You may find some pushback on the 'commonly-recognized' choices above (though probably not from me...).
For China, it is hard to beat the 1909 Temple of Heaven set of three bicolors. Here is the 7c high-value issue of the set, Sc#133:

If bicolors aren't your thing, then perhaps the 1923 Temple of Heaven.
The first airmails, Jenny over Great Wall, are classics, too.
Now, let's see if any of these are 'commonly-recognized' by our fellow SCF'ers.