Tibet, happening festivals!

Buddhist monks, one quite cheerful, at Sera Monastery, near Lhasa

Sensory overload in a sweeping terrain - and some happening festivals too.

'Shangri La', 'the Rooftop of the World' - locked away in its Himalayan fortress, Tibet has long exercised a siren's hold on the imagination of the West. Tibetans are used to hardship and, despite the disastrous Chinese occupation, they have managed to keep their culture and humour alive.

Friendship Highway, one of world's highest roads, linking Lhasa and Kathmandu



Mural at Tashilhunpo Monastery, depicting Buddha, various deities and teachers



Gyantse Kumbum Buddhist temple: contains hundreds of murals and statutes



Lake Yamdrok in central Tibet

Shanghai, Fascinated City!

Forest of neon lights in restaurant and nightclub district

Shanghai has thrown on its Armani to strut on the global stage.

Shanghai is a scintillating city swirling with rapid cultural change. Since market restrictions were lifted, it has embraced the forces of business and design and rewritten its rule book shaping a fresh, new city that is sophisticated, innovative and living a life it has never lived before.

Some of thousands of watches for sale in Nanjing Lu shopping area

Shopping rush at Nanjing Lu, an enormous pedestrian-only shopping complex



Jinmao Tower, looking much like headquarters of Ming the Merciless

While it can't match the epic history of Beijing or Xi'an's grander sights, Shanghai is the hotspot of modern China; a cosmopolitan city buzzing with the concept of 'lifestyle revolution', showcased in the architectural temples of art, fine dining and contemporary urban living on the Bund.

Delicately carved guardian lion and wall relief outside Buddhist temple

Little boy with plastic dinosaurs on train from Shanghai to Nanjing



Facade of the ritzy Jinjiang Hotel



Ring road near Nanpu bridge, perfect for a Shanghai grand prix



Early morning Tai-chi on The Bund

Macau, City with two faces!

View over Largo do Senado (Senate Square) and city on Macau Peninsula

Gambling, greenery and glitz in a cultural mix.

Macau is a city with two faces: the fortresses, churches and food of former colonial masters Portugal speak to a uniquely Mediterranean style on the China coast. And yet Macau is also the self-styled Las Vegas of the East. The last few years have seen once-sleepy little Macau booming.

Street stall with hanging Chinese sausages and light bulbs

Today's Macau woos commerce and tourism like never before, taking a tradition of gambling to new extremes. While the profileration of mega-casinos means there's plenty of places to try your hand with Lady Luck, many of Macau's pleasures are relaxed and laidback, architectural and atmospheric.

Chinese Opera singer, holding single note for twenty minutes



Crab Soup from Restaurante Litoral, which offers Macanese and Portuguese cuisine



Dried food shop, very brightly lit, in street on Macau Peninsular



Facade of St Paul's Cathedral: rest was destroyed, accidentally, by fire



Night view of Largo do Senado (Senate Square), on Macau Peninsula



New Year's Dragon Dance, in which movements make dragon appear to be flying



Bicycle rickshaw driver taking a break

Smell the roses in the Spring City.

Two woodsellers smoking their way through the day

Smell the roses in the Spring City.

Kūnmíng has a flavour all of its own that seems a world away from Běijīng. A thoroughly modern Chinese city, wide palm-lined roads and skyscrapers have replaced quaint alleyways and charming wooden buildings. But despite rapid economic growth, Kūnmíng is one of the more relaxed and cosmopolitan Chinese cities and an enjoyable place to spend a few days.

Yin-Yang soup, a very Zen meal



A well trodden bridge to a Dai-style Buddhist temple, near Kunming

Hong Kong, everything is here!

Traffic, looking strangely like candy, in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong Island

On-the-boil Hong Kong will bowl you over.

Hong Kong has the big city specials like smog, odour, 14 million elbows and an insane love of clatter. But it's also efficient, hushed and peaceful: the transport network is excellent, the shopping centres are sublime, and the temples and quiet corners of parks are contemplative oases.

The best thing about being in Hong Kong is getting flummoxed and fired by the confluences and contradictions of a Chinese city with multi-Asian and Western elements. It's about savouring new tastes, weaving through a human gridlock and humming some dumb Cantopop tune while slurping your noodles

International Finance Centre, 88 stories high, now Hong Kong's tallest building



Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Hong Kong: 'for guests looking for an exclusive sanctuary'



Souvenirs from more fanatical days, at Cat Street curio shop, Hong Kong Island



A glittering capitalist jewel: Hong Kong Island and Victoria Harbour at night



Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, in woodlands near Sha Tin, New Territories



Local artist, working mostly with pastels, on Hong Kong Island



Many strange things for sale at Poor Man's Night Market, Hong Kong Island



High-rise buildings at night, Sheung Wan district, Hong Kong Island

Sun, surf and sand - Sino style.

A some what arduous task, fish drying on Hainan Island

Sun, surf and sand - Sino style.

For Middle Kingdom travellers, it's not unlike Hawaii in the US - a dreamy getaway from the frigid north. The country's largest island is also its smallest province, and an equally small population gives the place a much less hectic feel.

Hainan Dao tempts with all the trappings of a tropical idyll and the central highlands, with their thick canopies of forest, offer superb - if challenging - hiking. Listen not to those who grouse about tour groups crowding their stretch of beach: there's much that's unexplored here.

A load of Chinese junks moored in Hainan Island

Cycling tourist fails trying to camouflage on a ferry in Hainan Island



Blue skies from the high rise: Sanyà apartment views



Local boy waiting with great anticipation for the tourist mad rush at Tianya Haijiao Park

Modern Beijing.

The new Beijing West train station.

Where the mojo of MTV and mobile phones has eclipsed the magic of Mao.

If your visions of Beijing are centred around pods of Maoist revolutionaries in buttoned-down tunics performing exercise in Tiananmen Square, put them to rest: this city has embarked on a new millennium rollercoaster and it's taking the rest of China with it.

Beijing's youth is more interested in MTV than Mao; rhetorical slogans from the Cultural Revolution have given way to butchered English splashed across designer-copy T-shirts, and expats, tourists, foreign investors and a mobile phone-toting hip-oisie are mixing it up with the bureaucrats.

Haoyuan Binguan, an exclusive hotel with Qing Dynasty furnishings and colour TV

Chefs and snacks at Dong'anmen Night Market



Tricycle riders ferry passengers through the streets



The Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square at night



Cyclists trying not to get hit by bus in Dongcheng



Cars, looking rather sinister, at New China Children's Toy World, Dongcheng



Card playing in Rear Lake, near Beihai Park



Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, Tiantan: built 1420, burnt and rebuilt 1889



St Joseph's Catholic Church: built 1838, now restored, draped with fairy lights



Very large picture of Mao Tse Tung, Gate of Heavenly Peace, Tiananmen Square