Travelling through China's 'thousand cities with the same face'

For all of the country's immense physical, cultural and historical diversity, when it comes to its cities, there is a startling monotony and sameness.

- Tan Dawn Wei

From the brown, dusty Gobi Desert plains of Gansu and the green endless grasslands of Inner Mongolia to the white majestic Himalayan peaks of Tibet a whisker from the heavens, China's landscape is a breathtaking tapestry of natural splendour.

I have marvelled at them all up close, setting foot in every province, municipality, autonomous region and special administrative region in China. Those unfamiliar with the country often underestimate the incredible diversity of this land; not just in geography but in history, culture and linguistics. How's this for a slice of cultural trivia: China is home to 56 official ethnic minority groups such as the Zhuang, Hui, Uighurs, Miao and Manchus, and more than 300 living languages.

But in that heterogeneity is also an unmistakable uniformity, a kind of national blueprint that manifests most visibly in China's cities.

As I travelled across the 22 provinces, four municipalities and five autonomous regions on the mainland over the past decade or so, I've been struck by the paradox of how derivative and similar many cities are, or the experiences they offer.

In nearly every provincial capital, you'll find a central business district based on a template: a cluster of gleaming skyscrapers, luxury shopping malls and a big public square. There is invariably a People's Park, usually very close to the public square. There will most likely be a Jiefang Lu (Liberation Street), Zhongshan Lu (Sun Yat-Sen Street) or Fuxing Lu (Rejuvenation Street).

A pedestrian shopping street with the same chain stores—Mixue, Luckin and Anta—that you would encounter elsewhere, blaring music and shop assistants hollering into loudhailers, are a must. So is a food street peddling everything from Beijing pancakes to Changsha stinky tofu to Xinjiang lamb skewers.