i'm going to china for the month of august 2007 until begining of Sept. 2007. i'm looking for an experience where not many other travellers have gone. can anyone recommend such places.
i've already been to guilin, yunnan, lijiang and chengdu. i'm looking for other hidden treasures.
You could go to Shaoshan the birth-city of Mao Zedong. A friend (we were together in china in 2005) is now there and told me, that no western tourists are in this city. But like in every unknown city in china is a lot of traffic and people whatch at you like you are an alien ;)
Or try Zhengzhou, it's near Luoyang and the best way to get to the shaolin-temple, where the famous shaolin-fighters are coming from. It's one of the best places on earth I've ever been (and I was in many countries).
--- seeing as you are not familiar with sarcasm, I shall close the register at this point
there are heaps tourists in hainan I think... it's kind of the most famous place in China. try the rural place in the south of xinjiang, not too many people know how amazing is it, most people are really kind in the village and never see the outside world. good luck.
If you really wanna go off the tourist trail there's plenty to see. Take for example Guizhou province. You could travel to Guilin and from there north, through Longsheng all the way to Guiyang. (http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com has some good info on that road)
Another great option is Sichuan. Travel fromChengdu to either Xian, there's a few interesting sites in between and NOT mentioned in guide books or you go to Gansu and visit some tibetan areas and parks. http://www.bicycle-adventures.com is a good source for this area.
Also, if you don't want to make it too difficult, travel to Kunming in Yunnan but instead of Lijiang Dali, go to Baoshan province. Few travelers go there.. and it's very interesting, along the Burmese border.
Peter
--- Pangkor in West Malaysia is for sure one of the lesser known and more beautiful island. www.pulau-pangkor.co-m
