r/travel • u/AutoModerator • Jun 07 '18
Advice r/travel Topic of the Week: China off the tourist trail
In this new series of weekly country threads we want to focus on lesser known travel destinations: the towns, nature, and other interesting places outside the known tourist hotspots.
Please contribute all and any questions / thoughts / suggestions / ideas / stories about this travel destination.
This post will be archived on our wiki destinations page and linked in the sidebar for future reference, so please direct any of the more repetitive questions there.
Only guideline: If you link to an external site, make sure it's relevant to helping someone travel to this city. Please include adequate text with the link explaining what it is about and describing the content from a helpful travel perspective.
Example: We really enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. It was $35 each, but there's enough to keep you entertained for whole day. Bear in mind that parking on site is quite pricey, but if you go up the hill about 200m there are three $15/all day car parks. Monterey Aquarium
Unhelpful: Read my blog here!!!
Helpful: My favourite part of driving down the PCH was the wayside parks. I wrote a blog post about some of the best places to stop, including Battle Rock, Newport and the Tillamook Valley Cheese Factory (try the fudge and ice cream!).
Unhelpful: Eat all the curry! [picture of a curry].
Helpful: The best food we tried in Myanmar was at the Karawek Cafe in Mandalay, a street-side restaurant outside the City Hotel. The surprisingly young kids that run the place stew the pork curry[curry pic] for 8 hours before serving [menu pic]. They'll also do your laundry in 3 hours, and much cheaper than the hotel.
Undescriptive I went to Mandalay. Here's my photos/video.
As the purpose of these is to create a reference guide to answer some of the most repetitive questions, please do keep the content on topic. If comments are off-topic any particularly long and irrelevant comment threads may need to be removed to keep the guide tidy - start a new post instead. Please report content that is:
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u/kman1456 Jun 12 '18
Having lived here for four years, some of the non-Tibetan recommendations I have:
- Three Natural Bridges (天生三桥), in Wulong County: an incredible sinkhole with three massive arches above it, and which the entryway into it is like a fairy world. Take the K73 from Chongqing North station in the morning, get off at Wulong (武隆), and follow those who get off to the bus station, from where you can take a bus
- Several villages in western Zhejiang, including many in Songyang county (松阳) of Lishui prefecture (丽水), which still are quite quiet and untouristed, despite having many original buildings; the most well-known of them is a place called Yangjiatang (杨家堂), which is accessible by a short taxi ride out of Songyang; in Yunhe county (运河) there are also a large area of rice terraces, just three hours' high speed train south of Shanghai
- For some peace and quiet north of Beijing, the Hexigten (克什克腾旗) grasslands are also cool, but as most people on here can go to Mongolia itself without a visa there would be less reason to travel from afar to visit; to get here, from Hohhot take a train to Jingpeng (经棚) and alight
- The Great Wall has many places to visit it, but in particular Qianan City of Tangshan prefecture (唐山迁安) has a place called Baiyangyu (白羊峪) which is an excellent section of wild wall to visit; take a bus from Tangshan to Qianan, then get off and tell a moto-taxi driver you want to go there; note, the clearest views are typically had in winter
- The city of Zhangye (张掖) in Gansu (甘肃) has the (probably by now) oft-heard of Rainbow Valley, which really does look like the pictures
- If choosing a city to visit, Nanjing is definitely better than Shanghai to spend a few days in; in particular its original city wall (complete with bricks stamped with the name and date of the makers!) is still intact and you can walk around large sections of it
- Also, Chongqing is an excellent place to feel the vibe of China: good food, dense high-rises everywhere, possibly the best night skyline in the world next to Hong Kong and also close to both wild scenery and Sichuan province, mentioned below as a great place to get into Tibetan culture without going to Tibet itself
- For karst areas, there are many more than just Guilin/Yangshuo; the city of Xingyi (兴义) in Southwest Guizhou (黔西南) has multiple areas worth visiting, including the Maling River Gorge (马岭河大峡谷) and the Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks (万峰林), and is an overnight train ride from Nanning or six hours' slow train east of Kunming
- Also in the Xingyi area, if you are there during February or March, is Luoping (罗平), which is a large area of canola fields surrounding karst peaks; the best area to view is Jinji Feng/Golden Chicken Ridge (金鸡峰), which is readily served by bus from Luoping county seat
- In the same time of the year (Nov-Feb), the Dongchuan Red Land (东川红土地) is also worth an overnight trip out of Kunming by bus; once reaching Dongchuan one can take a taxi around; some of the overlooks are best viewed in the morning, others in the afternoon
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u/Chris_in_Lijiang Jun 15 '18
Having lived here for four years
Your knowledge is really widespread and impressive. Where exactly do you live?
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u/Thrill_Monster Jun 08 '18
The Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is absolutely stunning. You can grab a 2 hour flight from Hong Kong into Zhangjiajie Hehua International Airport (DYG). There are breathtaking views and it is unlike any other place on the planet.
Yuanjiajie and the Bailong Elevator are definite musts. Baofeng Lake and Tianzi Mountain (offering views of the Sea of Clouds) are not as famous and touristy and even nicer than Yuanjiajie.
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u/Cuttlefish88 Washington Jun 08 '18
Huangshan is another option that’s within a short flight or HSR trip from Shanghai. Absolutely incredible mountains and landscape, though fairly crowded with domestic tourists – avoid weekends and holidays, but don’t miss Beginning to Believe Peak and Stone Monkey Gazing Over a Sea of Clouds.
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u/I_AM_STILL_A_IDIOT Travel photography addict | Amsterdam Jun 08 '18
Oh absolutely agreed! Huangshan was a great, and gorgeous experience, and the town at the foot of the park was great to explore (even at night) too.
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Jun 08 '18 edited Dec 06 '20
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u/Thrill_Monster Jun 08 '18
It's popular in China, but many foreigners don't know about it or how to get there. Lots of people focus on just Beijing (+ Great Wall), Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
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u/Tortoiiise- Jun 08 '18
I’ve been living in China for two and a half years now. I live in Sichuan province and I definitely recommend it. Sichuan is the home of the giant panda and the panda reserve has about 80% of the worlds pandas in it. The capital of the province Chengdu is a huge 14 million person city, but it has a different vibe to the other first tier cities. It’s very slow and laidback. There are two Chinese sayings about Chengdu one is “Chengdu is the city you never want to leave” and the other is “don’t let your young people come to Chengdu, they will become lazy”. Apart from Chengdu Sichuan province has many other amazing things for example the Leshan giant Buddha which is the largest Buddha figure in the world and jiuzhaigou which I like to think of as the space lakes. Basically it’s a huge national park with lots of lakes than glow different colours, all natural. It was recently hit pretty badly by an earthquake, but some parts have been restored and can be visited again. Apart from my home province I recommend Nanjing, one of the ancient capitals. It’s very pretty, especially at night by the river, with a lot of interesting history. I only visited for a weekend so I don’t know as much about it. Feel free to ask questions, I’ve traveled to many places and most of them not at all well known outside China :)
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u/stosshobel Jun 09 '18
Do you have any hiking/mild trekking recommendations for Sichuan other than Jiuzhaigou? I'm considering Garze and Yading as options.
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u/Tortoiiise- Jun 09 '18
Sichuan is full of mountains:) one of the most famous mountains is here it’s called emei Shan or mount emei it’s quite tall and people usually spend the night about midway and then get up super early to see the sunrise at the top.
There is also a mountain near mianyang that is basically hollow it’s so full of caves. This one you need to go with a guide as the caves can be quite dangerous.
There is also qingchenshan, qingchen mountain wich is about an hour and a half drive away from Chengdu. It’s an important daoist site and has temples all over it. I’ve heard that climbing the back mountain is much more beautiful than the front, I would know, I’ve only ever been to the front. Very nearby to qingchenshan is Dujiangyan, wich is not a mountain, but an ancient irrigation system, still used today. It’s very beautiful there and I can’t recommend it enough. Only a tiny bit of hiking involved. If you’re traveling through and have some time I’d recommend doing either qingchenshan or Dujiangyan on one day, then stay the night in Dujiangyan city and do the other one on the other day.
There is also the four sisters mountains in Sichuan, I don’t know much about them, mainly because I’m not that much of a hiker but I’ve heard good things. I hope this helps!
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u/stosshobel Jun 11 '18
Thanks a lot! For some reason I had overlooked Emei Shan in my research. It looks fantastic, and I might do it during the second leg of my trip. I've written the other places down to keep them in mind!
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u/rakuu 🐱 Jun 12 '18
If you haven't been to China before -- set your expectations that Emei Shan and most (but not all) established "hiking" trails in China are mostly stairs or pavement, not unpaved trails. It's still quite an atmospheric experience that I would do again. I'll never forget all those stairs...
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u/Adrian5156 Jun 11 '18
Just did the circuit in Yading last week. Amazing full day hike. Gladly give you full details if you want
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u/stosshobel Jun 11 '18
That would be amazing! Right at this moment I was looking through the Rough Guide on China to see what they had to say, and since there is generally not much info out there, your post came as a godsend!
I already know the basics, like how to get there and that there is the monastery, the grassland, a lake that you can horse-trek to and the Sacred mountains. As far as I understand it you can go as a day-trip from Riwa/Yading Village and do a combination of hiking, horse trekking and cable car, which will bring you as far as the lake before returning. Was this what you did?
I'm really interested in doing the short trekking circuit with a night of camping. Do you know about this option? Do you know anything about the options for arranging a guide, or, more importantly, renting gear in Riwa? I'm going to do more trekking later on in Central Asia, but there you can rent gear quite easily, but if I can't rent a tent in Riwa, I might just go out and buy a tent to bring for the trip from my home country.
Really I'd just love to hear anything you'd like to share, I'm really getting excited about this destination at the moment!
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u/Adrian5156 Jun 11 '18
The basics such as how to get there can get out of date pretty quickly in that part of the world. Can I ask how you will be getting to Sichuan and where you will be going to? Because to get to Yading you have to go from Chengdu through Kangding and on to Daocheng or from Yunnan (Shangri-La) to Daocheng. If coming from Chengdu you have to stop in Kangding and stay at Zhilam hostel - I don’t really like hostels but this place was one of the best I’ve ever been to. It’s critical to stay in Kangding a couple days to acclimatize, and I would also highly recommend staying a couple days in Litang, a wonderful Tibetan town at 4000 meters high on the tibetan plateau. You would need to be acclimated before getting to Yading. If you are coming from Shangri-La that won’t be a problem as Shangri-La is at 3200m.
If you stay at Zhilam hostel they have all the info you could possibly want on Western Sichuan. Their most up-to-date info will probably be a big email I sent them just a few days ago! Anyway, on to your questions:As far as I understand it you can go as a day-trip from Riwa/Yading Village and do a combination of hiking, horse trekking and cable car, which will bring you as far as the lake before returning. Was this what you did?
If you stay in Riwa village you can only do a day trip. If you stay in Yading village you can stay in the park for 3 days. This is because Riwa village is before the ticket office and Yading village is after. The park entrance ticket plus bus ticket is valid for three days but only provided you do not return back past the ticket office during those three days. If you return back past the ticket office that nulifies ypur ticket and you will have to pay the full fee again. The park ticket plus the bus ticket (both ways) is now 270RMB, not the 200 blogs online state.
Riwa village is however much bigger with more shops and restaurants so if you just want to do a day trip that is a great place to base yourself. You have to take a minivan taxi from Riwa Village to the ticket office though as it’s a fair walk. The first park bus from the office leaves at 7:30am with the last one returning at 7pm (during summer).
There is no cable car, you are confusing that with a shuttle service that runs from the park entrance to Lourong Pasture which is 6km. You can also walk this 6km if you want. The shuttle costs 50rmb one way, 80 return. You can take a horse up to the two lakes if you want but I dunno why you would want to. It’s a pretty easy 2-3 hour walk, I didn’t see anyone taking a horse.
I did the full circuit in the park, which brings me to yournext question:
I'm really interested in doing the short trekking circuit with a night of camping. Do you know about this option?
Yeah you don’t need to camp. Online it’s quoted as 12-14 hours which is ridiculous. I took the shuttle one way to the pasture and then completed the circuit in 7.5 hours. I’m not an athlete but even if I’m still 33% faster than the average person (which I highly highly doubt) that means it would take 10 hours, but yeah if you take the shuttle I don’t see any reason why the circuit can’t be done in under 9 hours. Of course bring lots of water (3+ litres), a full lunch, and a raincoat just in case. Don’t do the circuit if the weather is crap. And yeah if you want to walk the 6km in instead of take the shuttle then you’re adding 2-3 hours onto your circuit time, which may get you toward the 12 hour mark, but I dunno why you want to walk the 6km in when you can just take the shuttle. The circuit is amazing though. Download Maps.me if you haven’t already as they have the trails in the park marked and as long as you’ve downloaded the map beforehand the satellite will still find your position even if you have no service. If you get the first bus at the ticket office at 7:30am and then take the shuttle, you’ll be at the pasture by 9am, which would give you enough time easily to do the circuit. And hey, if you get to the two lakes, or even the first pass just above Milk Lake and you don’t feel like you have the circuit in you then you can just return to the pasture, do the gentle 6km walk instead of take the shuttle and explore the monastery and other lake that is only 30-45 mins from the monastery.
Do you know anything about the options for arranging a guide, or, more importantly, renting gear in Riwa?
Didn’t see anywhere for renting gear, but you don’t need any ‘gear’. A good pair of hiking boots, a warm sweater, and a raincoat are the only necessities. Not a clue about a guide, but you don’t need one, there will be local tibetans along the way who you can just ask “Yading” and they’ll point you along the way. The trail is easy to follow, there’s only one big junction and that’s at the first pass above Milk lake and you need to go south/right. Plus you’re doing a circuit of a mountain, just keep the big snow mountain on your right the whole time. After the first pass just above Milk Lake you’ll have 2-3 or so more hours of all downhill and flat before a good 45 min uphill climb to Potai Pass, then it’s all downhill back to the bus stop. Again, Maps.me has the trails marked. If you’re a healthy person (which you clearly are since you’re gonna go hiking later in central Asia) I don’t see any reason the circuit can’t be done in a day, and yeah no guide is needed. If you just really feel like camping then you can, you can camp by Milk Lake or the big meadow down from the first pass, and there’s an abandoned hut about halfway along too. But I don’t see why you’d want to lug a tent and food with you when you can do it in a day. It’ll be a pretty serious day of walking, but it’s absolutely doable.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask!
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u/bitchtitfucker Jun 09 '18
A tip I'd just about give anybody going to China in general is to wander off in whichever direction feels interesting. Doing that for a couple of hours each day during my stay there last year led to some fascinating moments.
The same applies for food there in most cases: some of the most delicious stuff I ate were uniquely found in these shitty looking restaurants that were probably just reworked first floors. That's how I got to eat 30 dumplings for 11rmb + 2 drinks.
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u/Teddy125 Jun 08 '18
I think there are a lot of "off the beaten path" places with in the major city in China.
Use Beijing as an Example, Jingshan Park has the best view of the entire city. just north of the forbidden city, it cost 2 rmb ($0.3) to get in clime the hill.
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u/8lbs6ozBebeJesus Canada Jun 10 '18 edited Jun 11 '18
Assuming that Beijing - Xi'an - Shanghai - Hong Kong (if you consider this China) are the most common tourist trail, I would suggest Yunnan province and in particular Tiger Leaping Gorge. Lijiang and Dali are both good cities to base oneself out of, and Tiger Leaping Gorge trek itself is absolutely incredible.
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u/Adrian5156 Jun 11 '18
Second the TLG trek. Absolutely amazing, although Yunnan is definitely not off the beaten path, but still absolutely worth going to
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u/sonokoroxs Jun 08 '18
When I went 8 years ago I did mostly tourist things. I went to the great wall, tiennmen square,forbidden city, temple of heaven in Beijing. In Shanghai I went to Yu Garden (really pretty just have to make sure not to go in the summer time or when it is really crowded), and the bund. Xian was the Terra Cotta Warriors which is interesting and learning the history was great too but it felt very commercial since there was a gift shop right next to it selling miniature statues). I did not get to go off the beaten path since I was 15 and my aunt was watching me so we did the main tour guide things. I will say I would not recommended buying replica jewelry in Hong Kong because you have to follow someone in a small area and they ended up locking the door behind us and it was just creepy. I would recommend the peeking opera in Beijing ( I believe it was around 30+ when I went it is beautiful and has so much culture to it.)
Also try the small restaurants around the cities you are. I went to the restaurants that were on the tour and I disliked the food a lot. So I would go to restaurants not a lot of tourists go to. There is a silk factory in Beijing that I went to (Sorry again this was a long time ago) and it was interesting seeing them make the rugs and it was so pretty I bought my mom a small one (paid about 200 dollars)
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Jun 10 '18
Anybody been to Kashgar? Any advice how to get there? Places to say and see?
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u/kman1456 Jun 12 '18
Going there isn't difficult, you can take a train from Ürümqi to Kashgar overnight, but the place is under heavy surveillance with a lot of police monitoring, so it isn't that great to visit now; in particular, the Sunday market has now been forced well out of town I believe, and much of the old town has been "gentrified"
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u/Adrian5156 Jun 11 '18
Just spent the last month in China, mostly in Western Sichuan, which is about as Tibetan as China gets these days. Amazing place with lottle to no foreign tourists, although the chinese are starting to discover places like Yading.
In general almost everywhere in China is somewhat off the beaten path for foreigners because 1) there’s so many chinese people absolutely everywhere it’s hard to find foreigners, and 2) aside from a lot of Istaeli’s in southern China most young backpacker tourists still tend to stay in SE Asia.
But yeah Western Sichuan, and particularly Yading Nature Reserve are my highest recommendations
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u/Sherlock__Gnomes United Kingdom Jun 11 '18
We are looking to visit a friend in Wuxi next year if anyone has any advice on that area!
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u/FieryFool Jun 11 '18
One of my favorite places in China was Qinghai province. There's a ton of Tibetan culture if you want to experience that without actually having to get all the way to Lhasa.
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u/hatep99 Jun 12 '18
From Chengdu I headed West to Litang, and discovered Tibet in a manner I could not have afforded otherwise. Tibet is expensive and very touristic, whereas western Sichuan is affordable and devoid of tourism. My track was from Chengdu to Kanding (touristic but magnificent mountains), Litang (4000m high, little vegetation, yaks, incredible monastery), then down to Shangri-la (the one in Yunnan, there is also one in Sichuan, next to Yading park).
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u/brews_and_chats Jun 13 '18
Went earlier this year and I would definitely recomend Yangshuo and Hangzhou. Yangshuo because it's utterly stunning in the national park. You can stay at places like the Giggling Tree and have the mountains in your back yard. I would recommend going on a bike ride to fit as much of it in. You can take roads that take you through villages that have not been touched by modernisation and lay nestled between the casks. You can walk between the casks and get fairly high with ease and new hidden bouldering sites mean you can climb up the rock faces. Here you can get some peace ans quite, which is near impossible in the city centre. Hangzhou is about and hour out of shanghai but westlake and the surrounding countryside make it utterly stunning. Bikes can be real cheap to rent and enable you to get about., we ended up in the middle of a tea leaf field taking in the quiet about 4 miles from town. Another,which isnt necassarily off the beaton path was Foshan. So much going on, so much to do but is not somewhere that i found was given much attention in guides. My favourite thing was working with artists at the ancient kiln and making a bowl there.
Steer clear of 'the old town' parts of town, grab a bike and explore the outer parts for something new!
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u/Vivid-Leg2805 China Jan 06 '25
We are a group of travelers living across the world, and we’ve noticed that there’s currently an information bubble about China, leaving most people unaware of how much fun traveling in China can be. We’re planning to create a website to help you decide on destinations and connect you with local experts. (Please use phone to open it) https://www.pandawanderer.com/?reddit
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u/Ecstatic_Table5372 Jan 08 '25
Shenzhen, one of the four super-level cities in China, may not have as long a history as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. However, with only 45 years of development, Shenzhen has become the most famous high-tech city in China.
In fact, this city has a number of high-tech experiences, such as taking a ride in driverless cars, or having takeaway food delivered by drone. Besides, you will also have a chance to visit the world's largest electronics market, Huaqiangbei Market, to buy amazing electronics, and learn more about true Shenzhen-style.
It's really fun and exciting to explore a city with advanced technology. And, if you're interested in the city, I would be happy to help you decide on activities and connect you with local experts, as I usually do for my friends.
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u/Weyaasian Feb 26 '24
Here I go, just had a 6days trail in Yubeng, in Shagri-la, Yunan Provence, here's what I wrote along with the pictures of splendid landscapes you may see with your friends and family https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/1b0fc6p/hiking_in_yubeng_village_in_shangrilatibetan_zone/
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u/ag_sci14 United States Jun 07 '18
One of the most bizarre off-the-beaten-path side trips I took while studying in China was along the border of North Korea. This info could potentially be outdated because I took the trip back in 2011.
We took a train from Shenyang to Dandong, which is a city in Liaoning province that sits right along Yalu River, which forms the border. You can walk along the river's edge and take speedboats down the river that will take you right up to the shore. The Chinese side has a very festive atmosphere, with lights and music, which is in stark contrast to the North Korean side. The shore is also littered with some interesting signage, instructing visitors not to take photographs of North Korean soldiers, throw anything across the border, etc. The Sino-Korea Friendship Bridge crosses the river and connects the two countries. It's possible to travel by train across to Pyongyang, with the proper visas (obviously not possible for US citizens). Tourists can also visit the eastern-most terminus of the Great Wall, called Hushan. Dandong was also the only place in China where I found dog on the menu ><
Next we traveled to Changbaishan mountain in Jilin province, which also sits right on the North Korea-China border. It's accessible from a town called Baihe, which is reachable by train from Shengyang or Dandong (long ass overnight trains though). You need to take a bus or a taxi to the park entrance. The park also has some beautiful waterfalls and relaxing (and nude!) hot springs to enjoy, but the real highlight is the Tianchi volcanic lake on top of the mountain. Once inside the park, you have to pay for a jeep to take you up to the summit. There's snow on the mountain for a large part of the year, and the park does close off the summit during inclement weather. We went in October, the day after a snow storm, and were greeted with one of the most spectacular views I've ever seen. The border splits the mountaintop, and when we visited back in 2011 there were North Korean military up at the summit. Where exactly the border crosses was somewhat unclear, so funny business is not worth it up there.
An album from the trip.