Regions of China & Central Asia

The Forbidden City, Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors and limestone mountains of the Li River feature on the hit lists of almost every visitor to China, but the world’s oldest civilisation holds a host of lesser known wonders waiting to be discovered – an adventure that’s never been easier thanks to the recent flowering of stylish hotels and affordable air travel.

Tibet – or the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) as it’s officially known these days – retains its fascinating Buddhist lifestyle despite having endured decades of repression by Communist China. Many monasteries have been destroyed since the 1950s, but enough survive to form the backbone of a magnificent tour of this spellbinding Himalayan region, whose cultural resilience remains as impressive as its rolling grasslands and horizons of distant ice peaks.

Follow in Marco Polo’s footsteps on a journey from the imperial heartland of China’s eastern seaboard to the dry, dusty capitals of Central Asia – Kashgar, Bukhara and Samarkhand –  whose names are synonymous with the ancient caravan trade across the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts, and with the near-mythical figures of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Timur the Lame. This vast and remote region offers a unique holiday experience for the adventurous traveller.

The former Soviet Republics of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan represent the twin aspects of Central Asia’s allure as a visitor destination. In the former, a rich cultural heritage of domed mosques, madrassas and tombs caked in intricate azure-tiled mosaics evoke the magic of ancient Turkestan, while in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, the sublime natural architecture of the Tian Shan and Pamir Alay mountains is the big attraction.