8 incredible places to see in China outside the big cities
It's time to get beyond the big cities when we travel to China. (Image: Simon Sun)
| THIS ARTICLE WAS CREATED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Wendy Wu Tours |
It’s time to get beyond China’s big cities, and we’ve got eight reasons why.
China’s big cities will always be on the travel agenda: everybody knows about the astonishing modernity of skyscraper-jammed Shanghai and the fabulous historical sites of Beijing. But travel to China is much more than just mega-cities.
It has vast landscapes, a multitude of ancient towns from five millennia of history, and trade routes and rivers lined with incredible sights. If you’re keen to answer the great call of China, these eight destinations shouldn’t be missed.
1. Lijiang
Lijiang in southwest China’s mountainous Yunnan Province is an ancient trading town of canals and cobbled streets lined by wooden houses packed with boutique shops, restaurants and teahouses. It’s home to several colourful ethnic minorities, of which the matriarchal Naxi in their blue aprons and caps are the most prominent.
The surrounding scenery is breathtaking: take it all in on Wendy Wu Tour’s Classic China itinerary. Black Dragon Pool Park boasts a lakeside pavilion for viewing the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains, which you can ascend by cable car for a stunning panorama.
View the mountains from Black Dragon Pool Park. (Image: Marc Olivier Jodoin)
2. Chengdu
The capital of Sichuan Province is fast-growing and fashionable and yet, renowned for its parks, riverside promenades, teahouses and venerable monasteries and temples, remains laidback in a China that seldom stays still. Its famous cuisine is an explosion of spicy flavours, and every intersection tempts with restaurants, hotpot joints and noodle shops.
Chengdu seamlessly mixes the old and the new. (Image: Nate Hovee)
One of the highlights, experienced on Majestic Yangtze with Wendy Wu Tours, is the Chengdu Panda Research Centre, where you can learn about the conservation of these rare and delightful creatures, and watch them as they play.
Stop by the Chengdu Panda Research Centre. (Image: Hung Chung Chih)
3. Giant Buddha of Leshan
Also in Sichuan is the colourful market town of Leshan, visited on Wendy Wu Tours’ China Delights. It’s a cheerful, bustling place on the Minjiang River, on which ferries and fishing boats chug.
Smiling over it all is a Giant Buddha carved from the river cliffs, hands on his knees, eyes half closed. The eighth-century sculpture is 71 metres high and still the world’s largest Buddha statue. A long staircase descends by the side of the Buddha to its toes, each eight metres long, but admiring the Buddha from a river boat is a relaxed way to take in the spectacle.
Gaze up at the peaceful Giant Buddha of Leshan. (Image: Bim)
4. Zhangjiajie
While we often associate China with mega-cities, the vast nation has plenty for lovers of the outdoors and scenic beauty, as you’ll discover on Wendy Wu Tour’s Dreams of Nature.
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in central China is a World Heritage-listed scenic area with landscapes straight out of a classical scroll painting – or the movie Avatar, for which it was an inspiration. Jinbian Stream gurgles between pools and mossy rocks. Explore Ten-Mile Natural Gallery and you’re surrounded by spectacular pine-clad outcrops of rock, prettily decorated with wisps of misty cloud and the occasional pavilion.
Feel like you’ve stepped into Avatar. (Image: Rob S)
5. The Silk Road
We’ve all heard of it, but on Wendy Wu Tour’s Silk Road Explorer you can actually travel the eastern end of this fabled transcontinental trade route, which was established over 2000 years ago to link Europe and Asia across high mountains, desert and steppe.
See incredible desert landscapes. (Image: Getty)
Amid the extraordinary landscapes of the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts and a backdrop of snow peaks, you’ll discover ancient monasteries clanking with prayer wheels and smoky with incense, magnificent Buddhist cave art at Dunhuang, and the colour and bustle of Asia’s largest bazaar in Kashgar, where Turkic minorities mingle amid carpets, nuts and spice.
Wander Asia’s largest bazaar in Kashgar. (Image: Simon Sun)
6. Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival
Harbin in northwest China hosts the biggest winter festival of its kind in the world between late December and late February. It features enormous ice sculptures and entire ice structures, many of which are recreations of famous monuments such as the Taj Mahal or the Great Wall. At night, illuminations are spectacular, and ice lanterns in the form of dragons and mythological figures glow.
On Wendy Wu Tour’s China: Winter Wonderland, you’ll get two days to take in the icy display. Rug up, enjoy some ice skating, visit and ice bar, and celebrate among the locals.
Rug up for the Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. (Image: Ksana Photo)
7. China by Rail
Train journeys showcase China’s passing scenery, mushrooming cities and fast-paced life, which are sure to mesmerise you beyond the windows. But train travel is also an experience in itself in a nation that operates the world’s fastest trains, which reach speeds of 300kph; the one-of-a-kind Maglev from Shanghai airport goes even faster.
On Wendy Wu Tour’s China by Rail, settle in comfort as you’re wafted at high speed to mega-cities Shanghai and Beijing, cultural centres Xian and Chengdu, and splendid landscapes such as Yellow Mountain and the karst outcrops of Guilin.
Travel China on one of the world’s fastest trains. (Image: Only Youqj)
8. Yangtze River Cruise
China’s longest river (and the world’s third longest) cuts right through the centre of the country, and has for centuries been a throbbing artery of commerce that has seen temples and monasteries, old towns and the latest boomtowns erupt along its banks – plus the astonishing Three Gorges Dam, one of the world’s engineering marvels.
On Wendy Wu Tour’s Magnificent China, you’ll encounter the ancient and modern alike, as well as the staggering scenery of the twisting Three Gorges and the more verdant, intimate beauty of the Lesser Three Gorges.
See the towns that have popped up along the Yangtze River. (Image: Jui-Chi Chan)
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