China Trekking & Hiking Travel Guide

Explore the Best and the Wildest of China through Trekking & Hiking Adventures!

China is diverse. The landscape of China range from farming terraces, winding rivers, karst hills to deep river gorges, snow-capped mountain ranges, endless grassland, vast glaciers, alpine lakes and so on. A lot of the great landscape are located in the north and west of China where live the ethnic group of Chinese including Mongolians, Tibetans, Uighurs, Khazaks, and so on, each with their unique tradition and culture. Trekking & Hiking maybe one of the best ways to explore a place to see with your own eyes, to walk with your own feet and to inspire or get inspired. Trekking travel in China is getting more and more popular. With fairly convenient infrastructure development of roads, hotels, electricity and internet, a lot of the once far places have become easier to access and explore. We have listed below the best-sellected trekking destinations in China with detailed trekking information including locations, trekking seasons, trekking maps, trekking plannings.

Top China Trekking & Hiking Destinations

Here are the top recommended trekking destinations in China. Destinations ranging from back country trails to total wilderness, from the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Upper Yangtze to the kingdom of mountains in Karakoram, from the exotic ethnic region of Qinghai to the Desert of Inner Mongolia... You'll find detailed information of the listed trekking information here.

China Trekking Rough Guide

1. China Trekking Season

In General the good trekking seasons in China is from April/May to October/November. A lot of good trekking destinations in China are located in the west part of China where either with high altitude or high longitude. Summer is the monsoon season that usually sees rain and fog but can also be sunny. Autumn is usually considered to be the best trekking seasons in China by most trekking places. Spring time is also a good window with dry climate and relatively warm weather. Winter is still an option to some of the trekking places in China by the southern part mainly in Yunnan and Sichuan if low temperature is not an issue for you.

Trekking Destinations

The main trekking places in China take you to see big mountains of Himalaya, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hengduan… as well as their glaciers, lakes, people who live there. By provinces, the main trekking destinations in China include Tibet, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia and also some other places in central China. Tibet and Xinjiang have very strict restrictions to foreigners especially in Tibet where a lot of beautiful trekking places are close to foreigners. Sichuan and Yunnan are much more accessible and have beautiful places to trek including Meili Snow Mountains, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Minya Konka, Yading and Four Sister Mountains.

Safety Issues

It is safe in terms of general traveling in China. Robbery is rare even for the trekking trips that are usually in the wild. As long as you follow the laws in China you won’t have any trouble traveling around. Sufficient infrastructure including road access, internet and phone service coverage, development of hospitals, tourism-related facilities have made a lot of places connected and thus making any rescue or evacuation possible and quicker than before. The existing risks are on the trek itself including flood, snow storms, landslide, etc. We recommend you to learn the details of the trek you plan to do and have sufficient preparations.

Independent or to Go with a Travel Company?

Independent trekking is possible in China. Some popular trekking places such as Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yubeng, Four Sister Mountains have developed good tourism infrastructure and with helpful travel and trekking information available that makes independent hiking and trekking easy after you’ve done your research. However treks in the whole Tibet and part of Xinjiang you will have to use a travel company to take care of your travel permit and paper works. Although in general for treks that are located in far places (which are usually in the case) with hard access by public transportation we recommend you to use services from a travel company such as us to take care of the hassles of planning.