The Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas — 1,700,000 hectares of northwest Yunnan where the upper Yangtze, Mekong, and Salween run parallel within 66 km through gorges up to 3,900 metres deep, encompassing 6,000+ plant species and 777 bird species, inscribed 2003 — link south to Lijiang Old Town 50 km, north to Shangri-La 150 km, and east to South China Karst Kunming 400 km via Lijiang South HSR.
The Yungang Grottoes — 252 caves and 51,000 Buddhist figures carved 460–525 CE into a 1-kilometre sandstone cliff 16 km west of Datong, Shanxi, including the five Tan Yao emperor-as-Buddha caves commissioned in 460 CE, inscribed 2001 — link south to Longmen Grottoes Luoyang 450 km, southeast to Mount Wutai 150 km, and east to Beijing Forbidden City 400 km via the Datong-Xi’an HSR from Datong North Station.
The Longmen Grottoes — 2,345 carved caves and 110,000 Buddhist figures along 1 km of Yi River cliff face at Luoyang, Henan Province, including the Tang Empress Wu Zetian’s Fengxiansi Vairocana Buddha (672–675 CE), inscribed 2000 — link west to Terracotta Warriors 100 km, east to Shaolin Dengfeng 50 km, and north to Yungang Grottoes 350 km via Zhengzhou-Xi’an HSR from Luoyang Longmen Station.
The nearest World Heritage properties to Bamiyan are the Minaret of Jam (218 km), Tigrovaya Balka (266 km) and Ancient Khuttal (314 km), with what UNESCO records of the valley.
The Ancient Villages of Xidi and Hongcun — two Ming-Qing Huizhou merchant villages in Yi County, Anhui Province, with 124 and 158 surviving historic structures respectively (memorial archways, ancestral halls, whitewashed courtyard houses), inscribed 2000 — link north to Huangshan 50 km, northeast to Classical Gardens Suzhou 200 km, and west to Lushan 150 km via Huangshan North HSR station.
Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System — the birthplace of institutionalised Daoism (Zhang Daoling’s Celestial Masters, 143 CE) and the world’s oldest large-scale irrigation system in continuous operation (Li Bing, 256 BCE), inscribed together in 2000, 65 km northwest of Chengdu — link north to Jiuzhaigou 220 km, south to Mount Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha 150 km, and southeast to Dazu Rock Carvings 300 km.
Mount Wuyi (Wuyi Shan) — 99,975-hectare mixed natural and cultural UNESCO site in northern Fujian Province with the Nine-Bend River Danxia gorge, Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucian Academy (1183 CE), and hanging coffins of the pre-Han Minyue culture, inscribed 1999 — links north to Lushan National Park 150 km, northeast to Huangshan 200 km, and south to Fujian Tulou 280 km via the Hefei-Fuzhou HSR from Wuyishan North Station.
The Dazu Rock Carvings — approximately 50,000 Tang-Song Buddhist cliff sculptures across 75 sites in Dazu County, Chongqing Municipality, including the 70-year Baodingshan campaign directed by the monk Zhao Zhifeng (1179–1249 CE), inscribed 1999 — link northwest to Jiuzhaigou Valley 300 km, west to Dujiangyan Irrigation System 300 km, and northeast to Wudang Mountains 500 km via Chongqing HSR hub.
The Temple of Heaven (Tiantan) — 2.73-square-kilometre Ming imperial ritual complex in Beijing with the circular Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (1420, rebuilt 1889) and the Circular Mound Altar where winter solstice sacrifices were performed for 494 years, inscribed 1998 — links to the Forbidden City 5 km north, the Summer Palace 15 km northwest, and the Grand Canal terminus at Tongzhou 30 km east.
