For foreigners living or regularly travelling to China, the country has some spectacular towns and cities outside the business hubs of Shanghai and Beijing to explore, writes Rowan Callick.
OK, so you’ve been to China quite a lot. You might even live there. But how much of it have you seen?
These days, even a moderately well-travelled Australian has almost certainly visited Beijing’s Forbidden City and Great Wall, and probably Xi’an, the ancient walled city in the centre of China’s heartland that is now most famous for the terracotta warriors that guard the nearby unexcavated tomb of the first emperor, Shi Huangdi.
Many have also walked along the Bund at Shanghai, and gazed in awe at that city’s ranks of skyscrapers.
But what next?
China is of course a vast – 20 percent bigger than Australia – and ancient land, and there are wonders to be seen in every corner.
Here is my list of the next places to visit, once you’ve “done” those top destinations, in no particular order:
Kashgar
The fabled city on the Silk Road beneath the striking mountains that become the Himalayas, in south west Xinjiang, would have been a definite starter – but the ancient heart of the city with its wonderful traditional craftsmen and winding alleyways has recently, tragically, been razed, removing it as a travel destination, since my visit there a couple of years ago.
That of course, still leaves many marvels, ideally reached by train, especially by sleeper.
Hangzhou’s West Lake
Marco Polo called Hangzhou, which is a day trip from Shanghai, “the city of heaven.” It is a rare exemplar in today’s China of tasteful tourism development. The beautiful lake, set off by green hills nearby to the west, has been a great inspiration for Chinese poets, and it remains the ideal place to read poignant Tang poems.
Lijiang
The capital of the old Naxi kingdom in Yunnan province, with its labyrinths of wooden homes and crystal clear streams down which goldfish swim (yes, in modern China!) has been sensitively restored since a deadly earthquake in 1996. It is a great base from which to explore some of China’s most awesome country, on and around the famous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. In the northern summer it is over-run by tourists, but the winter months, while chilly, are often sunny and bright.
Chengde
An imperial summer retreat a few hours north-east of Beijing, which was developed by Emperor Kangxi, the longest ruler – 1654-1722 – in China’s history, and the second Qing emperor. In a river valley surrounded by mountains, its prime feature is its palaces and pavilions on the shore of lakes, and its re-creations of famous buildings from around the Chinese world – most notably of a Tibetan temple – in order to make envoys feel at ease during their visits to the court.
Harbin
A city in the north-east corner of China that was created as a railway town when the line was built in the late 19th century between Dalian on the Chinese coast, to Vladivostok in then imperial Russia. It retains some splendid Russian architecture, but its big attraction is its spectacular ice sculptures in mid-winter, down some of which you can slide, even at night – with neon lights frozen inside some of them.
Chengdu
The lively capital of Sichuan, China’s largest province with – if you include the municipality of Chongqing – 110 million people. This is a mountainous region, which contains the sole surviving pandas in the wild. The city is compact, with rivers flowing through the centre, pleasant parks and tea houses. Its fiery food – not just fuelled by chillies but importantly, also by the unique Sichuan peppercorns – has become China’s most popular cuisine.
Dunhuang
A little oasis town in Gansu on the Silk Road, Dunhuang contains some of China’s greatest
treasures: the exquisite Buddhist cave paintings, created by monks, between the 4th and 11th centuries AD, at this fulcrum for the spread of their religion from India through China. Visitors must book, and be accompanied by a guide. But such constraints are necessary on heritage grounds, and the journey well justified.
Gulangyu
A 2.5 km² island, and short ferry ride from the pulsating, internationally oriented city of Xiamen (known in treaty port days as Amoy) that faces Taiwan, Gulangyu has no cars, and has maintained intact most of the 19th century mansions, churches, consulates and villas that were built there during its days as an international settlement – some of the most magnificent, constructed for overseas Chinese from the Philippines and Taiwan.
In the deep south of Yunnan, facing Burma across the mighty Lancang river that is known in south-east Asia as the Mekong, and also close to both Laos and Vietnam. This is subtropical China, in mountainous jungle that is the home of the Dai people who claim to be the ancestors of today’s Thais.
Macau
While Macau’s status inside China is similar to Hong Kong’s – one country, two systems this historic former Portuguese colony is too often overlooked by travellers falsely put off by the reputation of its seedy casinos. It contains the oldest European buildings in East Asia, and many Cantonese gems too. Its hallmark spicy food, a pot pourri of the best from around the Portuguese empire through the centuries, is worth the visit in itself.
Pingyao
Finally, the best. Shanxi province, south west of Beijing, is today one of China’s poorest provinces, with only its dangerous coal industry providing substantial income. But it is also a treasure trove for lovers of Chinese history, for this was the home of China’s banking industry, through which many merchants travelled. Ancient Pingyao is surrounded by one of the country’s very few intact Ming dynasty city walls. Using a courtyard hotel there as a base, you can venture to the Qiao family “mansion” with its 25 courtyards and 300 rooms, where Zhang Yimou shot his famous film “Raise the Red Lantern” starring Gong Li. Then, further afield, is the astonishing, walled Wang family mansion hovering above a gorge, about five times larger than the Qiao compound – perhaps the most exciting single site in China for a traveller today. The provincial capital Taiyuan contains a terrific new museum which places all this in context. ■
*Rowan Callick is the Asia-Pacific editor of The Australian.
