Xinhua on the bulletin | 2 Jun 2026 | Same national totals | Support |
| Pinchain Golden Week barometer | Oct 2025 | Tech centre: 358 5A sites; top 50 depth visits (stay ≥1 h) 36.22 million combined | Support |
| Hangzhou News: West Lake 5.1164 million | 9 Oct 2025 | Scenic-area 8-day count | Support |
| SIP: Jinji Lake 1.8755 million | Oct 2025 | Jinji Lake holiday count | Support |
Holiday gate counts
A few sites published their own 8-day counts in the same window. Those figures are not the CTA ranking.
| Site | Visits | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| West Lake | 5.1164 million | Scenic-area count, 8 days |
| Confucius Temple district | 2.931 million | 2.299 million temple + 0.632 million Mendong |
| Jinji Lake | 1.8755 million | Suzhou Industrial Park, +13.72% y/y |
National A-level stock
MCT 2025 bulletin: 16,994 A-level sites at year-end, 7.51 billion visits, 554.49 billion yuan in scenic-area tourism revenue. Golden Week monitoring covered 358 5A sites. The Palace Museum drew nearly 18 million visitors in 2025; the Qin Mausoleum was reported past 10 million the same year; Jiuzhaigou had 6.028 million by 24 Oct. Those three are annual or year-to-date counts, not the holiday main table.
互动体验：拖拽排位《2026 China 5A Scenic Areas Tier List》
2026 China 5A Scenic Areas Tier List
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