Xiahe is in Gansu but Qinghai is close. The pic makes it seem worth a detour, no?
I personally like Kunming in Yunnan Province. While not being that aesthetically beautiful, it is a good starting off point to great places such as Dali, Lijiang, Ruli, Jinghong etc. Furthermore, the weather is pretty mild throughout the year and you can be in the Mountains (Lijiang) or the tropics (Jinghong) in less than an hour with a short, domestic flight. The food is great and there are lots of interesting mountain tribes around. For hiking, biking etc. it is really a great province.
Found this place online by accident. Its about an hour outside of HangZhou by bus. Went there this past Chinese New Year when it was beyond cold and snowing! Definately one of the nicest places I’ve even seen. Its an “old town” built on canals. It looks like a backlot from one of those Zhang Yimou films. They have a few restaurants there and a few hotels. We didnt stay the night, but the night is probably the best time to go, due to the lighting. If your a photo enthusiast, then this place is the one for you. There arent any buses back after about 6pm but you can take a taxi back to HangZhou for about 200RMB.
www.wuzhen.com.cn
and my photos:
travel.webshots.com/album/562439715YESwiB
Man oh man, did I get lambasted for saying “three years in Taiwan, year and a bit on the mainland”. I think they wanted me to say Taiwan Province or some shit like that.
I’m in Xiamen, and for me the honeymoon period wore off after about, umm, a week (in Taiwan it lasted a good, solid year!). The streets are crowded with shifty looking individuals and the permanent construction has created a haze that sits permanently (in my throat). We now have no water pressure in our building because of construction next door.
Gulangyu, the little island off Xiamen island is nice enough - good for a day or half-day’s worth of trotting around. Couple nice parks in the city and a relatively big temple (Nanputuo). The Xiada campus is rated as one of the most attractive in China. Cuisine is nothing special. The city also gets mofo hot in Summer - gets up to 43 C.
All in all, traveling in China would be more of a challenge than a leisure break would have to say.
That’s my semi-rant over. Having a bad hair day.
But I’ll do an Ed and try to be positive: I do like Chinese cities by night - less crowded, not as hot, the BBQ guys come out, the pretty girls are all dolled-up for their evening ‘strolling’, some cities (like Xiamen) have night lights that light up the buildings (complete waste of power, but anyways). So much so that I’m more often out at night than in the day, avoiding the heat and staring.
Good thing I’m taking a break from China in a bit. There are some good things about the place, aren’t there? :s
I would imagine “nice Chinese city” is a contradiction in terms. Lijiang was nice in 1998. Domestic tourists everywhere now. Find out where the Chinese go and then go somewhere else.