Explore UNESCO sites

I would like to commend Marcia Brandes for the well-written article “Ten Cities in 20 Days — a Delightful Custom Tour of China” (Feb. ’14, pg. 18) and on the extensive research she and her husband, Steve, did in designing their tour. Their itinerary could serve as an excellent model for travelers on a limited time budget.

As someone who has had the good fortune to travel extensively in every country in the world, China remains a favorite destination of mine and for my wife, Cathy (who, coincidentally, is Chinese). In fact, we made three 10- to 14-day trips there from September 2013 to February 2014, in addition to countless visits over the past 40 years.

China has one of the richest cultural histories in the world, and it takes multiple visits to begin to appreciate the country’s beauty and its impact on those seeking to understand how we all, as a people, have evolved.

Despite numerous guidebooks’ suggestions on places to visit in China, it’s difficult to decide where to go when you’re limited by time and budget. I would suggest to the intrepid traveler that one of the best guidelines from which to form the framework of any itinerary is the UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) list. The interactive map is very helpful in designing a proposed itinerary.

While the list is certainly not perfect and has left me wondering, on a few occasions, why a particular site was included, it has often led me to sites I never would have considered or found had I not consulted it. In fact, several otherwise knowledgeable guides whom we have hired on independent travels have been unaware of the locations of some World Heritage Sites within their own countries.

Having been to about half of the 981 sites currently inscribed by UNESCO, I feel stronger than ever that the listing is very beneficial in the effort to preserve them.

I was pleased to see that Ms. Brandes mentioned two of China’s World Heritage Sites in her article. One, in Datong, was the Yungang Grottoes. It is certainly a worthy site, although my favorite cave carvings are those in the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang.

The other was Shuang Lin. Travelers seeking to visit this destination may have difficulty finding it, since it is a companion WHS to Pingyao, which the Brandeses also visited. Pingyao is the primary place of interest due to its remarkably preserved walled city. (It’s possible to hire an electric van to transport you to the highlights inside the Old City of Pingyao, saving you several hours of wandering.) Not well known is the fact that, on the WHS list, several sites may be lumped together under a single heading, obscuring places like Shuang Lin. 

I was surprised Ms. Brandes didn’t mention other World Heritage Sites they visited or, in some cases, could have visited. 

It’s obvious that some places, such as the Great Wall, would be on anyone’s list of desirable stops. The Grand Canal in Suzhou (which overlaps the Classical Gardens of Suzhou on the WHS list), West Lake in Hangzhou, Mt. Huangshan and Hongcun (part of the Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui) were also on the Brandes’ itinerary but not identified as World Heritage Sites.

One of the most photogenic and best-known places they visited was the Li River, surrounded by karst hills and glorified by artists and poets for centuries. I personally enjoy the Li River. Somewhat surprisingly, it is not a World Heritage Site. In its “South China Karst” inscription on the WHS list, UNESCO specifically excluded it and named three other locations.

My personal favorite is the Stone Forest (Shilin Karst) in Kunming, known during the Ming Dynasty as the First Wonder of the World.

Mt. Wuyi, a WHS in northwestern Fujian Province in southeastern China, is another favorite of mine. You can float down the Nine Bend River on a bamboo raft amidst towering karst formations.

To name a couple of karst formations outside of China that are equally impressive, there are Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve in Madagascar, both on the WHS list.

Whatever your motivation for travel, I strongly recommend you follow the Brandes’ example and do your homework. Use resources such as the UNESCO WHS list, plus read ITN and blogs written by other travelers so you can maximize your time on any tour. 

UNESCO’s webpages and even Wikipedia do a much better job describing World Heritage Sites and explaining how travelers should apportion their time at them than any guidebook I have found.

BOB PARDA

Poway, CA