Kina

In Xīnjiāng's capital, Ürümqi (乌鲁木齐; Wūlǔmùqí), high-rise apartments form a modern skyline that will soon dash any thoughts of spotting wandering camels and ancient caravanserais. The vast majority of its inhabitants are Han Chinese, and the city is one of the least typical of Xīnjiāng, though glimpses of the distant Tiān Shān mountains provide a taste of the extraordinary landscapes awaiting you elsewhere.

Guǎngdōng’s unique culture and natural beauty fly under the radar and have yet to be discovered by many travelers, so you may have a plethora of sublime sights (not to mention great dim sum) all to yourself.

Affluent Chinese may roll their eyes at the mention of slow-moving and impoverished Henan (河南, Hénán), but the province’s heritage takes us back to the earliest days of Chinese antiquity. Ancient capitals rose and fell in Henan’s north, where the capricious Yellow River (Huáng Hé) nourished the flowering of a great civilisation.

Idag lever Sandy Stadelmann, 29, sin dröm som resevloggare och digital nomad. Men vägen för att hamna där har inte varit spikrak. – Jag har verkligen kämpat stenhårt för att kunna göra det här, säger hon. 

Vagabonds guide till vad du inte får missa i Hongkong. Tips på hotell, restauranger och sevärdheter.

Sai Kung Peninsula is one of the last havens left in Hong Kong for hikers, swimmers and boaters, and most of it is one beautiful 7500-hectare country park. Small ferries depart from the waterfront for nearby island beaches, a journey to any of which is rewarding. Moored boats sell seafood to customers on the pier. The atmosphere is unbeatable.

Once a frontier town, Fenghuang (凤凰; Fènghuáng) marked the boundary between the Han civilisations of the central plains and the Miao (苗), Tujia (土家) and Dong (侗) minorities of the southwest mountains. Protective walls went up in the Ming dynasty, but despite the implications Fenghuang prospered as a centre of trade and cultural exchange. Its diverse residents built a breathtaking riverside settlement of winding alleys, temples and rickety stilt houses, which these days attract tourists by the bucketload. Do try to stay overnight – the town is bursting with accommodation options, and the sight of an illuminated Fenghuang at night is quite awesome.

While Jilin (吉林, Jílín) may not make typical China itineraries, there is cause for inspiration beyond the province's well-known rustbelt. For nature lovers, Jilin is an increasingly popular ski destination and boasts China’s largest nature reserve at Changbai Shan – the journey to Baihe from Yanji is one of Dongbei's most bucolic. Inside the reserve, Heaven Lake, a stunning, deep-blue volcanic crater lake, is one of China’s most mesmerizing natural wonders.

Synonymous with the Silk Road, the slender province of Gansu (甘肃, Gānsù) flows east to west along the Hexi Corridor, the gap through which goods and ideas once streamed between China and Central Asia. The constant flow of commerce left Buddhist statues, beacon towers, forts, chunks of the Great Wall and ancient trading towns in its wake. Gansu offers an entrancingly rich cultural and geographic diversity. Historians immerse themselves in Silk Road lore, art aficionados swoon before the wealth of Buddhist paintings and sculptures, while adventurers hike through desert rockland, ascend sand dunes and tread along high-mountain paths well worn by Tibetan nomads. The ethnic diversity is equally astonishing: throughout the province, the local Hui Muslims act as though the Silk Road lives on; in Xiahe and Langmusi a pronounced Tibetan disposition holds sway, while other minority groups such as the Bao’an and Dongxiang join in the colourful minority patchwork.

The underrated province of Jiāngxī (江西) offers a bucolic entrée into semirural Chinese life. It's a succulent, green place, connected by waterways of natural and human design, rice paddies teeming with bird life and fields draped in wildflowers. Tea seemingly grows out of every patch of land until dramatic mountain ranges, swirling with mist, rise up at its edges.