Ethnic Cultures
民族风情
Fifty-five recognised minority peoples, most of them in the southwest.
About 8% of China's population belongs to a group other than the Han majority, and that 8% holds a wildly disproportionate share of the country's living tradition: Miao silverwork and lusheng pipes in Guizhou, Dong drum towers and wind-and-rain bridges, Naxi pictographic script in Lijiang, Dai water-splashing in Xishuangbanna, Uyghur music in Kashgar, Tibetan monastery debate courtyards. Visit around a festival if you can.
12Covered in depth
12 destinations in this theme
UNESCO
Hongcun & Xidi 宏村与西递
White walls, black tiles, and a village laid out in the shape of an ox with a stream running through every house.
UNESCO
Fujian Tulou 福建土楼
Rammed-earth clan fortresses up to five storeys high and 70 metres across, housing 800 people behind a single door.
Longji Rice Terraces 龙脊梯田
Seven hundred years of hand-cut terracing wrapped around whole mountains, from riverbank at 300 m to ridge at 1,100 m.
Guizhou: Miao & Dong Country 贵州苗侗村寨
Hillside villages of a thousand stilt houses, silver headdresses weighing ten kilos, and drum towers built without a single nail.
UNESCO
Lijiang Old Town 丽江古城
A Naxi town of cobbles and canals under an 5,596-metre snow peak, with the last living pictographic script on earth.
UNESCO
Tiger Leaping Gorge & Shangri-La 虎跳峡与香格里拉
One of the deepest gorges on earth, a two-day trail along its rim, and a Tibetan town at the end of it.
UNESCO
Yuanyang Rice Terraces 元阳梯田
Sixteen hundred years of Hani terracing across a whole mountain range — and in winter, at dawn, the flooded fields turn to fire.
Kashgar 喀什
Closer to Baghdad than to Beijing: a Uyghur oasis city where the Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan ranges meet.
Qinghai Lake & Chaka 青海湖与茶卡盐湖
China's largest lake, saline and 3,200 metres up, ringed by rapeseed fields that turn the shore yellow every July.
Fenghuang Ancient Town 凤凰古城
Stilt houses on wooden legs over the Tuo River, lit red at night, in a Miao and Tujia town the writer Shen Congwen made famous.
Changbai Mountain 长白山
A crater lake of impossible blue in a volcano on the North Korean border, sacred to Manchus and Koreans alike.
UNESCO
Lhasa & the Potala 拉萨与布达拉宫
A thousand-room palace on a rock at 3,700 metres, and a pilgrimage circuit that has not stopped turning for thirteen centuries.
+Also worth knowing
12 more from the full index
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Hohhot & the Grasslands呼和浩特 Inner Mongolia
Tibetan-Buddhist Mongol temples in the city and yurt stays on the Xilamuren and Hulunbuir grasslands in summer.
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Hui'an & Chongwu崇武 Fujian
A Ming coastal fortress and the Hui'an women, whose distinctive headscarf-and-bare-midriff working dress is still worn.
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Langmusi & Zoige郎木寺 Sichuan
A Tibetan monastery town on the Gansu border with sky burial sites, grassland and a very different pace.
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Dali & Erhai Lake大理与洱海 Yunnan
The Bai kingdom's old capital between a 4,000-metre range and a long blue lake, with three Tang pagodas and easy cycling.
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Xishuangbanna西双版纳 Yunnan
Tropical Dai country on the Mekong: rainforest, wild elephants, Theravada temples and the April water-splashing festival.
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Nujiang Valley怒江大峡谷 UNESCO Yunnan
A 300 km gorge on the Salween with Lisu and Nu villages, Catholic churches from French missionaries, and zipline river crossings.
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Sakya Monastery萨迦寺 Tibet
A grey-walled fortress monastery holding a library of 84,000 scrolls, some sealed in a wall for centuries.
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Labrang Monastery拉卜楞寺 Gansu
One of the six great Gelugpa monasteries, with the world's longest prayer-wheel corridor and a large monastic population.
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Zhagana扎尕那 Gansu
A Tibetan village in a natural limestone amphitheatre — 'stone box' — with terraced barley and serious trekking.
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Yushu & Jyekundo玉树 Qinghai
A Kham Tibetan town at 3,700 m rebuilt after the 2010 earthquake, with the largest mani stone pile in the world.
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Guilin's Longsheng Hot Springs龙胜温泉 Guangxi
Forest hot springs above the Longji terraces, a good soft landing after two days of walking the ridges.
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Hulunbuir Grassland呼伦贝尔草原 Inner Mongolia
A million hectares of unploughed steppe on the Russian border — Mongol herders, summer naadam festivals and endless horizon.