The Most Beautiful Places Of China 
Shichahai
Shichahai is a scenic area of history and culture in Beijing and one of its historical and cultural protection zones. It lies in Xicheng District, the center of the city, and is close to its central axis. With a 336,000-square-meter water-covered area connected with Zhongnanhai, it is the only open scenic area with a wide expanse of water in the city.
Badaguan in Qingdao
Badaguan in Qingdao This scenic spot gets the name for there are eight streets named after eight great passes in ancient China (Shanhai Pass, Jiayu Pass, Wusheng Pass, Ningwu Pass, Juyong Pass, Shao Pass, Zijing Pass, Zhengyang Pass). In fact, there are another two: Hangu Pass and Linhuai Pass.
The Historic Centre of Macau
The Historic Centre of Macau is the product of over 400 years of cultural exchange between the western world and Chinese civilization. The architectural heritage, predominantly European in nature, stands in the midst of traditional Chinese architecture in the historic settlement, providing contrast. ”The Historic Centre of Macau” is the oldest, the most complete and consolidated array of European architectural legacy standing intact on Chinese territory.
Suzhou Old City
Suzhou Old City One of the key cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Suzhou is a renowned cultural, historic and tourist city. The city is located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province, bordering Shanghai on the east, Zhejiang Province on the south, the Taihu Lake in the west and the Yangtze River in the north.
Gulang Island
The original name of Gulang Island was Yuanshazhou (Round Shoal). In the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Gulang, meaning “drum waves”, because a reef in the southwest of the island hit by the waves of flood tide make sounds like the drum beating and was named “drum wave stone”.
Benxi Water Cave
The Water Cave is lying by the bank of Taizi River in Benxi City. It is famed for its water scenery and has the longest boat passage of any show cave in China. The cave passage is wide, with fantastic views on both sides. With many twists and turns, it is named the ”Nine-curve Silver River”.
Xueyu (Snow Jade) Cave
The Xueyu (Snow Jade) Cave speleothems are predominantly ”white as snow, delicate as jade”. The Union of Speleology of the Geological Society of China established China’s first cave observation station here.
Tenglong (Flying Dragon) Cave
The Tenglong (Flying Dragon) Cave is located on the upper reaches of the Qingjiang River, on the outskirts of Lichuan City in Hubei Province. It first brings people a strong acoustic thrill. At the entrance of the Tenglong Cave, the 400 kilometers winding Qingjiang River suddenly drops, thus forming a waterfall some 50 meters wide and 30 meters high.
Huanglong (Yellow Dragon) Cave
The Huanglong (Yellow Dragon) Cave has many chambers and subterranean streams. The most fantastic of which are the Stone Fields Chamber and the Stalagmite Chamber. The stalagmite known as ”Sacred Needle for Stabilizing the Sea” is unique in China. It is insured for a huge sum and is indeed a miracle of Zhangjiajie’s subterranean world.
Furong Cave
Furong Cave Near Jiangkou Town in Wulong County in Chongqing, Halfway up the mountain, on the left bank of the Furong (Lotus) River, a branch of the Wujiang River there is a place called ”PanjiaYan”. This ”Vapor Cave” gives off steam in winter and cool air in summer.
Zhijin Cave
The cave is situated in the Bijie Prefecture of Guizhou Province, between the Liuchong and Sancha Rivers, both of them sources of the Wujiang River. The Zhijin Cave is dry cave that lost its subterranean river long, long ago. About 1.2 million years ago, the Zhijin Cave collapsed because of corrosion, erosion, scouring, seepage, and changes of flow volumes, eventually forming huge chambers.
Dayan Town
Dayan Town Lijiang City is surrounded by Lion Mountain in the west and by Elephant and Golden Row Mountains in the north. These mountains in the northwest shelter it from the cold wind. In the southeast, there are fertile fields, which are dozens of kilometers long. The city is favored with plentiful sunlight, an east wind and clear spring water, which flows in three streams and reaches every family.
Wuyuan Village
Wuyuan Village stands against beautiful mountains and has a river running through it. It also has hundreds of ancient houses dating from the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties (1644–1911), well laid out and displaying simple architectural elegance. These ancient Ming and Qing houses are typical of Anhui architectural tradition.
Zhaoxing Dong Nationality Village
Zhaoxing Dong Nationality Village is one of the largest Dong villages in southeast Guizhou. Known as No 1 Dong Village in Liping, Zhaoxing has an area of 180,000 square meters, the over 800 households and more than 4,000 inhabitants. It lies in a basin surrounded by mountains and has one small river passing through.
Tuwa Villages at Kanas Lake
This frigid highland valley lake, nestling at the foot of the Youyi (Friendship) Peak of the Altay Mountains, is actually the widest section of the Kanas River, a tributary of the Erix River. The Erix originates in the Erix glacier, winds its way through the mountains becoming slow and gentle once it flows into this narrow strip of lowland.
Dayangjie
This place, in the heart of the Ailao Mountains, is called Dayangjie and is located in Honghe County, Yunnan Province. Its inhabitants are known as the Yeche, a branch of the Hani ethnic minority.
Rongchag Tibetan Village
Rongchag Tibetan Village is located in Garze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture in west of Sichuan Province. Five rivers merge here–the Greater and the Lesser Jinchuan, the Geshedra, the Donggu and the Dadu. The area is characterized by towering rivers.
Qilian Mountain Grassland
About 570 million years ago, tremendous changes took place in northwest China. When the sea subsided, the Qilian Mountain Grassland arose. ”Qilian” is a term ancient nomadic Hun living in north China used to refer to the ”heavenly mountain”.
Nagqu (Nakchu)
Nagqu is the name of a river in northern Tibet. Originating on the southern slope of the Thanglha Mountains, the river runs through Amdo, Nagqu, Biru, Sog and Baqen counties, where the land is vast, and low hills are interspersed with valleys.
Western Sichuan Frigid Grassland
The Bumyak Grassland, with an altitude of 3,800-4,500 meters, is the largest in the central Shaluli Range in the Hengduan Mountains. The Sichuan-Tibet highway extends 100 kilometers along the north of the grassland.
Xilin Gol
Xilin Gol means ”river on the plateau” in the Mongolian language. This grassland covers more than 200,000 square kilometers on the Mongolian Plateau.
To the east and north of Xilin Hot, the Ujimqin Grassland stretches far away. The terrain is flat, with numerous rivers and small lakes.
Ili Grassland
The Ili Grassland lies in a fold of the Tianshan Mountains, one of the largest mountain ranges in Asia. Surrounded by ridges on three sides, it is open on the west to humid currents of air. A vertical division of grassland belts has been formed ranging through frigid meadows, montane meadows, montane meadow steppe, montane steppe, montane desert steppe, plain desert and river valley meadows.
East Hulun Buir Grassland
This fertile land is adorned with hundreds of silver chains and numerous pearls. The rivers and lakes originating from the Greater Xing’an Mountain that ranges across eastern Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang Province. Rivers in Hulun Buir share one feature.
Liaohe River Delta Marshland
Covering an area of nearly 600,000 hectares, the Liaohe River Delta Marshland includes Panjin and Yingkou Cities in Liaoning Province, where the Shuangtai Hekou Nature Reserve has been set up. This is a key habitat and a way station for migratory birds on their East Asia-Australia route.
Zhalong
Zhalong Natural Reserve is located at the lower reaches of Wuyu’er River of Songnen Plain, with the total area of 210,000 ha. It is China’s largest region where rare water birds, mostly large ones like cranes, are found.
Yellow River Delta
The Yellow River Delta in modern times includes part of the Binzhou area and almost the whole of Dongying City in Shandong Province. With a great momentum, the Yellow River carries mud and sand along its way, and charges recklessly against its banks before emptying into the Bohai Sea, leaving behind it a newly created land–the world’s youngest wetland ecosystem.
Sanjiang (Three Rivers) Plain
The lowest plain in eastern Heilongjiang province, the Sanjiang (Three Rivers) Plain embraces most concentrated and widely scattered marshlands in China. The plain came into being because of the alluvion of the Songhua, Heilong and Wusuli rivers.
Bayanbulak
The Bayanbulak Grassland situated in the Uldus Basin of Tianshan Mountains in the northwest of Hejing County, is the second largest grassland in China, the world’s largest habitat for whooper swans. In this area of some 100,000 hectares, 2,300 to 3,100 meters above sea level, there is no clear distinction between the four seasons.
Rogye Marshland
Rogye Marshland In the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, 3,400 meters to 3,600 meters above sea level, lies what is acclaimed by international wetland protection experts to be ”the world’s largest, most primitive and best preserved wetland on plateau, without any human devastation Rogye”.
Xisha Archipelago
Xisha Archipelago lies in the northwest part of the South China Sea. The most attractive feature of this group is that there are two arrays of islands; in the east lie the seven islands of the Xuande group , including the main island of Yongxing and the Dongdao Island (Bird Island); in the west are the eight islands of Yongle Group, including Jinyin, Ganquan and Jinqing Islands.
Hailing Island
Hailing Island lies south of Yangjiang City in Guangdong Province, with an area of 107.8 square kilometers and a coastline of 123.5 kilometers, is Guangdong’s second largest island. At its center is a land basin and there are two townships, Hailing Town and Zhapo Town.
Linjin and Nanding
Off southeast Fujian Province, in the Zhangzhou City coastal volcano scenic area, lie two magic volcanic islands, Linjin and Nanding. Though small—one 0.16 square kilometers and the other 0.07 square kilometers, they are both testimony to the movement of the earth
Dayushan Island
Dayushan Island is part of the Fuyao Group off Fuding in Fujian Province. The island, 7.7 kilometers from east to west and 2.76 kilometers from north to south, has an area of 21.5 square kilometers and a coastline of 31.97 kilometers. The island has 36 bays large and small, and 20 hills of varying heights.
Putuoshan
Putuoshan (literally means Mount Putuo) is an island at the east part of Zhoushan Archipelago, Consisting of 1,339 island and reefs, the Zhoushna Archipelago in the East China Sea is China’s largest offshore island group, accounting for some 20 per cent of all the islands in China.
Miaodao
The Miaodao Cluster Islands (Changshan Island) lie between the Shandong and Liaodong peninsulas in north China, at the confluence of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. The islands, including 32 islands and 25 reefs in the Bohai Straits, have a land area of 56 sq m and a coastline of 146.41 kilometers.
Nanji Islands
The Nanji Islands are situated 30 nautical miles from the mouth of the Aojiang River of Pingyang County. Composed of 23 large and small islands, they have the total land area of 12 square kilometers and are rich in marine resources.
Penghu Islands
Taiwan’s largest island county, the Penghu Islands have a total landmass of 127 square kilometers, spread over 64 individual islands. This is a story behind the name of Penghu: the largest island of the Penghu, together with Chungtun, Paisha and Hsiyu islands, blocks off the very rough (Peng in Chinese) waters beyond the calm and clear ”lake” (hu in Chinese) formed by the sheltering embrace of the islands.
Nansha Archipelago
Of all the island groups in the South China Sea, the islands of the Nansha Archipelago are spread out the widest, its coral islands are the most numerous and the average size the smallest. There are over 200 of them, occupying a sea area of 820,000 square kilometers and having a combined land area of about two square kilometers.
Weizhou Island
Lying south of Beihai City in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Weizhou Island is six kilometers from north to south and five kilometers from east to west. Formed of Quatemary Period volcanic rocks and lavas, Weizhou is China’s largest and youngest volcanic island. The southern part of the island presents many examples of volcanic topography.
Shunan Bamboo Forest
It locates in the southwest Liantian Mountains Which border the Changning County and Jiangan County of Yibin City, and covers an area of 120 square kilometers with an elevation from 600 to 1000 meters. In its central region, more than 5000 hectares of big tall and upright bamboo (Pronounced in Chinese as Nanzhu, spelled Phyllostachys Mazelexh.
Xing’an Larch Forest
The total area of Daxing’anling Forest is 84,600 sq kilometers. The Xing’an larch is the main tree in the Greater Xing’an Mountains Forest, part of the circum-arctic coniferous forest that extends within China north to south along the Greater Xing’an Mountains. It is also home to many arctic species, such as the snow hare, elk, cowberry and crowberry.
Libo Karst Forest
The Maolan Karst located in Libo of southern Guizhou Province; the reserve is covered by a lush virgin forest. The stable ecological system means the forest is a rich biological resource. There are more than 2,000 species found in the reserve and these include some 40 new plant species.
Luntai County
Luntai County lying at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, boasts the world’s largest, densest and best-surviving ”living fossil of the Tertiary Age”—-a natural Huyang (diversiform-leaved) poplar forest of over 27,000 hectares.
Xishuangbannan tropical rainforest
The Xishuangbannan tropical rainforest is situated in the Dai Nationality Prefecture, Yunnan Province, through which the beautiful Lancang River flows from north to south. It is one of the important scenic spots of the whole country. Blessed by advantageous climatic conditions, it nurtures a myriad of species and is dubbed ”wildlife kingdom”.
Bome Gangxiang Spruce Forest
The Bome Gangxiang Spruce Forest, located at the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, has the largest, best, and last primeval forest in China. The warm, damp airflow from the Indian Ocean produces favorable water and temperature conditions so the spruces here are like towers, tall, straight, dense and sturdy.
Baima Snow Mountain
The Baima Snow Mountain, the watershed of the Lancang River and Jinsha River, rises in the central section of the Hengduan Mountains, and is administered by Deqen County in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Diqing, Yunnan Province.
Jianfeng Ridge Tropical Rainforest
Located in the southwest of Hainan Island, the continuous and magnificent tropical rainforest of the Jianfeng Ridge Forest Reserve covers more than 400 square kilometers. More particularly, the forest has bred 449 kinds of colorful butterflies, far more even than Taiwan.
Changbai Mountain Mixed Korean Pine and Broadleaf Forest
The combination of Korean pine trees, broadleaf trees and other trees shows us a unique beauty of the Changbai Mountain. Along the Jingjiang Valley on the western side of the Changbai Mountain, there is a wide variety of plant species. Besides the native Korean pine, there are also the Amur linden, Mongolian oak, Japanese elm, maple, birth and more.
Tianshan Mountain Xueling Spruce Forest
The Tianshan Mountain Xueling Spruce Forest has existed for 40 million years and is like a living fossil on the Tianshan Mountains. From late October on, cold snow bearing, winds from Siberia start arriving. Blanketed in whiteness, all is quiet; the spruce trees with their elegant crowns stand like an awesome military phalanx.
Touming Mengke Glaciers
The Touming Mengke Glaciers, the largest valley glacier in the Qilian Range, is 10.1 kilometers long and covers an area of 21.9 square kilometers. It can be found in Laohu Valley on the northern slope of Daxue Mountain in Subei County.
Telamkanli Peak
Below the Telamkanli Peak (7,441 meters) in the Karakorum Range, the Telamkanli Glacier extends for over 28 kilometers, covering an area of 124.53 meters kilometers. Its leading edge is 4,520 meters above sea level and the snowline is at 5,390 meters.
Midui Glacier
Midui Glacier is located in Yupu Township, about 100 kilometers east of the county seat of Bome. It is the lowest altitude above sea level in the world. Its altitude is from 2,400 meters to 6,800 meters.
Hailuogou
Hailuogou is an important part of national-level Mt Gongga scenic spot. It lies in the southeast of Ganzi Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, east slope of Mt Gongga and is a skyscraping mountain in the east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Peak Tomur
Being the highest peak of the Tianshan Mountains, Peak Tomur is 7439 meters above sea level, and located in northwest of Wensu County, geographically an important key position. The Beidieli Pass was an important passageway for communication between the western world and China in ancient times.
Rongpo Glacier
Rongpo Glacier is located in a wide, open area at the foot of Qomolangma (Mount Everest), extending between 5,300 and 6,300 meters above sea level. Consisting of two big glaciers, the Western Rongpo and Central Rongpo, it has a total length of 22.4 kilometers and covers a total area of 85.4 square kilometers.
Huangguoshu Waterfall
Located in the border area of Zhenning County and Guanling County, it consists mainly of the Huangguoshu waterfall and a group of smaller waterfalls. With a subtropical landscape and unique flavors and cultural relics of the Buyi and Miao Nationalities, it was named in the first batch of National Scenic Spots.
Nuorilang Waterfall
Of all the charming waterfalls in Jiuzhaigou, Nuorilang Waterfall, is the most stunning. It is about 2,365 meters high above sea level, 325 meters across at its widest point, with a head waterfall of 30-40 meters and an average flow of 5.8 cubic meters per second.
Jiulong Waterfalls
The Jiulong Waterfalls during the flood season, red earth accounts for over half of Yunnan’s area, and the province is known as the ”Red Earth Plateau”. In the flood season, the water flow increases dramatically, carrying with if lots of red earth and dyeing the waterfalls red.
Hukou (kettle’s Mouth) Waterfall
The Hukou (kettle’s Mouth) Waterfall on the Yellow River is located in the Shanxi-Shaanxi section of the Yellow River valley. It is one of the world’s few yellow waterfalls and has a fall of about 30 meters; at its widest it is over 1,000 meters across, and has an average flow of 1,010 cubic meters per second.
Detian (Virtuous Heaven) Waterfall
Detian (Virtuous Heaven) Waterfall is situated on an international border, between Shuolong Town of Daxin County in Guangxi, China, and Yuxi of Chongqing County in CaoBanf, Vietnam.
The Tsangpo Badong Waterfalls
The Tsangpo Badong Waterfalls are the most spectacular, primitive and mysterious waterfalls in China. It has a total length of 2, 840 kilometers and is the 23rd longest river in the world. In terms of flow, it ranks seventh—-16, 290 cubic meters per second, as much as 76, 600 cubic meters per second at its largest flood flow, ranking fourth in the world.
Dapeng Peninsula
The Dapeng Peninsula lies in east Shenzhen, and has a coastline of 133.2 kilometers. The granite hills on the peninsula are precipitous, with grotesque rocks and peaks. Along the tortuous coast are a dozen beaches, such as Xiasha, Xichong, Dongchong and Judiaosha. The sands are fine and the water is deep, ideal for surfing and sailing. This is the only virgin place yet to be developed in this bustling economic special zone.
Chongwu beach
The beach is on the southern Chongwu Peninsula, 24 kilometers southeast of
Hui’an County. Standing at the highest part of the nearby ancient Chongwu City, you can get a view of the crescent bay and bathing beach, embraced by mountains on three sides. Hui’an women, wearing their
yellow bamboo hats, bright-colored scarves, silver waist belts, short jackets and fat trousers, are another beautiful scene at Chongwu.
Victoria Bay
The Victoria Bay is 1.3 kilometers wide, 10 kilometers long east-west, and has a water area of 59 square kilometers. Thanks to its advantageous location and conditions and massive development since the id-19th century, it has now become a famous international center for finance, transportation and shopping.
Changli Golden Beach
The Changli Golden Beach lies in northeast Hebei Province. It was formed 2,000-3,000 years ago by sand brought by the Liugu River that empties into the Bohai Sea in neighboring Liaoning Province. Originating in the Yanshan Mountains that extend from northeast Beijing eastward to the Bohai Gulf, the river deposits huge quantities of silt into the sea, which drifts southwest with the current, driven
by the strong northeasterly winds and piles up along the west coast of the gulf.
mangrove
In 1986, the mangrove forest at Dongzhaigang at Qiongshan on Hainan Island was listed as a nature reserve under state protection. In 1992, it became China’s first place on the world list of major wetlands.
Chengshantou
known as ”the end of the earth”, sits at the easternmost point of the Shandong Peninsula. It is also called ”China’s Cape of Good Hope”.Extruding into the sea, the cliffs have been cut steep by mighty waves and storms down the ages.
Yehliu
Yehliu is a cape in north Taiwan, projecting some 1,700 meters into the sea. When overlooked from above, the place is like a giant turtle submerging into the sea. Thus, it is called “Yehliu Turtle”. Yehliu means Wild Willow and the place has always had something wild about it.
Yalong Bay
The tranquil Yalong Bay lies by a mountain to the north whose gentle slopes are covered with lush vegetation. Verdant and yellow leafy plants all grow humbly, keeping their heads down in submission to the frequent and ferocious visits of typhoons. At the foot of the mountain is a wide expanse of flat land, also green and lush, thanks to the ideal climate.
Sanlongsha
Situated in the east of the Aqqik Valley, Sanlongsha (Three Sandy Ridges) is part of the Yadan landforms of Lop Nur, and they cover about 100 sq km. Under the noonday sun, Sanlongsha looks like a group of millstones or a huge sparkling glossy ganoderma. The sand dunes of the Yadan landform of Sanlongsha are evenly arranged, like a fleet of ships sailing in formation.
Bailongdui
The Yadan landform of Bailongdui (White Dragon Dunes) is located in the north Qarkilil County, to the northeast of Lop Nur. Covering an area of 1,000 sq km, it is most difficult to reach among all the Yadan landforms. Without a guide, no one would be able to find his way out of this labyrinth. No one knows why these giant white dragons have gathered here.
Wind City
The Wind City, neighboring the Halahlat Mountain, is located in the Urho area, over 100 km northeast of Karamay City and covers an area of about 30 square kilometers. The native Mongolian people call it ”Sulumuhak”, while the local Kazakh people name it ”Shytirkrsi”, and both the two names have the same meaning —-Ghost Castle.
Shapotou
Shapotou means Sand Slope Head, this name coming from the 2,000-meter-wide and 100-meter-high sand riverbank. Shapotou lies on southeast of the Tengger Desert and north of the Yellow River.
Booming Sand Dune and Crescent Spring
The Booming Sand Dune and Crescent Spring, five kilometers southwest of Dunhuang City, create an amazing desert view. The dune’s name (Mingshashan) comes from the booming noise made by the sands when people climb up. The Spring’s name (Yueyaquan) comes from its crescent form, cradled in the dunes.
Gurbantunggut
The Gurbantunggut lies in Xinjiang Junggar Basin. Some 48,000 sq meters in area, it is China’s second largest desert. Fixed or semi-fixed sand ridges cover 97 percent of the desert. Some 100 plants grow in the desert, many of which make good sand-fixing plants and pasture grass. About a quarter of the annual precipitation falls in winter.
Taklamakan Desert
The Taklamakan Desert, lying in the center of the Tarim Basin and covering some 337,600 sq meters, is the biggest desert in China and the second largest shifting sand desert in the world. Between the Keriya River and the Hotan River in the heart of the desert, the vast sea of sand stretches to the horizon.
Badain Jaran desert
The Badain Jaran desert is the fourth largest desert in the world roughly 150 kilometers north of the Hexi corridor and covering an area of over 49,000 square kilometers. It is home to the largest dunes on earth.
Kuqa (or Kuche) Gorge
The Kuqa (or Kuche) Gorge is located in the southern part of the Tianshan Mountains, about 64 kilometers north of Kuqa County in Xinjiang. The Kuqa River is a tributary of the Tarim River, and local Uygur people call its valley ”Kizilia” which means ”red cliffs”. A typical earth-rift ravine, the gorge extends more than five kilometers in total, with a main valley and seven branch valleys.
Taihang Mountains
The gorge group of the southern Taihang Mountains located between the Huguan Pass and Pingshun of Shanxi Province and Lenzhou and Huixian of Henan Province, with the White Defile as the mainstream, is typical of the Taihang Gorge system. The height of those ridges is between 1,000 and 2,000 meters.
Jinkou Gorge that the Dadu River gorge
The Dadu River originates in the Bayan Har Mountain where Sichuan and Qinghai province meet. After the Lesser Jinchuan River converges with the Large Jinchuan in its upper reaches at Danba, it is called the Dadu River. The river rushes through high mountains and lofty ridges in the eastern part of the Hengduan Mountains.There are gorges with splendid scenery all the way, but it is in the Jinkou Gorge that the Dadu River gorge landscape reaches its climax.
Yellow River flows through mountains
Once it leaves the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yellow River flows through mountains, making many twists and turns, falls and continues its course until reaches Taohuayu (Peach Blossom Valley) in Zhengzhou City where it suddenly changes from opening up channels and valleys into creating new land. Taohuayu thus becomes the top of the world’s largest delta—the North China Plain. Most of the Yellow River gorges occur along Taohuayu.
Tailuge
Look at a cross section of Taiwan Island, you will find that its topography is asymmetrical. The Central Mountain Range lies mostly in the eastern part, rather gentle on their western face with a wide plain in front, while their eastern face is mostly sheer cliffs rising sharply from the western shore of the Pacific Ocean.
Lancang Canyon
The Lancang Canyon is located in Diqing County, stretching from Foshan Township to Yanmen Township, over 100 kilometers to the south, and has the largest elevation difference in Yunnan. The river surface in the canyon is 2,006 meters above sea level; on the left bank rise the Kawagebo Summit (6,740 meters) of the Meili Snow Mountain and on the right the Zhalaqueni Summit (5,460 meters) of the Baima Snow Mountain, giving a maximum elevation difference of 4,734 meters, within a slope distance of only 14 kilometers.
Great Nujiang Canyons
The Great Nujiang Canyons is a ”longitudinal” valley, lying parallel with the run of mountain ranges that give rise to the natural wonder of the Three Parallel Rivers. This is because the northeast edge of the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, creating a series of large north-south splits in what is today’s northwestern Yunnan and eastern Tibet.
Yangtze River
The Yangtze River (Changjiang), over 6,300 kilometers long, is the largest and longest river in China, and the third-longest in the world, next only to the Nile in northeast Africa and the Amazon in South America. The source of the Yangtze River lies to the west of Geladandong Mountain, the principal peak of the Tanggula Mountain chain in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, southwest of China.
Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiaoxia Gorge)
Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiaoxia Gorge) stands in the southeast of Zhongdian County and the north of Lijiang City, just on the section of the Jinsha River between the Haba Snow Mountains and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains, 105 km away from Zhongdian County, and 100 km away from Lijiang County. The great gorge inspires awe and nobility of spirit.
Yarlung Tsangpo River
The Yarlung Tsangpo River is one of the most important rivers in China, with water reserves that rank second in China. It originates from the middle section of the northern slope of the Himalaya Mountain with an elevation of more than 6,000 meters and make an unparalleled unique U-turn around the mountain of Namjfgbarwa, before finally reaching Baxike in Medong County, and creating the famous Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon.
Chishui Danxia landform
The formation of the Danxia landform can be dated back to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods about 100 million years ago. It covers an area of over 1,000 square kilometers. The collapsing and weathering of a thick layer of red quartzose formed the area’s unique landscape, including amazing valleys, sheer precipices and rushing waterfalls. Formed of sandstone, the Chishui Danxia landform is situated where the Sichuan Basin meets the Northern Guizhou Plateau, an area of humid weather and dense vegetation.
Zhangye Danxia Landform
The Zhangye Danxia Landform is concentrated predominantly in Linze and Sunan counties in Gansu Province. It is both the largest and the most typical of China’s arid area Danxia landform.
Danxia landforms in Kangle Township, Sunan Uygur Autonomous County, are the best evolved examples in China of window lattice and palace forms.
Langshan Mountain
In the heart of Yuecheng Mountain, where Hunan and Guangxi meet, there is a long, narrow basin of red conglomerate and sand stone, which tool shape in the early Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era, about 100 million years ago. Here, in the scenic area from Langshan Mountain, where Zijiang River (a tributary of the Yangtze River) originates, to Bajiaozhai, you can find the Danxia landform, which straddles Xinning County in Hunan, where it covers an area of 77.5 square kilometers and Ziyuan County in Guangxi, where it covers an area of 125 square kilometers.
Longhu Mountain
Situated in Yingtan, Jiangxi Province, Longhu Mountain has a Danxia area of 80 square kilometers, and is one of the most evolved Danxia landform areas in China. Geologically it is a Mesozoic fault basin, in which thick strata of purplish-red conglomerate, sandstone and volcanic rock were formed. Subsequent scouring and weathering ultimately shaped the landscape here into what it is today, a wealth of flat-top summits, bog back mountains, stockades, walls, ridges, cliffs, honeycomb caves, upright caves, rock pillars, rock peaks, peak forests, natural bridges, rock arches and ”elephant trunks”.
Dajin Lake
The Dajin Lake covers an area of 461.8 square kilometers, 166.9 of which are Danxia
topography. There are four Danxia scenic spots here. Going from northeast to southwest they are: Shangqing Stream, Jinhu Lake, Dragon King Cave and Eight Immortals Cliff. The Jinhu Lake and Shangqing Stream are China’s largest Danxia landforms on water.
Wuyi Mountain
The peerless scenery of Wuyi Mountain in the north of Fujian Province combined the strange shapes of Huangshan Mountains, the elegance of Guilin, the grandeur of Mount Tai, the steepness of Huashan, and the beauty of Hangzhou’s West Lake. Covering an area of 70 square kilometers (54.4 of which are Danxia topography), the Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area has an average elevation of 350 meters, boasts 36 extraordinary peaks and is circled by the beautiful 9.5 kilometer long Jiuqu (Nine Zigzag) Stream.
Danxia Mountain
Danxia Mountain located in Renhua County, Guangdong Province, with its walls and tiers of red rocks and cliffs, like Danxia (red rays of the sun), from which its name derives, has been compared to a ruby sculpture park. It is known as ”China’s Red Stone Park”.
West Lake
The West Lake derives its name from the fact that it lies west of the city of Hangzhou. Over hundreds of years, it changed from a bay to a lagoon, and then, before the Tang Dynasty (618–907), to a completely inland lake. During the ensuing Song (960–1279), Yuan (1206–1368), Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) Dynasties, the lake underwent repeated building and repairs.
heavenly lake
The Changbai Mountain that is one of the 10 famous mountains in China is outstanding natural beauty. The mountain is famous for its marvelous volcano crater heavenly lake, rich flora and fauna and the elegant snow and ice scenery. The boundless stretches of forest sea and snowfields, the high and awesome waterfall and the elegant lake form the most marvelous North China scenery; can be called the great Eurasian Green Gallery.
Namtso Lake
Namtso Lake, lies in the north Tibetan plateau north of the main peak of the Nyainqentanglha Mountain, located 60 kilometers northwest of Dangxiong County.
It is 4718 meters above the sea level, 70 kilometers in length, 30 kilometers in width, 55 meters deep, and 1961.5square kilometers in size. It is both the highest and biggest salt-water lake in the world, and the highest of Tibet’s three largest lakes and the second largest salt lake in China.
Kanas Lake
This frigid highland valley lake, nestling at the foot of the Youyi (Friendship) Peak of the Altay Mountains, is actually the widest section of the Kanas River, a tributary of the Erix River. The Erix originates in the Erix glacier, winds its way through the mountains becoming slow and gentle once it flows into this narrow strip of lowland.
Qinghai Lake
The Qinghai Lake is China’s largest inland lake and its largest salt-water lake. It was created, some 40 million years ago, because of the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates and the lifting of the Himalayan Sea to create the mountain chain. Being 3,260 meters above sea level, and with a circumference of 360 kilometers, the lake has a water area of 4,340 square kilometers and contains 77.8 billion cubic meters of water.
Emei Mountain’s
Located in Sichuan Province, Emei Mountain’s history has been recorded for over 2,000 years, during which time a rich Buddhist cultural heritage has accumulated. Atop the Golden Summit, which is 3,099 meters high, one can enjoy the sunrise, seas of clouds, the Buddha’s halo and the sunset glow.
Mount Tai
Mount Tai locates in the middle of Shandong province and covers Tai’an city and JiNan city with the area of 426 square kilometers, reaches 1545 meteres above sea level. Mount Taishan was called DaiZong(means the principal mountain of China) before and was renamed Mount Taishan then went by the name of DongYue(the Sacred Mountain of east China) that was ranked on the top of the five most important mountains in China. In 1987, Mount Taishan was listed as a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage site and honored “Geopark of the world” in 2006.
Kangrinboqe Peak
Kangrinboqe Peak in Pulan County, Ali Region of Tibet Autonomous Region: Home of all the Gods The Gandise Mountain lies from east to west in the south of Tibet. Among its steep cliffs and glaciers is its main peak, Kangrinboqe, located in Pulan County, Ali Prefecture in Tibet.
Chogori Peak
Chogori Peak in Yecheng County, Kashgar (Kashi) Region OF Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: Distant Mystic Land, Chogori Peak (8,611 meters) is a transliteration of the Tajik language, meaning ”high, great and magnificent.” Internationally, it is better known as K2, which is the only major mountain in the world that has surveyor’s notation as its common name (K stands for Karakoram, 2 means it was the second peak listed).
Three Sacred Mountains in Daocheng
Three Sacred Mountains in Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province: Landmark of ”Shangri-la”Daocheng is located at the southwestern edge of Sichuan Province. Its ancient name is ”Daoba”, a Tiberan word meaning a wide stretch of open land at the mouth of a mountain gully.
Yellow Mountain
Yellow Mountain (Mt. Huangshan), also known as Mount Huangshan, is located in the southern part of Anhui Province. It is undoubtedly China’s most celebrated mountain for all its grandeur and beauty. In 1990 Yellow Mountain was declared a World Natural and Cultural Heritage by UNESCO Heritage Committee.
Meili Snow Mountain
Meili Snow Mountain has long been famous for its main peak, Kang Karpo Peak, which, having an elevation of 6,470 meters (21,221 feet) above sea level, is the highest in Yunnan. Surrounded by 13 lesser peaks, which are the subject of an enchanting tale. Kang Karpo Peak, meaning White Snow Mountain in Tibetan language, is extolled as the “most beautiful mountain in the world.”
Qomolangma Peak
Qomolangma Peak also known as Mount Everest, meaning “Mother Goddess of the Universe” in Tibetan, is in Tingri County, Shigatse Area of Tibet Autonomous.
Qomolangma Peak, at the altitude of 8,844.43 meters, is the highest peak on the earth. It is part of the Himalaya Range in High Asia, straddles the border between China and Nepal. It has been called the most revered of all mountains and the world’s third pole.
Mountain Gongga
Mountain Gongga or Minya Konka in Luding, Kangding and Jiulong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province: Where the wind stops to rest Mountain Gongga also known as Minya Konka is the highest mountain in Sichuan Province.
Namjagbarwa
Namjagbarwa is a cloud-kissing peak. In Tibetan, it means ‘a spear piercing into the sky’ and is transliterated into Namjagbarwa. Surrounded by clouds and mists, snuggled by the river and valley and clustered round by forest, Namjagbarwa is appraised as the most beautiful mountain in China by a number of scientists, explorers and climbers.
Shichahai is a scenic area of history and culture in Beijing and one of its historical and cultural protection zones. It lies in Xicheng District, the center of the city, and is close to its central axis. With a 336,000-square-meter water-covered area connected with Zhongnanhai, it is the only open scenic area with a wide expanse of water in the city.
Badaguan in Qingdao
Badaguan in Qingdao This scenic spot gets the name for there are eight streets named after eight great passes in ancient China (Shanhai Pass, Jiayu Pass, Wusheng Pass, Ningwu Pass, Juyong Pass, Shao Pass, Zijing Pass, Zhengyang Pass). In fact, there are another two: Hangu Pass and Linhuai Pass.
The Historic Centre of Macau
The Historic Centre of Macau is the product of over 400 years of cultural exchange between the western world and Chinese civilization. The architectural heritage, predominantly European in nature, stands in the midst of traditional Chinese architecture in the historic settlement, providing contrast. ”The Historic Centre of Macau” is the oldest, the most complete and consolidated array of European architectural legacy standing intact on Chinese territory.
Suzhou Old City
Suzhou Old City One of the key cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Suzhou is a renowned cultural, historic and tourist city. The city is located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province, bordering Shanghai on the east, Zhejiang Province on the south, the Taihu Lake in the west and the Yangtze River in the north.
Gulang Island
The original name of Gulang Island was Yuanshazhou (Round Shoal). In the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Gulang, meaning “drum waves”, because a reef in the southwest of the island hit by the waves of flood tide make sounds like the drum beating and was named “drum wave stone”.
Benxi Water Cave
The Water Cave is lying by the bank of Taizi River in Benxi City. It is famed for its water scenery and has the longest boat passage of any show cave in China. The cave passage is wide, with fantastic views on both sides. With many twists and turns, it is named the ”Nine-curve Silver River”.
Xueyu (Snow Jade) Cave
The Xueyu (Snow Jade) Cave speleothems are predominantly ”white as snow, delicate as jade”. The Union of Speleology of the Geological Society of China established China’s first cave observation station here.
Tenglong (Flying Dragon) Cave
The Tenglong (Flying Dragon) Cave is located on the upper reaches of the Qingjiang River, on the outskirts of Lichuan City in Hubei Province. It first brings people a strong acoustic thrill. At the entrance of the Tenglong Cave, the 400 kilometers winding Qingjiang River suddenly drops, thus forming a waterfall some 50 meters wide and 30 meters high.
Huanglong (Yellow Dragon) Cave
The Huanglong (Yellow Dragon) Cave has many chambers and subterranean streams. The most fantastic of which are the Stone Fields Chamber and the Stalagmite Chamber. The stalagmite known as ”Sacred Needle for Stabilizing the Sea” is unique in China. It is insured for a huge sum and is indeed a miracle of Zhangjiajie’s subterranean world.
Furong Cave
Furong Cave Near Jiangkou Town in Wulong County in Chongqing, Halfway up the mountain, on the left bank of the Furong (Lotus) River, a branch of the Wujiang River there is a place called ”PanjiaYan”. This ”Vapor Cave” gives off steam in winter and cool air in summer.
Zhijin Cave
The cave is situated in the Bijie Prefecture of Guizhou Province, between the Liuchong and Sancha Rivers, both of them sources of the Wujiang River. The Zhijin Cave is dry cave that lost its subterranean river long, long ago. About 1.2 million years ago, the Zhijin Cave collapsed because of corrosion, erosion, scouring, seepage, and changes of flow volumes, eventually forming huge chambers.
Dayan Town
Dayan Town Lijiang City is surrounded by Lion Mountain in the west and by Elephant and Golden Row Mountains in the north. These mountains in the northwest shelter it from the cold wind. In the southeast, there are fertile fields, which are dozens of kilometers long. The city is favored with plentiful sunlight, an east wind and clear spring water, which flows in three streams and reaches every family.
Wuyuan Village
Wuyuan Village stands against beautiful mountains and has a river running through it. It also has hundreds of ancient houses dating from the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties (1644–1911), well laid out and displaying simple architectural elegance. These ancient Ming and Qing houses are typical of Anhui architectural tradition.
Zhaoxing Dong Nationality Village
Zhaoxing Dong Nationality Village is one of the largest Dong villages in southeast Guizhou. Known as No 1 Dong Village in Liping, Zhaoxing has an area of 180,000 square meters, the over 800 households and more than 4,000 inhabitants. It lies in a basin surrounded by mountains and has one small river passing through.
Tuwa Villages at Kanas Lake
This frigid highland valley lake, nestling at the foot of the Youyi (Friendship) Peak of the Altay Mountains, is actually the widest section of the Kanas River, a tributary of the Erix River. The Erix originates in the Erix glacier, winds its way through the mountains becoming slow and gentle once it flows into this narrow strip of lowland.
Dayangjie
This place, in the heart of the Ailao Mountains, is called Dayangjie and is located in Honghe County, Yunnan Province. Its inhabitants are known as the Yeche, a branch of the Hani ethnic minority.
Rongchag Tibetan Village
Rongchag Tibetan Village is located in Garze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture in west of Sichuan Province. Five rivers merge here–the Greater and the Lesser Jinchuan, the Geshedra, the Donggu and the Dadu. The area is characterized by towering rivers.
Qilian Mountain Grassland
About 570 million years ago, tremendous changes took place in northwest China. When the sea subsided, the Qilian Mountain Grassland arose. ”Qilian” is a term ancient nomadic Hun living in north China used to refer to the ”heavenly mountain”.
Nagqu (Nakchu)
Nagqu is the name of a river in northern Tibet. Originating on the southern slope of the Thanglha Mountains, the river runs through Amdo, Nagqu, Biru, Sog and Baqen counties, where the land is vast, and low hills are interspersed with valleys.
Western Sichuan Frigid Grassland
The Bumyak Grassland, with an altitude of 3,800-4,500 meters, is the largest in the central Shaluli Range in the Hengduan Mountains. The Sichuan-Tibet highway extends 100 kilometers along the north of the grassland.
Xilin Gol
Xilin Gol means ”river on the plateau” in the Mongolian language. This grassland covers more than 200,000 square kilometers on the Mongolian Plateau.
To the east and north of Xilin Hot, the Ujimqin Grassland stretches far away. The terrain is flat, with numerous rivers and small lakes.
Ili Grassland
The Ili Grassland lies in a fold of the Tianshan Mountains, one of the largest mountain ranges in Asia. Surrounded by ridges on three sides, it is open on the west to humid currents of air. A vertical division of grassland belts has been formed ranging through frigid meadows, montane meadows, montane meadow steppe, montane steppe, montane desert steppe, plain desert and river valley meadows.
East Hulun Buir Grassland
This fertile land is adorned with hundreds of silver chains and numerous pearls. The rivers and lakes originating from the Greater Xing’an Mountain that ranges across eastern Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang Province. Rivers in Hulun Buir share one feature.
Liaohe River Delta Marshland
Covering an area of nearly 600,000 hectares, the Liaohe River Delta Marshland includes Panjin and Yingkou Cities in Liaoning Province, where the Shuangtai Hekou Nature Reserve has been set up. This is a key habitat and a way station for migratory birds on their East Asia-Australia route.
Zhalong
Zhalong Natural Reserve is located at the lower reaches of Wuyu’er River of Songnen Plain, with the total area of 210,000 ha. It is China’s largest region where rare water birds, mostly large ones like cranes, are found.
Yellow River Delta
The Yellow River Delta in modern times includes part of the Binzhou area and almost the whole of Dongying City in Shandong Province. With a great momentum, the Yellow River carries mud and sand along its way, and charges recklessly against its banks before emptying into the Bohai Sea, leaving behind it a newly created land–the world’s youngest wetland ecosystem.
Sanjiang (Three Rivers) Plain
The lowest plain in eastern Heilongjiang province, the Sanjiang (Three Rivers) Plain embraces most concentrated and widely scattered marshlands in China. The plain came into being because of the alluvion of the Songhua, Heilong and Wusuli rivers.
Bayanbulak
The Bayanbulak Grassland situated in the Uldus Basin of Tianshan Mountains in the northwest of Hejing County, is the second largest grassland in China, the world’s largest habitat for whooper swans. In this area of some 100,000 hectares, 2,300 to 3,100 meters above sea level, there is no clear distinction between the four seasons.
Rogye Marshland
Rogye Marshland In the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, 3,400 meters to 3,600 meters above sea level, lies what is acclaimed by international wetland protection experts to be ”the world’s largest, most primitive and best preserved wetland on plateau, without any human devastation Rogye”.
Xisha Archipelago
Xisha Archipelago lies in the northwest part of the South China Sea. The most attractive feature of this group is that there are two arrays of islands; in the east lie the seven islands of the Xuande group , including the main island of Yongxing and the Dongdao Island (Bird Island); in the west are the eight islands of Yongle Group, including Jinyin, Ganquan and Jinqing Islands.
Hailing Island
Hailing Island lies south of Yangjiang City in Guangdong Province, with an area of 107.8 square kilometers and a coastline of 123.5 kilometers, is Guangdong’s second largest island. At its center is a land basin and there are two townships, Hailing Town and Zhapo Town.
Linjin and Nanding
Off southeast Fujian Province, in the Zhangzhou City coastal volcano scenic area, lie two magic volcanic islands, Linjin and Nanding. Though small—one 0.16 square kilometers and the other 0.07 square kilometers, they are both testimony to the movement of the earth
Dayushan Island
Dayushan Island is part of the Fuyao Group off Fuding in Fujian Province. The island, 7.7 kilometers from east to west and 2.76 kilometers from north to south, has an area of 21.5 square kilometers and a coastline of 31.97 kilometers. The island has 36 bays large and small, and 20 hills of varying heights.
Putuoshan
Putuoshan (literally means Mount Putuo) is an island at the east part of Zhoushan Archipelago, Consisting of 1,339 island and reefs, the Zhoushna Archipelago in the East China Sea is China’s largest offshore island group, accounting for some 20 per cent of all the islands in China.
Miaodao
The Miaodao Cluster Islands (Changshan Island) lie between the Shandong and Liaodong peninsulas in north China, at the confluence of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. The islands, including 32 islands and 25 reefs in the Bohai Straits, have a land area of 56 sq m and a coastline of 146.41 kilometers.
Nanji Islands
The Nanji Islands are situated 30 nautical miles from the mouth of the Aojiang River of Pingyang County. Composed of 23 large and small islands, they have the total land area of 12 square kilometers and are rich in marine resources.
Penghu Islands
Taiwan’s largest island county, the Penghu Islands have a total landmass of 127 square kilometers, spread over 64 individual islands. This is a story behind the name of Penghu: the largest island of the Penghu, together with Chungtun, Paisha and Hsiyu islands, blocks off the very rough (Peng in Chinese) waters beyond the calm and clear ”lake” (hu in Chinese) formed by the sheltering embrace of the islands.
Nansha Archipelago
Of all the island groups in the South China Sea, the islands of the Nansha Archipelago are spread out the widest, its coral islands are the most numerous and the average size the smallest. There are over 200 of them, occupying a sea area of 820,000 square kilometers and having a combined land area of about two square kilometers.
Weizhou Island
Lying south of Beihai City in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Weizhou Island is six kilometers from north to south and five kilometers from east to west. Formed of Quatemary Period volcanic rocks and lavas, Weizhou is China’s largest and youngest volcanic island. The southern part of the island presents many examples of volcanic topography.
Shunan Bamboo Forest
It locates in the southwest Liantian Mountains Which border the Changning County and Jiangan County of Yibin City, and covers an area of 120 square kilometers with an elevation from 600 to 1000 meters. In its central region, more than 5000 hectares of big tall and upright bamboo (Pronounced in Chinese as Nanzhu, spelled Phyllostachys Mazelexh.
Xing’an Larch Forest
The total area of Daxing’anling Forest is 84,600 sq kilometers. The Xing’an larch is the main tree in the Greater Xing’an Mountains Forest, part of the circum-arctic coniferous forest that extends within China north to south along the Greater Xing’an Mountains. It is also home to many arctic species, such as the snow hare, elk, cowberry and crowberry.
Libo Karst Forest
The Maolan Karst located in Libo of southern Guizhou Province; the reserve is covered by a lush virgin forest. The stable ecological system means the forest is a rich biological resource. There are more than 2,000 species found in the reserve and these include some 40 new plant species.
Luntai County
Luntai County lying at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, boasts the world’s largest, densest and best-surviving ”living fossil of the Tertiary Age”—-a natural Huyang (diversiform-leaved) poplar forest of over 27,000 hectares.
Xishuangbannan tropical rainforest
The Xishuangbannan tropical rainforest is situated in the Dai Nationality Prefecture, Yunnan Province, through which the beautiful Lancang River flows from north to south. It is one of the important scenic spots of the whole country. Blessed by advantageous climatic conditions, it nurtures a myriad of species and is dubbed ”wildlife kingdom”.
Bome Gangxiang Spruce Forest
The Bome Gangxiang Spruce Forest, located at the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, has the largest, best, and last primeval forest in China. The warm, damp airflow from the Indian Ocean produces favorable water and temperature conditions so the spruces here are like towers, tall, straight, dense and sturdy.
Baima Snow Mountain
The Baima Snow Mountain, the watershed of the Lancang River and Jinsha River, rises in the central section of the Hengduan Mountains, and is administered by Deqen County in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Diqing, Yunnan Province.
Jianfeng Ridge Tropical Rainforest
Located in the southwest of Hainan Island, the continuous and magnificent tropical rainforest of the Jianfeng Ridge Forest Reserve covers more than 400 square kilometers. More particularly, the forest has bred 449 kinds of colorful butterflies, far more even than Taiwan.
Changbai Mountain Mixed Korean Pine and Broadleaf Forest
The combination of Korean pine trees, broadleaf trees and other trees shows us a unique beauty of the Changbai Mountain. Along the Jingjiang Valley on the western side of the Changbai Mountain, there is a wide variety of plant species. Besides the native Korean pine, there are also the Amur linden, Mongolian oak, Japanese elm, maple, birth and more.
Tianshan Mountain Xueling Spruce Forest
The Tianshan Mountain Xueling Spruce Forest has existed for 40 million years and is like a living fossil on the Tianshan Mountains. From late October on, cold snow bearing, winds from Siberia start arriving. Blanketed in whiteness, all is quiet; the spruce trees with their elegant crowns stand like an awesome military phalanx.
Touming Mengke Glaciers
The Touming Mengke Glaciers, the largest valley glacier in the Qilian Range, is 10.1 kilometers long and covers an area of 21.9 square kilometers. It can be found in Laohu Valley on the northern slope of Daxue Mountain in Subei County.
Telamkanli Peak
Below the Telamkanli Peak (7,441 meters) in the Karakorum Range, the Telamkanli Glacier extends for over 28 kilometers, covering an area of 124.53 meters kilometers. Its leading edge is 4,520 meters above sea level and the snowline is at 5,390 meters.
Midui Glacier
Midui Glacier is located in Yupu Township, about 100 kilometers east of the county seat of Bome. It is the lowest altitude above sea level in the world. Its altitude is from 2,400 meters to 6,800 meters.
Hailuogou
Hailuogou is an important part of national-level Mt Gongga scenic spot. It lies in the southeast of Ganzi Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, east slope of Mt Gongga and is a skyscraping mountain in the east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Peak Tomur
Being the highest peak of the Tianshan Mountains, Peak Tomur is 7439 meters above sea level, and located in northwest of Wensu County, geographically an important key position. The Beidieli Pass was an important passageway for communication between the western world and China in ancient times.
Rongpo Glacier
Rongpo Glacier is located in a wide, open area at the foot of Qomolangma (Mount Everest), extending between 5,300 and 6,300 meters above sea level. Consisting of two big glaciers, the Western Rongpo and Central Rongpo, it has a total length of 22.4 kilometers and covers a total area of 85.4 square kilometers.
Huangguoshu Waterfall
Located in the border area of Zhenning County and Guanling County, it consists mainly of the Huangguoshu waterfall and a group of smaller waterfalls. With a subtropical landscape and unique flavors and cultural relics of the Buyi and Miao Nationalities, it was named in the first batch of National Scenic Spots.
Nuorilang Waterfall
Of all the charming waterfalls in Jiuzhaigou, Nuorilang Waterfall, is the most stunning. It is about 2,365 meters high above sea level, 325 meters across at its widest point, with a head waterfall of 30-40 meters and an average flow of 5.8 cubic meters per second.
Jiulong Waterfalls
The Jiulong Waterfalls during the flood season, red earth accounts for over half of Yunnan’s area, and the province is known as the ”Red Earth Plateau”. In the flood season, the water flow increases dramatically, carrying with if lots of red earth and dyeing the waterfalls red.
Hukou (kettle’s Mouth) Waterfall
The Hukou (kettle’s Mouth) Waterfall on the Yellow River is located in the Shanxi-Shaanxi section of the Yellow River valley. It is one of the world’s few yellow waterfalls and has a fall of about 30 meters; at its widest it is over 1,000 meters across, and has an average flow of 1,010 cubic meters per second.
Detian (Virtuous Heaven) Waterfall
Detian (Virtuous Heaven) Waterfall is situated on an international border, between Shuolong Town of Daxin County in Guangxi, China, and Yuxi of Chongqing County in CaoBanf, Vietnam.
The Tsangpo Badong Waterfalls
The Tsangpo Badong Waterfalls are the most spectacular, primitive and mysterious waterfalls in China. It has a total length of 2, 840 kilometers and is the 23rd longest river in the world. In terms of flow, it ranks seventh—-16, 290 cubic meters per second, as much as 76, 600 cubic meters per second at its largest flood flow, ranking fourth in the world.
Dapeng Peninsula
The Dapeng Peninsula lies in east Shenzhen, and has a coastline of 133.2 kilometers. The granite hills on the peninsula are precipitous, with grotesque rocks and peaks. Along the tortuous coast are a dozen beaches, such as Xiasha, Xichong, Dongchong and Judiaosha. The sands are fine and the water is deep, ideal for surfing and sailing. This is the only virgin place yet to be developed in this bustling economic special zone.
Chongwu beach
The beach is on the southern Chongwu Peninsula, 24 kilometers southeast of
Hui’an County. Standing at the highest part of the nearby ancient Chongwu City, you can get a view of the crescent bay and bathing beach, embraced by mountains on three sides. Hui’an women, wearing their
yellow bamboo hats, bright-colored scarves, silver waist belts, short jackets and fat trousers, are another beautiful scene at Chongwu.
Victoria Bay
The Victoria Bay is 1.3 kilometers wide, 10 kilometers long east-west, and has a water area of 59 square kilometers. Thanks to its advantageous location and conditions and massive development since the id-19th century, it has now become a famous international center for finance, transportation and shopping.
Changli Golden Beach
The Changli Golden Beach lies in northeast Hebei Province. It was formed 2,000-3,000 years ago by sand brought by the Liugu River that empties into the Bohai Sea in neighboring Liaoning Province. Originating in the Yanshan Mountains that extend from northeast Beijing eastward to the Bohai Gulf, the river deposits huge quantities of silt into the sea, which drifts southwest with the current, driven
by the strong northeasterly winds and piles up along the west coast of the gulf.
mangrove
In 1986, the mangrove forest at Dongzhaigang at Qiongshan on Hainan Island was listed as a nature reserve under state protection. In 1992, it became China’s first place on the world list of major wetlands.
Chengshantou
known as ”the end of the earth”, sits at the easternmost point of the Shandong Peninsula. It is also called ”China’s Cape of Good Hope”.Extruding into the sea, the cliffs have been cut steep by mighty waves and storms down the ages.
Yehliu
Yehliu is a cape in north Taiwan, projecting some 1,700 meters into the sea. When overlooked from above, the place is like a giant turtle submerging into the sea. Thus, it is called “Yehliu Turtle”. Yehliu means Wild Willow and the place has always had something wild about it.
Yalong Bay
The tranquil Yalong Bay lies by a mountain to the north whose gentle slopes are covered with lush vegetation. Verdant and yellow leafy plants all grow humbly, keeping their heads down in submission to the frequent and ferocious visits of typhoons. At the foot of the mountain is a wide expanse of flat land, also green and lush, thanks to the ideal climate.
Sanlongsha
Situated in the east of the Aqqik Valley, Sanlongsha (Three Sandy Ridges) is part of the Yadan landforms of Lop Nur, and they cover about 100 sq km. Under the noonday sun, Sanlongsha looks like a group of millstones or a huge sparkling glossy ganoderma. The sand dunes of the Yadan landform of Sanlongsha are evenly arranged, like a fleet of ships sailing in formation.
Bailongdui
The Yadan landform of Bailongdui (White Dragon Dunes) is located in the north Qarkilil County, to the northeast of Lop Nur. Covering an area of 1,000 sq km, it is most difficult to reach among all the Yadan landforms. Without a guide, no one would be able to find his way out of this labyrinth. No one knows why these giant white dragons have gathered here.
Wind City
The Wind City, neighboring the Halahlat Mountain, is located in the Urho area, over 100 km northeast of Karamay City and covers an area of about 30 square kilometers. The native Mongolian people call it ”Sulumuhak”, while the local Kazakh people name it ”Shytirkrsi”, and both the two names have the same meaning —-Ghost Castle.
Shapotou
Shapotou means Sand Slope Head, this name coming from the 2,000-meter-wide and 100-meter-high sand riverbank. Shapotou lies on southeast of the Tengger Desert and north of the Yellow River.
Booming Sand Dune and Crescent Spring
The Booming Sand Dune and Crescent Spring, five kilometers southwest of Dunhuang City, create an amazing desert view. The dune’s name (Mingshashan) comes from the booming noise made by the sands when people climb up. The Spring’s name (Yueyaquan) comes from its crescent form, cradled in the dunes.
Gurbantunggut
The Gurbantunggut lies in Xinjiang Junggar Basin. Some 48,000 sq meters in area, it is China’s second largest desert. Fixed or semi-fixed sand ridges cover 97 percent of the desert. Some 100 plants grow in the desert, many of which make good sand-fixing plants and pasture grass. About a quarter of the annual precipitation falls in winter.
Taklamakan Desert
The Taklamakan Desert, lying in the center of the Tarim Basin and covering some 337,600 sq meters, is the biggest desert in China and the second largest shifting sand desert in the world. Between the Keriya River and the Hotan River in the heart of the desert, the vast sea of sand stretches to the horizon.
Badain Jaran desert
The Badain Jaran desert is the fourth largest desert in the world roughly 150 kilometers north of the Hexi corridor and covering an area of over 49,000 square kilometers. It is home to the largest dunes on earth.
Kuqa (or Kuche) Gorge
The Kuqa (or Kuche) Gorge is located in the southern part of the Tianshan Mountains, about 64 kilometers north of Kuqa County in Xinjiang. The Kuqa River is a tributary of the Tarim River, and local Uygur people call its valley ”Kizilia” which means ”red cliffs”. A typical earth-rift ravine, the gorge extends more than five kilometers in total, with a main valley and seven branch valleys.
Taihang Mountains
The gorge group of the southern Taihang Mountains located between the Huguan Pass and Pingshun of Shanxi Province and Lenzhou and Huixian of Henan Province, with the White Defile as the mainstream, is typical of the Taihang Gorge system. The height of those ridges is between 1,000 and 2,000 meters.
Jinkou Gorge that the Dadu River gorge
The Dadu River originates in the Bayan Har Mountain where Sichuan and Qinghai province meet. After the Lesser Jinchuan River converges with the Large Jinchuan in its upper reaches at Danba, it is called the Dadu River. The river rushes through high mountains and lofty ridges in the eastern part of the Hengduan Mountains.There are gorges with splendid scenery all the way, but it is in the Jinkou Gorge that the Dadu River gorge landscape reaches its climax.
Yellow River flows through mountains
Once it leaves the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yellow River flows through mountains, making many twists and turns, falls and continues its course until reaches Taohuayu (Peach Blossom Valley) in Zhengzhou City where it suddenly changes from opening up channels and valleys into creating new land. Taohuayu thus becomes the top of the world’s largest delta—the North China Plain. Most of the Yellow River gorges occur along Taohuayu.
Tailuge
Look at a cross section of Taiwan Island, you will find that its topography is asymmetrical. The Central Mountain Range lies mostly in the eastern part, rather gentle on their western face with a wide plain in front, while their eastern face is mostly sheer cliffs rising sharply from the western shore of the Pacific Ocean.
Lancang Canyon
The Lancang Canyon is located in Diqing County, stretching from Foshan Township to Yanmen Township, over 100 kilometers to the south, and has the largest elevation difference in Yunnan. The river surface in the canyon is 2,006 meters above sea level; on the left bank rise the Kawagebo Summit (6,740 meters) of the Meili Snow Mountain and on the right the Zhalaqueni Summit (5,460 meters) of the Baima Snow Mountain, giving a maximum elevation difference of 4,734 meters, within a slope distance of only 14 kilometers.
Great Nujiang Canyons
The Great Nujiang Canyons is a ”longitudinal” valley, lying parallel with the run of mountain ranges that give rise to the natural wonder of the Three Parallel Rivers. This is because the northeast edge of the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, creating a series of large north-south splits in what is today’s northwestern Yunnan and eastern Tibet.
Yangtze River
The Yangtze River (Changjiang), over 6,300 kilometers long, is the largest and longest river in China, and the third-longest in the world, next only to the Nile in northeast Africa and the Amazon in South America. The source of the Yangtze River lies to the west of Geladandong Mountain, the principal peak of the Tanggula Mountain chain in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, southwest of China.
Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiaoxia Gorge)
Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiaoxia Gorge) stands in the southeast of Zhongdian County and the north of Lijiang City, just on the section of the Jinsha River between the Haba Snow Mountains and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains, 105 km away from Zhongdian County, and 100 km away from Lijiang County. The great gorge inspires awe and nobility of spirit.
Yarlung Tsangpo River
The Yarlung Tsangpo River is one of the most important rivers in China, with water reserves that rank second in China. It originates from the middle section of the northern slope of the Himalaya Mountain with an elevation of more than 6,000 meters and make an unparalleled unique U-turn around the mountain of Namjfgbarwa, before finally reaching Baxike in Medong County, and creating the famous Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon.
Chishui Danxia landform
The formation of the Danxia landform can be dated back to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods about 100 million years ago. It covers an area of over 1,000 square kilometers. The collapsing and weathering of a thick layer of red quartzose formed the area’s unique landscape, including amazing valleys, sheer precipices and rushing waterfalls. Formed of sandstone, the Chishui Danxia landform is situated where the Sichuan Basin meets the Northern Guizhou Plateau, an area of humid weather and dense vegetation.
Zhangye Danxia Landform
The Zhangye Danxia Landform is concentrated predominantly in Linze and Sunan counties in Gansu Province. It is both the largest and the most typical of China’s arid area Danxia landform.
Danxia landforms in Kangle Township, Sunan Uygur Autonomous County, are the best evolved examples in China of window lattice and palace forms.
Langshan Mountain
In the heart of Yuecheng Mountain, where Hunan and Guangxi meet, there is a long, narrow basin of red conglomerate and sand stone, which tool shape in the early Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era, about 100 million years ago. Here, in the scenic area from Langshan Mountain, where Zijiang River (a tributary of the Yangtze River) originates, to Bajiaozhai, you can find the Danxia landform, which straddles Xinning County in Hunan, where it covers an area of 77.5 square kilometers and Ziyuan County in Guangxi, where it covers an area of 125 square kilometers.
Longhu Mountain
Situated in Yingtan, Jiangxi Province, Longhu Mountain has a Danxia area of 80 square kilometers, and is one of the most evolved Danxia landform areas in China. Geologically it is a Mesozoic fault basin, in which thick strata of purplish-red conglomerate, sandstone and volcanic rock were formed. Subsequent scouring and weathering ultimately shaped the landscape here into what it is today, a wealth of flat-top summits, bog back mountains, stockades, walls, ridges, cliffs, honeycomb caves, upright caves, rock pillars, rock peaks, peak forests, natural bridges, rock arches and ”elephant trunks”.
Dajin Lake
The Dajin Lake covers an area of 461.8 square kilometers, 166.9 of which are Danxia
topography. There are four Danxia scenic spots here. Going from northeast to southwest they are: Shangqing Stream, Jinhu Lake, Dragon King Cave and Eight Immortals Cliff. The Jinhu Lake and Shangqing Stream are China’s largest Danxia landforms on water.
Wuyi Mountain
The peerless scenery of Wuyi Mountain in the north of Fujian Province combined the strange shapes of Huangshan Mountains, the elegance of Guilin, the grandeur of Mount Tai, the steepness of Huashan, and the beauty of Hangzhou’s West Lake. Covering an area of 70 square kilometers (54.4 of which are Danxia topography), the Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area has an average elevation of 350 meters, boasts 36 extraordinary peaks and is circled by the beautiful 9.5 kilometer long Jiuqu (Nine Zigzag) Stream.
Danxia Mountain
Danxia Mountain located in Renhua County, Guangdong Province, with its walls and tiers of red rocks and cliffs, like Danxia (red rays of the sun), from which its name derives, has been compared to a ruby sculpture park. It is known as ”China’s Red Stone Park”.
West Lake
The West Lake derives its name from the fact that it lies west of the city of Hangzhou. Over hundreds of years, it changed from a bay to a lagoon, and then, before the Tang Dynasty (618–907), to a completely inland lake. During the ensuing Song (960–1279), Yuan (1206–1368), Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) Dynasties, the lake underwent repeated building and repairs.
heavenly lake
The Changbai Mountain that is one of the 10 famous mountains in China is outstanding natural beauty. The mountain is famous for its marvelous volcano crater heavenly lake, rich flora and fauna and the elegant snow and ice scenery. The boundless stretches of forest sea and snowfields, the high and awesome waterfall and the elegant lake form the most marvelous North China scenery; can be called the great Eurasian Green Gallery.
Namtso Lake
Namtso Lake, lies in the north Tibetan plateau north of the main peak of the Nyainqentanglha Mountain, located 60 kilometers northwest of Dangxiong County.
It is 4718 meters above the sea level, 70 kilometers in length, 30 kilometers in width, 55 meters deep, and 1961.5square kilometers in size. It is both the highest and biggest salt-water lake in the world, and the highest of Tibet’s three largest lakes and the second largest salt lake in China.
Kanas Lake
This frigid highland valley lake, nestling at the foot of the Youyi (Friendship) Peak of the Altay Mountains, is actually the widest section of the Kanas River, a tributary of the Erix River. The Erix originates in the Erix glacier, winds its way through the mountains becoming slow and gentle once it flows into this narrow strip of lowland.
Qinghai Lake
The Qinghai Lake is China’s largest inland lake and its largest salt-water lake. It was created, some 40 million years ago, because of the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates and the lifting of the Himalayan Sea to create the mountain chain. Being 3,260 meters above sea level, and with a circumference of 360 kilometers, the lake has a water area of 4,340 square kilometers and contains 77.8 billion cubic meters of water.
Emei Mountain’s
Located in Sichuan Province, Emei Mountain’s history has been recorded for over 2,000 years, during which time a rich Buddhist cultural heritage has accumulated. Atop the Golden Summit, which is 3,099 meters high, one can enjoy the sunrise, seas of clouds, the Buddha’s halo and the sunset glow.
Mount Tai
Mount Tai locates in the middle of Shandong province and covers Tai’an city and JiNan city with the area of 426 square kilometers, reaches 1545 meteres above sea level. Mount Taishan was called DaiZong(means the principal mountain of China) before and was renamed Mount Taishan then went by the name of DongYue(the Sacred Mountain of east China) that was ranked on the top of the five most important mountains in China. In 1987, Mount Taishan was listed as a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage site and honored “Geopark of the world” in 2006.
Kangrinboqe Peak
Kangrinboqe Peak in Pulan County, Ali Region of Tibet Autonomous Region: Home of all the Gods The Gandise Mountain lies from east to west in the south of Tibet. Among its steep cliffs and glaciers is its main peak, Kangrinboqe, located in Pulan County, Ali Prefecture in Tibet.
Chogori Peak
Chogori Peak in Yecheng County, Kashgar (Kashi) Region OF Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: Distant Mystic Land, Chogori Peak (8,611 meters) is a transliteration of the Tajik language, meaning ”high, great and magnificent.” Internationally, it is better known as K2, which is the only major mountain in the world that has surveyor’s notation as its common name (K stands for Karakoram, 2 means it was the second peak listed).
Three Sacred Mountains in Daocheng
Three Sacred Mountains in Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province: Landmark of ”Shangri-la”Daocheng is located at the southwestern edge of Sichuan Province. Its ancient name is ”Daoba”, a Tiberan word meaning a wide stretch of open land at the mouth of a mountain gully.
Yellow Mountain
Yellow Mountain (Mt. Huangshan), also known as Mount Huangshan, is located in the southern part of Anhui Province. It is undoubtedly China’s most celebrated mountain for all its grandeur and beauty. In 1990 Yellow Mountain was declared a World Natural and Cultural Heritage by UNESCO Heritage Committee.
Meili Snow Mountain
Meili Snow Mountain has long been famous for its main peak, Kang Karpo Peak, which, having an elevation of 6,470 meters (21,221 feet) above sea level, is the highest in Yunnan. Surrounded by 13 lesser peaks, which are the subject of an enchanting tale. Kang Karpo Peak, meaning White Snow Mountain in Tibetan language, is extolled as the “most beautiful mountain in the world.”
Qomolangma Peak
Qomolangma Peak also known as Mount Everest, meaning “Mother Goddess of the Universe” in Tibetan, is in Tingri County, Shigatse Area of Tibet Autonomous.
Qomolangma Peak, at the altitude of 8,844.43 meters, is the highest peak on the earth. It is part of the Himalaya Range in High Asia, straddles the border between China and Nepal. It has been called the most revered of all mountains and the world’s third pole.
Mountain Gongga
Mountain Gongga or Minya Konka in Luding, Kangding and Jiulong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province: Where the wind stops to rest Mountain Gongga also known as Minya Konka is the highest mountain in Sichuan Province.
Namjagbarwa
Namjagbarwa is a cloud-kissing peak. In Tibetan, it means ‘a spear piercing into the sky’ and is transliterated into Namjagbarwa. Surrounded by clouds and mists, snuggled by the river and valley and clustered round by forest, Namjagbarwa is appraised as the most beautiful mountain in China by a number of scientists, explorers and climbers.
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