China in winter: 8 experiences to dive into nature

China might be famed for its bustling big cities, but beyond the skyscrapers and bright lights lies a treasure trove of landscapes that are hard to find anywhere else.

Travel through China has long been synonymous with towering skylines and busy city streets. But fewer travellers know of its many natural wonders. The country is a surprising blend of ancient culture and modern energy, ethnic diversity and dramatic natural scenery. China in winter is especially magical, adding a distinctly enchanted charm to the already stunning terrain.

Now, with access to China made easier than ever, thanks to the new visa-free travel policy, there’s an even better excuse to see its vast and varied landscapes.

Here are eight nature experiences to seek out that are totally unexpected and totally unforgettable.

1. Kanas Lake

Kansas Lake in winter — See Kansas Lake change to turquoise. (Image: Darmau)

Situated in the Xinjiang region, far in China’s north and almost on the border of Kazakhstan and Russia, this crescent-shaped lake is an ever-changing sight.

The lake switches its hue with the seasons. In winter, it takes on a particularly vivid shade of turquoise. It’s circled by dense forest and incredible biodiversity, with rare animal and plant species including maral deer and snow leopards – creating a scene that wouldn’t look out of place in a European alpine village.

2. Songhua River

ski chair lift along the Songhua River in winter — Catch the rime as you ride the ski lift. (Image: Getty/ Biebei)

The Songhua River is one of China’s longest, stretching nearly 1900 kilometres across the country’s northeast.

In winter, it’s renowned for its rime, when water vapour descends from the river’s unfrozen parts, crystallising as it meets the crisp air and settling on surrounding trees as a delicate frost. The Jilin province is a winter rime hotspot, with trees appearing as if they’re thickly dusted in powdered sugar.

Snow-sport aficionados can book a stay at one of the ski areas around the river, like Beidahu. The popular ski hub has world-class runs, multiple hotels and lodges with cosy accommodation. Many also include hot springs and saunas among the offerings, perfect for retreating from the cold.

3. Heilongjiang

Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, harbin — Experience the magnificent Harbin Ice and Snow Festival. (Image: Lin Zhaohai)

The Heilongjiang region is known for its long and very cold winters, so it’s little surprise it hosts a bounty of cold-weather adventures.

The Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in the capital of Harbin is a must-do. This wonderland of intricate ice sculptures, illuminated ice castles and giant snow carvings transforms the entire city.

A visit wouldn’t be complete without a day at Yabuli, one of the biggest and best ski resorts in China. Here, carve your way through more than 35 kilometres of slopes and enjoy activities like snow tubing and snowmobiling. A nostalgic steam train ride through Yabuli’s snow-covered forests lets you experience the landscape in all its fairytale glory.

4. Guizhou and Yunnan villages

traditional building in Guizhou — See traditional buildings in Guizhou. (Image: Zheng Xin)

China has an incredibly varied population, and the Guizhou and Yunnan provinces are unrivalled for experiencing the country’s ethnic diversity.

In both, you’ll find villages with traditional wooden stilt houses, drum towers and wind-rain bridges. All set against a dramatic backdrop of mountainous landscapes, terraced fields and valleys draped in morning mist.

Discover ancient crafts like batik, woodwork, embroidery and silver jewellery-making; try local cuisine highlights including bamboo chicken, sour soup and handmade noodles; and join in one of the community celebrations, which come alive with dance and folk music.

5. Suzhou and Hangzhou

Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou, China — See uniques gardens in Suzhou. (Image: Yilei Bao)

The cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou – both in eastern China, just a short train ride from Shanghai – are classic Jiangnan water towns, famed for their natural beauty. Meandering canals, stone bridges, weeping willow trees and classical gardens are hallmarks of the region, alongside ancient architecture dating back to imperial times.

The Grand Canal, one of the most historic waterways in China, runs through both cities and hosts traditional boat rides – a peaceful and immersive way to take in the vistas. Hangzhou’s West Lake is another highlight, lined with pagodas and lotus ponds.

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6. Sichuan

Jiuzhai Valley National Park in winter — See Jiuzhai Valley National Park transform in winter. (Image: Getty/ Prime Images)

Sichuan might be known for its fiery cuisine, but there’s a lot more to this southwestern province than delicious food. Explore everything from snowy plateaus and bamboo forests to tea fields and nature reserves. Also visit the legendary Jiuzhai Valley National Park to take in its pristine beauty.

The park is one of the most biodiverse and visually stunning reserves in China – a network of turquoise lakes and hilly forests. Autumn is the most popular time to visit, when the trees turn gold and amber. In winter, though, colours shift to icy blues and snowy whites – the park is quieter but equally magical.

7. Inner Mongolia

man in blue and white long sleeve shirt wearing red hat playing guitar at naadam festival — Experience local culture at the Naadamn festival. (Image: Belgutei)

With vast swathes of open grassland and desert, Inner Mongolia is a remote yet utterly captivating part of the country. The autonomous region’s stark landscapes are at once austere and mesmerising, making them ideal for winter trekking and photography.

Here, experience traditional nomadic culture, encompassing yurts, herding and local dairy foods, while winter brings seasonal festivals like Winter Naadam. The annual event features ice sports such as sleigh racing and ice sumo alongside traditional music and dance.

8. Anhui

famed Huangshan Mountains in winter — See the Huangshan Mountains covered in snow. (Image: Keshb3)

The Anhui region in eastern China is home to the famed Huangshan Mountains – dramatic granite peaks shrouded in low-hanging clouds and ancient pine trees that have become one of the country’s most iconic silhouettes. The UNESCO World Heritage-listed site has deep cultural significance and is featured in many ink paintings, poems and legends.

In winter, snow blankets the branches of gnarled pine trees and the stone steps around the peaks, turning the scenery into something altogether otherworldly.

It’s time to rediscover China. Start planning your adventure at cnto.org.au.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

Naturally China: 8 experiences to escape the city and dive into nature