The Silk Roads Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor — a transnational UNESCO serial inscription (China-Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan) covering 33 component sites including the Mogao Caves, Jiaohe Ancient City Turpan, and Xuanquanzhi Han relay station along the 5,000 km route from Xi’an to Central Asia, inscribed 2014 — links 600 km east to the Longmen Grottoes at Luoyang and 1,800 km to Dunhuang by train from Xi’an.
The Xinjiang Tianshan — four protected areas totalling 606,833 hectares in the Tianshan range of northwestern China, from Tomur Peak (7,443 m) and Bayinbuluke Swan Reserve to the Heaven Lake (Tianchi, 1,928 m) accessible 110 km east of Ürümqi, inscribed 2013 — link 150 km east to Jiaohe Ancient City and Turpan Silk Road sites and 700 km east to Mogao Caves Dunhuang.
The Chengjiang Fossil Site — a 512-hectare area of Cambrian-period mudstone on Maotian Hill in Yunnan Province preserving 250+ species of the Cambrian Explosion (520 million years ago) in exceptional soft-body detail including early chordates, inscribed 2012 — links 60 km northwest to Kunming, 90 km east to South China Karst Shilin, and 250 km northwest to Three Parallel Rivers via Kunming-Lijiang HSR.
The West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou — a 5.6 km² lake reshaped over 1,000 years by Tang-Song poet-prefects and imperial patronage into the archetype of Chinese landscape design, with 100+ historic structures including the Su Causeway, Leifeng Pagoda, and Lingyin Temple, inscribed 2011 — links 35 minutes by HSR to Suzhou Classical Gardens and 1.5 hours to Xidi and Hongcun Ancient Villages.
The Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in “The Centre of Heaven and Earth” — eight monument groups on Mount Songshan including Shaolin Temple (495 CE), China’s oldest brick pagoda (Songyue, 520 CE), two astronomical observatories, and the Songyang Confucian Academy, inscribed 2010 — link 60 km west to Longmen Grottoes at Luoyang and 45 minutes east by express bus to Zhengzhou HSR for Yin Xu at Anyang.
Mount Wutai — the most sacred Buddhist mountain in China and East Asia, with 53 temples spanning 1,600 years of construction including the Foguang Temple (857 CE, China’s second-oldest wooden building) and Nanchan Temple (782 CE, China’s oldest wooden building), inscribed 2009 — links 200 km to Yungang Grottoes Datong and 200 km south to Pingyao Ancient City.
The Fujian Tulou — 46 inscribed circular and square rammed-earth communal fortress residences built by Hakka and Minnan communities in western Fujian Province between the 12th and 20th centuries, housing entire clans within single structures up to 73 metres in diameter, inscribed 2008 — link 100 km east to Xiamen’s Gulangyu settlement and 150 km northwest to Mount Wuyi’s Taoist landscape.
The South China Karst — six UNESCO-inscribed components in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Chongqing protecting the world’s most complete tropical and subtropical karst landscape, from Shilin Stone Forest’s limestone needles to Guilin’s Li River tower karst (the landscape on China’s 20-yuan note), inscribed 2007 — connects 370 km south to Kaiping Diaolou and Macao’s Historic Centre via Guangzhou, and 400 km north by HSR to Dazu Rock Carvings.
The Kaiping Diaolou and Villages — 1,833 multi-storey defensive towers in Guangdong Province built by returned Cantonese emigrants with hybrid Baroque, Moorish, Byzantine, and Art Deco decorative vocabularies applied to Chinese vernacular tower structures, inscribed 2007 — connect 140 km southeast to Macao’s Historic Centre and 370 km north by HSR to South China Karst at Guilin.
Yin Xu — the late Shang dynasty capital (c. 1300–1046 BCE) near Anyang, Henan Province, containing the oracle bone inscription archive (earliest Chinese writing) and Lady Fu Hao’s intact royal tomb with 468 bronze vessels, inscribed 2006 — links to Longmen Grottoes 90 km south by HSR, Shaolin Temple Songshan 130 km southwest, and Beijing’s imperial heritage 400 km north.
