China

Visitors to this immense country will be drawn by the ancient mystique of the Silk Road, by the imperial splendour of Beijing and the Great Wall, and by the watercolours of Guilin whose dramatic landscapes have been the inspiration for generations of China’s poets and painters. Equally mesmerising are Suzhou’s ornate gardens, the world-famous Terracotta Army at Xi’an, and the cosmopolitan kaleidoscope that is Shanghai.

Those who wish to delve deeper into China’s unique cultural heritage will be drawn to the Naxi capital of Lijiang with its centuries old maze of cobbled streets, to the elegant Qing architecture of Pingyao, and to the fabulous Buddhist cave art in the remote northern deserts of Dunhuang.

China’s natural heritage is no less compelling and nowhere is this better illustrated than in the southern province of Yunnan. Shielded behind the mountains of Sichuan and dissected by the mighty Yangtse and Mekong rivers, Yunnan is an enchanting land of snowbound peaks, alpine lakes and tropical jungles, home to some thirty different ethnic peoples. To the north, Dechen Prefecture, or ‘Shangri La’ as it is better known, is a remote and stunningly beautiful region on the border with Tibet where you can trek through lichen clad forests or ride across high plateaux in the shadow of the Himalayas.