As it's looking like we're not going to Tibet now, we really wanted to see some cool and unique scenery in China.

I know Guilin is meant to be wonderful but is there anywhere else?

I remember seeing somewhere further North from Beijing that look magical but I can't remember where it is now - ideas?

Cheers.

It depends when your going if your there during the hight of winter Harbin is meant to very beautiful and has an ice festival which is famous and meant to be pretty magical. I haven't been myself but one of my friends used to live there and would always talk about it.

Any train journey will also bring some beautiful scenery. 30% of my photos from my last trip to China are from the train.

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There's also this thing call the Great Wall don't know if you've ever heard of it. It's no more than an old garden fence but they make a bit of fuss about it. Meant to have some ok angles.

I thought there would be lots of walls in China - I didn't know they had a special one?

We're there in April, we're going to see the standard sites but wanted to see some cool scenery too.

We're doing most of our trip on the train, so it's nice to know that's a good starting point.

Tibet is a majestic place like god's own made.

Thanks for a pic of a place we're not going too - that's very kind of you.

Still, you weren't to know, oh actually I did mention it in my post - oops!

Lovely picture though.

Do you know where in China you are going? How much time do you have.... Living and traveling in China, I can tell you there is much to see that is breathtakingly beautiful. If you dont have much time, the areas you mentioned are good. The Yellow Mountains in Anhui Province are worth a visit...they are often depicted in traditional styled Chinese paintings. Places in off the beaten path provinces such as Hubei, Hunan and others have some famous places... Hubei has Wudang Shan which is great. That is not far from Henan Province where Song Shan is located and the Shaolin Temple...Shan means mountain in Chinese. If you have time to travel to Sichuan Province, or Qing Hai, the mountains there border on Tibet and are just as beautiful. If you have lots of time, consider Xinjiang Province and its close proximity to Pakistan and all those mountains or northern Xinjiang border has mountains that reminded me of Alaska complete with glacier fed lakes and rivers. Someone mentioned Harbin, that is beautiful...So give us more details as to how long you have and where you want to go. As you know, China is big.

We have a month. We arrive in Hong Kong in mid April. The general idea was to go to Chengdu to see the Pandas, from there to Beijing for the wall etc, then back to Xian for the Army. At the end of our month we're doing another month at a Kung Fu school which is near Xian so that's why that's our last stop.

We are going to travel on the train, which takes a while, but I think we have enough time to see some other stuff thats near or around that route.

Any help will be great, as you say China is so big and the guide book just offers up so many ideas.

Cheers

I just got back from studying in Xi'an if you get a chance try and get out to see the Tang Dynasty Morsoleum there 1/3 the size of the terracotta warriors but on the whole I think its a better set up and the archaeology is more interesting (I'm an archaeologist so I would) and you have to ride a tandom bike around the city walls it's so much fun. Only 40 kuai each and defiately one of the best days while we were there. It's 14km you can hire the bikes for 100min and you'll use it all up especially if you stop and take photos or muck around like we did and if your lucky they will also be holding a fun run so you can cheer for all the compeditors while riding around.

I was talking to one of my friends who was also in China last year and she mentioned going to see the Yangzi River (Chang Jiang) and I would definately suggest going to see it before the flooding for the Three Gorges Dam which is meant to start this year I think.

If you are going to Xi'an then may I suggest that while you are there take a detour to Hua Shan which is a mountain a couple of hours away. It has a set of stairs up the side of it and is a great climb. really there are so many places you could go to. The three Gorges, Hanhzhou is OK Kunming has its stone forrest etc.
April will be a good time as it has started to warm up but it wont be stinking hot and humid like it will be later in the year.

I think Yuanyang rice terraces is really amazing, if you interested to see rice terraces it is better to go Yuanyang of Yunnan province,6 hours by bus away from Kuming

You are going to Chengdu for the Pandas, then may I suggest that you start your trek in Yunnan...go Lijiang and Dali then up the western side of Sichuan...you can see all those great things suggested by forestsone...there are some awesome mountains on the Yunnan/Tibet border...plus some some more mountains in Sichuan..go to Chengdu..then to Xi'an...and maybe on your way out...go to Beijing.

A side note to kj115..the Chang Jiang has already started to flood the gorges...

What a pity. I would have loved to go along the Chang Jiang when I was there over Christmas but because of time and money constraints I only saw it from my train. I would still love to see it, maybe upstream of the dam.

Best places I've been for nature in China are Jiuzhaigou in northern Sichuan province and Tian chi in Xinjiang (not far from Urumqi).

A couple of my highlights in China - Yangze river, HuangShang, ancient village near HuangShang.

OOps, I'll try it again
Yangze river
HuangShang
Ancient villange