You could have a long debate on whether we’re in anything like a Golden Age for China itself. But beyond debate it is a golden age of writing about China, and therefore of things to read. There are overviews; universe-in-the-particular microcosmic accounts; memoirs; novels; long-suppressed histories; Chinese literature in translation; foreign-language accounts, more in English than in any other language.
You hardly need make an actual visit to the country! Although of course you should. Here’s the latest entry in the golden-age chronicles: Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century, by Orville Schell and John Delury.