Off the beaten path,
where there are no queues

There is a China that never appears in the brochures and yet is usually what people remember when they get home. You do not have to go to the ends of the earth: stepping off the Beijing–Xi'an–Shanghai axis is enough.

Every place on this list we have driven ourselves, and we use them regularly as extensions to an itinerary, or as a complete trip for travellers who already know the classics.

The six places

• Xiahe and Labrang Monastery (Gansu, 35°12′N 102°30′E) — one of the largest Tibetan monasteries outside Tibet. In the afternoon the monks debate in the courtyard.
• Xijiang (Guizhou, 26°30′N 108°10′E) — a thousand wooden Miao houses on the hillside. At festival time the women dress in kilos of silver.
• Langmusi (Gansu, 34°05′N 102°38′E) — a mountain town between two monasteries, one on each side of the provincial border.
• Danba (Sichuan, 30°52′N 101°53′E) — stone villages with 30-metre watchtowers wedged into a green canyon.
• Songyang (Zhejiang, 28°27′N 119°29′E) — tea valleys and restored rammed-earth villages, two hours from Shanghai.
• Shaxi (Yunnan, 26°19′N 99°51′E) — an old Tea and Horse Road market town, with its 14th-century wooden theatre.

What you have to accept

Travel off the beaten path has a price, and it is worth saying up front: the hotels are simpler, fewer people speak English, the road transfers are longer and some services do not always work. In exchange, you see a China that has almost disappeared from standard itineraries.

How we fit them in

The usual approach is to use them as an extension: two or three days at the end of a classic itinerary, without touching the rest. We also build complete two-week trips made only of places from this list, with a private driver and an English-speaking guide.