The bleak, high-altitude deserts of Tibetan Sichuan get surreal around Haizishan with a landscape of boulders and small lakes against distant mountains.
Van Life in China 2019-21
After 30 years of backpacking the world – my travels continued with van life around China.
Sometimes we just find plain-weird places to camp - such is the flow of van life in China.
The 'Final Cut' of the Valli car advertisement filmed in the Litang region of Tibetan Sichuan by a Shanghai film agency.
An offer of a new car for 3 months to do a paid road trip - to Tibet - happens, and then it involves a film crew! What next?
Our van life across China leads us to be invited to an all-expenses-paid trip to the Valli car launch event in the mountains of Morganshan.
Van camping amid the peace and tranquility of the Pu-erh tea plantations in Xishuangbanna in China's southern Yunnan province.
Exploring the desert mountains of Gansu and meeting Yugur nomads while van camping a few days at a waterhole used by their flocks of sheep. In this wilderness, I celebrated my 54th birthday.
An overnight stay at a high mountain pass on the Tibetan Plateau reveals a stark, monochromatic landscape the next morning.
An ancient city lured us – but the isolation seized us. Exploring Ganjia as winter approaches. From an ancient fortress and snow mountains to a living goddess temple and a sacred Tibetan cave.
In 400-year-old Yongtai Ancient city - a ruined frontier fort on the Silk Road - remains a village of soldier-descendants, herding goats and sheep amid the arid surrounds of this turtle shaped fortress.
Staying at the cave house village of Lijiashan during winter 2011 and a revisit there in summer 2020.
The freedom, the beauty and the irony of van-traveling the mountains of Yunnan in China as the world stays locked-down with the coronavirus. But there's still a few issues ...
From van-camping over a lake and mountain panorama in Yunnan, to being sent to a quarantine area during the initial Coronavirus outbreak in China.
Visit the Hutou battle museum and explore the tunnels where the Japanese defenders of Hutou Fortress fought the Soviets for 11 days after the end of World War Two.
Jaw-dropping views on the North Korea border - visiting Changbai Mountain & stunning Heaven Lake.
Van-camping in China, near Jian at Wandu Mountain City ruins, amid the valley of nobles tombs at the ancient capital of the Korean Goguryeo Kingdom.
Van-camping in China on Peach Island in the middle of the Yalu River opposite the misted mountains and border towers of North Korea.
Our first 48 hours of van-life in China. The hazardous highways of Hebei lead to blissful van-camping at Golden Beach.
