Discover China

China’s history is a huge and daunting topic. Thousands of years, hundreds of emperors, dynasty after dynasty…but getting to grips with it all can be very interesting, especially with the eChinacities series of Instant Expert guides, the first looking at China’s dynasties.

Jinggang Mountain, regarded as the Red Army’s birthplace and the cradle of China’s revolution, would be the subject of an application for UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage status this year, with the Jiangxi Provincial Government including the application in a list of nine major tasks for 2011. Read more in the Shenzhen Daily article Jinggang Mountain vies for World Heritage listing.

Yunnan province’s Chengjiang fossils site and the site of Inner Mongolia’s Yuan Dynasty Upper Capital have both made application to UNESCO to make the coveted World Heritage list in 2012. Find out what makes these sites so special in the CNTV Culture Express story Two new applications for UNESCO World Heritage list. Last year’s two applications, the Hangzhou Westlake and Five Linked Lakes in Heilongjiang province, will be reviewed at the World Heritage Conference this June.

The ancient fortress at Dapeng is justifiably one of Shenzhen’s best-known attractions. But the area around Dapeng Town has two more excellent destinations, both of which are Buddhist temples. Read more in James Baquet’s Shenzhen Daily article Two temples in Dapeng.

A two-day tour to Kaiping watchtowers, Birds’ Paradise and Gudou hot springs departs every Saturday between 17 January and 31 March 2011 (except Chinese Lunar New Year 2-8 February 2011). Read more about the tour and see pictures of the stunning destinations it visits in the Shenzhen Daily article World Cultural Heritage tour in Guangdong.