Hong Kong works as a useful gateway into Southeast Asia and into China. It is also an interesting place in its own right – an extraordinary, complex territory of seven million people that's a repository of traditional Chinese culture, a recently relinquished British outpost, and one of the key economies of the Pacific Rim.

Best for: romantic, shopping, family

Macau is small. That is an inescapable fact. Made up of a peninsula and two islands, the area covered by the territory is a mere 250 hectares (5800 acres). So do not blink, or you might miss something! Macau's three islands were originally separate, there is now a two and a half-kilometer (one and a half-mile) long bridge and highway to link the three regions together. Macao might be small, but it is well-developed in the tourism industry, has numerous parks and attractions that cater to the millions of visitors each year.

Best for: romantic, shopping, nightlife

On the edge of the Orient, TOKYO – the last great conurbation before the yawning chasm of the Pacific Ocean – is one of the world's most perplexing cities. On the one hand, gaudily hung about with eyeball-searing neon and messy overhead cables, plagued by seemingly incessant noise, often clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic and packed with twelve million people squashed into minute apartments, it can seem like the stereotypical urban nightmare.

Best for: sightseeing, romantic, adventure

A big, semi-industrial city at the southern end of the Shinkansen, FUKUOKA was, until recently, simply a place to negotiate as quickly as possible en route to Kyushu's more picturesque regions. However, over the last few years it has established itself as western Japan's major cultural centre and an important international gateway.

Best for: tenjin area, ramen, hostel

Japan's fourth largest city is NAGOYA , the capital of Aichi-ken and major transport hub on central Honshu's industrial southern coast. Completely rebuilt after a wartime drubbing, it's an overwhelmingly modern city of high-rise buildings, wide boulevards, multi-lane highways and flyovers, more suited to business than sightseeing.

Best for: romantic, sightseeing, nagoya castle

The urban equivalent of the Elephant Man, OSAKA , Japan's third largest city after Tokyo and Yokohama, yearns to be loved despite its ugliness. It may well lack the pockets of beauty and refinement found in nearby Kyoto , but beyond the unrelenting concrete cityscape, Osaka is a vibrant metropolis, inhabited by famously easy-going citizens with a taste for the good things in life.

Best for: family, romantic, nightlife