The Southwest

Four peaks to 6,250 m four hours from Chengdu, with three trekking valleys and the best alpine scenery in eastern Tibet.

Three sacred snow peaks above turquoise lakes at 4,600 m — the 'last Shangri-La', and a serious altitude commitment.

A Tibetan monastery town on the Gansu border with sky burial sites, grassland and a very different pace.

A glacier tongue descending to 2,850 m below the 7,556 m Gongga Shan, with hot springs at its foot.

A three-hour valley of larch, lakes and snow peaks that turns spectacular in late October, and far quieter than Jiuzhaigou.

Three natural limestone bridges and the Furong Cave, used as a location in Transformers and Curse of the Golden Flower.

50,000 figures from the 9th–13th centuries, culminating in a 31-metre reclining Buddha. The last great phase of Chinese cave art.

A limestone pinnacle field 80 km from the 'spring city', plus Dianchi Lake and its wintering black-headed gulls.

The Bai kingdom's old capital between a 4,000-metre range and a long blue lake, with three Tang pagodas and easy cycling.

Kawagarbo, 6,740 m, sacred and never climbed — a wall of thirteen peaks seen from Feilai Si at dawn.

Tropical Dai country on the Mekong: rainforest, wild elephants, Theravada temples and the April water-splashing festival.

Eroded earth pillars in a dry valley, at their strangest in low evening light. Almost no visitors.

A 300 km gorge on the Salween with Lisu and Nu villages, Catholic churches from French missionaries, and zipline river crossings.

Turquoise pools, tiered waterfalls and a 1836 stone bridge in a karst forest — the prettiest short walk in Guizhou.

Chambers up to 150 metres high with stalagmites the size of buildings. Arguably the finest show cave in Asia.

A 2,336 m quartzite pillar with two temples on top, reached by 8,888 steps or a cable car, above a cloud sea.

Bronze masks with protruding eyes and a 4-metre bronze tree from a Bronze Age culture with no written record and no obvious parallels.

Chengdu's Shu-culture gold sun-bird and the Three Kingdoms shrine to Zhuge Liang, next to Jinli street.

Red rock, bamboo sea and a curtain waterfall, in the corner of Guizhou where Maotai liquor is distilled.

Karst peaks rising from lotus-covered lakes, punted by boat in July and August. Yi minority villages between them.