|
||
|
|
||
|
|
• Get on your bike to enjoy China's great outdoors. Some 300 million Chinese use bicycles to get around. Hire shops are everywhere. Popular cycling routes include alongside sections of the Great Wall and Guilin and Yangshuo, in Guanxi province.
• Enjoy China's scenic natural wonders. They include Tibet's Qomolangma Nature Reserve around Everest and UNESCO World Heritage Sites (website: http://whc.unesco.org) including Mount Taishan mountain park, Huangshan Mountain's fog-shrouded rocky precipices, Buddhist mountain Emei Shan and Jiuzhaigou Valley's lakes and waterfalls.
• Hike or trek amid spectacular scenery. Everest Base Camp is Tibet's most popular trekking destination. There's also great hiking in other areas of the mountainous Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Yunnan's threatened Tiger Leaping Gorge and along the Great Wall.
• Conquer the world's highest mountains. Mighty Himalayan peaks form Tibet's southern border, among them Mount Everest (or Qomolangma), at 8,848m (29,021ft), and Namcha Barwa, at 7,756m (25,445ft), around which the Brahmaputra River carves a fantastic gorge to enter India.
• Go rock climbing, a fast-growing sport in China. The sheer-faced limestone karst mountains around Yangshuo in Guangxi province have become a climbing Mecca, offering many marked routes for everyone from novice to expert climbers. Some bars even have practice walls.
• Go river cruising. The Three Gorges Dam will raise levels of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) by 175m (574ft) by 2009, although the spectacular gorges will still tower high above. See striking limestone formations on a Li River cruise from Guilin.
• Explore caves. Head underground to Zhangjiajie's Yellow Dragon Cave, Asia's largest, or more popular caverns including Guilin's Reed Flute and Crown caves and Yangshuo's Silver Cave - their stalactites and stalagmites lit by garish multi-coloured neon.
• See forests of stone. Take a day trip from Yunnan capital Kunming to see one of southwest China's most celebrated natural attractions. The Shilin Stone Forest's limestone rock columns resemble petrified trees (website: www.chinastoneforest.com).
• Relax on a tropical beach. Sanya, on the southern coast of China's most southerly province, Hainan Island, is one of China's newest holiday areas and has international resort hotels, fine sand beaches, golf courses, coconut palms and watersports (website: www.sanyatour.com).
• Try the ancient ‘shadow art' of tai chi, a series of linked, slow movements using the entire body while focusing the mind. Traditionally practised early in the morning throughout China, good places to see it include Beijing's Beihai Park.
• Enjoy festivities surrounding the Spring Festival, the Chinese calendar's most important date. Families get together to celebrate Chinese New Year, festooning homes with banners and pictures to bring good fortune. Festival activities often include parades, lantern shows and lion dances.
See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.
• Enjoy China's scenic natural wonders. They include Tibet's Qomolangma Nature Reserve around Everest and UNESCO World Heritage Sites (website: http://whc.unesco.org) including Mount Taishan mountain park, Huangshan Mountain's fog-shrouded rocky precipices, Buddhist mountain Emei Shan and Jiuzhaigou Valley's lakes and waterfalls.
• Hike or trek amid spectacular scenery. Everest Base Camp is Tibet's most popular trekking destination. There's also great hiking in other areas of the mountainous Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Yunnan's threatened Tiger Leaping Gorge and along the Great Wall.
• Conquer the world's highest mountains. Mighty Himalayan peaks form Tibet's southern border, among them Mount Everest (or Qomolangma), at 8,848m (29,021ft), and Namcha Barwa, at 7,756m (25,445ft), around which the Brahmaputra River carves a fantastic gorge to enter India.
• Go rock climbing, a fast-growing sport in China. The sheer-faced limestone karst mountains around Yangshuo in Guangxi province have become a climbing Mecca, offering many marked routes for everyone from novice to expert climbers. Some bars even have practice walls.
• Go river cruising. The Three Gorges Dam will raise levels of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) by 175m (574ft) by 2009, although the spectacular gorges will still tower high above. See striking limestone formations on a Li River cruise from Guilin.
• Explore caves. Head underground to Zhangjiajie's Yellow Dragon Cave, Asia's largest, or more popular caverns including Guilin's Reed Flute and Crown caves and Yangshuo's Silver Cave - their stalactites and stalagmites lit by garish multi-coloured neon.
• See forests of stone. Take a day trip from Yunnan capital Kunming to see one of southwest China's most celebrated natural attractions. The Shilin Stone Forest's limestone rock columns resemble petrified trees (website: www.chinastoneforest.com).
• Relax on a tropical beach. Sanya, on the southern coast of China's most southerly province, Hainan Island, is one of China's newest holiday areas and has international resort hotels, fine sand beaches, golf courses, coconut palms and watersports (website: www.sanyatour.com).
• Try the ancient ‘shadow art' of tai chi, a series of linked, slow movements using the entire body while focusing the mind. Traditionally practised early in the morning throughout China, good places to see it include Beijing's Beihai Park.
• Enjoy festivities surrounding the Spring Festival, the Chinese calendar's most important date. Families get together to celebrate Chinese New Year, festooning homes with banners and pictures to bring good fortune. Festival activities often include parades, lantern shows and lion dances.
See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.