China

In the north and west lie the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts and the Tibetan Plateau, the highest on earth; in the south, the karst peaks of Guangxi and the tropical forests of Hainan. Between them run the Yangtze and the Yellow River, whose valleys cradled a civilisation that has lasted more than three thousand years, and mountain bamboo forests where the giant panda still lives wild. Fifty-six recognised ethnic groups and some of the world's great regional cuisines change as sharply as the land does. The world's largest high-speed rail network now links the great cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to all of it in hours rather than days.