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  • Asia
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  • China
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  • Things not to miss
Take a boat trip here to admire the weird, contorted peaks of the sort you’ll see on Chinese scroll paintings. The sight of the mountain towering above ensures you won’t regret the long journey up to Base Camp. Near the old capital of Xi’an, these 2200-year-old, life-size soldiers guard the tomb of China’s first emperor. This ancient Naxi town has been dolled up by the tourist industry into an attractive fairground of cobbled lanes, rustic wooden houses and gurgling streams. Abandoned cities such as Jiaohe hint at the former importance of this ancient trading route. Redistributing billions of tons of soil annually along its 5500km-long flow, this turbulent river is also known as “China’s Sorrow” for causing devastating floods. One of the most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, a riot of lavishly decorated halls, butter sculptures and ragged pilgrims. Stuffed with gorgeous statuary and perpetually wreathed in juniper smoke and incense, this is the holiest temple in Tibet. A northern Chinese culinary speciality and absolutely delicious – crisp skin and juicy meat eaten in a pancake. “Lurid” and “outrageous” don’t begin to describe the bizarre sculptures here – everything from life-size ice castles to fantastical snowy tableaux. This lavish complex in Confucius’s home town of Qufu shows the esteem in which China’s great sage was held. Enjoy awesome scenery and a wealth of historic sights along this famed river and its offshoots, such as the Three Little Gorges. Once the division between civilizations, this monumental barrier is still awe-inspiring. The classic Cantonese breakfast; there’s no better place to try it than Guangzhou. The emperors’ former retreat from the heat of summer holds a string of pretty temples. You’ll feel a mere speck as you gaze up at the world’s largest carved Buddha. Relaxed places to gossip, read or socialize for the price of a cup of tea. Once the centre of the Chinese imperial universe and off limits to the hoi polloi, the emperor’s impressive palace complex in Beijing is now open to all. These thousand-year-old man-made caves on the old Silk Road contain China’s most impressive Buddhist heritage. One of China’s great hikes, along a ridge above a dramatic gorge, with attractive homestays along the way. The drive of generations of the former colony’s inhabitants is writ large in this electrifying cityscape. Crowds from all over Central Asia descend to trade livestock, carpets, knives and clothes at this weekly event, which continues to provide Kashgar’s most tantalizing proof of its history as a major stop on the Silk Road. Bordering Laos, Burma and Vietnam, Yunnan is home to a range of ethnic groups with very different cultures and lifestyles. Not for the faint-hearted: this rickety wooden temple, housing shrines to China’s three main faiths, is suspended on a cliff-face by flimsy-looking scaffolding. An elegant parade of colonial architecture, nestling incongruously at the heart of Shanghai’s gaudy modernity.