Mount Taishan in the east, Mount Hengshan in the south, Mount Huashan in the west, Mount Hengshan in the north, and Mount Songshan in the center of China have been called the five Sacred Mountains since antiquity. Mount Taishan, in central Shandong Province, is admired by Chinese as paramount among them. Another mountain celebrated for its beauty is Mount Huangshan in southern Anhui Province, known for its graceful pines, grotesque rocks, cloud seas and hot springs.
Jiuzhaigou, Huangguoshu Waterfalls, and Guilin are all located in southwestern China. Jiuzhaigou in northern Sichuan Province is a beautiful "fairyland" valley stretching over 40 km and covering a 620 sq km area of snow-capped mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and forests. The Huangguoshu Waterfalls in Guizhou Province is a group of 18 above-ground and four under-ground waterfalls, and can be heard from five km away. The Lijiang River in Guangxi Province has a section of 82 km between Guilin and Yangshuo, which winds its way through karst peaks. 
On the plateau in northwestern China are many spectacular lakes. The Tianchi (Heavenly Pool) in the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang Autonomous Region is 1,980 meters above sea level. This 105-m-deep lake is crystal clear, surrounded by high mountains covered with green grass and colorful flowers. 
Along the renowned Three Gorges of the Yangtze River are many scenic spots and historical sites. The Qutang Gorge is rugged and majestic. The Wuxia Gorge is elegant, deep and secluded. The Xiling Gorge has many shoals, swift torrents and reefs. The Lesser Three Gorges are lush and green, its water so clear you can see to the bottom. The Three Gorges Dam built here is the biggest key hydropower project in China.

The Shaolin Temple in Henan Province, the birthplace of Chinese Zen Buddhism, was first built in 495 and is famous for its Shaolin kungfu martial arts. Here one can see the famous Ming Dynasty Five-Hundred-Arhats mural, and the Qing period Shaolin kungfu paintings. In Hubei Province, beautiful Wudang Mountain has 72 grotesque peaks within a radius of 30 km. A sacred site of Taoism, it preserves China's most complete, largest-scale and best ancient Taoist architecture. In western Sichuan Province, Mount Emei, dotted with ancient Buddhist temples and monasteries, is one of China's four holy Buddhist mountains.

There are 101 famous historical and cultural cities in China, most of which are over 1,000 years old. To the south of the Yangtze River, Suzhou and Hangzhou, long known as "paradise on earth," are crisscrossed with rivers, lakes, bridges, fields and villages, as beautiful as paintings. Today's well preserved Pingyao Old City in central Shanxi Province was built in the Ming Dynasty but was also a site of Neolithic era Yangshao and Longshan cultures of 5,000-6,000 years ago. The ancient city of Lijiang in Yunnan Province is not only the center of the Naxi minority Dongba culture, but also a meeting point for the cultures of Han, Tibetan, Bai and other ethnic groups. Built in the Song Dynasty, this city has many stone bridges, stone memorial arches and civilian houses which provide precious materials for studying the history of Chinese domestic architecture and can be called a "living museum of ancient civilian houses."