The UNESCO-inscribed Mount Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha site in southern Sichuan sits within reach of four more World Heritage properties: Qingcheng Mountain and Dujiangyan (130 km north), the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries (200 km northeast), Jiuzhaigou Valley (330 km north), and the Dazu Rock Carvings (200 km east in Chongqing).
Lushan National Park in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province — inscribed by UNESCO in 1996 — holds 1,500 colonial-era stone villas, the 402 CE founding site of Pure Land Buddhism, and the 1959 conference hall where Mao Zedong denounced Marshal Peng, within HSR range of Nanjing and three hours by car of Mount Huangshan.
The Grand Canal is 7 km from Suzhou’s Classical Gardens. Liangzhu City is 106 km, West Lake Hangzhou 116 km. Suzhou’s nine inscribed gardens are masterpieces of Chinese garden art.
Xidi and Hongcun — two Qing-dynasty villages in Anhui Province whose water-management systems and merchant-funded architecture earned UNESCO listing in 2000 — sit 65 km west of Huangshan and within HSR range of West Lake Hangzhou, the Classic Gardens of Suzhou, and Lushan National Park.
The Yungang Grottoes — 252 caves and 51,000 statues carved into a Datong cliff between 460 and 525 CE — sit within reach of Pingyao’s walled Ming city, the Northern Qi Great Wall, Mount Wutai’s Tang-period Foguang Temple, and the Longmen Grottoes, whose Tang-dynasty sculptures show where the Gandharan style that shaped Yungang eventually arrived.
The nearest World Heritage properties to the Ancient City of Ping Yao are Mount Wutai (201 km) and Yin Xu (221 km). Ping Yao was inscribed in 1997.
The Temple of Heaven (UNESCO 1998) occupies 267 hectares in central Beijing; its circular timber Hall of Prayer was built in 1420 CE without metal fasteners. The Forbidden City is 15 minutes by metro; the Summer Palace 40 minutes; the Great Wall at Badaling is reachable in about one hour ten minutes by metro plus high-speed rail.
The Summer Palace (UNESCO 1998) covers 294 hectares northwest of Beijing, with Kunming Lake accounting for three-quarters of the grounds. The Forbidden City is 30 minutes by metro; the Temple of Heaven 40 minutes; the Great Wall at Badaling is 1.5–2 hours by road or 35 minutes by high-speed rail from Beijing North.
Jiuzhaigou Valley in Sichuan, a UNESCO site since 1992, shares its inscription with Huanglong 110 km south and sits within a five-hour drive of three more UNESCO properties: the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, Mount Emei and the Leshan Giant Buddha, and the Qingcheng Mountain and Dujiangyan irrigation system.
