Old But Gold

Autumn's Concerto (2009) - a Taiwanese classic romance drama that sentimentally executes classic tropes amazingly. I watched it for the OST 《我爱他》, initially only because I liked the melody and song; but only after watching the drama was I able to understand the lyrics. - u/ditaohcy

Scarlet Heart (2011) Perfect in imperfection: I love how gorgeous everyone is without all the filters and special makeup. You can see the color in their faces and the lines/wrinkles when they emote. You can even see acne under the makeup. The costumes are lovely and I kept trying to guess why the women were wearing certain colors of flowers.

Liu Shi Shi plays a wonderful character with a lot of heart.

It's "only" 35 episodes which is on the shorter side for a harem-type drama. - u/MoonlitBloodySoul

Journey to the West(1986)- this is the OG, no amount of adaptations can ever replicate this! That one show that majority of Chinese kids grew up with in the 90s. Fun fact I learned from this sub- the actor who portrays the Monkey King is quite literally born for this role, he comes of a Peking Opera family who specialized in playing the Monkey King. - u/Candid-Champion-4509

Love Story in Shanghai: 像雾像雨又像风 it's a romance drama set in 1930s Shanghai. i havent seen a drama like this since ?you really get drawn into the drama and feel like you know the characters yourself and their love story - u/Comfortable_Potatoe

Always have a special spot for Meteor, Butterfly, Sword (2010), a rare Gu Long adaptation that will probably never be made today because it is really dark ☠️ - u/Lotus_swimmer

Romance of the Three Kingdoms(1994)- they definitely don’t make dramas like this anymore and sadly never well again… The epicness and richness of this world is hard to describe - the closest thing to it in terms of world building might be GoT. I still remember those battle scenes just wow!!!! For those who likes the political intrigue in Nirvana in Fire, this is a must, although the complexity of this drama might make NiF seem like a very simple story lol.  - u/Candid-Champion-4509

2014’s Sound of the Desert is an emotional roller coaster of a show featuring a unique, loyal, and smart FL, and two MLs so great that you as the viewer will be just as torn between the two as the FL. - u/TVAddict4

The Eloquent Ji Xiaolan 铁齿铜牙纪晓岚- super popular back in the day, telling the story of Ji Xiaolan during the Qing Dynasty. There's lots of humerous and interesting politics highlighted. Acting superb. - u/Comfortable_Potatoe

天外飛仙2006: My little fairy.  Hu ge’s older works and often gets overshadowed by his more famous stuff like Chinese paladin but it is my favorite!!! It has a very stereotypical xian xia storyline but they really develop the side characters and di gua xiao qi love story. The OST is also 10000000/10!! - u/Weekly-albatross5601

The Prince of Han Dynasty 大汉天子- season 1. the title basically says it all. it's about the life of Emperor Wu played by Huang xiaoming. There's so much in this drama, romance, politics, friendship, and the side character stories are super interesting too. my all time fav historical costume. - u/Comfortable_Potatoe

The Vigilantes in Masks (aka Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei), released back in 2010, relatively short, action-and-fun-packed series. Can't recommend this enough.  u/MagicMoon13

來不及說愛你 2010 :too late to say love you with Wallace chung and li xiao ran. I looooove fei wo si chun stuff (author of good bye my princess) so this is similar with crazy male lead - u/Weekly-Albatross5601

Water Margin(1998)- another absolutely legendary epic drama! It tells the story of 108 heroes with fight scenes choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping(Crouching Tiger). Features some truly memorable characters and fight scenes! - u/Candid-Champion-4509