Nature & Landscapes
Chinese landscape art is called shanshui — 'mountains and water' — and the water half is a road as much as a view: rivers you cruise, lakes you circle, waterfalls that shake the ground. Eight great waters below, each opening into a complete guide.
The ¥20-banknote landscape: 83 km of karst towers over green water between Guilin and Yangshuo — cruise the epic or raft the finest reach.
Full guide →Four days downstream through Qutang, Wu and Xiling gorges — Li Bai's poems, side-canyon sampans and the superdam's five-lock staircase.
Full guide →A thousand miles of Yellow River forced through one fifty-metre spout — the ground trembles, and China hears its anthem in the roar.
Full guide →China's most literary water: poet-built causeways, the Ten Scenes, tea hills behind — free, open always, best at 6 a.m.
Full guide →Nineteen snow peaks on one shore, café villages on the other, and 130 km of car-free lakeside to ride — slow travel's Chinese capital.
Full guide →China's largest lake is a turquoise inland sea ringed by prayer flags, July rapeseed and a four-day cycling circuit.
Full guide →The clearest alpine water shelters the Mosuo matrilineal world — grandmother-led households, walking marriage and log-boat crossings.
Full guide →A colour-shifting glacial lake in Siberian taiga, Tuvan log villages beside it — late September is China's most coveted photograph.
Full guide →Prices, opening hours, transport and policy details can change at any time — always verify with official sources before you travel. China Travel Co is an independent travel guide with no affiliation to, or endorsement from, any government body.