Kina

145 meter högt och 125 meter i diameter. Megakonstruktionen i den kinesiska staden Weifang är tänkt att öppna för allmänheten inom kort och är det högsta ekerlösa pariserhjulet i världen.

A zip – and an entire world – away from Shanghai, well-irrigated Jiangsu (江苏, Jiāngsū) spills over with as much charm and history as the waters that flow through its shimmering canals. The province, which owed its historical wealth to silk and salt production, boasts the Grand Canal as well as elaborate waterways that thread through this Yangzi River (Cháng Jiāng) region. It’s known throughout China for its cute canal towns, enchanting gardens and sophisticated opera and folk arts.

Turpan (吐鲁番; Tǔlǔfān) is China’s Death Valley. At 505 ft below sea level, it’s the second-lowest depression in the world and the hottest spot in China. In July and August, temperatures soar above 40°C and even 50°C, forcing the local population to sleep on their roofs and visiting tourists into a state of semi-torpor.

Shanghai: few cities in the world evoke so much history, excess, glamour, mystique and exotic promise in name alone.

Är du ett fan av vinter, is, snö och gillar häftiga upplevelser? Då kanske det känns lockande att besöka Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival i Kina.

The fertile Dunhuang (敦煌, Dūnhuáng) oasis has for millennia been a refuge for weary Silk Road travelers. Most visitors stayed long enough only to swap a camel; but some stayed, building the forts, towers and cave temples that are scattered over the surrounding area. These sites, along with some dwarfing sand dunes and desertscapes, make Dunhuang a magnificent place to visit.

In the southwestern corner of Guizhou, on the borders with Yunnan and Guanxi, lies the beautiful region of Xingyi (兴义, Xīngyì). The city itself is unremarkable – most people come to spend time among the magical karst mountain landscape of the Wanfenglin Scenic Area.

Wedged between high, glacial mountain peaks on the northern side of the Chola Mountains is the vast monastery and shedra (Buddhist college) complex of Dzogchen (竹庆寺; Zhú Qìng Sì), one of the most important seats of the Nyingma (Red Hat sect). Exploring this massive and ever-expanding complex of temples, prayer halls, stupas and meditation retreats alone could keep you busy for a day or three, but there's more to Dzogchen than spirituality. With snow capped mountain peaks on one side and rolling grasslands with wandering yaks and nomads on the other there's plenty of scope here for several days of exciting walking.

A cool, misty retreat from Sichuan basin’s heat, Emei Shan (峨眉山; 3099m) is one of China’s four sacred Buddhist Mountains (the others being Putuo Shsn, Wutai Shan and Jiuhua Shan. This excludes sacred Buddhist mountains in the Tibetan regions). A farmer built the first Buddhist temple near Jinding summit in the 1st century. That temple stood until it was gutted by fire in 1972, and many of the more than 150 temples on the mountain suffered fires or looting over the centuries but around 30 have been maintained and restored in various degrees. Reconstructed in the 9th century, Wannian Temple is the oldest surviving temple on the mountain.