Travelling in China: Natural Places

This is part of three posts about travelling in China - cities, natural places, and destinations for art, culture, and history.


Nature
Jiuzhaigou - Jiuzhaigou (9-village valley) is famous for its bright blue lakes and stunning scenery. It's a 10-hour bus ride or short flight from Chengdu, Sichuan. It's one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and I would recommend that anyone and everyone go there.

Dali, Yunnan - I spent about two days in Dali and it just isn't enough! There is so much to see for just a village, really. There are the Cangshan mountains - there are trails up the mountain that start from just outside the village. There is Erhai lake, which you can cycle around. There is also a beautiful temple surrounded by the mountains.

Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province - These mountains are also called the Hallelujah Mountains. They are some of the inspiration for the film Avatar. It's a huge park and it's massively confusing about how to get there and get around. Luckily our hosts were very helpful. It's definitely worth spending a few days there and doing research. I saw a lot of people pack really light and stay in a different part of the park every night - carrying everything they brought with them. As I was travelling for 5 weeks at the time, that wasn't possible for me. Also there are wild monkeys!

Guilin and Yangshuo, Guangxi - Guilin and Yangshuo are famous for their scenery. Big, surreal mountains jutting up from the flat river banks. There is also the Longji Rice Terraces nearby.

Huangshan, Anhui - Huangshan is a few hours from Hangzhou by bus and a few hours from Shanghai by train. It's a great place for an overnight/weekend trip. There are cable cars up and down, but we chose to hike for about 3 hours up the mountain and took the cable car down. We stayed on the mountain overnight, so we got to see a sunset and a sunrise. The whole park looks like classical Chinese landscape paintings.

Shigatse to Everest Base Camp, Tibet - If you're really keen to see some extreme mountains (like the Himalayan Range), look no further than Tibet. But know, Tibet is expensive to travel around in as a foreigner, because of the travel permits and having to be in a tour. It was worth it for me, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.

Turpan, Xinjiang - I was really pleasantly surprised by Turpan. Most people pass through for a day or two, but we stayed for about 4-5 days. I really liked it. It's a small town, but there are lots of cool sights to see in the area, like the Flaming Mountains, Bezeklik grottoes, Tuyugou village, the ruins of Gaochang, Sugong Tower, and the ruins of Xiahe ancient town. I really enjoyed the desert scenery.

Huashan - this mountain is just a 40 minute train journey from Xi'an. We stayed overnight in the town, took the cable car up the next day, stayed on the mountain, and came back down the mountain on the next day. There are 4 peaks, and some pretty treacherous trails, including China's most dangerous hike. I really liked it and would recommend it to any adrenaline junkies.

Rainbow Mountains, Zhangye, Gansu - The Rainbow Mountains are unlike anything I've ever seen. If you're willing to make the trek out West, there are a lot of really stunning natural wonders, like Dunhuang below. We only stayed in Zhangye one night and saw the Rainbow Mountains and a local temple in the mountains.

Qinghai Lake - I thought Qinghai Lake was stunning but our trip there was very disappointing. Its about 200 RMB to get into the official park, not to mention having to hire a taxi/driver to get out there from Xining. We ended up just paying like 50RMB to go to a weird off-brand tourist site just to get close to the water. I would recommend not doing that and come willing to spend more money or do more research.

Dunhuang/Gobi Desert - Dunhuang has some historical significance, but it's also famous for a crecent-shaped pond in the middle of some sand dunes. We got to see the park, but we also got a private desert experience, because we stayed in tents in the middle of the desert in the best hostel in all of China.

It was a bonfire in the desert - not sure if we joined a cult?

Zhoushan, Zhejiang - This is where my flatmate for the year was from. We visited in June and it's one of the most idyllic places I've ever been. She lives on Taohua Island.