6 beautiful places in China you've probably never heard of
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The Huangguoshu Waterfalls are the largest in Asia.
MOUNT EMEI
One of the least known of China's sacred Buddhist mountains lies deep in southwest Sichuan Province.
Spend two or three overnights in monasteries to hike the trails through a scroll painting come to life: mountain scenery, ancient temples, humpback bridges and pine forest.
Mount Emei is one of the least-known of China's sacred Buddhist mountains.
On the sunny summit, you can throw your shadow across the cloudbanks below.
Nearby Leshan, a colourful market town, features a colossal eighth-century Buddha 71 metres high, carved out of a cliff beside the MinRiver.
A long staircase descends by the side of the Buddha to its toes, each eight metres long. See tsichuan.com.
Qili town in Mount Emei.
Kaifeng has a small-town charm and is rich in history.
Small-town charm and impressive history combine in Kaifeng, capital of the Northern Song Dynasty and the world's largest city a millennium ago.
Fan Pagoda, built in 997, is its oldest building. This Henan Province town is dotted with other temples and pavilions; the Pavilion of the Jade Emperor features carved kangaroos leaping amongst mythical Chinese animals.
High glaciers and scenic alpine lakes abound in in Tian Shan range.
In Xinjiang Province, China's share of the massive Central Asian Tian Shan range features high glaciers and scenic alpine lakes that give way to valleys forested in wild walnut and apple trees.
At Heaven Lake a volcanic caldera cupping blue waters is surrounded by snow peaks.
Xishuangbanna has a growing reputation within China as a tropical holiday destination.
The south-west corner of Yunnan between Burma and Vietnam is home to two dozen ethnic minorities (especially the million-strong Dai) whose traditional attire brings splashes of colour to the open-air markets of local towns.
Xishuangbanna has a growing reputation within China as a tropical holiday destination, and is often compared to northern Thailand, with which it has cultural links.
The stone carvings in Dazu are the best preserved but probably least known of China's four great Buddhist cave sites.
An estimated 50,000 stone carvings dating from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries are scattered at 40 locations around this small town two hours from Chongqing.
HUANGGUOSHU WATERFALLS
Asia's largest waterfalls – a series of nine cascades over two kilometres in the southern province of Guizhou – are a creation of the Baishui River near Guiyang.
Visitors can admire them from the riverbanks and viewing platforms, and some wade across the shallows of Rhinoceros Pool to see the falls from behind at Water Curtain Cave.
Rainbows thrown up by the spray during the day are matched by colourful illuminations at night. The wider scenic area has numerous smaller waterfalls, as well as karst rock formations and caves, and four underground rivers. See eguizhou.gov.cn.
Brian Johnston travelled as a guest of the China National Tourism Organisation and various hotels and tourism operators in China.
