Kina

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. 

Yuen Long is an important transport hub and a gateway to the Mai Po Marshes and the nearby walled villages.

As the birthplace of Mao Zedong, Communist Party cadres might wax lyrical about the sacred standing of Hunan (湖南; Húnán) in the annals of Chinese history, but it's the province's dramatic scenery that is the real draw. A magnificent landscape of isolated mountain ranges and jagged peaks envelops more than 80% of the province. The most astonishing example is found at the phantasmagorical Zhangjiajie, one of China's most surreal national parks. Here, as in other parts of the province, geological marvels thrust up majestically from green vales fed by tributaries in the fertile Yangzi River basin.

It's fitting that an ancient form of opera and magic called biànliǎn (face-changing) originated here, for Sichuan (四川, Sìchuān) is a land of many guises. Capital Chengdu shows a modern face, but just beyond its ring roads you'll find a more traditional landscape of mist-shrouded, sacred mountains, and a countryside scattered with ancient villages and cliffs of carved Buddhas.

Many visitors only pass through handsome Nanjing (南京, Nánjīng; literally 'Southern Capital') when traveling from Shanghai to Beijing (or vice versa), but the capital of Jiangsu, lying on the lower stretches of the Yangzi River, boasts a rich and impressive historical heritage. It's also one of the best-looking cities in China.

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.

At China’s cartographic bullseye, Lanzhou (兰州, Lánzhōu) marks the halfway point for overlanders trekking across the country. Growing up on a strategic stretch of the Yellow River (黄河, Huáng Hé), and sitting between competing Chinese and Central Asian empires, Gansu’s elongated capital city frequently changed hands, reflected today in its mix of ethnic groups and cultures. These days, Lanzhou is perhaps most well known for its favourite food – Lanzhou beef noodles (牛肉拉面, niúròu lāmiàn) – and with several excellent night markets, this is an excellent place to sample the delights of Chinese Silk Road fare.

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.

The gleaming manifestation of China's economic miracle, Shēnzhèn (深圳) has risen from the marshy Pearl River Delta into one of the world's most mega megacities in less time than it took London's St Paul's Cathedral to be built. Millions of migrants have been drawn to its golden gates from the Chinese countryside since the 1980s; now, Shēnzhèn attracts high-flying tech graduates and global corporations.

Like many of the other famous water towns, Wūzhèn (乌镇) was part of the Grand Canal and prospered from trade and silk production. It's a major tourist attraction, and with its crowds and rows of souvenir shops its easy to write off Wūzhèn as inauthentic. But then you turn a corner and get a view of, say, an ancient stone bridge curving over a canal or a row of weathered Qing dynasty wooden homes, and realise: this place really is beautiful. It's also easily explored, with good transit links.